So instead of shadowing the English teacher last week, I got thrown right in and started teaching English Lit and Grammar to 8th, and English Grammar to 7th and 6th graders. It’s so challenging but I feel like I am learning so much! The 8th graders are typical teenagers when it comes to being in the classroom but with a little twist since it’s India… the 6th graders are really really loud and the 7th graders are pretty sweet… but still a little loud. Ahhh classroom management. Something I need to learn for the next 5 months… and for my career as well. When it came to teaching life skills to the 8th graders last Friday morning, they were so quiet and attentive. We talked about self image and then I tied in some biblical and God references on the subject. I loved how everything went. That means the school counseling career may be a great fit after all, right? If I could teach life skills all day I would.
So on Picasa I have pictures I am uploading while I’m here for people to see. The link is on the left panel and I’ll update it as I go along.
The picture above is of my little buddy Rohan that I try to work on homework with who lives in the home and goes to the school. We think he is about 6… He doesn’t speak English besides a few words but he is so sweet. I help the other boys with homework too where I’m needed. The other picture was snapped randomly and for some reason they were all lined up and it made for an interesting shot. In the background Ratan is on the left with Barrat on the right (he can’t get enough of Alaska.) The boy’s names from the back lined up are Gatum, Rohan and Ashish. More pictures of the boys are on the link. All the boys have such great smiles I can’t get enough!
My roommates and me celebrated thanksgiving here with chicken to eat among other things…. and we even had pumpkin pie! It was quite the feast. That same week Amanda, Liz and me were invited to some ones home for food. The girl is a student at Shishya and they were so hospitable and the food was delicious. They were literally stuffing food down are throats and wanted us to stay longer than we could and insisted that we come back soon. I’ve noticed that children and school offer food to the teachers. If you decline they push you even more to eat some. I think offering food to people is so important here, and a sign of respect and hospitality.
I learned last weekend that only married women living in India wear toe rings.
We also got our clothes from the tailors last weekend. Everything turned out great! I could defiantly get used to the clothing style here—it’s so comfortable! We rode the school bus in to town to get our clothes, which was an experience in itself! All the kids literally cram into the manual 4x4 school bus and we bounced down the road in this hot hot bus! (couldn’t even imagine what it IS like during the hot months.. woowee)We picked up some groceries and rode the bus back but not without some delicious food! I had my first semosa. Delicious!
Saturday night there was a concert at the school for older boys and friends and a Christian band played and there was dancing and food and games! It was SO fun! I loved chai (chai means tea. so it's weird we call it chia tea!) before I came here but they serve it everywhere here. During break time at school all the teachers drink chai. Yummmm… I am going to learn how to make it!
We are all busy working on the Shishya School Christmas pageant and Liz and I figured out our train tickets for our Christmas break with Ken McRae. He told us which trains to get on and stuff so it was so helpful! We are leaving the day after Christmas for Goa, Kerala, Jaipor and Agra for the Taj! “Adventure is out there!” (I love the movie Up.)
I learned this weekend one of the teachers at the school, Lizzy, is Catholic. She lives near Shishya and offered to take us into Dehra Dun for mass and to get our train tickets. It’s about 30 mins away. The winter mass times changed and we ended up going to mass in Hindi! Before we met a really nice older nun named Hilary. Her English was quite good and she gave us a little walking tour where the church is as fast as she could on her walker. There is the prettiest tree there called a Bougainvillea. There are pictures on the link. The church we went to is Saint Francis Xavier. Hopefully we’ll be able to make it in to mass at least a few times while we are here. After the service there were a few beggars walking around. Just broke my heart. After mass we went to the train station, which was insane!! Liz did such a great job pushing her way through to the ticket booth only to not get the answers we needed about trains and stuff. Eventually we got a few legs of our trip figured out but only after a little hecticness! As I was waiting in line a young woman I think wanted to practice her English. She was so sweet. She told me I wore Indian Dress well :) Made my day. Lizzy has the cutest little family and after church and getting our train tickets we had lunch and I had the best spring rolls in my life. They were filled with chow mien… YUMMMM… so good!
Today at lunch Barrat and I were talking about favorites (color, number, animal, ect.) I said wolf when he asked me and he said “ Like White Fang” I was SHOCKED he knew that movie! It was filmed in Haines! I thought that was really neat.
Love your pictures, love your stories, love hearing how you are doing. Think about you every single day, love. Always excited to read a new post!! :) Love you, Kel. So glad things are going great!!!
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