Greatest hits of Shanti Bhavan week of March 8th
Walking under the tree all the berries are falling off. The berries crunch under my flip flops and it's even better than walking on bubble wrap.
Eating more candy than I previously thought possible every day. In fact, eating so much candy that I'm shunning other, more nutritious food in favor of it.
Developing the sense that not only does every person deserve respect, but every thing in the entire world does. I feel in harmony with the planet.
I found a bunch of puppet stuff and I'm planning to use it!
One of my student's (Angel Mary Martin) sister's name is Himmaculate Sweetie.
Staying up late and having TRL with Steve and Jack.
Pondicherry Trip
We went to Pondicherry. We left Friday after lunch and headed to Hosur to buy our train tickets for next week. Then we were off and pacing on a national highway. The barely two lane road with minimal potholes was a pleasure to ride along with our trusty driver, Manju. The scenery as we drove by was both varied and delightful: mountains, rice fields, temples, dry scrubby land, palm trees, busses coming straight at us, cows, monkeys, pigs, jumbled towns, thatch villages, old women with wrinkled skin, gangs of young men holding hands and children naked save a red thread at the waist. India. I was counting down the kilometers and estimating that at our current average speed we would arrive in a few hours. At ever mile marker I kept telling myself how much longer until we were there. I was strongly reminded of being on road trips with my family. My mom used to tell us "four more Inspector Gadgets until we're there." I found myself calculating the time in 'Inspector Gadgets' and giving little updates to the others. (I tried to play the alphabet game by myself, but it's hard when you don't already have an idea of what the sign might say or what language the sign will be in.) Unfortunately the distance to Pondicherry indicated by the signs was really only the distance to the off ramp to Pondicherry and we still had a thirty minute drive from there.
Nonetheless, when we arrived we were all very excited to sample the Western cuisine and relax on the beach. We arrived, after some confusion, at our hotel, Qualithe. It was not so quality at all. In fact, the ground floor is a bar. The front desk is the bar. They didn't have our reservation until the next day, so we went decided to look somewhere else. On the recommendation of a girl in the bar we went to Mother Guest House. She said it was next to a great restaurant called Hot Breads. So we went over. We had to climb up the stairs inside a store to get there, but when they offered us a room with two enormous beds and one small bed, AC and TV for RS 1500 a night, we took it. For the two nights we stayed it was only $10 a person. So the six of us had two adjoining rooms and a bathroom. It worked out really well. As soon as we deposited our belongings in the room we went out to dinner at Le Club. It. Was. Sublime. The list of beverages we consumed included milkshakes, beers, cosmopolitans, lemonade, shirley temples, wine, lassis and mineral water. We shared some garlic bread, which we like so much that we ordered two more servings. I had a salad and steak au poivre. Mmm. For desert I had apple tart. Doesn't get much better than that.
In the morning I woke up and saw a tiny almost clear scorpion running across the room and heading for Molly's bag. I stepped on in it in my flip flop. I'm so smart.
We went to watch the sunrise at the beach and had breakfast at Le Cafe. I had a croissant and cafe au lait. So good. We saw a really cool Indian looking Catholic church and tried to rent scooters. This failed because we don't have international drivers licenses. Right next door was an amazing colorful temple. It was really fun to explore. After making a pooja, or little prayer, they gave us a whitish gray dot instead of the usual red. Hmm...
Next we headed to Auroville. It's a huge community of people working towards a better future for humanity. The center of the community is called Matrimandir. It looks like a big golden Spaceship Earth. Inside there's a huge crystal with light focused in it. In any case, it's a beautiful and interesting place full of handicrafts and sustainable ways of life. All their water is drawn from wells using wind power and there are literally gardens of solar panels. I'm definitely interested in what they're doing there.
After Auroville, it was beach time. We went swimming at Auro Beach, in the Bay of Bengal. To get there we had to walk through a narrow sand pathway, but the sand was so hot that I burned the bottoms of my feet trying to get there wearing flip flops. I sprinted for the water. The water was warm and there were many people swimming. All of them were Indian men, most of whom were wearing underwear, undershirts and orange vests. Some of the youngest were completely naked. It was fun, but it was a little ridiculous, because us girls went swimming in our bathing suits. We were asking for the unwanted attention, so it didn't bother us too much. After completely burning ourselves at the beach, we split up to pursue our own fun. For Joe and Arjun that meant finding a place outside of town to rent scooters to them. For the rest of us it meant taking showers, eating lunch at Hot Breads (I had salad, soup, bread sticks, roll, fried chicken, chicken pizza and a tart for $2.50), and heading into town for some shopping. The girls went to FabIndia. I bought a couple tops. We all met up again at the Ghandi statue at seven. Arjun, Joe and Molly headed to find internet, while the rest of us went in search of a massage or something. We found a benefit concert catered by the restaurant where we wanted to eat dinner and raising money to fix the erosion of the beaches in Pondicherry. It was really interesting because there were many expats in charge of the concert. The group who organized is called PondyCAN and they plan to use political pressure to solve many of the problems in Pondicherry. The funny thing was watching the issues of India enumerated in a slideshow presentation. The music was a cool fusion: basso nova; classical violin, sitar and tabla; and reggae. The food was great and the people who attended were both interesting and fun. The whole thing cost about $12 a person. It was totally worth it.
The next morning we all slept in. Once we got going, about nine, we stopped for pastries and headed for Sri Aurobindo ashram. We meditated outside the mother's tomb. It was really interesting. Then afterwords we went to a weekly street market. On a street where scooters, cars and auto rickshaws careened ahead at full speed, people sold anything and everything imaginable. I found a passageway to a fish market that sold all sorts of interesting things. The smell was a little overwhelming. So I decided to go find a massage and we all agreed to meet in time to check out of our hotels.
My massage was amazing. It was at an ayurvedic hospital. It started with the masseuse telling me to "remove my dress." Since I didn't know how much 'dress' I was meant to remove I was exceedingly awkward. I kept confirming with her after each article of clothing that I should remove another. She probable thought I was an idiot, but I didn't want to offend her by stripping naked in front of her. It's not like the U.S. where they leave the room. She tied a paper loincloth around me and had me sit in a chair. After applying a generous amount of oil to my head and hair, she proceeded to give me the strangest and most amazing hair/ scalp massage. This included little clumps of my hair being pulled quite hard all around my scalp. She commented on my dandruff. I had a hard time conveying the fact that constantly eating new foods, using different water, experiencing new things and getting sun burnt weren't the best way to keep your scalp healthy. Next she told me to get on the table. She proceeded to slather me in oil to the point where I wondered if I would be able to stay on the table. I felt a little bit like meat being prepared to cook. The massage was amazing. Of note: they did in fact again massage my breasts. After the really long and relaxing massage that included more or less every inch of surface area I have, she patted me repeatedly with a packet of hot banana leaves. It was hot to the point of making me flinch few times. For the most part it was relaxing, though. When she did my sunburn I almost cried. I should mention that at a couple points she asked me to "make a little prayer" and she prayed before going on. Then she wiped off my feet and right hand, and led me into the adjoining shower. She showed me a towel and a bowl of soupy mud and told me to wash my whole body with it. It was of course, some kind of grainy soap. The only awkward part of that was she kept coming in and out and monitoring my progress. She told me to use "whole soap," which I took to mean I was supposed to use up the entire bowl. So I went for it. Head to toe I rubbed that stuff in. Then I rinsed it out and felt infinitely better. When I came out she let me get dressed, then put a hand on my arm, started to pray over me like she was anointing me with the holy spirit, then rubbed some spicy smelling stuff into my part. I'm not gonna lie, I felt pretty. Despite the fact that I had no make up and was wearing crumpled clothes, being clean and sunned made me feel great. A few minutes later I was walking down the street and a man said "Excuse me, madame, you smell good."
We all met at the hotel and ate a Sastanga before heading out of town. The trip back was marked by us all falling asleep all over each other. And by Jack buying a sitar.
This week at Shanti Bhavan has been a restful one. The fourth grade has been continuously improving in their studies and behavior. I could easily put them in with a class from the U.S. now and have them do well. All of the art projects are coming together well, and I'm trying to select students to teach tap, add to the choir and give piano lessons.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Friday, March 6, 2009
This week
For more images check out:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2037309&id=36000020&l=803d3
Facebook is much quicker at uploading photos.
Sunday
We arrived in Bangalore at about six am and got jerked around by a cab trying to take us to hotels when all we wanted was a place to store our bags for the day. That was frustrating. Then we went to Cubbin Park. It's a beautiful park full of children practicing martial arts, adults doing yoga and out for their morning constitutionals. We had a lot of time to kill until things opened. We found a Coffee Day coffee shop almost as prevalent in India as Starbucks is in NYC. We got harassed by some auto rickshaw drivers who said they'd take us to internet places that were open then tried to take us to shops where they'd get kickbacks for taking us there. None of us were in the mood for that and we got out. Ugh. Then we went to Lalbagh Botanical Gardens. Those were ok, but honestly they're not very nice for 'botanical gardens.' We were hot, tired and unimpressed with Bangalore. Especially as compared to Hampi. We went to a sangria lunch buffet. It was amazing. Casa del Sol offered unlimited lunch buffet with unlimited wine, beer and sangria for about $15. The food was great. We loaded up on protein and alcohol. In addition they had a pottery wheel, face painting, parrot astrologer, and a sketch artist. It was really fun! After that we were feeling better and it was nice to hit the internet, even if the computers were kind of crappy. We went to FabIndia to see if there were any souvenirs we wanted, but we lost Joe and spent the last thirty minutes we had in Bangalore searching and worrying. He just wandered off to get a hair cut.
Monday
I went to Barry’s class both periods instead of teaching aerobics. It was fun. Weird visitors from a school in Bangalore came. I mean the guy introduced himself in a room full of adults as Bob-ji. That’s like me introducing myself to my grandmother as Ms. McDonald. He’s giving himself the veneration children give teachers or adults give spiritual leaders. Anyway he and his wife came for a visit and actually handed out business cards to all of the teachers! It was my day for news again. It was kind of fun because I had a newspaper from Bangalore to use, so I got to give some more local news. Elizabeth and I wore saris to the huge approval of the staff and students. We taught the kindergarten the bridge of rubber ducky. A new volunteer arrived- Tony. His parents both grew up one state away in India. Since he finished undergrad early he wanted something to do between that and med school. He seems pretty cool. Jack got really sick, threw up and everything. Ick. We had a Hampi photo exchange in the lounge. It was fun.
Tuesday
I slept all day when I didn’t have class. Nirmala started teaching us a dance. It’s crazy and fun. The power was out almost all day. The sixth grade dance class was amazing. They look great. We held it outside by light of solar powered street lamp. In the lounge we watched Star Wars Episode 5. I really enjoyed it. Choir is starting to get the hang of the Billy Elliot music.
Wednesday
I went to Barry’s class both sessions. I felt rejuvenated. I stated taking Claritin. I think I have allergies here. I’m feeling much better now that I’m taking it regularly. The second grade ballet is really coming along and the third grade art projects are under way. Barry did some work on me. I felt great. I spent some time vocalizing and playing flute.
Thursday
I spent all my free time sleeping or rehearsing with Nirmala for the dance. It’s kind of silly, but we’re sure having fun making up lyrics to remember what we’re supposed to do:
“Look at my mehendi, it’s so sexy, look at my hands you want me, You ain’t nothin’, Woah Woah, I’m just a quail sitting in a garden, don’t you want to come talk to me? Look at my shoulders.”
