Day 8 Wednesday April 22nd

Riz had another business meeting today so I wandered down the roads of Puna in search of other sights. I took along with me flat Francis and flat (I can’t remember the other girl’s name). Riz has a friend that teaches grade school in CA and is doing the flat Stanley project with his kids. Two of the kids sent flattened versions of themselves to Riz, in hopes to learn more about India. For those of you that do not know what the flat Stanley project is, it a very popular American grade school project where kids send “flat Stanley” (a paper cut out of a little man) to friends and relatives all over the world. The friends and relatives are supposed to take pictures of the flattened character in places of importance within their cities and then send the pictures back to the kids with a little explanation of where the little man has been. The children then present the pictures to the class and everyone learns about the world. Since I had time and was already being a tourist, I took the little flat children with me on my adventure. I was quite the sight. First of all everyone stares at me because I am white and with these two little people in my hand I got even more comical looks of confusion by the locals. Everyone kept trying to see what I was holding and when they realized what it was they all smiled and laughed and pointed to my little paper doll kids. I took the kids to the fruit and veggie market and all the vendors were more than happy to pose with the paper dolls. It was a very funny ice breaker.

Day 8 Wednesday April 22nd

Pune, India