A Day in India

When I arrived here, completely gobsmacked by everything I saw, tasted and heard, I thought things would never feel normal. I was completely out of place. I wasn't homesick but I felt very strange - like I was walking around in a glass bubble with a "Keep Back 10 Ft." sign on it. Then today, I walked in to town to do some photocopying of worksheets, put the bill on my weekly tab, picked up my usual snack of fresh coconut from Baboo at his roadside stand, took a quick picture with the Xerox man’s wife and new baby, and rushed back to school just in time for afternoon classes. All of a sudden I realized I was completely used to it all.

My schedule is basically set each week. Monday through Friday I teach five, sometimes six English classes. I have my usual four classes of Vidya Vanam students in the morning and after lunch. In the afternoon, I take the other teachers in to class for about an hour and we go over grammar (today we did contractions and I had to use a lot of self-discipline not to introduce “y’all” - I think it will be a great extra credit question on their test). They are great learners and always want to do more work if I offer it, which is fantastic. They also thank me everyday, which I really appreciate. They are such hard workers.

The five full time teachers at Vidya Vanam. They love to laugh at the funny Indian outfits I come to class in. I took this picture because I loved their colors!

Then at around 4:30, a seemingly endless number of kids from the government school next door come for extra help with their English. By then I am usually so hot and hungry that I have little tolerance for anything, and they seem to have learned that if they talk out of turn, they’re out. It’s an awfully hard line to draw for someone who probably deserved to be kicked out of class every week of my junior year of high school. After classes are over, I put on my shorts and obnoxiously bright SEC t-shirt of the day, and go for my usual walk, which never fails to make me so happy. My fan club has expanded and they all come out on the street and walk and talk with me as I pass through. I love it and almost never miss a day, just to see them.

Right when I get back about 6:30 the mosquitoes start. Mosquitoes here are the size of birds, and they fly much faster than the slow ones I’m used to down south. And since I am too lazy to figure out how to get my malaria pill prescription filled in Tamil (sorry Dad), something had to be done. So the school invested in a battery powered bug zapper, shaped like a tennis racket. I am getting a lot of use out of it. And maybe enjoying it a little too much – see below.

My electrical tennis racket - a wise investment. The 'zap' is a very satisfying sound. I use it for about an hour each day.

We all take dinner around 8 and then I get to work on lesson plans and creative ways to keep my little rascals focused. Not that I came to India to laze around, but this has turned out to be quite a schedule. I spend most of my time worrying about my lessons and whether my students are progressing. I love the big family dinners we have and I really enjoy the many Indian newspapers that show up at the school - The Hindu, India Express, Times of India. They give me a great inside look at the issues here. Ah speaking of issues - Elephant alert! I just heard firecrackers, very close too. Off to investigate.