Friday
We spent almost every free second preparing for our big show. We did make up and hair and mehendi and jewelry and flowers. It was intense. And so much fun. I opened the show with ‘Baby Shark’ audience participation style. Then Barry demonstrated some martial arts, Arjun played a Spanish piece on the piano, Michelle and Tony danced, Elizabeth sang ‘No One is Alone’, I sang ‘Old Devil Moon’ with Arjun accompanying me, Michelle sang, the boys played guitar and sang ‘Hey Jude’ then the group dance ended the show. It was so fun. My personal favorite is “so niiiiice!” and “oooooaaaaaoooowww miss! You dance so nicely!” haha. We watched Animal house in the lounge. Joe shared Nilla Wafers (!!!!!) his mom sent and we had some Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups that Barry brought. It was delightful.
Last Week
Saturday
Saturday was fun. Jacques, Arjun, Elizabeth and I left directly after breakfast for Hosur. It was fun. We planned to spend several hours on the internet. Due to a power outage the internet place was running on battery power. So we only got a little less than thirty minutes. Boo.
It was really fun though. We did lots of great stuff. Elizabeth and I went to the post office, bought saris, got measured for blouses, bought pineapples and oranges and spent about twenty minutes on the computer. Then we all went wandering as a group. We went to an all plastic store. Basically instead of selling one kind of product they sell various products made of plastic. A different kind of category I guess. We went to a DVD store and got DVDs for $1 that have four or five movies on each. That was a blast.
We took an auto rickshaw (if you haven't been in one, you at least should google a photo) to the train station so Elizabeth and I could buy the tickets for Hampi. Well. They couldn't take credit cards because the had no power so we had to scrounge for cash to buy the five train tickets we needed. We're taking a car to Bangalore then taking an overnight train to Hampi. We're traveling in style. Air conditioned sleeper cars, oh yeah. It should be an experience. Actually, buying the tickets was an experience. Elizabeth and I lined up nicely behind the Muslim men in front of us, as there was a sign that said "No separate ladies' q." Ok, fine. So the men seated in the station openly gawk at us while the men in line jumble around, push in front of us and generally cause as much confusion, chaos and other don't-let-these-heathen-women-get-what-they-wantness as possible. So we called Arjun over because they were pushing in front of us in line. It was like a cartoon. Arjun, the 6'3" if-India-was-going-to-invent-a-god-today looking 19 year old Cornell sophomore teddy bear, struck an imposing figure. The men who'd been giving us an impossible time literally did a double take and then continued to look nervously over their shoulders. Suddenly it was as if every one wanted to maintain order. We quickly got our forms to fill out and processed our payment. Round trip it's $34. Not too shabby, huh? The hotel we're staying in should be $6/ person. Since we're only staying in the hotel one night it should be a total of $40. How do you like them apples?
We then went to the new Janani restaurant, which is beautifully laid out like a garden. We spent a couple hours eating, relaxing and joking. Then we walked all the way back to the internet area, I'd guess about two miles. In the scorching sun. It was fun, we got to see a lot of Hosur. We bought sunglasses for Elizabeth. Then we took an auto to the old Janani, had a soda and waited for the rest of the staff who came into Hosur for only an hour. We all rode back in the staff car together. Fine family fun.
When we got back we were exhausted, but we had choir rehearsal for the show the next day. None of the kids showed. Then we had rehearsal for an aerobics demonstration. We were all pretty tired, but it was really nice to spend time in such a small group. We all get along quite well. We stayed up and chatted.
Sunday
Jack, Elizabeth's friend from high school, arrived. I showed him around. It was funny because it was like he was on something. He was sort of: 48 hours without sleeping. We rehearsed for the show for the Italian visitors. Elizabeth and I got gussied up. So fun. She did a circle braid in my hair. It was a great show. All that rehearsal really payed off. Dinner was amazing. The chicken was spiced with saffron, and I loved it.
Monday
Barry and Michelle arrived. Michelle is on the board of ASTEP and has raised a ton of money for Shanti Bhavan. Barry is a "body worker" and has a really interesting history- research scientist, massage school, martial arts... Both of them look approximately ten years younger than their real ages. We taught more of "All That Jazz" to the older girls. Choir surprised us with a rehearsal. It was great. Kids are excited because Dr. George's birthday is coming up. They kept coming up and saying "Miss, miss, the 25th is Dr. George's birthday!" Joe, Molly and Steve got back from Mysore around breakfast time. They looked pretty exhausted. Apparently their feet got eaten by the massive amounts of bugs on the bus. We practiced "Rubber Ducky" with KG and Jack on guitar. So adorable.
Tuesday
We started a new aerobics schedule. It basically comes down to the fact that Barry gets the kids by gender for thirty minutes so we take his class then take the kids for aerobics. It's fun learning self defense. In a lot of ways Barry reminds me of Robert, the musical theatre director. I like him a lot. In musical theatre class the first grade was amazing playing the mirror game. I got some adorable video of it.
Wednesday
We had the older girls for aerobics. I had a busy, but good day. It was Dr. George's birthday. Lots of amazing food. Some of the volunteer descriptions of it included liquid amoxicillin, Pinesol and Tang. Haha. We watched Billy Elliot and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Michelle brought Reece's Peanut Butter Cups! Mmmm... Barry worked on me, I've never felt so healthy. I felt great. Stoned. But great.
Thursday
6th grade boys were so frustrating in aerobics, they couldn't jog on beat. 6th grade girls more than made up for it. Rajne's flute lesson went well. I added a few more notes for him to practice. I had a lot of fun teaching fifth grade math, we did curve drawing. It's drawing curves by drawing straight lines between points on them. They loved it. We left for Hampi at 4:00 pm with the well wishes of Michelle. We picked up our sari blouses from Hosur and headed to Bangalore.
We wanted pizza Western style and he took us to an Indian chain. We had a big discussion about how to get to Domino's. We finally found a Pizza Hut, but the power was out. Around the corner we found a Domino's! We ordered, had ordeal getting change, then getting our soft drinks, we waited about ten minutes and were getting really excited for our food and the power went out. The manager said it would take fifteen minutes by gas, so we waited. Then fifteen minutes later she told us it would be another thirty minutes, could she take our number so we could go for a walk? We walked to a donut shop and bought donuts. We decided if the power wasn't on we'd get a refund and go to Pizza Hut, where the lights were now blazing. We walked back and got our refund. Just as we were all exiting the building, the power came back on. The employees of Dominos literally chased us out the door to tell us to come back. So we did. They promised eight minutes until our pizza was ready. Mine came last, forty five minutes later. All for a little pizza! Though I have to say, the pizza did taste like a little slice of home.
From there we headed to the train station. So I guess one of the reasons Bangalore has three train stations is that there are a lot of freaking people taking trains. The train station was really big, crowded and confusing. The signage was bad and there was no way to if there was anyone working there. My guess is there wasn't. After a several minutes of confusion we decided to take the 'subway' (underpass) and found track 8, from which we were departing. Then we had to fight the confusion of trying to get on the right car. Since there was no one to ask, this took several minutes. We finally managed to do it, but our berths were all separate. It was nice: fans, AC, freshly cleaned sheets. The gentle rocking of the train made it quite easy to sleep. If I hadn't had a bed right by the door to the bathroom I would have slept quite well. Interestingly, everyone in 2nd class AC spoke English. Apparently if you can afford to travel in comfort you can afford an education in English as well.
Friday
We arrived in Hospet around 7:30 AM. We took two auto-rickshaws to Hampi. Our hotel was BASIC and PERFECT! The entire hotel is open air. Our 'room' was a thatch hut with three mattresses on the ground and mosquito nets. In the common there are hammocks. The restaurant is a series of ledges with cushions and a pavilion with cushions. There are even beds in the open with just mosquito nets. We ordered breakfast (really yummy!), hung around in the hammocks and toured the ruins. It was really amazing. It's hard to describe, but it was beautiful. Elizabeth found a decaying dog in a chamber of one of the many destroyed temples we saw. Some of the really cool things we saw were a huge Ganesh (elephant headed god), a cool Shiva linga (phallic statue representation of the god of destruction) with water coming to the entrance of the shrine, and an underground temple with water flowing through it. There were bats in the last one.
We ate lunch at the Mango Tree which was both delectable and delightful. The view was stunning. They sold Nutella and cereal! I'm proud to report that my second attempt at a squat toilet was here and went quite successfully. I know you're all very proud. Elizabeth informed us that squat toilets are more ergonomically correct. If you can't squat apparently you ought prop your feet up, "a stool for your stool" as she said. We went shopping and I bought ankle bracelets, which I've been coveting since I arrived in India. They're so fun, they jingle when I walk! Jack and I ended up shopping for some clothes (which are really good looking) and then went to the temple to be blessed by Lakshmi the temple elephant. Afterword we met up with the crew and went to watch the sunset on a hill. It was splendid. A little boy selling chai in plastic cups was really friendly with us and gave us a lot of useful information.
We went back to the hotel and met some funny French people who bootlegged beer for us in a tea kettle. It was warm, but what the heck? I was the only one from our group to brave the bug infested shower that night. It was quite an adventure, though not the worst shower I've ever used. Ants on the shower head and a myriad of bugs on the walls didn't bother me too much, but the cold water that was clearly not safe to drink and the filthy floor were certainly enough to hurry me along. Nonetheless, I felt like a new person after showering that night. Two days of India filth is quite a lot of filth (despite cleansing cloths), let me assure you. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep between asking Jack a question and his reply.
Saturday
We woke up early and hiked to the top of Mattanga Hill. This is a deceiving name. Though it may be called 'hill', hiking up it in the dark is no easy task. In fact hiking up in the day light is not for the faint of heart or for heart patients. So we climbed all the way to the top of the the hill and climbed on top of the five hundred year old temple to watch the most amazing sunrise. It was breathtaking. We climbed down the hill in full day light at about seven am to go watch the elephant take a bath in the river. Our chai wallah was there, selling tea and being amazed as we were by the huge pachyderm in the river in front of us. What didn't phase him, but shocked me, was the huge amount of people bathing in the river. Women wearing saris were submerged to their waists lathering, removing their sari tops, scrubbing and putting the cumbersome, wet clothes back on to bathe their children or each other. Men were stripped down to underwear and scrubbing like it was their royal duty. Especially where the sun don't shine. Of course right next to the river there were also your typical freak shows: men dressed up as holy men trying to extort money from tourists for a photo, men meditating on the rocks in defiance of the commotion of the busy river and children of all shapes and sizes getting into anything and everything they can.
We came back to the hotel and had breakfast. Eggs, home fries, toast and tea... I was in heaven. It's impossible to explain how sick of rice a person can get. We contemplated spending the day lounging around the hotel. We all lazed about in the hammocks and in the restaurant area. A dog that belongs to the hotel chewed my shoe. I spent most of the morning in socks until I could buy new ones. A guy about my age came around selling postcards. Elizabeth and I ended up talking to him for a while and he offered to take us out for a fun day on the town. So we went to visit the temple, get blessed by Laskshmi and head out across the river on our adventure with our guide, Harish. Just before we boarded the boat we saw a snake charmer. A king cobra charming, drone instrument playing busker who scared us then let us hold his 'no poison' snakes. It was thrilling and a little scary. At this point in the day our motto became 'we haven't died yet' and we repeated it many times throughout the remainder. We shared the heavily loaded motor boat with motorcycles and women carrying bushels of fruit. It was ridiculous. We played with a trained baby monkey on the other side of the water, then rented scooters (not my idea) and took off on a tour of the temples on that side of the water. I learned a lot about Hinduism and feel a lot better acquainted with various personalities of gods and the symbolism of the religion. We ended up at a huge lake which several westerners told us 'might have crocodiles, but was good for swimming.' We all jumped in. It was a lot of fun. Many Indian guys came to swim with us. They played music from their cell phones and danced and well all laughed a lot. Let me note here that swimming in pants that balloon is not an easy task. The boys wanted more time on the bikes, and I was REALLY done with them, so Elizabeth and I went to get massages while the boys rode around a while longer. The woman massaged our breasts! We also got henna, which wasn't the best move because we had to pack with one hand each. We were traveling on the wait list, and once again had a lot of trouble finding someone to help us at the train station. It ended up working out great though, because really it just meant they didn't assign the bunks in the cabins, so we slept in a group of bunks that were together. Score.
