Long Overdue Update - weekend trips, pizza, and more!

     It’s been a while since I last posted – things have been really busy around here for the past week.  My 12^th grade kids have been in trouble because they spent a good part of last year slacking off instead of studying, and are now really behind in some of their subjects, especially accounting.  It’s not easy to see them get disciplined, especially when it involves yelling, crying, and punishments that don’t always seem fair, but tough love is sometimes the only thing that works.

     Speaking of tough love, I gave my first series of monthly tests at the end of last week.  My 11^th graders did relatively well, but the 12^th graders have some catching up to do, and the pressure is mounting on them as time goes on.  It was definitely an interesting experience being on the other side of testing – writing, proctoring, and grading an exam has a different set of challenges that are hard to appreciate without going through it.  Teaching has gone well so far, especially in econ – having TA experience really does make it easier because I already have ways to explain econ concepts that have worked in the past.

     As always, the kids are amazing.  It’s hard to have a bad day around here because even if something happens that would normally put a damper on the rest of your day, you’ll get a smile, a laugh, a joke, or even just a hello from one of the kids and it will put a grin on your face almost by default.  Two of the girls in 11^th and 12^th grade have started making me goodnight cards on most nights, and they are the most adorable things I have ever seen.  It was one girl's birthday today, and she wrote me another card about how I made her birthday special. It’s impossible to come back to my chair at night and find cards like these lying on top of my stuff without thinking to myself about how lucky I am to have a chance to help these kids.

     In other news, they got a special donation last week from TOMS shoes, and each child got a pair of TOMS to wear during school days.  It was an exciting whirlwind handing out shoes and recording sizes and names for everyone at school, especially when kids were confused about which sizes to try. 

TOMS!

     Anyway, last Saturday I went to Hosur (the closest city to SB, about 45-60 minutes away) with a few of the other volunteers.  We saw a Hindu temple, walked around the streets, shopped, and jumped into a tiny hole-in-the-wall corner shop for what might have been the best mango juice I’ve ever had in my life.  The owner of the shop is below, and you should be able to tell from the picture alone that the dude is a boss. 

Swag.




Looking down on Hosur


The Hindu temple overlooking Hosur


Sex awareness on the streets of Hosur comes with a mustached condom...

     We also stopped at a Domino’s pizza to indulge in a taste of home and to place an order for the school, which led to the following picture (one of the volunteers, Emily, dubbed it “The Great Pizza Accord of 2013”).  Yes, negotiations over pizza prices in India do happen.  

President Obama presides over the deliberations

     Unfortunately, when we got back to SB that evening, I got pretty sick, and my nighttime festivities consisted of a fever, chills, and periodically walking into walls as I stumbled to find meds.  Luckily, whatever cocktail of drugs I took when I was half-conscious worked, because after a few uncharacteristically long naps the next day, I was back to normal (almost).  Thankfully, this happened on a Sunday, so I was able to start this week of classes feeling a little bit better.

     Today, the results of the pizza accord came to fruition when the entire school got pizza and fries for lunch, compliments of Payal, one of the volunteers who is leaving this weekend.  Since many of them had never tasted pizza before, it was a special treat.  Their smiles and excitement were priceless, and the novelty was hilarious for the little kids - some of them tried to eat their slice with a spoon before we corrected them!  I took a few pictures before I proceeded to stuff myself with the fries, which tasted like they had come straight from heaven.  

Much easier without a spoon!

 

Rice < pizza

     Earlier tonight, the school choir was rehearsing for a special music video that they are going to film in Hosur on Saturday (which I get to help with!), and I got a part of the rehearsal on video.  It was so much fun messing around while they were singing and making sure everyone was smiling.  It's time like these that put a smile on your face for hours afterwards.

     It’s hard to believe that in a few days my six weeks at SB will be halfway done.  It’s been and continues to be one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had, and I’m sure the next month will make me appreciate SB even more than I already do.  Meanwhile, enjoy the pics!

First Week and School Day Performances

     My first week of school is over, and it culminated with a free day today to celebrate the founding of SB.  Before talking about that, here are some thoughts from the week.

     Teaching here is incredible, frustrating, rewarding, and inspiring all at the same time.  I have a group of nine 11^th graders for both commerce and economics, and they are so earnest that I can’t help but smile even when they’re doing something wrong.  They offer to erase the board for me, ask nonstop questions, and do adorable things like write me the note below (one of the girls has nicknamed me Kit-Kat, presumably because my name starts with a K…)

 

 

 

     I had to discipline them for the first time yesterday – we were playing a review game over the first chapter of commerce, and they got a little too rowdy.  I told them to pick two kids from the class to go apologize to all the neighboring classrooms and tell me when they had done it, otherwise we wouldn’t be playing any more games.  Instead of two people, the entire class came up to me over the next few hours to individually apologize and say they had talked to the other teachers.  It was great to see.

