Long time no hear. My goodness, it feels like it has been
forever since I’ve talked with you… how have you been? Done anything
adventurous lately? I hope you have. As for me, I’ve had quite a few adventures
in the past month… from bison to ziplines to more lesson planning
than I’ve ever done in my life, I’ve been more than busy. If I had to choose
just one, the biggest adventure over the last few weeks was probably my weekend
at Poondi camp with the 3rd-5th graders.
It was a dark and stormy Friday morning. The ground trembled
as 35 pairs of excited feet rushed the parking lot of Ganga campus where 3
humble buses bravely stood their ground. Not a chaperone or parent was minded
that morning as it was proven that voices of reasons, regardless of their
merit, can not compete with the roar of elementary students on their way to
camp. Many brave souls lost their voice that day, attempting to choral the
energy that only children can possess…. Haha, actually it wasn’t that bad.
Although I went into with mixed feeling, dread and excitement, the time at
Poondi camp was a great experience. And yes, there were 35 excited 3rd-5th
graders that morning, but it seemed like the mass of accompanying chaperones
were just as excited. We finally got everyone in their respective busses and
started heading out of Kodaikanal around 10am. It was about a 2 hour drive on a
road that made me sure that someone was going to lose their lunch before we
ever reached the camp. Strange enough, the drive may have been my favorite part,
it was definitely the most beautiful. I was super touristy the entire time as I
constantly had my camera out the window and definitely overused the words
“beautiful” and “awesome”. But can you blame me? All of the land surrounding Poondi is used for
farming, so everything is green and lush on this gorgeous terraced land.
After the bus ride came a bit of a hike. See, the “road”
that leads to Poondi is too much for the buses. Only a jeep full of our
luggage could make it up. So toting pillows and empty snack containers, our troupe
set off. Arriving at the camp was a welcomed break, and seeing that assembled
tents and food were waiting for us just sweetened the deal. The school
apparently owns quite a bit of land, because not only did we have some
lakefront to enjoy but we were able to take the kids on a walk that stretched a
good mile or so into the woods (and by woods I mean less MT and more George of
the Jungle).
The rest of my day was spent manning the zipline (one adult
at the top getting kids in the harness, and another at the bottom catching them
before they hit a tree… not joking), learning archery, and helping with the
homemade rock-climbing wall. By the time dinner rolled around I think the kids
were still on an adrenaline high, but the chaperones were spent. After dinner
there was some much-needed downtime as the activities director readied (what I
would soon learn) the biggest bonfire I’ve ever seen! We had all the students
sit around the bonfire and turn off their “torches” (aka flashlights) as the
fire was lit. It was glorious, it was wonderful, it was awesome, and then it
was hot…. Too hot…. Way too hot! Within 5 minutes of this fire being started,
everyone had abandoned their spots on the benches and had moved a good 25 feet
away. And that is where we all stayed for the next half an hour. Everyone ended
up spending about 2 hours at the bonfire. There were kids singing, some were
dancing, a few were testing their bravery against various ghost stories being
told, but everyone was loving it! The bonfire ended with dessert: banana,
chocolate, and marshmallows wrapped in tin foil and thrown into the fire for a
couple minutes. The result was a sticky, gooey, goodness that provided everyone
a massive sugar high (and hopefully the inevitable sugar crash)…. Ya, that
didn’t work. To make a long story short, I wasn’t the best of chaperones
because by the time 12:30 rolled around I ended up just putting my earplugs in
and giving up. I went to sleep to the sounds of “whispering”, giggling 5th
graders, and woke up to the sounds of “whispering”, giggling 5th
graders. There were students talking in their tents at 12:30am, and there were
students up chatting at 4:30am… then 5:30… then 6:00… and by the time 6:30
rolled around there was just no use in trying to sleep anymore. To say I woke
up grumpy would be a bit of an understatement. I swear the only reason some of
those kids lived that day was because I had pancakes for breakfast (my
favorite).
Our first view of the tents!
Some of my 5th graders on our walk around the lake
Didn't I say it was George of the Jungle-esque?
The waterfront and end of the zipline.
I was a pretty good shot too...
The bonfire before it got too hot to stand.
