We conducted our southerly most
distribution today in the city of Ranebennur. It was held in an elementary
school that was ideally laid out to ensure that the distribution went smoothly.
One of the Rotarians was a retired aerospace engineer who had work on the
Indian space program in Bangalore until he retired last year. He now volunteers
his time as an educator, mentor and counselor for young people in the
Ranebennur area. One of his recent projects was to hold a space exhibition in
that city so that 7,000 school children could learn about space and India’s
involvement in the final frontier. He was also a great help during the
distribution today, ensuring that things went as smooth as possible.
The area of Ranebennur is also known for
its cotton fields and associated industries. It was also an area where we saw
numerous herds of horses, something that we had not seen until today. Another
unusual sight on the way back to the hotel was an elephant that was tied up
along the side of the road. Due to the rush hour traffic we could not stop to
take pictures of it, but it was evidently being used to give rides to those
people who were willing to pay to do so. It was similar to the camels that were
giving rides to the citizens of Belgaum last Sunday.
We only have three distributions to go.
Tomorrow we are off to the Ashram at Yellapur, about 3.5 hours south west of
Hubli.
