Mysore and Lots-o-dance

Sunday
Sunday was a great day in Mysore. We met our driver and his friend, Prakash, outside our hotel in the morning. We went to the sandalwood and silk factory stores. I had a salwar kamiz made from sari fabric, and I convinced Sheryl to do the same. I also bought my mom's birthday/ Christmas present. Haha. Ohh the suspense. Anyway... everyone got some stuff and we had a lot of fun there. We went to the palace and had our first Indian bribing experience. We skipped a line of about five hundred people by bribing a guy with fifty rupees (that's about a dollar). Then we avoided paying individually to store our cameras by paying a guy a couple rupees to let us keep them in a backpack. The palace in Mysore is BEAUTIFUL. It's completely different from any European palace I've studied. Much of it is open air. You can tell it was designed for good weather. It was really fun to walk through because with the entrance fee there was an included headset which gave a guided tour in English. It was interesting, informative and helpful. Instead of shuffling through each room with hundreds of Indians, hundreds of Indians shuffled past us as we looked at the details and learned factoids.

Then we went to lunch at a place Prakash said was good cheap local food. For RS 30 each (about $.75) we had a full meal. It was really fun. Most of tried to eat with our hands (right hand only of course) and we had to sort of fight for our table. When we left people fought over our table. I really like the food. It was fun. We ate a lot of stuff and I have no idea what it was, but it was mostly delicious. Way better than any thing else I've had here. And Joe chugged the water. Luckily for us he didn't get sick. After lunch we all got to use the internet. It was a lot slower than the internet we get in Hosur, so I didn't even attempt uploading pictures. Apparently in 40 minutes Joe managed to upload four images to facebook. It was so nice to not be rushed and using the internet. Sheryl and I waited for the tailor to bring our outfits and when he did I knew before we even put them on that they'd be beautiful. They were. They look great. We then went back to the shop to pick up Sheryl's other outfit, which finally fit.

We all went to the Palace again, to see it at night. It was a true experience, waiting to get in. A crush of people waiting in line, little boys squeaking balloons trying to get people to buy them, fruit sellers, trinket sellers and always more and more people joining the line. At about five till seven (gates open at seven) the semi-orderly line turned into an all out mob. We were pressed forward in the rush toward the single metal detector entrance. It was incredible. We were literally pressed together on all sides by the sheer amount of people. I'm so glad that I'm tall. At least by Indian standards. I'm tall as most of the guys. So I could see over the crowd. I don't know what it was like for Sheryl. Ick. The lights turned on and people began to enter. It took us about five minutes to get through the gates, but the view on the other side was worth it. It was like being at Disney land. Just awesome. I kept expecting to hear Jimminy Cricket on the loud speaker.

I have to say that I really felt like a little bit of a tourist attraction the entire time I was in Mysore. At St. Philomena's people asked me about the differences in Protestant and Catholic beliefs ("Some people tell me that Protestants believe that Jesus was reincarnated and that's why they celebrate Easter?") and then as soon as we were outside two guys asked to take their picture with me. At the palace during the day a friendly doctor and his wife asked to take photos with us and invited us to visit them. When we went to lunch we ended up being asked to pose for picture after picture. I don't really know why because I look the same as everyone else in my group, but people kept asking me specifically to take pictures with them. At the palace one woman walked up to me and handed me her child. The other volunteers kept telling me I was a movie star and that I should use it to let us skip lines. Sheryl had one woman make her take a picture with her own camera of Sheryl with her four children. Weird.

After the palace at night, which is definitely a must see we went out for a really nice dinner. I had lamb and a beer! We all ate ice cream (mango, pistachio, vanilla ice creams, cake, whipped cream, strawberry and chocolate sauce. Oooh and I had real coffee too! It was wonderful and and basically exactly like dining in any Western restaurant. Except you feel kind of bad for spending money and instead of really nice shirt and ties the waiters were wearing pin stripe kurtas. It was basically bliss. Even with everything we did all weekend (minus the gifts I bought) I only spent about $200 for the whole trip. Yeah. We stayed in a hotel for two nights, had a driver at our beck and call, ate out every meal and did every touristy thing we could. I'm definitely getting a better idea of what it will be like to travel alone.