The rest of the day I was put on raft duty. Due to this
experience, I feel I am now more empathetic to drivers education teachers than
I have ever been in my life! The rafting done on Poondi lake entails a homemade
raft that gets your butt all wet from water coming up through the cracks, 6
students in ancient life jackets with varying degrees of previous rafting
experience, and 5 mismatching oars. “Teach ‘em how to raft!” they said… “It’ll
be fun!” they said… and after I got over the culture shock of what rafting in
India means, it really was a lot of fun. In each batch of rafters at least 2 of them had never touched an oar in their life, but you should have seen
the excitement on their faces! I made each of them create a pirate name for
themself and name our “ship”. (I was The Fearsome Captain Cupcake) In the end,
it was pretty great getting to know the students in such a unique way. And
thank God that no one fell in!! Because let me tell you, although this lake was way warmer than any I’ve been in (you should have seen the kids’ faces when I told
them how cold Flathead Lake gets :) is was the dirtiest body of water I’ve ever
seen! Brown and opaque are the words that come to mind. The students that went
swimming were promptly directed to the showers (bucket showers of cold water)
when they came out of the lake because they had a visible layer of dirt
clinging to every inch of their body.
The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent ziplining
again, and learning how to play cricket with the 5th grade boys. By
the time we started heading back to buses, I think we were ALL ready for a nap.
I got home afterwards and went straight for the shower. Mariah summed it up
nicely when she asked, “if I was feeling human again yet” after a shower and a
change into my comfy pants.
So that was Poondi…now for the school section of things. The
Monday following camp marked the beginning of a 6-week unit that I would be
organizing and presenting as the main teacher. Up until this point my main role
in the class had been observing, helping wherever Nandini needed me, and
teaching a lesson or 2 every week. Needless to say, I was incredibly excited and absolutely clueless as I was lesson planning that weekend.
So here I am. I teach all but math most days, so that can
range from 2 class periods to 6 class periods. The end of this week means that
I’m halfway through my unit on Freedom and the students will start working on
their final, summative assessment projects as soon as we get back from long
weekend (more to come on that shortly). Overall I feel pretty good about it so
far. There are definitely lessons, and sometimes even full days where I don’t
know what the hell I’m doing until I’m in front of the class teaching. And then there are the lessons that I can’t wait to introduce to the students because I
know how excited they’ll get. I spend every evening and most of my weekends lesson planning and trying to gather resources, so it’s given me a nice glimpse
into the 10-hour days, and the social life-less future I get to look forward to
:) But I can’t even come close to describing how incredible it feels when a
lesson you’re excited about gets the students excited too. Just this week Nandini
and I co-taught a lesson on the differences in the structure of government in
India vs. the United States. The lesson ended with students voting for a Prime
Minister, President, and Cabinet Ministers within the class. Later that day we
announced that those elected leaders had the responsibility of coming up with
the schedule for the following day. The kids were floored when I told them that
they didn’t have to have Math if they didn’t want it, or that they could take a
2-hour break in the morning if that’s what they chose. The catch was that
students had 3 assignments/activities that had to be completed by 3:45pm or be
taken home as homework. So they had the freedom to choose their own schedule,
but the responsibility of completing their assignments. Students took it so
seriously, and it ended up working out great! I loved it!!
This was another awesome lesson where we looked at freedom of choice at lunch, but the responsibility to choose healthy foods that will keep us full.
So it’s definitely worth it in the end, but I feel like I’m
always planning. I get home around 4:45 (when there aren’t meetings) and am on
my computer until well past 9:00. Therefore, although I would love to promise another
blog post soon, I can’t guarantee it. But don’t you worry about that just yet,
because I’m just getting warmed up with this one…
Field Day!! The 2-day event that students look forward to
all of second semester. Everyone from the preschoolers to the seniors in high
school sign up for various track and field events that they want to participate
in. Students win points for their house (either blue house, orange house, or
white house) based on how they place. It started with an all school
pep-rally last Friday morning (no school that day) and continued until lunch on
Saturday, culminating in everyone sitting on the field eating a traditional Indian meal off of banana leaves. Everything from hurdles, to shot put, to long
jump, to cross country is represented and the students LOVE IT! Some treat it
like the Olympic qualifiers, and others couldn’t care less, but the atmosphere
in general was fairly competitive. My favorite was watching the preschoolers
and kindergarteners do their events :) They did a 25m dash first. All of them
ran their little hearts out as at least 100 parents, staff, and peers cheered
them on. But as soon as they neared the ribbon at the end, they stopped! They
didn’t know to cross THROUGH the finish line, so the student who would have
come in last ended up winning because she stepped over the ribbon first… haha
it was great!