Saturday was fun. Jacques, Arjun, Elizabeth and I left directly after breakfast for Hosur. It was fun. We planned to spend several hours on the internet. Due to a power outage the internet place was running on battery power. So we only got a little less than thirty minutes. Boo.
It was really fun though. We did lots of great stuff. Elizabeth and I went to the post office, bought saris, got measured for blouses, bought pineapples and oranges and spent about twenty minutes on the computer. Then we all went wandering as a group. We went to an all plastic store. Basically instead of selling one kind of product they sell various products made of plastic. A different kind of category I guess. We went to a DVD store and got DVDs for $1 that have four or five movies on each. That was a blast.
We took an auto rickshaw (if you haven't been in one, you at least should google a photo) to the train station so Elizabeth and I could buy the tickets for Hampi. Well. They couldn't take credit cards because the had no power so we had to scrounge for cash to buy the five train tickets we needed. We're taking a car to Bangalore then taking an overnight train to Hampi. We're traveling in style. Air conditioned sleeper cars, oh yeah. It should be an experience. Actually, buying the tickets was an experience. Elizabeth and I lined up nicely behind the Muslim men in front of us, as there was a sign that said "No separate ladies' q." Ok, fine. So the men seated in the station openly gawk at us while the men in line jumble around, push in front of us and generally cause as much confusion, chaos and other don't-let-these-heathen-women-get-what-they-wantness as possible. So we called Arjun over because they were pushing in front of us in line. It was like a cartoon. Arjun, the 6'3" if-India-was-going-to-invent-a-god-today looking 19 year old Cornell sophomore teddy bear, struck an imposing figure. The men who'd been giving us an impossible time literally did a double take and then continued to look nervously over their shoulders. Suddenly it was as if every one wanted to maintain order. We quickly got our forms to fill out and processed our payment. Round trip it's $34. Not too shabby, huh? The hotel we're staying in should be $6/ person. Since we're only staying in the hotel one night it should be a total of $40. How do you like them apples?
We then went to the new Janani restaurant, which is beautifully laid out like a garden. We spent a couple hours eating, relaxing and joking. Then we walked all the way back to the internet area, I'd guess about two miles. In the scorching sun. It was fun, we got to see a lot of Hosur. We bought sunglasses for Elizabeth. Then we took an auto to the old Janani, had a soda and waited for the rest of the staff who came into Hosur for only an hour. We all rode back in the staff car together. Fine family fun.
When we got back we were exhausted, but we had choir rehearsal for the show the next day. None of the kids showed. Then we had rehearsal for an aerobics demonstration. We were all pretty tired, but it was really nice to spend time in such a small group. We all get along quite well. We stayed up and chatted.
Sunday
Jack, Elizabeth's friend from high school, arrived. I showed him around. It was funny because it was like he was on something. He was sort of: 48 hours without sleeping. We rehearsed for the show for the Italian visitors. Elizabeth and I got gussied up. So fun. She did a circle braid in my hair. It was a great show. All that rehearsal really payed off. Dinner was amazing. The chicken was spiced with saffron, and I loved it.
Monday
Barry and Michelle arrived. Michelle is on the board of ASTEP and has raised a ton of money for Shanti Bhavan. Barry is a "body worker" and has a really interesting history- research scientist, massage school, martial arts... Both of them look approximately ten years younger than their real ages. We taught more of "All That Jazz" to the older girls. Choir surprised us with a rehearsal. It was great. Kids are excited because Dr. George's birthday is coming up. They kept coming up and saying "Miss, miss, the 25th is Dr. George's birthday!" Joe, Molly and Steve got back from Mysore around breakfast time. They looked pretty exhausted. Apparently their feet got eaten by the massive amounts of bugs on the bus. We practiced "Rubber Ducky" with KG and Jack on guitar. So adorable.
Tuesday
We started a new aerobics schedule. It basically comes down to the fact that Barry gets the kids by gender for thirty minutes so we take his class then take the kids for aerobics. It's fun learning self defense. In a lot of ways Barry reminds me of Robert, the musical theatre director. I like him a lot. In musical theatre class the first grade was amazing playing the mirror game. I got some adorable video of it.
Wednesday
We had the older girls for aerobics. I had a busy, but good day. It was Dr. George's birthday. Lots of amazing food. Some of the volunteer descriptions of it included liquid amoxicillin, Pinesol and Tang. Haha. We watched Billy Elliot and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Michelle brought Reece's Peanut Butter Cups! Mmmm... Barry worked on me, I've never felt so healthy. I felt great. Stoned. But great.
Thursday
6th grade boys were so frustrating in aerobics, they couldn't jog on beat. 6th grade girls more than made up for it. Rajne's flute lesson went well. I added a few more notes for him to practice. I had a lot of fun teaching fifth grade math, we did curve drawing. It's drawing curves by drawing straight lines between points on them. They loved it. We left for Hampi at 4:00 pm with the well wishes of Michelle. We picked up our sari blouses from Hosur and headed to Bangalore.
We wanted pizza Western style and he took us to an Indian chain. We had a big discussion about how to get to Domino's. We finally found a Pizza Hut, but the power was out. Around the corner we found a Domino's! We ordered, had ordeal getting change, then getting our soft drinks, we waited about ten minutes and were getting really excited for our food and the power went out. The manager said it would take fifteen minutes by gas, so we waited. Then fifteen minutes later she told us it would be another thirty minutes, could she take our number so we could go for a walk? We walked to a donut shop and bought donuts. We decided if the power wasn't on we'd get a refund and go to Pizza Hut, where the lights were now blazing. We walked back and got our refund. Just as we were all exiting the building, the power came back on. The employees of Dominos literally chased us out the door to tell us to come back. So we did. They promised eight minutes until our pizza was ready. Mine came last, forty five minutes later. All for a little pizza! Though I have to say, the pizza did taste like a little slice of home.
From there we headed to the train station. So I guess one of the reasons Bangalore has three train stations is that there are a lot of freaking people taking trains. The train station was really big, crowded and confusing. The signage was bad and there was no way to if there was anyone working there. My guess is there wasn't. After a several minutes of confusion we decided to take the 'subway' (underpass) and found track 8, from which we were departing. Then we had to fight the confusion of trying to get on the right car. Since there was no one to ask, this took several minutes. We finally managed to do it, but our berths were all separate. It was nice: fans, AC, freshly cleaned sheets. The gentle rocking of the train made it quite easy to sleep. If I hadn't had a bed right by the door to the bathroom I would have slept quite well. Interestingly, everyone in 2nd class AC spoke English. Apparently if you can afford to travel in comfort you can afford an education in English as well.
Friday
We arrived in Hospet around 7:30 AM. We took two auto-rickshaws to Hampi. Our hotel was BASIC and PERFECT! The entire hotel is open air. Our 'room' was a thatch hut with three mattresses on the ground and mosquito nets. In the common there are hammocks. The restaurant is a series of ledges with cushions and a pavilion with cushions. There are even beds in the open with just mosquito nets. We ordered breakfast (really yummy!), hung around in the hammocks and toured the ruins. It was really amazing. It's hard to describe, but it was beautiful. Elizabeth found a decaying dog in a chamber of one of the many destroyed temples we saw. Some of the really cool things we saw were a huge Ganesh (elephant headed god), a cool Shiva linga (phallic statue representation of the god of destruction) with water coming to the entrance of the shrine, and an underground temple with water flowing through it. There were bats in the last one.
We ate lunch at the Mango Tree which was both delectable and delightful. The view was stunning. They sold Nutella and cereal! I'm proud to report that my second attempt at a squat toilet was here and went quite successfully. I know you're all very proud. Elizabeth informed us that squat toilets are more ergonomically correct. If you can't squat apparently you ought prop your feet up, "a stool for your stool" as she said. We went shopping and I bought ankle bracelets, which I've been coveting since I arrived in India. They're so fun, they jingle when I walk! Jack and I ended up shopping for some clothes (which are really good looking) and then went to the temple to be blessed by Lakshmi the temple elephant. Afterword we met up with the crew and went to watch the sunset on a hill. It was splendid. A little boy selling chai in plastic cups was really friendly with us and gave us a lot of useful information.
We went back to the hotel and met some funny French people who bootlegged beer for us in a tea kettle. It was warm, but what the heck? I was the only one from our group to brave the bug infested shower that night. It was quite an adventure, though not the worst shower I've ever used. Ants on the shower head and a myriad of bugs on the walls didn't bother me too much, but the cold water that was clearly not safe to drink and the filthy floor were certainly enough to hurry me along. Nonetheless, I felt like a new person after showering that night. Two days of India filth is quite a lot of filth (despite cleansing cloths), let me assure you. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep between asking Jack a question and his reply.
Saturday
We woke up early and hiked to the top of Mattanga Hill. This is a deceiving name. Though it may be called 'hill', hiking up it in the dark is no easy task. In fact hiking up in the day light is not for the faint of heart or for heart patients. So we climbed all the way to the top of the the hill and climbed on top of the five hundred year old temple to watch the most amazing sunrise. It was breathtaking. We climbed down the hill in full day light at about seven am to go watch the elephant take a bath in the river. Our chai wallah was there, selling tea and being amazed as we were by the huge pachyderm in the river in front of us. What didn't phase him, but shocked me, was the huge amount of people bathing in the river. Women wearing saris were submerged to their waists lathering, removing their sari tops, scrubbing and putting the cumbersome, wet clothes back on to bathe their children or each other. Men were stripped down to underwear and scrubbing like it was their royal duty. Especially where the sun don't shine. Of course right next to the river there were also your typical freak shows: men dressed up as holy men trying to extort money from tourists for a photo, men meditating on the rocks in defiance of the commotion of the busy river and children of all shapes and sizes getting into anything and everything they can.
We came back to the hotel and had breakfast. Eggs, home fries, toast and tea... I was in heaven. It's impossible to explain how sick of rice a person can get. We contemplated spending the day lounging around the hotel. We all lazed about in the hammocks and in the restaurant area. A dog that belongs to the hotel chewed my shoe. I spent most of the morning in socks until I could buy new ones. A guy about my age came around selling postcards. Elizabeth and I ended up talking to him for a while and he offered to take us out for a fun day on the town. So we went to visit the temple, get blessed by Laskshmi and head out across the river on our adventure with our guide, Harish. Just before we boarded the boat we saw a snake charmer. A king cobra charming, drone instrument playing busker who scared us then let us hold his 'no poison' snakes. It was thrilling and a little scary. At this point in the day our motto became 'we haven't died yet' and we repeated it many times throughout the remainder. We shared the heavily loaded motor boat with motorcycles and women carrying bushels of fruit. It was ridiculous. We played with a trained baby monkey on the other side of the water, then rented scooters (not my idea) and took off on a tour of the temples on that side of the water. I learned a lot about Hinduism and feel a lot better acquainted with various personalities of gods and the symbolism of the religion. We ended up at a huge lake which several westerners told us 'might have crocodiles, but was good for swimming.' We all jumped in. It was a lot of fun. Many Indian guys came to swim with us. They played music from their cell phones and danced and well all laughed a lot. Let me note here that swimming in pants that balloon is not an easy task. The boys wanted more time on the bikes, and I was REALLY done with them, so Elizabeth and I went to get massages while the boys rode around a while longer. The woman massaged our breasts! We also got henna, which wasn't the best move because we had to pack with one hand each. We were traveling on the wait list, and once again had a lot of trouble finding someone to help us at the train station. It ended up working out great though, because really it just meant they didn't assign the bunks in the cabins, so we slept in a group of bunks that were together. Score.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
I will make a real post next week.