Monday
We got up early on Monday and it's a good thing because the hotel staff were knocking on our door at 7:30. They apparently kicked Molly and Sheryl out at 8.That was weird. We ate breakfast at the hotel (JAM and toast) then we were on the road to Shravana Belagola. It's an enormous monolithic statue of a naked male figure at the top of a huge hill. We actually had a bet about how many people we'd have to stop and ask to be able to get there. It was six. I think. Anyway about two hours later we arrived in the town. After convincing the locals we weren't going to buy socks, postcards or give money to six year olds holding infants we started walking. It's a Jain holy place and about one thousand steps up. In any case what was harder than climbing the stairs in the blazing sun was passing massive amounts of hunched over old women struggling to climb. It was really rewarding at the top because you have an amazing panoramic view. There's a Jain temple which was a million times more easily accessible if much less colorful than all of the Hindu temples we'd been visiting. Then we climbed a little higher and came through into the temple with the statue and many other statues of Jain holy people. It was really a great stop.

We headed toward home. There was no place to stop for food or bathroom so by the time we hit Bangalore I HAD to pee. I said something and about thirty minutes later we still hadn't stopped. I felt like I was going to explode. Finally the driver tried to pull over on the side of the road. I think he thought Joe had to pee. We stopped at a coffee place around 45 minutes after I said something. It was like a gift from the heavens. We stopped in Hosur for lunch and to stock up on supplies. I got my eyebrows threaded for about $.30. On the way home we stopped to get phone cards and Manu our driver got out of the car, talked to somebody and then got his baby and brought her with us. In the middle of the front seat. No seatbelt. Crazy. When we got back we found out a new volunteer had moved in. His name is Arjun and he's staying the whole time I'm here. He's an NRI and a sophomore at Cornell. The kids at dinner said to me "Miss, miss, look at the new volunteer! He's sooo big! Look at his hair! It's enormous!!!!" When I met him I thought he was Hawaiian. We also found out Dr. George was here. He introduced himself at dinner, and he knew my name. Weird.

Tuesday
Tuesday morning I was really excited to wear my salwar kamiz, because we didn't tell any of the kids that we'd bought them. Both of us got dressed up after aerobics and wore our outfits to breakfast. We got an "OH WOW!" from a kid who saw us and then applause when we entered the dining hall. It was really fun. One of the rows in my class FINALLY got candy! We had dance classes for every grade 1-8th. It was was exhausting, but fun. I found a break and got some henna on my hand. It's beautiful. Our late classes were canceled for Dr. George to talk to the older grades and staff. He assured the staff and children that Shanti Bhavan would go on, but that right now no extras were available. They're not taking a new class again. :-( We watched SATELLITE TV in our lounge on our HUGE FLAT SCREEN TV. Which was installed while we were at class. Yeah. That was nice.

Wednesday
Honestly, I'm exhausted and I don't remember too much about Wednesday except that there were about a million dance classes and the fourth grade is getting better every day. Oh. And Dr. George called all the volunteers for a meeting. We got there at 5:30 and the meeting ended after eight. It was really informative though. We talked about fund raising strategies and about Shanti Bhavan. I learned a lot about the way the school is run and the way the people in charge run things. It costs about $1,500 per kid a year to keep Shanti Bhavan open. Currently the KG is fully sponsored and 1st is partially sponsored. A couple thousand a month come in from the internet and a little more comes from other small donors. The rest comes from major donations. Shanti Bhavan could use about $750,000 in construction. It's nothing urgent, but things that could be done would be completion of the computer lab, completion of the 11 grade wing, upkeep of lights on the grounds etc. They want each volunteer to raise enough money to sponsor a child every year after they leave if they can. I don't think that's unreasonable. If all the past volunteers did that Shanti Bhavan would be set for money. Or if somebody donated an endowment. Interest rates in India are around 10%. You do the math. I think we watched P.S. I Love You before bed.