Nandini high-fiving the preschoolers after their race :)
Some of my 5th grade boys waiting for the next race.
A couple of my 5th graders bringing it home :)
I honestly can’t believe that it’s half way through March.
Long weekend starts next week, after that there’s one more week on school and
then it’s April! I already have less than 2 months left in India….Holy crap!! Speaking
of long weekend, let me update you. A week from today marks the beginning of a
5 days break from school, Thursday-Monday. For a while now I have had plans to
travel to a city called Bangalore with Leah who is a music teacher at KIS. She
is going to watch a friend graduate which is what prompted the whole thing, but
Bangalore is also a great place to shop and eat good food. So that’s what I’m
going to do! We take a taxi down the mountain from Kodai Thursday evening.
Immediately after the taxi we get on the night train and try to sleep for 10
hours or so until we get into Bangalore around 5:30am on Friday. Then we have
all of Friday, Saturday, and most of Sunday to shop, eat, watch movies, and be
merry. Come Sunday night, we board the train again, to get on the taxi to get
us back to Kodai early Monday morning. I found out that Ms. Jessica and her kids
will be there for long weekend too, so there’s another person that we could
meet up with. I would also like to let my mother specifically know that I now
have a functioning phone that I will be taking to Bangalore. I would also like
to reiterate to my family that Bangalore is still in Southern India and is
therefore safer than the rest of the country. It is also quite westernized
which adds to the level of safety. I will let you know exactly where we’re
staying when I get there, but until then just know that it’ll be at the college
where Leah’s friend is graduating. I am definitely looking forward to shopping,
eating western food, and then coming back and appreciating the familiarity of
Kodai.
Last but not least, miscellaneous. Here are just some random
things that have been happening this last month…
- lots of dinners! We’ve been out to eat at a couple new places and have been invited over by other staff members (Nandini showed Mariah and I how to make idily, a traditional south Indian dish, and just last night the vice prinicipal invited us over with all of the French exchange students and French teachers to welcome them to the school).
- Spirit week happened at Ganga campus the week of Field Day. Students and staff alike participated in crazy hair day, backwards day, twin day, and pajama day. For twin day I borrowed a sari from Nandini and joined in with the younger elementary staff… I’ll show you a picture. And for crazy hair day I sat down in my seat about 15 minutes before school started, pulled out a mess of hair ties and bobby pins and told the 5th grade girls to “do my hair” :) …a picture of that one too.
- Lots of bison! Thankfully I haven’t seen any super close, but there was a stretch of about 3 days where I saw 1-15 bison on my walk home from dinner every night. I also learned that there is a lone bison (the biggest one I’ve seen yet) that likes to hang around Ganga. He’s so massive and hairy that the kids have named him Hagrid after the Harry Potter character.
- And finally, Holi. This is apparently a big holiday in India. Here is what Wikipedia had to say about it:
Holi celebrations start with a Holika bonfire on the
night before Holi where people gather, sing and dance. The next morning is free
for all carnival of colours, where everyone plays, chases and colours each
other with dry powder and coloured water, with some carrying water guns and
coloured water-filled balloons for their water fight. Anyone and
everyone is fair game, friend or stranger, rich or poor, man or woman, children
and elders. The frolic and fight with colours occurs in the open streets, open
parks, outside temples and buildings. Groups carry drums and musical
instruments, go from place to place, sing and dance. People move and visit
family, friends and foes, first play with colours on each other, laugh and
chit-chat, then share Holi delicacies, food and drinks.
The
school is holding a Holi celebration this Sunday and according to Corey,
the vice principal, it’s going to be like The Color Run they do in America
without the running. He advised Mariah and I to wear old clothes that we don’t
mind getting stained, since everyone will be throwing dyes and colored powders!
I seriously can’t wait!!
Here's Hagrid!!
These things are solid muscle... they go where they want and do what they want.
Pajama day for 5th grade
Crazy hair day came next :)
These are some of the wonderful Ganga staff members. From left to right is Radhika, Jessica, Nandini, Mr. Jerald, Me, Pearlin, and Rebecca. We are all wear traditional formal clothes from the Indian city Kerala.
I'm sure I'm forgetting about a million things (serves me right for waiting a month between blog posts) but that'll have to do for now. As usual, I miss you all very much. It's getting to that point where I can't wait to be home, and yet knowing that I'm on the downhill now is making me realize there are things in Kodai that I will really miss... but not as much as the washer and dryer waiting at home for me! :) Until next time...
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