Work week two complete. It’s strange to settle in and find routine with functionality in a place that I know has an end in sight. Really, making myself at home in Bhorugram, while I still look at a place I call home back in the Bay Area. Although I lived two years away from my parents in Berkeley, it wasn’t a similar experience, as it was close to home but also it seemed much less foreign. Although even though I feel how my life here is foreign to what I am used to in the states, I’ve also really become accustomed to daily Indian life. I’ve been in the country for more than a month. I’ve used it’s trains, it’s public and private buses, the rickshaws; I navigate the Delhi metro as if I’ve always known it. Heck I’ve even caught some rides on the back of motorcycles. I have an Indian phone number, and I SMS and call people in India just like I would do in California. So while all of this is foreign to me, I’m making myself feel at home. Nonetheless, it will only last until November. I suppose you might say I’m trying to make the most of it. And there is still so much to do! (I’m thinking about camel rides in the desert dunes!)
But talking about things that are foreign to me, teaching English classes to multi lingual students seems to be going surprisingly well. I spent time in most of my classes introducing and interacting with students last week. This week however, I’m teaching novels to these kids as my high school teachers did to me. And that, is a bit of a mind blast. Anne Frank’s Diary and “Gulliver’s Travels” are where I’ve started, and who knows where I’ll be going. The teachers I work with appreciate my interactive lessons as I try to make use of “smart classes”, which are essentially classrooms with projectors, which I’m utilizing for Prezi.com slideshows. I’ll be doing everything I can to keep up the pace of work, and I hope it’ll pay off in end for all of these students.
This Thursday featured India’s National Teacher’s day. It’s not quite what I’m used to in comparison to American style teacher appreciation days. Let me break it down. To begin the day, we started with an assembly with teachers showing appreciation to their students. The pledge of allegiance, some speeches, songs, and an unsynchronized dance featuring yours truly. The principal then surprises me by asking me to say some words in front of the whole school. Couldn’t have warned me huh? Happily though, I thought quick on my feet and said some short and sweet words about the importance of teachers in our lives. Mentioning that I, even after graduating university am still in contact with my 5th grade teacher (Mr. Nick, I hope you’re reading this!). The first half of the day continued with teachers working their normal classes, while the second half of the day students taught the classes to teachers. An interesting spectacle. At night, all of the teachers got together to celebrate, and we all received some gifts from the school, a fun occasion.
Meanwhile on the side of development work, the HR manager from Jaipur came by this week. He helped to assure all my work would go smoothly, which I’m sure will be key to making sure my projects come through the way I’d like them too. I’m still working on mapping out all of the organizations work on Google Maps, but now am also involved in a proposal to create low cost water filtration systems in 50 villages. This is to ensure that water will be more readily available to locals and reduce their water costs as well.
All work and no play would be dull of course, and I was able to round off the week by doing a weekend trip to Delhi, leaving on Friday and coming back earlier today. I’m preparing for another week of teaching and work now and I’m looking forward to all the possibilities of the next couple weeks. Until next time through this continuing journey!
