Thanksgiving through Christmas 2011
Beginning the Holidays in a foreign country that does not share the same special days was much more different and difficult that I ever thought it would be. I have not been home to Michigan (by choice) for the Holidays in years. I’ve enjoyed the fact that all my roommates left for a week and that I had the whole, WHOLE apartment to myself. Anyway, as Thanksgiving was approaching I realized that I very much enjoy the one day in American when you can eat as much as you want and no one can say anything about it because they too are eating themselves silly. I grew hungry for mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes with mini-marshmallows baked on top, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, hot turkey, reheated turkey sandwiches for lunch on Black Friday and other fare (I’m not a pie person so that never made it on the list!). So I began to do what I could to have something resembling a proper dinner. I did not get too far when I realized it’s impossible to get turkey in India and if I did, how would I cook it. No one has an oven! So I settled for chicken. Potatoes, easy! Sweet potatoes- okay, I technically found what India calls ‘sweet potatoes’. So is not the same. The fresh green beans at the local market were so disgusting. I could not stomach even to touch them. I went to the freezer case and bought a frozen bag of mixed veggies and called it good. Picked up a small pack of dinner rolls and a small cake and dinner was ready. I have to say, that given my limited resources, I did pretty well.
I moved into the school right after Thanksgiving and began working 7 days a week from 7am-11pm. Now I don’t complain because I can see the changes with me working so hard and most of the work I’m doing is modeling. Modeling how to play batmitten and not break the racket/birdie/and your team players, how to wash hands and how to use soap, how to care for other living things with respect, how to make ‘art’, use crayons, draw pictures, play with legos, match box cars, how to use the garbage can, how to sing- Happy Birthday, ABC’s and other simple songs and poems. Now I’m not devaluing the work I’m doing here but everything and everyone here is very basic. So I have to start with square one!
My first week at the school, I really struggled with the physical punishment I saw. All the teachers carry around wooded sticks so when a child misbehaves, they are hit. Hit with the stick where ever it lands, then with some teachers the hit is followed by a slap across the face. I was very upset the first time I saw this. I met with the owner of the school and he came up with a compromise. Only the principle would hit and it would be on calf. I’m sure this is not being followed. Although, I still can’t decided which is worse, being physically punished or social and emotionally ridiculed. I watched from the window of a classroom of 4 and 5 year old children, one child did not complete his homework and when instructed to point out the A in the word Flower (that’s right, flower), the teacher was upset and instructed the other children to point and shout “SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME SHAME’. Then she had that student stand in front of the class with his arms high above his head. I could not believe my eyes. I stepped into the classroom and asked the teacher to come outside. She felt so bad that I was so upset that she promised never to do that again. So which is worse, physical punishment or socially and emotionally ridicule?
As December progressed, I continued to observe in different classroom. A new teacher, Nitesh joined just before I arrived in November. I saw a lot of potential in him so I quickly took his classroom UKG-B (upper kindergarten section B) under my wing. I spent a lot of time working directly with Nitesh teaching him how to make snowflakes from paper and scissors, how to help the “weak” students in his room, different methods of punishment than using hands or sticks! The room that he is currently in has been switched and moved around so many times. I am happy that he is set and his room won’t change for a while.
The school is in session on Saturdays and runs on a normal schedule. I believe all schools are open on Saturdays. Well Sundays are the only relaxing day around but not for residential teachers and me. We still have 20 hostel students 5-16 years old. I’ve decided to take a small group each Sunday that I’m around on a little field trip. The first weekend I took the older boys to a temple called Akshardham. Some of the most beautiful temples are located here. **This is one place I’ll be taking Devon when he comes**. Another field trip was to GIP (Great India Place). It’s India’s largest mall. I wanted to see it and check it out. On the side of GIP, they have an amusement park called W.O.W (World of Wonder). Entry into this park is 100rs (less than $2) and each ride is 100rs or you can buy a bundle pack for cheaper rides. However, taking a group of 5 students, plus me, plus another teacher, plus the driver, it can get costly. I was willing that particular day but the park was closed for the day. Apparently one can rent out the whole park for parties, social gatherings etc. Once we discovered it was closed, my back up plan was to window shop just to check it out as well as to kill time until lunch. I was treating the kids to a special lunch at McDonalds. None of the staff, driver or students had ever had McD’s before. What an experience that was. FYI-McD’s in India is not the same in America. I think the only two things that are the same is Fries and Coke!!!
On the field trips, I soon discovered that most of the children 8 out of the 9 I’ve taken and 4 out of the 6 teachers and the 1 driver I use had never been to Delhi before. Had never been on the Metro before. Had never had bottled water and had never taken an escalator before! Its amazing the things we take for granted.
December flew by quickly. I was fully engaged in my work at the school but was looking forward to a great one week off with Sanjay. He flew up to Delhi from Bangalore to spend Christmas together. We spent the first two nights in Delhi then we took a train to Khajuraho. Khajuraho is Kama Sutra temple town. One of Sanjays friends got us a room at a seriously nice hotel and organized a driver and car for us while there. We visited the west temple site, which is the largest group of temples in Khajuraho. The first evening, we saw a Cultural dance show. That was actually pretty cool. Another evening we went on a Jeep jungle safari. We did not see any tigers but saw some other cool things. On the way back to the train, we stopped in a town called Orchha. The fort we saw was not really worth seeing but the town is small and very cute. Here was when I had my, “I’m actually in India” feeling. I was surprised that it took two months to happen but the wonderful feeling was almost overwhelming. The streets of this little town are even smaller than others, it was bustling with town folks and some tourists, goats and cows were freely rummaging through trash. We walked down through a street fair/market area where Holi colors were beautifully displayed in heaping mounds on many table tops. At the end of the first side market was a temple, at the temple there was a marriage happening. The bride was young, perhaps late teens to early twenties and her new husband was at least in his late 30’s if not early 40’s. Clearly there was some dowery exchanged for this one!
We had a great time together and I was sad to see him go.
Good bye 2011! Hello 2012...