Thursday
On Thursday we had aerobics with the girls and they were great. Fourth grade was really well behaved and we had a science test. The kids didn't do well, but I knew they wouldn't. My class is smart, and has already completed their math book for the year. They retain vocabulary and English concepts well, but they can't seem to retain science concepts. They have been working on the digestive system since before I came here. I let them review and review. I made them read and quizzed them. But I couldn't find a way to make things stick for them. I'm no teacher. The average grade on the test was really average, but some students did really well. Some students DID NOT. It's hard because these kids don't go home to parents who help them at night. They go back to their dorm where their overwhelmed auntie cares for their physical well being. There's no way the aunties could give the emotional attention to every child that my mother did. There aren't enough hours in the day. That being said, the aunties are amazing! I don't know how they do what they do. It's like suddenly having the Duggar family in your care. Only they're all the same age. And you don't have a washer/ dryer. We had so much dance. I made a playlist for the performance on Saturday on my computer. The kids here really want to know EVERYTHING about the volunteers. It's so funny. After dance class they begged me to see the pictures on my laptop. They want to know about my friends and my family and my clothes and what I am doing in the pictures. It's funny. We watched Mission Impossible and I graded my science tests. I decided to put percentages on them and have a talk about grading in the my school when I was their age. Maybe it'll encourage them to work harder at science.

Friday
We had the older boys and girls at aerobic time to rehearse their dance together. Theirs is the one I'm least excited about because they're not all that thrilled. Actually I had to insist the older boys participate. I came a couple minutes after Sheryl to aerobics and she said they boys were asking if I was coming. When she said yes they apparently were disappointed and when she asked why she found out through further questioning that they thought they could get out of dancing if it was just her, but not if it was me. Which is fine, but I don't really want to have to be the mean teacher. I'm not, but I do expect the kids to follow reasonable requests. I think I'm the kind of teacher I liked to have when I was in school. Tough, but fair and ready to have fun if we're getting the job done. In any case, it wasn't fair to the 9th grade boys who wanted to dance to let the 11th grade boys veto it for them. I feel bad for the the 10th and 7th grades because they're not getting to dance. 7th grade is on academic and behavioral probation and 10th is preparing their national exams, which will play a huge roll in their futures. The kids take exams in 10th and 12th grades and schools look at them both for admissions. The good news is that he majority of the kids are eligible for the highest level of affirmative action in India. The rest of them (the kids who are Christian or Muslim) are eligible for the second highest level of aid. So while we expect the kids to get into schools based on merit, their spots in schools are almost guaranteed.

The fourth grade had both a spelling test and a math test. They got pretty restless, but I can't blame them. I'm hoping their math tests are better than their science tests. I expect them to be. These kids are really good at math. We have assembly every day where the news is read and school news is discussed. The dances will be presented at assembly on Saturday. On Fridays the news is given in Hindi. Which is great for all the students who start Hindi in second grade, but it's a little boring for the Western volunteers. I wish I spoke Hindi or had the time to try to learn some. I'm so BUSY though. It's like I am working two full time jobs and have about five less hours in every day. I'm doing my best. Tons more dance again and we had an awesome snack! We had cake and tuna fish sandwiches. I was so happy! Plus Mary Mitchell Campbell arrived today and will be here for the week. AND I GOT A BOX WITH CANDY AND A PICTURE OF MY MOMMY TODAY!!!!! I was in such a great mood. Swedish fish put me in a great mood in the U.S. They made me ecstatic here. Plus MMC gave us candy when we were watching Indiana Jones around bed time. I had shortbread and M&M's. MMMMMMM.

Today was an AWESOME DAY. I had a dance party with a lot of the kids and I got to have a long conversation with Jayshree (I have no idea how to spell her name). She told me the story of Ganesh (story #3 I've heard): Pavrati made a boy out of Sandalwood paste. He was so beautiful that she gave him life. She was tired of Shiva just popping in and out whenever he wanted, so she made Ganesh guard her rooms to give her some privacy. He denied Shiva entrance to Pavrati's rooms, so Shiva sent some of his minions to kill Ganesh. A huge war between Pavrati and Shiva ensued, and Shiva felt bad, so he decided that the next animal to walk down the path would replace Ganesh's decapitated head. It was an elephant. She told me many other myths as well. It's really interesting to hear about how her family works and what her life has been like. She invited me to visit her house and to eat beef with her on Sunday. I want to get her some kind of treat (I don't think sharing my Swedish Fish was enough)... plus she's planning on helping Molly and I pick out Saris and Salwars.

The show's tomorrow, and afterwords we're going to Hosur. Going to buy a sari, maybe a salwar suit. :-)

I was talking to MMC about Emily (miss you tons, you should come here, you'll love it). I've also been thinking of Rob Rob, Eric and my brother (happy 21st little dude). I really miss my church kids, too. Hugs and Love!

