Rotex Sierra Arnold Loves India!

Rotex (former Rotary Youth Exchange) student Sierra Arnold wove her fascinating pictorial web around the culture, sights, sounds, flavors and friends she had the pleasure to experience during her 10½ months in India.   Her home was in the state of Gujarat, located in the northeast region of India, near Pakistan and about 8 hours north of Mumbai, is famous for being the home of Gandhi and his Ashram, and also for their wildlife park where Royal Bengali tigers and lions can be sighted.  Sierra conquered both the Hindi and Gujarati languages.

Festivals and religion are very important in Indian culture.  During the Navratri, a hugely popular fall festival, hundreds of thousands of people, including Sierra, danced the “Garba” for 5 hours per night for 9 nights!  She got 3 weeks off school at the end of November to celebrate the Hindu New Year, Diwali, during which time they made sand art (Rangoli), shot off fireworks and shared sweet treats with family and friends.  The kite festival of Uttarayan was held in mid-January.  Everyone buys at least 50 kites and spends the day and evening flying them from their rooftops.  They celebrated thespring Hindu festival of Holi by patting each other with colored powder.

During her year, Sierra got to travel a lot and experience a great many adventures: riding an elephant; trekking through the snow of a Himalayan mountain; touring south India with all of the other exchange students; and visiting Mahableswar, a small chain of mountains south of Mumbai; Dharamshala (Sierra’s favorite city), a hill station in the Himalayas where the government of Tibet is located in exile from China (the Dalai Lama lives there); the very hot desert state of Rajasthan; Rotary District 3060 Conference in Bharuch; and Surat where she learned some traditional Indian dances to popular Hindi songs.   

For the “amazing exchange” Sierra completed, she says, “shookriyah,” which means thank you, in Hindi.