I'm in Bangalore, but the computer I'm on does not have a USB port. Since I've already typed my blog for this week I'll just post it when I get back to Hosur next weekend. Love you all. Hampi was wonderful.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Running on a battery and Electricution
So, there is no power in Hosur right now. I have to finish everything as quickly as possible since we're on battery power. I'll try to add photos if possible.
Feb 14
Saturday
Saturday morning was fun because I taught Beena tap. For those Ohio Northerners out there, this is her second lesson and she learned through the shuffle ball change lunge progression. Pretty impressive, huh?
What's really fun about teaching one child something (especially tap) is the crowd of gawkers it draws. So very rarely do any of the children get individual attention that anything individual causes huge amounts of curiosity. I arrived early and put on my tap shoes. Instantly I was surrounded by a gaggle of children saying "Show miss," and "Can you do the dance from Happy Feet?"
The best part of the day was celebrating Valentine's day with the fourth grade. I gave them each a conversation heart (which my mom sent) and some heart stickers (which my grandmother sent) and asked them to write Valentines to either my mom, Mike, Eric or Emily. I showed them a picture of each person and told them how they've helped me and/ or Shanti Bhavan. Then they made cards. They are soo funny. I plan to send them as soon as I figure out postage.
I went to Hosur on Saturday. It was fun because Elizabeth hadn't been out of Shanti Bhavan in the daylight, so sitting next to her made the drive exciting. No upchuck reflex this time. We had fun in Hosur. We bought fruit and went to the internet cafe. I got to chat with Eric, which I was really happy about. Especially since my voice has been gone so I've been hoarse. Then Elizabeth and I got our eyebrows done. 15 rupees each to get them done. Seriously... I can get my eyebrows threaded 24 times in India and still spend less than getting it done once in New York. To top it off, in New York it hurts, my eyes water and it takes twice as long. We looked for a place to make photocopies, but couldn't find one. We each bought a kurta. It's like a long t-shirt dress with slits to the top of your thigh. Sort of. Any way, it's informal Indian wear, and it's fun to dress like the kids and staff.
Since our group split up at the beginning to accomplish our various tasks, we planned to meet at Janani, our favorite restaurant. Elizabeth, Molly and I hopped in an auto-rickshaw and headed over. We sat down and ordered. About fifteen minutes later Jacques and Veena arrived. They sat down and ordered as well. Their food came first. Even though they ordered the same things as us. Go figure. Typical India, we saw two cockroaches at least as big as any I ever saw in Texas. Both were close enough to us to creep several of us out. It was frustrating trying to sort out the bill. In the end most of us were ready just to pay the whole thing to stop the confusion. Seriously, the whole bill was 900 RS, which is something like $15. The amount we were trying to figure out was less than $2. Perspective sometimes gets lost in the little things.
After Janani we stopped at the grocery store, where Elizabeth and I got oatmeal (!), juice, cookies, henna and coconut oil. After stopping on the way home in Bagalore (our driver was once again the same one who took us to Mysore, however this time he didn't pick up his kid, as there were eight of us) to buy phone cards, we headed back to good ole Shanti Bhavan. Going away from Shanti Bhavan definitely makes you appreciate it when you come back.
While Elizabeth caught up with her family and friends on the phone in the hall, I mixed the henna with water and watch some kind of Indian version of American Idol. It was called something like Personal Superstar. It was funny to watch. We watched French Kiss, because it was Valentines Day, and we had watched a scary movie for Friday the Thirteenth the day before. Elizabeth gave me a manicure. It was fun. Then we dyed our hair with the henna. It was pretty funny because the henna looked like poop both on the plate where we mixed it and in our hair. My hair definitely looks different. I like it though. I might do it again. Although washing it out wasn't all that fun. I've been using coconut oil to help keep the color nice.
I developed a new addiction: Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Even though I wouldn't watch it at home, here I'm going nuts over it. Saturday night I stayed up until God-knows-when with Arjun watching it. It was ridiculous.
Sunday
I slept in. I ate so much fruit. Pineapple, pomegranate, chinese cherry, fig, gooseberry and papaya. Sometimes this place is like the garden of eden. Elizabeth and I played with the second and third grade girls in their dorm and then visited the first grade. It was fun. The sixth grade took me around Shanti Bhavan. It was fun, seeing what they pointed out and what was important to them. Gooseberries, the place where the laundry women put all the things they find in pockets, the trampoline, Dr. George's father's ashes.
I spent a lot of time reading Herzog. It was lovely. Dr. George wanted the 11th grade to watch Chicago, so we had them over to the volunteer lounge. It was fun. Molly, Steve, Elizabeth, Dr. George, Ms. Beena, Ms. Veena and I watched it with them. Dr. George nominated me to give a historical setting. Joy. The best part of watching it with them was watching their reactions. The costumes and dance moves never seemed so racy. It was really interesting. I was actually constantly surprised how skinny the women were. I guess after looking at Indian people who idolize people who look healthy (and pale), the women in the movies looked shockingly thin. It's weird to think a month ago that was completely normal to me. Every jutting bone made me gasp. I couldn't et over it. I went around our 400 m track 12 times with Jacques, jogging half and walking half. So that was good. When we got back Amiran White was outside the volunteer house. She's a photo journalist who's been to Shanti Bhavan twice before. The photos I've seen are absolutely stunning. She trailed all of us around and took our pictures. It was fun.
I watched back to the future with the sixth grade before going to dinner. That was funny, because although they appreciated the physical comedy, the exaggerated verbal jokes flew right over their heads. Dinner was fun, I sat with the fifth and fourth grade boys and we talked all about movies. That was funny. On my way out of the dining hall I ended up having a lovely thirty minute discussion of classroom goals and techniques with Mr. Daniel and his wife Ms. Irene. Their daughter, Abhilasha, who's in the fourth grade, was also there. After that Amiran interviewed me. That was interesting. We watched Billy Madison. I couldn't believe how much that made me miss my younger brother, Steven. Telehoohoo, sabadoo! We played Phase 10 and it took forever. I don't remember it being so interminable. I was stuck on the same phase for 7 rounds. Bah. Nevertheless I came in second. I stayed up late to read. That was good. It's nice to find a few moments by myself.
Monday
I spent last week trying to reflect on the idea that how people perceive you is 70% How you look 20% How you say it and 10% What you say. That really applies to learning. If I jump around during class and make a manic face the kids retain it better than if I just tell them the exact same thing in the exact same voice.
We had aerobics for the older girls. We spent most of the class working on form. The girls don't point their toes, hold their centers or any of those other things we ought to do if we want to look nice and feel good.
It was the first day of my new schedule:
6:30-7:30 AM M-F Aerobics
7:30-8:30 AM M-S Breakfast, Flute (some days)
8:30-9:15 AM M-F 4th Grade Math
9:15-10:00 AM MTR 4th Grade Science
10:00-10:45 AM M-F 5th Grade Math
10:45-11:05 AM M-S Snack
11:05-11:20 AM M-S Assembly
11:20-12:05 T-R 5th Grade Math/ Music Theatre/ 2nd G Learning Activity
12:05-12:50 PM M-F Music Theatre
12:50-1:20 PM M-S Lunch
1:20-2:05 PM M-W 4th Grade Math
F 4th Grade Spelling
2:05-2:50 PM MWF 4th G Grammar/ 4th G Learning Activity/ 5th G Math
2:50-3:35 PM TR 4th Grade Story Time
7:00-7:30 PM T Choir
8:00-8:45 PM TR Music Theatre
Plus whatever else I have to do. It's certainly not boring.
Basically Elizabeth is taking over third, fourth and fifth grade English classes and I'm taking over fifth grade math. That creates relief on the permanent staff and lets them work on any of the other eight million things there are to do.
Comparatively to fourth grade, fifth grade is a dream. They're quiet, well behaved, respectful and ready to learn. It's great. I come in, show them how to do the problems, assign some, then put extra practice on the board. Then I read my book until someone has a question. It's like having a nap compared to the back flips I have to turn for the fourth grade. I told them if they work hard and sit how they should, I'll make the last few minutes fun.
In musical theatre class we had the kindergarten. We're going to have them perform rubber ducky as a warm up for the Billy Elliot show. It's going to be amazingly cute. The plan is to dress them like ducks too. We had a couple duck related theatre games and then learned the first verse. So cute and fun.
After class I fell asleep reading. I slept for over an hour and missed snack. I went to the prayer hut to read a couple chapters of the the stories of Krishna. I though perhaps reading the religious material of Hinduism might give me the insight I'm lacking on their religion. No such luck. Whatever I'm missing from conversation is not being filled in by the Indian-English account of Krishna's adventures. Then I played with the kindergarten and first grade for an hour. The boys are fascinated with my watch and the girls with my hair. They all want to sing and dance for me. One girl, Sounderia, showed me how many different places she could pick up a magnetic rock from. For an hour. It was fun, funny and refreshing. I love little kids and really miss the time I spend with my 'New York kids.'
Dr. George gave another talk to the 7th-11th grades. He talked about the difficulties of living in India. He discussed the constant struggle to avoid bribery, government issues, issues with landlords and confusion and anger. He also talked about philanthropy as it exists in India vs in western countries. He also discussed what he hopes the children will choose, and said as always it is their choice and they are free to disagree. It was an important talk to have with the kids as they're getting older. These kids, despite the struggles they face at home, are pretty sheltered and used to people being good, kind and caring. The realities of the world in which they live are something they definitely need to be prepared for.
I'm trying to plan a trip to Hampi for the volunteers. A few of us are thinking of going, but any and all volunteers are invited. It should be really fun. We'll take the overnight train Thursday night and spend Friday and Saturday in Hampi, then we'll take the overnight train back and come back on Sunday. I guess it's absolutely beautiful there and it's a great place to visit.
I wore my new kurta, pigtails and a tiny silver bindi. All the children told me how cute I looked. It was funny. I looked about twelve.
Dinner was fun, I sat with the other table of fourth and fifth grade boys. We played Green Glass Door and Going on an Airplane, which are logical word games. It was great because they're old enough to solve them, young enough to be enthusiastic and they didn't know how to play. What a great group of kids.
My voice is getting better, finally. I'm getting really psyched for the upcoming weeks. The Billy Elliot is going to be amazing. Having Elizabeth around reminded me that though other people can be a good way to judge yourself, sometimes you just have be confident in your own actions. It was a nice reminder.
Tuesday
Here's something coming to you from the fourth grade creative writing class: "On Monday is the start of the week, so we need to put on our seat belts and zip our mouths and study well." I can tell the kids have at least learned SOMETHING from me: sit down and be quiet... in Miss Amanda terms.
This morning was sixth grade aerobics. We worked on a few ideas for the B.E. show. I taught four periods of math today. Who'd a thunk it?
I edited "Electricity" on Garage Band so it starts right where we're having the choir end, and does the dance break, cuts out a verse then does the ending. It sounds pretty good.
We taught the first grade musical theatre class. It's fun. We taught them group work theatre games. It was funny because it was a silent activity, but the teacher had a hard time not talking to them to tell them what to do. She had a hard time just letting them do it.
