r.i.c.e.

Today I went to Tapti and Amrita’s village, and sure enough, I got to meet Amrita’s new daughter. Too tired to tell me the story, Amrita deferred to her mother, who shared what had happened.

Amrita’s mother was busy organizing Tapti’s discharge from the hospital on Saturday morning. Amrita had to go to her school in the city to fill out some final paperwork for her exam. She’d been having some labor pain the night before, and thought that maybe the baby would come faster if she walked. So she walked 3 miles, half of it across an empty military training ground, from her village to her school in the city! From there, she filled out her paperwork, and decided she’d better check in at the hospital to see whether she was ready to deliver. She decided not to walk the extra three quarters of a mile to the hospital, and took a bicycle rickshaw instead. None of the women in the family have cell phones, so her mother and sister in law were quite surprised to see her! Her baby girl was born three hours after she arrived at the hospital.

Today Amrita was very tired, but she was also happy to have a healthy baby girl, and that she will be able to take her exam next week. I am keeping my fingers crossed that she passes tenth grade – her commitment to education is an inspiration to students everywhere!