     My 12^th grade group is tiny, only four students.  One of them is struggling and needs additional tutoring, but she works so hard that you can’t help but admire her dedication.  I looked at her desk the other day and she writes motivational phrases to herself on the tabletop; in my public speaking class, she also gave a speech about how she wants to change the world one day to make it better for others.

     Public speaking is really important at SB, and a different group takes these classes every week.  On Wednesday, we practiced extemporaneous speaking, and some of the stuff the kids came up with legitimately made me tear up in the middle of class.  One girl talked about her newfound drive to work hard in school to make her family proud, and one kid talked about his favorite birthday, when he got special food in the dining hall and won a basketball game.  The simple happiness that they take from everything, even the most minor daily events, really prompts serious introspection and makes you reevaluate the things that you worry and complain about on most days.

     Anyway, today was School Day, and the kids had most of the Friday class schedule off.  There was a special assembly with dance performances, skits, and jokes, and we had a volunteers vs. students basketball game in the evening (which we won).  As far as Fridays go, it doesn’t get much better than this. 

     I have about a million pictures to share but here’s a selection of pictures and videos from the day.  One of them is a dance performance I did with a group of girls who were really enthusiastic about trying something new – they were incredible, picking up the whole routine in one night of practice and performing for the whole school today.  Other groups danced to songs like Waka Waka, Danza Kuduro, some bhangra songs, and then the volunteers all joined in for DJ Got Us Fallin in Love Again.  In this case, pictures tell a thousand words, so enjoy!

 

 

 Bhangra at School Day! 

The girls learned this in literally three hours the night before

 

 

Dr. George, SB's founder

My dance crew!

 

 

 

 

The MCs of School Day, Ashwath and Nandini





 No mercy from the volunteers

 

 

 

First Impressions

   

   It’s only been four days, but Shanti Bhavan already feels like home to me.  After a whirlwind trip to India and a great day with family in Pune, I left for Shanti Bhavan (SB) on Saturday morning.  Even the short flight from Pune to Bangalore had its complications, most notably the fact that I once again was stopped by security at the airport on the verge of missing my flight.  Apparently the granola bars in my bag were both suspicious and hilarious, because the security team spent five minutes examining them while chuckling in my direction (I’m in India – I can’t even use the race card this time!).  In any case, I sprinted to the gate to make my flight just in time, and immediately set off for SB once I reached Bangalore and met up with the driver.

     The two hour drive from the booming metropolis of Bangalore, the IT capital of India, to the rural, secluded location of SB was an experience, and not only because the roads became nearly nonexistent the closer we got to SB.  The insane way that cars narrowly escape death on a minute-by-minute basis on the roads of India is not new to me, so I could ignore the looming head-on collisions which greeted our car for most of the ride and focus on the sights.  However, the most interesting and uncomfortable part of the ride was my total inability to interact with the driver.  While he knew enough English to make a quick introduction, it soon became clear that any questions posed to him in English were confusing and uncomfortable.  Thus, despite his generally cheery demeanor, we spent the better part of two hours in total silence, traveling through the Indian countryside as Justin Timberlake and Selena Gomez played on the radio. 

     When we finally reached SB, my nerves insisted on acting up, and after I was briefly shown to my room I took a deep breath before heading to the main school building.  I met the volunteer coordinator, Mohit, and then began to explore the school.  Almost immediately, I was besieged by kids who remembered me as one of three things from the brief few hours I spent here three years ago.  I was either “Karan,” “Robbie’s cousin,” or “the basketball guy,” but regardless of the title I was given, I was greeted with a huge smile and bubbling enthusiasm every single time.  I spent the rest of the day getting my bearings, hitting the basketball court, and getting to know the other volunteers, who are all amazing people in their own right (but that’s for another post).

     Sunday, my first full day here, passed in a blur of dancing, sports, and laughs.  I’d been at SB for less than 24 hours but felt like I was among old friends.  In one of the best surprises of the day, a group of girls were preparing a dance routine for a special school festival on Friday, and they happened to be using my favorite bhangra song.  After showing them some of my own moves, I jumped right into another dance with the other volunteers. 

 

     We then moved from the main building to the newly painted basketball court, where I quickly remembered that even in the middle of nowhere in southern India, kids get after it on the court.  I’m not exaggerating when I say that some of the kids step on the basketball court and play like a championship is on the line.  It’s energizing and so much fun to get out there with them.

 

     My teaching schedule started on Monday – for the first week, I’m doing both economics and commerce for the 11^th and 12^th grades, helping with daily news presentations, and teaching public speaking.  It has been a great yet challenging few days, but even a couple days of teaching at SB has shown me how rewarding this place can be.  It’s really incredible.  I’m exhausted from lack of sleep, but every night I keep going to bed late because I don’t want to pass up time with the kids during the day or relaxing with other volunteers at night to do my work (as always, the answer is procrastination).  Getting up at 6 am is always a little bit of a struggle – it turns out that no matter where you are in the world, the snooze button is your best friend.

     My next post will be a little more reflective, but I wanted to get the factual info and some pictures from the first few days out of the way before jumping into my thoughts about SB.  I'll try to keep posts coming as often as possible!