We taught the sixth grade the choreography for part of the "Electricity." They really struggled with the syncopated bit. We had choir, and started teaching them the opening of "Electricity." We picked soloists for the opening of it. It was fun. The kids really learned something.
I went through a lot of music with Arjun, to explain how we'd need it for the show. It was fun. I miss music.
We watched the Bourne Identity. I sat with eighth grade girls at dinner. They asked for photos of movie stars. I said maybe... internet is not that reliable.
Wednesday
We had oatmeal for breakfast, that was a smart buy. My stomach still isn't completely used to it here. We taught the second grade the ballet to 'Shine.' It was exciting because one boy had an injured toenail, and it almost fell off during class. I taped it on. We showed the third grade the documentary and discussed possible art projects. We had a spelling bee in fourth grade. That was fun. It was interesting to see how the kids handled the pressure and the disappointment. We got tap shoes out of storage, and picked out tap shoes for Beena and sorted out some smaller ones for a dance to teach the children. I really wanted to go to bed early, so I skipped out on dinner and just went to bed. It was good for me.
Thursday
We had the older girls for aerobics and started teaching "All That Jazz." It was perfect. The girls are so funny when they are learning, but they're pretty good. We started teaching Rajne the flute. We taught the fourth grade the ballet for Electricity. I spent some time in the afternoon messing with my computer camera. It was really fun! We showed the documentary to the eighth grade. We had choir rehearsal because we're having visitors on Sunday. It was a disaster. They wouldn't listen, they were completely unfocused and had no idea how to sing their parts without MMC wailing on the piano. I guess the disadvantage of having a world class pianist being your first choir teacher is that you don't learn how to play with a normal pianist. I was pretty frustrated. I sat with fifth grade boys and played more fun word games. In the lounge we chilled out and watched Wedding Crashers and Saturday Night Live.
Friday
We had the sixth grade for aerobics. We cleaned up the dance we taught them the other night. It took a while, but it's getting better. We had oatmeal again for breakfast. Mmm. I had a frustrating start to the day. I was in the middle of trying to get the kids to clean out their desks, when I was called into the fifth grade to listen to a lecture from a teacher justifying her teaching methods (which I never even considered, let alone questioned). So when I finally got back to class I only had about twenty minutes to teach the kids their math lesson. Good thing it was just review subtraction. I'm so excited. My voice is working. I even sang a little today. I had fun teaching Beena tap. However it wasn't so fun getting momentarily electrocuted by an exposed wire. (Don't worry I'm fine.) Actually it was kind of exciting. It didn't hurt that badly, but it sure made my heart race! Tapping actually helped me find alignment in my back which I haven't felt since college. So I'm feeling pretty good, despite the shocking events of the afternoon. It was cute when Beena put on her tap shoes for the first time and started tapping with me she said "Why are you so much louder than me?" I said "Because I practiced." I didn't mention the fact that I was wearing professional tap shoes and she was wearing kiddy shoes that couldn't make as much noise as mine if they were worn by Savion himself. Haha, motivation.
I ducked into the foundation house to ask one of the native language speakers to help us book our hotel for Hampi next weekend. We're all set. I can't begin to explain how helpful everyone is. It's really amazing. He also found out what train we need to take and told me where I can get the ticket. I'm pretty excited. I think the plan is something like this: leave Thursday after class for Bangalore, eat dinner in Bangalore, catch the overnight train to Hampi, arrive at the hotel early am, sight see Friday and Saturday, take the overnight train back to Bangalore, sight see there then head back to the good ole SB Sunday evening. Sounds pretty good to me. I can't wait. Hampi (Vijayanagar) is supposed to be absolutely stunning. We might even be able to be blessed by an elephant! I. Can't. Wait.
Choir was so much better. We switched to easier songs for the performance and worried about expression and pitch. It was a very successful endeavor. They actually stayed in tune after an entire verse of a cappella singing. That was the most impressive singing I've heard yet. Here's to hoping the kids remember and improve from there.
After choir I skipped out on dinner to correct math reviews for the fifth grade, and to suggest extra practice on their weak sections. There were two problems that everyone missed, so I wrote out how to solve them and left them for the teacher who will be in tomorrow. I also planned for the fourth grade's classes tomorrow, so whichever poor eleventh grader is stuck with them has clear directions and an easy assignment.
I came back about fifteen minutes after dinner and had the whole guest house to myself. It was unusual, and I figured I was missing something until someone reminded me that three volunteers left for Chennai for the weekend. I had a lovely time chatting with Jacques, Elizabeth and later Arjun. The power was on and off, but mostly off, so we chewed the fat. Overall it was really nice.
Feb 14
Saturday
Saturday morning was fun because I taught Beena tap. For those Ohio Northerners out there, this is her second lesson and she learned through the shuffle ball change lunge progression. Pretty impressive, huh?
What's really fun about teaching one child something (especially tap) is the crowd of gawkers it draws. So very rarely do any of the children get individual attention that anything individual causes huge amounts of curiosity. I arrived early and put on my tap shoes. Instantly I was surrounded by a gaggle of children saying "Show miss," and "Can you do the dance from Happy Feet?"
The best part of the day was celebrating Valentine's day with the fourth grade. I gave them each a conversation heart (which my mom sent) and some heart stickers (which my grandmother sent) and asked them to write Valentines to either my mom, Mike, Eric or Emily. I showed them a picture of each person and told them how they've helped me and/ or Shanti Bhavan. Then they made cards. They are soo funny. I plan to send them as soon as I figure out postage.
I went to Hosur on Saturday. It was fun because Elizabeth hadn't been out of Shanti Bhavan in the daylight, so sitting next to her made the drive exciting. No upchuck reflex this time. We had fun in Hosur. We bought fruit and went to the internet cafe. I got to chat with Eric, which I was really happy about. Especially since my voice has been gone so I've been hoarse. Then Elizabeth and I got our eyebrows done. 15 rupees each to get them done. Seriously... I can get my eyebrows threaded 24 times in India and still spend less than getting it done once in New York. To top it off, in New York it hurts, my eyes water and it takes twice as long. We looked for a place to make photocopies, but couldn't find one. We each bought a kurta. It's like a long t-shirt dress with slits to the top of your thigh. Sort of. Any way, it's informal Indian wear, and it's fun to dress like the kids and staff.
Since our group split up at the beginning to accomplish our various tasks, we planned to meet at Janani, our favorite restaurant. Elizabeth, Molly and I hopped in an auto-rickshaw and headed over. We sat down and ordered. About fifteen minutes later Jacques and Veena arrived. They sat down and ordered as well. Their food came first. Even though they ordered the same things as us. Go figure. Typical India, we saw two cockroaches at least as big as any I ever saw in Texas. Both were close enough to us to creep several of us out. It was frustrating trying to sort out the bill. In the end most of us were ready just to pay the whole thing to stop the confusion. Seriously, the whole bill was 900 RS, which is something like $15. The amount we were trying to figure out was less than $2. Perspective sometimes gets lost in the little things.
After Janani we stopped at the grocery store, where Elizabeth and I got oatmeal (!), juice, cookies, henna and coconut oil. After stopping on the way home in Bagalore (our driver was once again the same one who took us to Mysore, however this time he didn't pick up his kid, as there were eight of us) to buy phone cards, we headed back to good ole Shanti Bhavan. Going away from Shanti Bhavan definitely makes you appreciate it when you come back.
While Elizabeth caught up with her family and friends on the phone in the hall, I mixed the henna with water and watch some kind of Indian version of American Idol. It was called something like Personal Superstar. It was funny to watch. We watched French Kiss, because it was Valentines Day, and we had watched a scary movie for Friday the Thirteenth the day before. Elizabeth gave me a manicure. It was fun. Then we dyed our hair with the henna. It was pretty funny because the henna looked like poop both on the plate where we mixed it and in our hair. My hair definitely looks different. I like it though. I might do it again. Although washing it out wasn't all that fun. I've been using coconut oil to help keep the color nice.
I developed a new addiction: Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Even though I wouldn't watch it at home, here I'm going nuts over it. Saturday night I stayed up until God-knows-when with Arjun watching it. It was ridiculous.
Sunday
I slept in. I ate so much fruit. Pineapple, pomegranate, chinese cherry, fig, gooseberry and papaya. Sometimes this place is like the garden of eden. Elizabeth and I played with the second and third grade girls in their dorm and then visited the first grade. It was fun. The sixth grade took me around Shanti Bhavan. It was fun, seeing what they pointed out and what was important to them. Gooseberries, the place where the laundry women put all the things they find in pockets, the trampoline, Dr. George's father's ashes.
I spent a lot of time reading Herzog. It was lovely. Dr. George wanted the 11th grade to watch Chicago, so we had them over to the volunteer lounge. It was fun. Molly, Steve, Elizabeth, Dr. George, Ms. Beena, Ms. Veena and I watched it with them. Dr. George nominated me to give a historical setting. Joy. The best part of watching it with them was watching their reactions. The costumes and dance moves never seemed so racy. It was really interesting. I was actually constantly surprised how skinny the women were. I guess after looking at Indian people who idolize people who look healthy (and pale), the women in the movies looked shockingly thin. It's weird to think a month ago that was completely normal to me. Every jutting bone made me gasp. I couldn't et over it. I went around our 400 m track 12 times with Jacques, jogging half and walking half. So that was good. When we got back Amiran White was outside the volunteer house. She's a photo journalist who's been to Shanti Bhavan twice before. The photos I've seen are absolutely stunning. She trailed all of us around and took our pictures. It was fun.
I watched back to the future with the sixth grade before going to dinner. That was funny, because although they appreciated the physical comedy, the exaggerated verbal jokes flew right over their heads. Dinner was fun, I sat with the fifth and fourth grade boys and we talked all about movies. That was funny. On my way out of the dining hall I ended up having a lovely thirty minute discussion of classroom goals and techniques with Mr. Daniel and his wife Ms. Irene. Their daughter, Abhilasha, who's in the fourth grade, was also there. After that Amiran interviewed me. That was interesting. We watched Billy Madison. I couldn't believe how much that made me miss my younger brother, Steven. Telehoohoo, sabadoo! We played Phase 10 and it took forever. I don't remember it being so interminable. I was stuck on the same phase for 7 rounds. Bah. Nevertheless I came in second. I stayed up late to read. That was good. It's nice to find a few moments by myself.
Monday
I spent last week trying to reflect on the idea that how people perceive you is 70% How you look 20% How you say it and 10% What you say. That really applies to learning. If I jump around during class and make a manic face the kids retain it better than if I just tell them the exact same thing in the exact same voice.
We had aerobics for the older girls. We spent most of the class working on form. The girls don't point their toes, hold their centers or any of those other things we ought to do if we want to look nice and feel good.
It was the first day of my new schedule:
6:30-7:30 AM M-F Aerobics
7:30-8:30 AM M-S Breakfast, Flute (some days)
8:30-9:15 AM M-F 4th Grade Math
9:15-10:00 AM MTR 4th Grade Science
10:00-10:45 AM M-F 5th Grade Math
10:45-11:05 AM M-S Snack
11:05-11:20 AM M-S Assembly
11:20-12:05 T-R 5th Grade Math/ Music Theatre/ 2nd G Learning Activity
12:05-12:50 PM M-F Music Theatre
12:50-1:20 PM M-S Lunch
1:20-2:05 PM M-W 4th Grade Math
F 4th Grade Spelling
2:05-2:50 PM MWF 4th G Grammar/ 4th G Learning Activity/ 5th G Math
2:50-3:35 PM TR 4th Grade Story Time
7:00-7:30 PM T Choir
8:00-8:45 PM TR Music Theatre
Plus whatever else I have to do. It's certainly not boring.