Rogue, Dish Soap and Sea Monsters... and boiled retainers...

So, I've acquired a nick name... Rogue. Apparently I look like Rogue from XMen... according to the kids. Which is fine by me.

Early Saturday morning Stephen, another volunteer who will be here almost as long as I will, arrived. He is teaching English to the older grades. We had a special assembly because of an Italian benefactor visiting. The kindergardeners danced a native dance and the older kids did a presentation on Pongal. It was really cute. Then some past volunteers stopped in for a visit and gave a speech. It was so amazing to watch. These guys were like rockstars to the the kids. After assembly Molly, Joe, Sheryl, Stephen, Jacques and I were driven to Hosur by Anish. That was interesting. When you've been shut off from the civilization for even a short amount of time cultural refernences, even stupid ones become funny. Sheryl and I lost it when we saw two chickens run across the road on our way. We both said "Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other SIIIDE-ah-hahahaha." Yeah. We're cool. So the ride was interesting because we got to see what life is like in rural India, just by driving through it. Literally through it. If people seemed to be on the street at five in the morning when we drove in, it was a hundred times more so at noon. After about forty five minutes in the car we arrived.

Hosur is a small city of about 200,000. It's kind of this winding amalgam of shop on top of shop. Auto-rickshaws which are look like they should seat two plus a driver, but apparently you can get the driver to allow many more (we had four). There are more or less no traffic laws, except don't drive where the police are barricading. We went to lunch which took about two hours and constant reminders to the waiter. ("our drinks?" "our drinks? we had lime sodas?") Then we went to the internet cafe, which was exhilarating. It's sad how addicted I was to the internet. I'm really missing word challenge right now. We tried to book flights to Delhi and plan our trip to see the Taj Mahal, but the website we were using was a little difficult and we ended up deciding on Mysore for the weekend. A driver will pick us up early Saturday morning and we'll stay over night Saturday and Sunday. We plan to see a huge stone statue on Monday on our way home. It's about a four hour drive to Mysore, it should be interesting. I'm excited because I think our hotel will have wireless and it will be our first real experience out and about in India. Five Americans and their Indian driver set off for Mysore sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.

Any way... I had to run downstairs after using the internet cafe to buy some dish soap and candy for the kids. Sheryl came with me. So we squeezed into the tiny shop and started looking for dish soap. We found laundry detergent and dishes, but no dish soap. I asked an employee if they had any dish soap and she looked at me like I was from Mars. So I pointed to the body soap behind her and the laundry detergent behind me and then to my nalgene. Dish soap? I said again. She looked perplexed and tried to offer me some Dial. I shook my head and smiled. I mimed cleaning my water bottle while Sheryl pretended to scrub a dish. She shook her head and Sheryl and I started laughing. Sheryl walked over picked up a bar of soap and a bowl and started to pretend to wash it. Meanwhile several employees continued to arrive. After the baffled woman helping us tried to offer us a soap dish, which caused even more hilarity, an old woman came up and actually grabbed onto Sheryl and I, and laughed with us. It was so fun. Then another employee thought we might want tissues or a pipe cleaner. Sheryl and I gave up and bought some candy. Later Sheryl came back to the store with Anitha and they found the dish soap behind a box of laundry detergent. When she bought it people apparently laughed and shook their heads. Sheryl and I also ventured out for construction paper, striking out when 'do you have colored paper?' only produced various forms of tissue and wrapping paper. Later one of the volunteers who's been here a while went in search of it for us and told us upon handing it to us that it is called chart paper. Good to know.

On our way back from Hosur we stopped at a place to buy phone cards. Then we watched the older boys play soccer. Actually, I sat with several of the younger children on my lap and played with them. Then I talked to some of the older girls who asked me to sing and dance for them. It was a really festive and fun atmosphere.

Sunday we decided to see if we could get the kids to draw fish onto our chart paper to make puppets for a dance for the kindergarten and first grade. So we asked a few people at lunch who could draw well, and we ended up with about 30 kids and adults working together on drawing 62 under sea animals. It was really exciting to have everyone's excitement and energy working toward a common goal. Most of the fish got drawn and a few of the fish got painted in the hour we were working. It was awesome.

