Colors of Freedom

We just got finished with our second Indian independence day celebration here at Woodstock. It is a really great experience to take part in the national celebrations of another country. The festivities themselves were very similar to last year. We had a speaker, we sang the national anthem, and a student raised the flag. The only real difference was that it was inside this year because it was raining.

After the ceremony, we had a food court in the quad for lunch with vendors from the bazaar. We'll make a post later about the jalebis, dosas, etc. that we ate, but we wanted to focus on the diversity of our school here. Students and staff are asked to wear either formal Indian clothes, formal western clothes, or their national dress. It is a great show of where students and teachers come from and gives everyone a chance to show off their best. Here is us with our advisor group students all appropriately attired.

Other kids cleaned up quite nicely as well. Where else but Woodstock will you see Tibetans and Koreans wearing their national costumes, a South African wearing an Indian kurta, and an Indian wearing a western double-breasted suit.

We have a lot of Korean students here. Most of them wear their Korean clothes, but one of our advisees decided to stand out from the crowd and wear a chuba instead.

We also have students from Thailand and families from Tibet.

One of our fellow teachers was wearing his traditional Persian clothes and here two of our advisees were wearing clothes from Nagaland and Tibet.

Here's another Korean dress and a Japanese kimono. The other picture is a traditional Bhutanese costume.

Beth also got a chance to pose with two of our students that have moved on to high school; one from Nepal and one from Germany (too bad Beth didn't bring her dirndl). We also have students from Thailand and Taiwan.

These boys were a bit embarassed to be shown in their Nepali clothes, but they looked great.

It is amazing how many groups of people are represented among our small student body. It is wonderful to see the pride that they can take in their cultures while still being respectful and appreciative of others. The freedom that we have in India allows us to share with each other and learn from each other.

The final part of this post is our annual Indian dress-up day picture. Dave had a new sherwani made and looked quite sharp while Beth was wearing one of her fancy saris (pay close attention to Dave's shoes).

Dave and Beth