Basically Elizabeth is taking over third, fourth and fifth grade English classes and I'm taking over fifth grade math. That creates relief on the permanent staff and lets them work on any of the other eight million things there are to do.
Comparatively to fourth grade, fifth grade is a dream. They're quiet, well behaved, respectful and ready to learn. It's great. I come in, show them how to do the problems, assign some, then put extra practice on the board. Then I read my book until someone has a question. It's like having a nap compared to the back flips I have to turn for the fourth grade. I told them if they work hard and sit how they should, I'll make the last few minutes fun.
In musical theatre class we had the kindergarten. We're going to have them perform rubber ducky as a warm up for the Billy Elliot show. It's going to be amazingly cute. The plan is to dress them like ducks too. We had a couple duck related theatre games and then learned the first verse. So cute and fun.
After class I fell asleep reading. I slept for over an hour and missed snack. I went to the prayer hut to read a couple chapters of the the stories of Krishna. I though perhaps reading the religious material of Hinduism might give me the insight I'm lacking on their religion. No such luck. Whatever I'm missing from conversation is not being filled in by the Indian-English account of Krishna's adventures. Then I played with the kindergarten and first grade for an hour. The boys are fascinated with my watch and the girls with my hair. They all want to sing and dance for me. One girl, Sounderia, showed me how many different places she could pick up a magnetic rock from. For an hour. It was fun, funny and refreshing. I love little kids and really miss the time I spend with my 'New York kids.'
Dr. George gave another talk to the 7th-11th grades. He talked about the difficulties of living in India. He discussed the constant struggle to avoid bribery, government issues, issues with landlords and confusion and anger. He also talked about philanthropy as it exists in India vs in western countries. He also discussed what he hopes the children will choose, and said as always it is their choice and they are free to disagree. It was an important talk to have with the kids as they're getting older. These kids, despite the struggles they face at home, are pretty sheltered and used to people being good, kind and caring. The realities of the world in which they live are something they definitely need to be prepared for.
I'm trying to plan a trip to Hampi for the volunteers. A few of us are thinking of going, but any and all volunteers are invited. It should be really fun. We'll take the overnight train Thursday night and spend Friday and Saturday in Hampi, then we'll take the overnight train back and come back on Sunday. I guess it's absolutely beautiful there and it's a great place to visit.
I wore my new kurta, pigtails and a tiny silver bindi. All the children told me how cute I looked. It was funny. I looked about twelve.
Dinner was fun, I sat with the other table of fourth and fifth grade boys. We played Green Glass Door and Going on an Airplane, which are logical word games. It was great because they're old enough to solve them, young enough to be enthusiastic and they didn't know how to play. What a great group of kids.
My voice is getting better, finally. I'm getting really psyched for the upcoming weeks. The Billy Elliot is going to be amazing. Having Elizabeth around reminded me that though other people can be a good way to judge yourself, sometimes you just have be confident in your own actions. It was a nice reminder.
Tuesday
Here's something coming to you from the fourth grade creative writing class: "On Monday is the start of the week, so we need to put on our seat belts and zip our mouths and study well." I can tell the kids have at least learned SOMETHING from me: sit down and be quiet... in Miss Amanda terms.
This morning was sixth grade aerobics. We worked on a few ideas for the B.E. show. I taught four periods of math today. Who'd a thunk it?
I edited "Electricity" on Garage Band so it starts right where we're having the choir end, and does the dance break, cuts out a verse then does the ending. It sounds pretty good.
We taught the first grade musical theatre class. It's fun. We taught them group work theatre games. It was funny because it was a silent activity, but the teacher had a hard time not talking to them to tell them what to do. She had a hard time just letting them do it.
We taught the sixth grade the choreography for part of the "Electricity." They really struggled with the syncopated bit. We had choir, and started teaching them the opening of "Electricity." We picked soloists for the opening of it. It was fun. The kids really learned something.
I went through a lot of music with Arjun, to explain how we'd need it for the show. It was fun. I miss music.
We watched the Bourne Identity. I sat with eighth grade girls at dinner. They asked for photos of movie stars. I said maybe... internet is not that reliable.
Wednesday
We had oatmeal for breakfast, that was a smart buy. My stomach still isn't completely used to it here. We taught the second grade the ballet to 'Shine.' It was exciting because one boy had an injured toenail, and it almost fell off during class. I taped it on. We showed the third grade the documentary and discussed possible art projects. We had a spelling bee in fourth grade. That was fun. It was interesting to see how the kids handled the pressure and the disappointment. We got tap shoes out of storage, and picked out tap shoes for Beena and sorted out some smaller ones for a dance to teach the children. I really wanted to go to bed early, so I skipped out on dinner and just went to bed. It was good for me.
Thursday
We had the older girls for aerobics and started teaching "All That Jazz." It was perfect. The girls are so funny when they are learning, but they're pretty good. We started teaching Rajne the flute. We taught the fourth grade the ballet for Electricity. I spent some time in the afternoon messing with my computer camera. It was really fun! We showed the documentary to the eighth grade. We had choir rehearsal because we're having visitors on Sunday. It was a disaster. They wouldn't listen, they were completely unfocused and had no idea how to sing their parts without MMC wailing on the piano. I guess the disadvantage of having a world class pianist being your first choir teacher is that you don't learn how to play with a normal pianist. I was pretty frustrated. I sat with fifth grade boys and played more fun word games. In the lounge we chilled out and watched Wedding Crashers and Saturday Night Live.
Friday
We had the sixth grade for aerobics. We cleaned up the dance we taught them the other night. It took a while, but it's getting better. We had oatmeal again for breakfast. Mmm. I had a frustrating start to the day. I was in the middle of trying to get the kids to clean out their desks, when I was called into the fifth grade to listen to a lecture from a teacher justifying her teaching methods (which I never even considered, let alone questioned). So when I finally got back to class I only had about twenty minutes to teach the kids their math lesson. Good thing it was just review subtraction. I'm so excited. My voice is working. I even sang a little today. I had fun teaching Beena tap. However it wasn't so fun getting momentarily electrocuted by an exposed wire. (Don't worry I'm fine.) Actually it was kind of exciting. It didn't hurt that badly, but it sure made my heart race! Tapping actually helped me find alignment in my back which I haven't felt since college. So I'm feeling pretty good, despite the shocking events of the afternoon. It was cute when Beena put on her tap shoes for the first time and started tapping with me she said "Why are you so much louder than me?" I said "Because I practiced." I didn't mention the fact that I was wearing professional tap shoes and she was wearing kiddy shoes that couldn't make as much noise as mine if they were worn by Savion himself. Haha, motivation.
I ducked into the foundation house to ask one of the native language speakers to help us book our hotel for Hampi next weekend. We're all set. I can't begin to explain how helpful everyone is. It's really amazing. He also found out what train we need to take and told me where I can get the ticket. I'm pretty excited. I think the plan is something like this: leave Thursday after class for Bangalore, eat dinner in Bangalore, catch the overnight train to Hampi, arrive at the hotel early am, sight see Friday and Saturday, take the overnight train back to Bangalore, sight see there then head back to the good ole SB Sunday evening. Sounds pretty good to me. I can't wait. Hampi (Vijayanagar) is supposed to be absolutely stunning. We might even be able to be blessed by an elephant! I. Can't. Wait.
Choir was so much better. We switched to easier songs for the performance and worried about expression and pitch. It was a very successful endeavor. They actually stayed in tune after an entire verse of a cappella singing. That was the most impressive singing I've heard yet. Here's to hoping the kids remember and improve from there.
After choir I skipped out on dinner to correct math reviews for the fifth grade, and to suggest extra practice on their weak sections. There were two problems that everyone missed, so I wrote out how to solve them and left them for the teacher who will be in tomorrow. I also planned for the fourth grade's classes tomorrow, so whichever poor eleventh grader is stuck with them has clear directions and an easy assignment.
I came back about fifteen minutes after dinner and had the whole guest house to myself. It was unusual, and I figured I was missing something until someone reminded me that three volunteers left for Chennai for the weekend. I had a lovely time chatting with Jacques, Elizabeth and later Arjun. The power was on and off, but mostly off, so we chewed the fat. Overall it was really nice.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
STILL NO VOICE and Elizabeth!
Sunday
The morning started with ecstatic Amanda. Pancakes, hardboiled egg AND BANANAS! Spoiled at breakfast. Man I was soooo happy. Then we got in the car to go to Hosur. I started feeling sick on the way there, but didn't want to whine. I made it all the way to Hosur, then as we were pulling into the city really very close to where we'd be stopping I started ralphing. Out the window. I was apparently so quiet that no one else in the car knew I was sick until about the fifth time. Mmm. So I bought some gum and went to get on the internet. It offered good news! My subletter moved in and payed his rent! Huzzah! The past few sleepless nights proved to be for nothing. I was so happy I didn't even care that I threw up the first fruit I'd eaten since I arrived in India.
Two of the fourth graders were released from the sick dorm, bringing our number back up to fourteen. Huzzah.
Power was out all evening. We listened to Steve playing the guitar. We sang along to a few, and sang a round. It was fun. We stayed up late and chatted in Molly's room. Everyone said goodbye to Sheryl. The two of us stayed up until she had to leave, then I went to bed. I was sad because she's been so fun and so much help. Not to mention such an inspiration to the kids.
Monday
Getting up after staying up until two was really hard. I didn't really have any desire to do aerobics four and a half hours later. Nonetheless I did it. Dr. George called us to a talk about Obama's stimulus plan. It was very interesting. Dr. George carefully explained the situation the economy is in and how it got there. Then he explained all of the parts of the plan. Then he discussed what he thought of the plan. Basically he thinks it might work, but it's not likely to have the effect it needs to. He thinks if we're going to invest in transportation it should be in mass transportation, not roads. That was we become more eco-friendly. He says of course when you throw a huge amount of money at something, something will happen. He's worried about the massive amounts of money many countries, including the US, are printing. Toward the end of the assembly a visitor from Australia came to interview Dr. George. She's an ex-journalist working on a fellowship in social entrepreneurs.
I spent a huge amount of time writing a 100 question math test. It took like forever. We watched the Matrix before bed. It was seriously like watching my freshman year of high school replay itself. Yeah. I seriously could hear Mike and James saying like every line. Really amusing. I had trouble falling asleep. I think it's because Sheryl wasn't there already asleep, so I didn't HAVE to be quiet... so I couldn't be. Since I couldn't sleep, I read some of my book, Herzog. It's really great so far. I recommend it.
Tuesday
I taught rounds to the first grade using the song A Ram Sam Sam. I ate leftover chicken and had a diet coke for lunch. It was delightful. Three rows of children got candy for good behavior today. That was awesome. The kids started the math test. I think I'm going to use it as a way to teach test taking skills. Lauren and I had a fun reminiscence of Tales of the Crystals and "Into the Land of Unicorns." I started reading it to the fourth graders today after getting frustrated by their reading comprehension and dictation skills. Two days a week instead of video time I'm reading them a story. They're really into it. They weren't too happy about it at first, but once I started reading they were totally engrossed. It's going to be great for vocabulary.
At five, Lauren arranged for there to be basketball games. We watched the sixth and seventh grades, then the older boys, followed by the older girls. Each match was fifteen minutes long. It was uber fun. I sat with the kids and played games with them. Joe ran up and down the assembled crowd, starting the wave and leading cheers. It was so fun. There were hundreds of dead and dying bees in the dining hall. Three or four times during dinner I removed bees from students with my fork. Once an aunty came and swatted a bee off of me. Ugh I had the heebie jeebies for the rest of dinner.