Sheryl and I brought the fish back to the volunteer lounge to dry and to be completed. We had some serious work to do. We painted most of the sixty before dinner, it was fun. But we still had a lot of work to do when we got back. We painted during the whole movie we watched that night and everyone else went to bed. By the time Sheryl and I were approaching the end we were pretty punchy. I'd been putting off painting this beautiful lobster because I was pretty sure I'd ruin it. After I started painting it I started laughing and Sheryl looked and then we were both laughing about it. We got pretty silly and I was crying because it was so funny. Yeah.

Monday I went to aerobics for the other girls I was shocked by how weak the girls were. They couldn't do crunches or the plank... they had no stamina, no flexibility and absolutely no desire to change it. People in India in general don't get the point of physical exercise. Classes went much better on Monday, partially because the kids got in trouble from the vice principal and partially because I got so much advice and instituted a new incentive program with candy. We taught the kindergardeners their dance, which is to "Under the Sea". (I constantly am asked if I know Titus and if I was in the Little Mermaid on Broadway.) They are sooo cute. They were so good with the sticks. We were so afraid that they would hit each other, but instead they are wonderful. They are so so so so cute. That evening we watched Children of Men. Anitha went to boil water for her tea and found retainers in it. We were all pretty confused. I went to check on my teeth whitening trays. They were missing. It turns out that Sheryl took our tooth brushes out of the cup and filled it with water to fill the hot pot, not noticing that they were in there. So people had been drinking boiled teeth whitening tray water for about 24 hours from that hot pot. That was really funny too.

On Tuesday, I taught aerobics to the sixth and seventh grades. That was fun. We played a game called Keys and at the end we did the human knot. I taught them a little of You Can't Stop the Beat to get a head start on their dance classes. My morning classes with the fourth grade were great. We taught the first grade their Under The Sea dance. They are sooo cute! They weren't as good about the sticks, but they learned their entire dance in the forty five minute dance class. We watched the inauguration coverage on the TV in the teacher's lounge with the older grades and I blurted out "I BABYSIT FOR HIS KIDS!!!!" when Jim Acosta showed up on TV. All the kids were interested in that. Then I went for a walk with Joe. We tried to teach the choir Under the Sea, but we weren't very successful. I hope next week goes better. There are so many words in that song. After dinner Sheryl and I had the sixth grade for dance class. We taught them the entire Tracy section of the dance. So they only have to learn the ending, which they already know in bits and pieces. Then we went back to the teacher's lounge to watch the inauguration. It was neat to see the reactions of so many adults to the ceremony. I really enjoyed it. During all of it I kept thinking about Michael and if he was getting enough rehearsals in for his Opera. I wonder what it was like to be in D.C. that day.

Wednesday wasn't the best day. I started to lose my voice and I wasn't feeling too hot. I had to read the riot act after class to the fourth grade because they weren't trying to complete their work and they missed half their movie time. When we were finally on our way to movie time the kids saw a huge (probably poisonous) snake and ran towards it. I was trying to get them into a dorm and away from it, but it took a while. Needless to say I wasn't too happy with them. It sucks to have to be mean teacher sometimes, but when it comes to things like running towards dangerous animals my job is pretty clear. We had the second and third grades back to back in dance. They were pretty good, but neither class got very much choreography learned. They're just adorable though. Second grade is doing "I feel Good" and third grade is doing "ABC".

It's amazing how basically every child in the school WANTS to dance. It's actually kind of awesome. Being a volunteer is a little bit like being a rock star at Shanti Bhavan. The volunteers have brought all of the music the kids think is cool. The first day I showed the kids how to make an ocarina with your hands and they all still come up asking for guidance and correction on it. I do a pretty decent chicken impression (if I do say so myself) and did it for the kids. They constantly ask me to do it for them. Kids are always asking me to do a dance step or sing something. It's pretty cool. It's also a big responsibility. Because we have so much influence over the kids it's pretty important that we uphold the ideals the school is trying to promote. Decorum and the like are of the utmost importance in India. These children can't date because it isn't proper, but it's hard because they've heard about dating from so many westerners and seen it in the videos we bring for them. I actually get nervous about my own behavior and what example it sets. I hope it's a good one, but it's difficult to say if something I do is a bad example and I'm not even aware of it.

