Varanasi

In India I see children everywhere begging for food or money or selling goods; but even though many have never gone to school, they all know at least some English. Some of them have even been privileged enough to have gone to school for at least some time to learn enough enough English to hold a conversation with you.
One boy we met named Raju is now 18 years old. He started going to school when he was 6. After school he would sell postcards to help his family and then at night he would study by candle light. But then at age 9, his father died and he stopped school so that he could work more to support his family. When his father died, he learned many things, like how when you have a problems you might struggle but you keep on going. This is such an important life lesson to learn.
After stopping school he learned many trades to help support himself: like how to weave silk by hand, how to drive a tuk tuk and boat, and how to be a local guide. As a local guide he learned many things about other countries, like how they live, culture, and languages. He speaks many languages including Spanish, French, Italian, English and Bengali.
As part of his weaving job he traveled all around India to places like Delhi, Mumbi, Kolkata, Pashmina, Kashmir, and even out of India to Nepal.Growing up he had never thought about travel, but he is glad to have had the opportunity and he learns alot in every place he travels to.
He says that he has learned about 80% of his knowledge outside of school, but that the 20% that he did learn in school allowed him to learn that other 80% a lot easier. Looking at the knowledge that he does know, and for only being 18, it is a lot more that I can say I know and I'm about his same age and have been in school for 14 years. I wonder what I would have learned if I hadn't been in school for the last 5 or 10 years. Would I have got out into the world and learned nearly as much as Raju has? Looking at just what I have learned from this trip, everything for my project excluded, it has been so much and in only three months. What more will I learn from life once I finish my schooling and how will it compare with what I learn while in school?
I talked to Raju briefly about the public versus private schools here, he said that when you pay, the teachers care. Otherwise they just sit at their desks mostly letting the kids learn what they want. But I think that it is probably like America here where the quality of the public school varies from city to city, because while moving about India, I have seen some public schools that looked new and clean and probably had money for good teachers, while others looked very run down and like they didn't have much money.

We met one girl who walked along the Ghats selling post cards, bindis and glitter stamps, named Moni. She had been in school for 6 years. There she learned English, Math, Sanskrit and Hindi. She was able to go to school because a Spanish man paid for her schooling, but last year he did not come back so she didn't have money to continue to go to school. Even while she went to school she still walked the Ghats selling post cards after school, cutting back the time she could study. But since she lived in the city she was able to use the city lights to study by since she has no electricity at her home. She is only 12 now and she stopped going to school when she was 11. Since stopping her education she has learned more English and some Spanish. Since she is still young it is hard to know how her life will turn out. From the little time I spent with her, she seems like a bright young girl and I hope that she will continue to learn even though she is not in school.