All the volunteers came to my musical theatre class's viewing of Hairspray. We watched the Princess Bride in the lounge. I talked to my mom on the phone. That was nice.
Wednesday
Elizabeth arrived at 4:30 in the morning. I did Tae Bo with the older boys during aerobics. I'm really stressing push ups and strength training with them. They are so thin. For creative writing today our topic was realistic fiction, and Harish wrote the most amazing story: (which I meant to type up and forgot)
The fourth grade took the second part of their math test. I actually had to give them a third period to finish. Still two or three didn't finish. During assembly we said goodbye to Lauren. Since power was out during video period, I read Into the Land of Unicorns to the kids. We're already to chapter seven. That book is going to be finished in no time. The kids love it. Lauren left at 4pm. We couldn't find the key to our room after snack so we had to ask someone to unlock it. We found it later but it was frustrating there for a minute. I spent the afternoon journaling and relaxing. It was nice.
After discussing Billy Elliot options for our show, Elizabeth and I headed to dinner. Regular vegetable soup and tuna sandwiches. Woah. We're watching Jurassic Park. I forgot how amazing this movie is. Soooo good.
Thursday
Elizabeth and I had the older girls for aerobics this morning. It was fun. We played statue. Morning classes were ok. The kids are getting used to the rules so it takes a lot less to calm them down. Since they didn't do well on their math test I gave a class on test taking skills and then asked them questions from the test. They did better when I just asked them. I am going to have them retake the test next week. I really want to improve their ability to take tests. Basically their whole career is determined by their scores on tests in the tenth and twelfth grades. In addition I really want to work on their reading comprehension. I started by adding reading to their curriculum and this week, I'm going to ask them to write book reports on their library books. That way they can get some practice.
We had a great time with the fourth grade in musical theatre class. They're really musically talented as a bunch. I want to encourage a couple of them to sing solos in our upcoming Billy Elliot show. We sang rounds using A Ram Sam Sam and Row Row Row Your Boat. We also did some repeat after me songs. I think I started a Baby Shark craze.
Went to PT and played octopus and Red Light Green Light with the second grade. I had lots of fun. It sort of deteriorated into us running after each other and then hugging someone. Elizabeth and I planned the fourth grade curriculum together, since Mrs. Law told Miss Beena that I was excelling at teaching math and asked me to teach the fifth grade math classes as well. We're going to co-teach some stuff for the fourth grade. In any case, I'm excited to work with some other kids more closely too. I walked a couple miles with Jacques and did my laundry before dinner.
I'm kind of tired of rice. Not gonna lie. All the volunteers are singing parodies of "All That Jazz" with "All That Rice." Yeah. It's a lot of rice. In any case, I think I'm going to have to make a plan about when I'm eating rice. There's just too much in my diet it's making me feel icky. After dinner we watched Superbad. It's so funny. Why didn't I see this before? About 3/4 of the way through the power went out and we thought it was going to be gone for the night. We were so happy when it came back on.
Friday (the thirteenth)
We had the younger kids for aerobics. I was planning a stretch class because both Elizabeth and I needed one. Can I just take minute to say how AMAZING Elizabeth is? I'm so glad she is here. It was fun. I'm having them do a series of strengthening exercises every morning followed by dance, theater games and mayhem. It's a good way to start the day. I think my malaria pills give me an upset stomach. Luckily I only take them once a week. We finished watching Hairspray with the fifth grade. It was fun discussing cultural parallels with them. Elizabeth and I planned our Billy Eliot show. Details to follow. We visited the 1st grade and KG. They are so freaking cute. I started a weight lifting program. I ate with the fourth grade, who's ranks are rapidly being depleted by chicken pox. So many of them are out. I found a playable flute and some amazing puppets. I'm still working on getting some tap shoes. Steve (guitar), Joe (harmonica), Elizabeth (voice) and I (flute) sat outside playing together. It was really fun. We were joking about getting a jug and spoons. We watched the Sixth Sense and it made me cry. Some of us stayed up and watched It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I can't believe I've never seen it before. It's like live action family guy or something. Watching it makes me miss college and watching things with Greg, Mike, Kyle and Emily.
Saturday (Valentine's Day)
Today is my one month India anniversary! Internet is spotty- forty five minutes for a photo to upload. We're heading to Hampi in a few weeks. I think we'll also being doing a local village tour some time soon.
The RSS, a radical political party, threatened couples who celebrate Valentines day. Some journalist recommended sending some official pink panties for Valentines Day in acknowledgement. It's a huge scandal. The kids love it.
I had the fourth grade make some valentines today. I will send them as soon as I figure out how. I have a picture of Genevieve on my computer, they saw it and FREAKED OUT! They miss you, if you're reading this. The sixth grade recited some love poetry at assembly it was a big hit.
Love and miss you all!
The morning started with ecstatic Amanda. Pancakes, hardboiled egg AND BANANAS! Spoiled at breakfast. Man I was soooo happy. Then we got in the car to go to Hosur. I started feeling sick on the way there, but didn't want to whine. I made it all the way to Hosur, then as we were pulling into the city really very close to where we'd be stopping I started ralphing. Out the window. I was apparently so quiet that no one else in the car knew I was sick until about the fifth time. Mmm. So I bought some gum and went to get on the internet. It offered good news! My subletter moved in and payed his rent! Huzzah! The past few sleepless nights proved to be for nothing. I was so happy I didn't even care that I threw up the first fruit I'd eaten since I arrived in India.
Two of the fourth graders were released from the sick dorm, bringing our number back up to fourteen. Huzzah.
Power was out all evening. We listened to Steve playing the guitar. We sang along to a few, and sang a round. It was fun. We stayed up late and chatted in Molly's room. Everyone said goodbye to Sheryl. The two of us stayed up until she had to leave, then I went to bed. I was sad because she's been so fun and so much help. Not to mention such an inspiration to the kids.
Monday
Getting up after staying up until two was really hard. I didn't really have any desire to do aerobics four and a half hours later. Nonetheless I did it. Dr. George called us to a talk about Obama's stimulus plan. It was very interesting. Dr. George carefully explained the situation the economy is in and how it got there. Then he explained all of the parts of the plan. Then he discussed what he thought of the plan. Basically he thinks it might work, but it's not likely to have the effect it needs to. He thinks if we're going to invest in transportation it should be in mass transportation, not roads. That was we become more eco-friendly. He says of course when you throw a huge amount of money at something, something will happen. He's worried about the massive amounts of money many countries, including the US, are printing. Toward the end of the assembly a visitor from Australia came to interview Dr. George. She's an ex-journalist working on a fellowship in social entrepreneurs.
I spent a huge amount of time writing a 100 question math test. It took like forever. We watched the Matrix before bed. It was seriously like watching my freshman year of high school replay itself. Yeah. I seriously could hear Mike and James saying like every line. Really amusing. I had trouble falling asleep. I think it's because Sheryl wasn't there already asleep, so I didn't HAVE to be quiet... so I couldn't be. Since I couldn't sleep, I read some of my book, Herzog. It's really great so far. I recommend it.
Tuesday
I taught rounds to the first grade using the song A Ram Sam Sam. I ate leftover chicken and had a diet coke for lunch. It was delightful. Three rows of children got candy for good behavior today. That was awesome. The kids started the math test. I think I'm going to use it as a way to teach test taking skills. Lauren and I had a fun reminiscence of Tales of the Crystals and "Into the Land of Unicorns." I started reading it to the fourth graders today after getting frustrated by their reading comprehension and dictation skills. Two days a week instead of video time I'm reading them a story. They're really into it. They weren't too happy about it at first, but once I started reading they were totally engrossed. It's going to be great for vocabulary.
At five, Lauren arranged for there to be basketball games. We watched the sixth and seventh grades, then the older boys, followed by the older girls. Each match was fifteen minutes long. It was uber fun. I sat with the kids and played games with them. Joe ran up and down the assembled crowd, starting the wave and leading cheers. It was so fun. There were hundreds of dead and dying bees in the dining hall. Three or four times during dinner I removed bees from students with my fork. Once an aunty came and swatted a bee off of me. Ugh I had the heebie jeebies for the rest of dinner.
All the volunteers came to my musical theatre class's viewing of Hairspray. We watched the Princess Bride in the lounge. I talked to my mom on the phone. That was nice.
Wednesday
Elizabeth arrived at 4:30 in the morning. I did Tae Bo with the older boys during aerobics. I'm really stressing push ups and strength training with them. They are so thin. For creative writing today our topic was realistic fiction, and Harish wrote the most amazing story: (which I meant to type up and forgot)
The fourth grade took the second part of their math test. I actually had to give them a third period to finish. Still two or three didn't finish. During assembly we said goodbye to Lauren. Since power was out during video period, I read Into the Land of Unicorns to the kids. We're already to chapter seven. That book is going to be finished in no time. The kids love it. Lauren left at 4pm. We couldn't find the key to our room after snack so we had to ask someone to unlock it. We found it later but it was frustrating there for a minute. I spent the afternoon journaling and relaxing. It was nice.
After discussing Billy Elliot options for our show, Elizabeth and I headed to dinner. Regular vegetable soup and tuna sandwiches. Woah. We're watching Jurassic Park. I forgot how amazing this movie is. Soooo good.
Thursday
Elizabeth and I had the older girls for aerobics this morning. It was fun. We played statue. Morning classes were ok. The kids are getting used to the rules so it takes a lot less to calm them down. Since they didn't do well on their math test I gave a class on test taking skills and then asked them questions from the test. They did better when I just asked them. I am going to have them retake the test next week. I really want to improve their ability to take tests. Basically their whole career is determined by their scores on tests in the tenth and twelfth grades. In addition I really want to work on their reading comprehension. I started by adding reading to their curriculum and this week, I'm going to ask them to write book reports on their library books. That way they can get some practice.
We had a great time with the fourth grade in musical theatre class. They're really musically talented as a bunch. I want to encourage a couple of them to sing solos in our upcoming Billy Elliot show. We sang rounds using A Ram Sam Sam and Row Row Row Your Boat. We also did some repeat after me songs. I think I started a Baby Shark craze.
Went to PT and played octopus and Red Light Green Light with the second grade. I had lots of fun. It sort of deteriorated into us running after each other and then hugging someone. Elizabeth and I planned the fourth grade curriculum together, since Mrs. Law told Miss Beena that I was excelling at teaching math and asked me to teach the fifth grade math classes as well. We're going to co-teach some stuff for the fourth grade. In any case, I'm excited to work with some other kids more closely too. I walked a couple miles with Jacques and did my laundry before dinner.
I'm kind of tired of rice. Not gonna lie. All the volunteers are singing parodies of "All That Jazz" with "All That Rice." Yeah. It's a lot of rice. In any case, I think I'm going to have to make a plan about when I'm eating rice. There's just too much in my diet it's making me feel icky. After dinner we watched Superbad. It's so funny. Why didn't I see this before? About 3/4 of the way through the power went out and we thought it was going to be gone for the night. We were so happy when it came back on.
Friday (the thirteenth)
We had the younger kids for aerobics. I was planning a stretch class because both Elizabeth and I needed one. Can I just take minute to say how AMAZING Elizabeth is? I'm so glad she is here. It was fun. I'm having them do a series of strengthening exercises every morning followed by dance, theater games and mayhem. It's a good way to start the day. I think my malaria pills give me an upset stomach. Luckily I only take them once a week. We finished watching Hairspray with the fifth grade. It was fun discussing cultural parallels with them. Elizabeth and I planned our Billy Eliot show. Details to follow. We visited the 1st grade and KG. They are so freaking cute. I started a weight lifting program. I ate with the fourth grade, who's ranks are rapidly being depleted by chicken pox. So many of them are out. I found a playable flute and some amazing puppets. I'm still working on getting some tap shoes. Steve (guitar), Joe (harmonica), Elizabeth (voice) and I (flute) sat outside playing together. It was really fun. We were joking about getting a jug and spoons. We watched the Sixth Sense and it made me cry. Some of us stayed up and watched It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. I can't believe I've never seen it before. It's like live action family guy or something. Watching it makes me miss college and watching things with Greg, Mike, Kyle and Emily.