Thursday fourth grade was much better. The point system was really starting to work and I could tell that I'd be breaking out that candy soon. The kids are pretty advanced in Math, but some of them are still thinking in a different language when they write in English. Their prepositions and verbs leave a lot to be desired. We had a big lesson on all of the mistakes made in their creative writing stories and it seemed to be a hit. After grading two more since, I can say that it definitely helped. We taught the second graders about spiders for their learning activity and taught the fourth grade most of their part of We Go Together. They learned quickly and were well behaved... I think it was fun for them to have me in a different context as a teacher after having me constantly telling them to sit down, raise their hands, stop drawing a game board, etc. We had some good review and I really found a lot of strengths and weaknesses. I designed next week's lesson plans to address the weaknesses so we can really move forward the following week. It's kind of fun to be in charge of a class. It's a like a huge, never ending logic problem trying to help each child learn the things he's missing. We had the eighth grade for dance and we taught them all of Penny's part of You Can't Stop the Beat. I cut down the song using Garage Band so It's only 3:27.

Friday my voice was still not working well. Yay. We had fun though. Fourth grade is really starting to come together as a well behaved class. They know what to expect and how to behave. One of the rows got enough points, so on Tuesday I'm bringing the candy. That really ought to give them some incentive to behave. It's great to watch them work together to achieve a goal. It's pretty overwhelming how much harder everything is here. Teaching takes a ton of leg work because there's no internet. It's great though, because by the end of the day I'm so tired that I fall asleep at 11:00 and sleep right through the night until about 6:15, when I've been waking up just before my alarm. Since I'm generally an insomniac and average about four hours a night at home, this is a massive improvement. We taught the fifth graders a lot more of We Go Together. It'll be interesting to see how much they retain, since we had to spend the first half of class re-teaching what they'd already learned. After class was over I went back to my dorm, watched friends and generally chilled out until dinner. After dinner we watched Juno. Which reminded me of Matt. (Hi!) I graded creative writing papers until I was sleepy and then I went to bed.

Saturday morning we got up bright and early to ready ourselves for our trip to Mysore. The car was leaving (in theory) at 6:30. We figured that meant the car would be there by 7:00. We filled our water bottles and packed our backpacks for our weekend adventure as a group of five white people in a country where we don't speak the language with a driver who does. Well, the car finally arrived at 7:30. This is what people like to call "India Standard Time." There is no sense of urgency in people's work. It's really weird coming here from a place where people are defined by what they do. In any case we were all pretty easy going about it. We piled in the car with Manu (or something like that) and off we went. Not five minutes into our trip the winding back roads were completely obscured by fog. We couldn't see five feet in front of us. It was a harrowing experience. We would see headlights appear seconds before we were actually next to the car. Since the road is only one car wide, that is really interesting in fog. In addition to contending with the fog, the driver had to worry about pedestrians, brightly painted cows, tractors and carts. We almost caused a tractor to overturn because our driver was going, in my estimation, much too fast for the conditions (I think going at all was dangerous, but he was going at least fifteen mph). It was like the not-so-fun real-life version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

Once we came out of the fog we still had hours and hours of racing forward to slam on our brakes at a speed bump, swerving in and out of traffic, constant near-collisions and pulling over on some back road to ask for directions. I was sitting in the back middle and about three hours in I got pretty car sick. I had to switch places to get next to a window. As soon as I did I perked up though. Five minutes of air in my face and I felt like a new person. We stopped at a temple on our way into Mysore. It was really interesting. We did followed the line of people through the temple and stopped at various shrines along the way. I got a red dot on my forehead. There are some amazing pictures. We had to buy back our shoes from some men who decided to protect them. That was fun because it was so very Indian. We were a little overwhelmed by the crush of people trying to sell things. Especially Sheryl, who was persistently pursued by one man in particular. He must have thought she was rich. So... even though we didn't ask him to stop at the temple it turned out to be a fun experience.

