Alaskax2=India

In square miles, Alaska is about half the size of India! I had a discussion with Bharat about it and wasn’t sure because maps we saw were obviously not to scale. I looked it up online and got it sorted out! Bharat turned 10 last week!

Wanna know what I have been eating? Liz has some great pictures and descriptions on her latest blog post.

Shishya is one of the better schools in the Dehra Dun area. Many parents want their children to come here and teachers want to work here. Some teachers now were once students at Shishya! There was a new teacher hire and her name is Latika (like from Slumdog Millionaire) and she is really nice. She has great English and a Christian, too. I told her my younger sister is getting married and I am helping with the planning. She said, “Will you plan your wedding when you go back?” She was shocked I didn’t even have a boyfriend! I said everything is in God’s hands… she liked my response. I asked her similar questions and if her marriage would be arranged or not. She said depends, and then we got interrupted. Nibha said that some people have a choice, but when they hit a certain age their parents step in arrange something. Could you imagine?

Latika offered to teach me Hindi… Charlie and I are going to ask if she was serious and if we could maybe have lessons once a week or something after school. Hindi is the most common spoken language in the works after English, Chinese and Spanish… which makes sense if you think about how many people live in India. It’s the 2nd most populated country in the world after China (Bharat fact). Latika and me are the same age. We’ve already had some friendly, personal conversations and we’ve exchanged emails a few days ago. If I lived here, I think we’d be really good friends.

I wasn’t so sure before, but I’m thinking I would like to come back to Shishya in the near future as a volunteer again. Maybe the July- December session eventually… and maybe learn a little more Hindi by then too. Been thinking a lot about how much I’ll miss the place and all the people I’ve met. . Maybe in a few years after I get my degree? That’s planning way in advance. If God wants me to come back, I believe he’ll open that door.

A volunteer from 15 years ago stopped by for a quick visit this week on short notice. His name is Darren and he is from Scotland. He got to see some of the teachers that used to be students of his while he was here. He was 18 or 19 when he was here last so he has seen lots changed since then. He is taking a year sabbatical from being a teacher and traveling Asia for a year. His students remembered him throwing chalk as a teacher!

With Lara the new volunteer here now there is lots of help during homework time at the little boys house. I only take a few boys at a time now and little Ashish and I have become quite close buddies. I teach his class moral science twice a week so we’re pretty tight. I did an activity with Rohan briefly during homework time and he has learned so much already! Over the last few weeks Ratan and I have gotten into water bottle chugging water contests at dinner… it’s funny. He reminds me to bring my bottle every night. The boys got new PJ’s for Christmas and Ratan and Rohan were having a Superman/Spiderman battle last night. Cracks me up.

When I was in Musoorie I got these really neat sandals and apparently they are uniquely Musoorie style! I love them! I love shoes…

I got antibiotics for my bad cough finally. In the states you need a prescription for them but here you can just but them for about 5 dollars over the counter.

One of the boys in the home, and whom I teach English to, left to go see his family in Delhi because his mother is sick. Sometimes boys leave like that during break or an emergency or something… and don’t come back. Makes me sad to hear that. Amanda has a heartbreaking story of when she went looking for a boy in Delhi she cared for and his family never did tell her where he ended up.

There is a girl in my 8th class who looks JUST like a girl my sister Christine went to high school with. She even has the same mannerisms! There is a lot happening in the school now. Liz and I made English entrance exams for new students for each grade this week. We are all drafting final exams and syllabuses (I have to make and distribute 8 I think?!) and reviewing with students. We’ll also be reviewing the boys at the home during homework time too. Busy busy. I know time is just going to fly by until I leave.

I think there is a mouse in our room and the cockroaches still squeeze under the door from outside into our bathroom! When I want to get the flat mop bucket in the kitchen with old towels in it last week I moved some and saw a towel move up on it’s own… and out jumped a mouse! Nibha and I were screaming like little girls and eventually it ran out the hole in the wall. We but a rock in front of the hole. I’m so glad we are on the second floor so we don’t have to worry about snakes.. AHHHHH!!!

Liz and I are taking off after finals to go to the Taj again (pray it’s open) then Rishikesh, Haridwar, Varanasi (yes… where the bomb went off a few months ago I told you about) then up to Darjeeling far north near eastern Nepal hopefully for some trekking. We’ll be traveling for about two weeks… during a popular Hindu holiday called Holi. Should make for an interesting time while we are at the Ganges.

Tomorrow is Saturday school and I am doing parent teacher conferences… with a translator. Wish me luck!!