Saturday (Valentine's Day)
Today is my one month India anniversary! Internet is spotty- forty five minutes for a photo to upload. We're heading to Hampi in a few weeks. I think we'll also being doing a local village tour some time soon.
The RSS, a radical political party, threatened couples who celebrate Valentines day. Some journalist recommended sending some official pink panties for Valentines Day in acknowledgement. It's a huge scandal. The kids love it.
I had the fourth grade make some valentines today. I will send them as soon as I figure out how. I have a picture of Genevieve on my computer, they saw it and FREAKED OUT! They miss you, if you're reading this. The sixth grade recited some love poetry at assembly it was a big hit.
Love and miss you all!
Saturday, February 7, 2009
MMC, No Voice and Tamil Movie Dancing
Jan 31
Saturday
Today was a good day. I slept in until 7:30. I needed it because I didn't manage to fall asleep until about 2:30. Still, much better than I average in NYC. I got up and bit the bullet for a cold shower (our heated water is solar powered). I had a hard boiled egg for breakfast and brought some tea and water down to the volunteer quarters for some quiet time. I'm tired today. I think the combination of a cold and many hours of work is catching me today. Or maybe it's because I went to bed late. In any case, I mostly rested and caught up my blog until around 9:45, when I went in search of details for the assembly. We got speakers set up and everything ready. The kids looked so cute in their matching clothes.
The assembly was a good one: Mary Mitchell gave a talk, Anetha got her going away talk and a card and it was so sweet, Mrs. Law announced some potential donors were coming in the afternoon and asked the children to be in the school building. Then it was our turn. All the kids moved so there was room to dance and we started. Joe announced what was coming. First the second graders danced to I Got You (I Feel Good) by James Brown, they were awesome. Next was the older kids. They didn't try... and it wasn't great. They did their dance to Stronger by Kanye West. Then was fourth and fifth graders doing We Go Together. They were so cute. Then the third grade danced to ABC by the Jackson 5. They did a lot of rolling on the ground. Next was kindergarten and first to Under the Sea from Disney's The Little Mermaid. Finally the sixth and eighth graders danced to You Can't Stop the Beat. They were AWESOME. Well, the sixth grade was awesome. They looked great. We got some videos of it and I'll get them digitized and on the internet as soon as possible.
After that we went to Hosur. It was a good trip. Jayashree, Nimila, Molly, Joe, Arjun and I first went to lunch. Then Molly, Jayashree and I bought some Saris. The actual sari shopping was a lot of fun. You look at tons of fabric and pick what you like. But buying the tops was not so much fun. Indian women are not built the same as American women. You buy the top by bra band size. In theory. But in practice for Molly and I we had to buy them by arm size. They didn't believe I should have a 32 when I said it, so they measured me. I'm still a 28/33. I had to buy a 36 to be able to get my arms in the sleeves. I felt like the jolly green giant. I mean. It was a strange feeling. Maybe having muscles is a bad thing here. In any case, I'll definitely have to take in the sides of my shirt. :-)
Then we used the internet. I tried and tried to upload pictures, but had no such luck. We went to the grocery store (I bought high fiber cookies to eat with my egg at breakfast). Then we stopped at the atm, there was a line about 20 people long! I got some phone cards, so I will be calling again probably even before I post this. We finally got home in time for dinner and now I'm just relaxing before I grade some papers. I think tomorrow is going to be a lazy day. I plan to spend most of my day lazing around and doing nothing. I want to feel strong and refreshed on Monday.
We're watching the Rainmaker and I'm grading the creative writing papers from Friday. The assignment was to write a story personifying animals. I just read Boovitha's and I wanted to share it because it's so sweet. Mauricio, this is for you:
Once upon a time there was a polar bear. His name was Morrisio. Morrisio live's on the North Pole. After some days spring came up. He was very happy that spring came up.
One day he was walking in his garden and he talked to himself and said "I can make a shcool for the children. Yes I got it! Yes I got it! he yelled he ran back to his house. He called "mom dad yes I'm coming" said mummy. "Yes what is it my son? can I build a shcool "oh! of course "said mummy. Nice gusse. So after a week he called his freind the fish, grizzly bear, snake, tiger, monkey and the birds They all work together and build the shool.
The next day came he went in a jeep to the villages and asked to everybody "do you want your child to come to my school. yes, yes, yes" said their mom and dad. Morrisio was very happy and had lot of fun with the CHILDREN!!!
Sunday
I slept in until ten! It was great. Then I graded my math tests and finished the creative writing. I watched History of the World Part 1. I had lunch with Jayashree, who kindly supplied me with beef and some kind of vegetable roti. Then I made a lesson plan for aerobics so the kids would make measurable improvements and I wouldn't have to make decisions at 6:30 in the morning. I really focused on building their core strength and coordination. I went to watch MMC have choir with the kids. It was really good to see how she works with them. It gave me lots of ideas. She really has fun with them as a first priority, and it makes sense. Then I wrote the curriculum for musical theatre class for K-8 for two months. Everyone will be doing theatre games. K-4 will be doing them with the goal of team building. 5-6 will be working towards puppeteering skills and 7-8 will be working towards self confidence and presentation skills. I'm pretty excited about it. Dinner was funny because the power went out and I was sitting with the first graders. Before the aunties came around with candles they started asking what I was afraid of. "Miss, miss, are you afraid of a cobra?" We talked about if I'd seen or eaten various animals. It was funny to see how weirded out they were. "Miss, did you eat a big lobster?!!" I was fascinated by the ingenuity of the aunties. They slightly melted the bottom of the tapers to stick them upright on the tables. Smart ladies. After dinner we got a lot of candy (I love it when new volunteers come!) and we watched Slumdog Millionaire. It was great. I really enjoyed it! I also made a starburst wrapper chain and plan to give it to someone later.
Monday
This morning was good. Aerobics went MUCH better today. It was the older girls and I didn't hear one "Miss it's paining" or "aii" or "awww." They did what we asked of them to the best of their abilities. It was nice. Really nice. So I was pumped up at breakfast and had fun teaching Reading (prefixes and comparisons). Science was good because we talked about what percentage would have been what grade and what they should be aiming for. I could tell the message got through when I handed back the math tests. The kids who didn't do well slunk down in their desks. The one child who got an "A" I gave a piece of candy. He was thrilled. I think they have a better idea of how hard they need to work in comparison with how hard they have worked. The kids finished their drawings of the digestive system and we played a math review game. I had a brain fart and asked for the perimeter when I wanted the area and kept sending kids back to their seats because no one was labeling the units as squared. Doh. I have a points system by row so I gave all the rows a point because I made the mistake. It was pretty funny. At assembly Dr. George made a speech thanking MMC for her continued help and support and made it clear that Shanti Bhavan couldn't have made it without her. Sheryl and I are discussing when we're wearing our new Indian clothes and she said that apparently the kids assumed we were sisters because we wore matching salwar kamiz. It's even more amusing if you know how little we look like each other and the difference in our ages. :) Of course this is coming from kids who mix up Christian Bale and the guy who becomes Two Face in Dark Knight. You know, the one from Thank You for Smoking? I can't remember his name.
The afternoon has been pretty decent. After lunch the kids did independent math review while I gave one girl her make up math test. Then we had grammar review, which I've been doing from their essays, so they can see the mistakes are theirs. Then I follow up with supporting material from a book. They really get a kick out of fixing the sentences. They laugh and laugh while I write them up on the board and then they raise their hands trying to fix the sentence. I think it's good. I'm still learning as a teacher, like I need to be more consistently neutral in my questions. I'll get there. We have a little break and it'll be snack and choir time. I am keeping all the kids who didn't do well on their math tests for individual review tonight. They're doing 30 minutes of work each. I'm just going to start them and let them go. I have to be at a meeting at 6:15 for the seventh grade with Dr. George tonight.
The review was successful. Dr. George's meeting was to reprimand the older kids for not giving their full effort and to explain the reasons for the economic crisis. The first part made me really uncomfortable and the second part made me depressed. Dinner was fun though. I ate with the 10th grade girls and I learned a lot about how they think. It was fun. We watched Waiting for Guffman. Which I love. Well actually I randomly fell asleep really early. So everyone else watched the movie.
Tuesday
Aerobics this morning was basically just a free for all. We just played and had fun. We made up nick names for the kids and they made them up for us. I got named after the tap dancing guy from Happy Feet. "Mumbler." The kid thought it was funny because "you don't mumble much miss." I had a good time teaching the kids today. Sheryl was out and I got a taste of what it would be like to teach them alone. :) I think science went better today, I'm hoping they're going to remember everything. I certainly tried a different way of making them remember. After the news Dr. George told the students to be on their guard because though the odds are extremely low that someone would attack a school, there's a legal issue with a neighboring village and the sentence is due next week. Dr. George is a little worried the landlord of the village will try to make some retribution. In any case we had a whole talk about it with the older grades after snack. That was fun. :-/
We had review this evening. I think some of the kids really learned things they needed to know today. That's a good feeling. We had choir afterword... then dinner and sixth grade musical theater class. We watched Hairspray. That was fun. We watched Tommy Boy tonight. I forgot how many of the things I say are from this movie! Did anyone from Jersey City ever notice Josh talks like Richard in Tommy Boy? Haha.
Wednesday and Thursday
I'm not really sure what happened these days. I'm trying to write on Sunday. I had a cold and a sore throat this week. That might be it.
Friday
Aerobics was fun. We had a stretch class and the kids really liked it. I took a nap during assembly and the next period because I didn't feel well. We watched Hairspray during musical theatre time. We got CHANA MASALA for lunch. I loved it. Yay. I had the class secretly write letters to Sheryl (though I'm sure she knew what they were up to). They were so excited they had her cover her eyes. We had dance rehearsal for a volunteer dance one of the teachers wanted to do. It was frustrating because two of us are used to a different kind of dance rehearsal and she didn't do it the same twice. Nonetheless it was fun. We had burnt rice at dinner. Boo. I called Eric to catch up and he told me that my sublet-er never moved in and hasn't paid February's rent. I had a minor heart attack, but I'm sure with a little help from my friends I can make it through. We watched Airplane to cheer me up. It did, but I still was awake for an hour in bed worrying.
Saturday
Saturday was all about dance. After breakfast the girls rehearsed for the show that night. Then I taught tap to Beena, an 11th grader with aspirations of being a professional dancer. Then I played a review game with the fourth grade. That was fun. They didn't do as well as I hoped they would, but it definitely told me what they need to review. After that I took a shower, read my book and lounged around for a few hours before group dance rehearsal and preparations. It was a big surprise and no one in the school knew what was going to happen. :) It was really exciting. We did our hair and make up and got all done up in traditional Indian wear then did Bollywood style dances for the kids. The boys sang a song and Grandpa Jacques told the kids odd news stories from around the world. The kids LOVED it. It was like a mob of teenagers that saw Elvis, The Beetles or Zach Effron. (I have no idea how he spells his name). SO MUCH FUN. Then all the kids came on stage and danced with us. It was really great.
Sunday
WE HAD PANCAKES AND BANANAS FOR BREAKFAST!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Off to Hosur to do the stuff I gotta do.
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