We got back in the car and we were only about 20 km from Mysore. Finding our hotel was a struggle. But we eventually arrived (sometime after 1 pm). We ate lunch in our hotel and went to see St. Philomena's Cathedral. It's the largest Catholic church in India and it's beautiful. We went to Chamundi Hill and went in the many temples there. There were tons of monkeys! They were kind of scary. I don't like them. It was a nice afternoon. Then we came back into Mysore proper and went to the bazaar. It was fun. Behind a bunch of regular sari, cd and plastic chair shops is an open air market full of flowers, vegetables, spices and beauty products. It was overwhelming, beautiful and intriguing. We bought Sheryl a salwar kamiz set and went on a rather long and frustrating search for internet. We ended up finding one computer right across the street from our hotel. Three of us went to pick up Sheryl's altered clothes and tell the driver we didn't need him any more for the night. He couldn't figure out how to get back to the hotel and it took us an hour to get him there. Ugh. He is seriously more hassle than he's worth. Next time I'm voting for sleeper train. Two of us got to use the internet yesterday and the rest of us are hoping to use it today. We're planning to see the palace today and do whatever else there is to do here before leaving in the morning. :-)

There have been so many moments that I wished I could call my mom, Emily, Eric or Michael. Overall, I'm happy healthy and having fun. Exploring a foreign country in a group of five is definitely a learning experience, but one that I'm enjoying.

I'm here!

I had an interesting time going through security in both Newark and London ("Miss, we're going to have to remove some of the items from this bag and run it again... meaning it was packed too densely to see anything on the xray). Both flights were pretty uneventful with the exception of mild turbulence. It was nice because there were plenty of options for entertainment as far as T.V. and music. I managed to get a little sleep on the flights, but I was pretty sleep deprived by the time we touched down in India. Going through customs was not a big deal, we changed some money, I called my mom and we headed to our car. It was kind of a trip because Indian cars drive on the left side of the road and the drivers sit in the right side. Also because Indian drivers honk every time they pass, which occurs frequently. And because pedestrians and bicycles go on the same roads on which regular cars speed upwards of 80 kilometers. Close to Bangalore the roads were just as nice as in the US (nicer, maybe), except for these occasional speed bumps, which weren't so much bumps as several consecutive dents in the road.

We drove through Hosur, which is a decent sized city then through some smaller villages and then down one lane dirt roads then backed to paved roads until we arrived a Shanti Bhavan. We are really in the middle of nowhere! There is no way I would have found this place even with mapquest style directions. The sun had just come up and before entering you are surrounded by farms and huts and pass the occasional cow or goats. Upon entering the grounds of Shanti Bhavan you hear birds singing, see lush tropical trees and beautiful stone buildings. It's quite nice.

We have rice with a sauce and vegetable at four meals a day (Breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner), often accompanied by hard boiled eggs and all the water is drinkable. So far none of the four of us who've just arrived have gotten upset stomachs (fingers crossed). Accommodations are better than at horse camp(!): metal frame bed bed, sometimes-warm shower, and intermittent electricity. There is satellite TV in the teacher's lounge (which I haven't yet seen).

I'm going to be teaching the fourth grade, plus musical theatre and dance classes for the entire school and helping with choir. My days will start at eight (breakfast), but I'll probably be going to aerobics three mornings a week at 6:30. I start on Friday the sixteenth. I'm working on my lesson plans.

Today is Pongol, the local harvest celebration and they're all dressed up and so adorable. They're all very proud of their clothes, which are very special to them. They're called home dress and it's whatever their parents have sacrificed and scrimped and saved to send them to school in. It's really touching to hear them talk about them. They kids are dancing and singing. They don't have regular classes and everyone is feeling quite festive. I've gotten a lot of really cute pictures. :-D Apparently this festival is celebrated over several days, the first Pongol is a harvest celebration and it is noted by getting a special rice dish in a pot to boil over at sunrise and shout "Pongol," which is both the name of the dish and the holiday. We had the dish today and it was tasty. So far the food has tasted much better than Indian food I've had in America. People keep asking if I find it spicy, but general I've found it to be perfectly seasoned. I think even my mom would be ok eating most of the food. Well. Maybe not.

The calling cards I've got aren't certain to work. Since it's not actually a payphone, but just a line out, I haven't figured out how to call the number to use them. I'm going to try to use them still, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to. If I can't get them to work I'll pick some local calling cards up while I'm in town.

We watched both "The Departed" and "The Wedding Singer" this evening in the volunteer lounge.

FRIDAY

Today was my first day teaching. It was... a challenge. I was disappointed because I set my alarm for six PM instead of six AM and missed the aerobics class. So I got up and ready in time for breakfast. Immediately after breakfast was my first class: Creative Writing. I asked them to write about Pongol. It went pretty well, I encouraged them to write three pages by telling them if they finished early they could play a game. We only had time for one round of heads up seven up. If I didn't have Sheryl I think it would have gone much slower. I then had a break. Next I taught Math. That was not so hot. I've never taught a math class before and I wasn't sure how to prepare. My class is really varied in skill level. They are also undoubtedly the most 'spirited' class of the bunch. Thus when teaching them about rays and angles, several of them grasped the concept right away, most of the rest got it when we worked through it together, and the few remaining didn't get it because of the distractions caused by those who were bored. Next was musical theater class with the fifth graders. We taught them choreography to "We Go Together" which they've apparently already danced to. Boo. In any case in forty five minutes we taught them about 40 seconds of choreography. After that was spelling with the fourth graders. Which was better but only because I was extremely strict and Sheryl kept taking away the things with which the kids were playing. Then we went to the library and it was fine until it was almost time to go. At that point the kids had all checked out their books and Sheryl was playing with them in the corner. Unfortunately they wanted nothing of cleaning up and lining up. It was really frustrating. We had a talk and I talked to a couple of the other teachers who know them well about strategies of getting them to listen. They all basically said this would happen and I just need to keep being firm. In any case I'm pretty certain I'll need to spend at least an hour preparing for the next day's classes. I think I'm going to institute a reward program using points to earn an incentive (chocolate?). I'm also going to have lots of extra work for those children who finish their work early. I think I'll also get some puzzles so the children who finish early can play quietly or read while the others continue working. I remember spending a lot of time in the reading tub in my fourth grade class because I finished early. I also remember playing Mancala in sixth grade after finishing math tests early. I think this strategy might be something normal teachers use. In any case, after the frustration of the afternoon I watched Rapunzel with the fourth and fifth graders had popcorn for snack (YAY) and graded the creative writing essays. I also wrote my lesson plans. Then we went for an assembly where the children sang and one 11th grader did a traditional dance. I was really impressed. Tomorrow we're having a long assembly in the morning then all of the volunteers are going to Hosur. I'm planning on buying phone cards, a surge protector, dish soap, something for incentive and a salwar kamiz. Next weekend we might all see the Taj Mahal.

SATURDAY

PANCAKES FOR BREAKFAST! YAHOO!!! I'm so excited. Today another American volunteer arrived, his name is Steven. He's from Florida and recently graduated from school as a philosophy major. He'll be here till mid April. The fourth grade boys all apologized to me for their behavior yesterday and I guess the vice principle (Miss Beena) took away their nature walk this morning. I felt a little bad, but I know that I have to have authority and that's her way of giving it to me. They were actually all very cute being so contrite. I'm feeling really positive about next week and I'm so excited for our trip to Hosur this afternoon. Internet and phone cards! I'm also really excited about the very real prospect of traveling with the people here on the weekends. It should be fun and much easier than by myself. Plus if I've seen a lot by the time school lets out for break I may be able to return and help for a couple weeks before I head to London and home. I went on a walk this morning with Joe and had a semi-warm shower (my first hot water shower). So I'm feeling really good. Super positive. I think today and tomorrow will be really easy days and Monday I should be able to start to get into the rhythm of life at Shanti Bhavan. Thinking of you all a lot.

Up Up and Away

Well, that's it. I just finished packing my bags. My checked luggage weighs in just under the line at 49.7lbs, and all the stuff I want to bring seems to fit into my backpack and purse... so I guess I am ready. People keep asking if I'm nervous. I guess I'm vaguely nervous, but mostly I think it's just something so far out of my realm of understanding that it hasn't really sunk in yet. After a lot of hard work to get my room ready for sublet and my life ready to be put on hold for five months, I feel a little odd having almost nothing to do.

I found out yesterday there will be a constant stream of ASTEP volunteers, including one other volunteer who will be there almost the exact length of time I will. There will also be many other foreign volunteers. YAY!

As of right now, I think my projects will be dance classes, a musical theatre Hairspray project with Sheryl and musical theatre Billy Eliot project with Elizabeth. As far as I can tell all of us are excited, but a little unsure about what will face us upon arrival.

Overall, I'm really looking forward to getting to know the kids, and seeing how we can work together to make some really cool projects. The next time I post, I will be in India!