The headmistress and the fourth standard teacher

Yesterday was an extremely challenging day.  My teaching went very well and the kids are really starting to understand my English.  They are also superstars with greetings and getting to know you questions!!  While I was in the fourth standard however, the teacher thought that several of the boys were misbehaving.  Her method for getting them to calm down is so repulsive and in most countries would be considered child abuse.  The Indian Supreme Court did pass a law saying that corporal punishment in schools is illegal-however not all states adopted this law.  It also appears from my research that it is not enforced as it should be.  In the United States not all states have passed laws that make it illegal to use corporal punishment on school grounds.  However, child abuse cases are given great attention-which does not appear to be the case here and our ideas of what defines child abuse are very different.

Most of the teachers I have witness usually swat at a kid or threaten to hit them with body language that looks much like an empty threat of violence.  The fourth standard teacher hits the children with a wooden stick rather hard on the arms, back, and stomach-she leaves welts.  When it all happened I wasn't even sure how to respond.  I did have to fight back tears as I was standing in front of the whole class when it happened.  I instantly felt so sick to my stomach hearing those boys cry and beg her not to hit them.  I know that as a teacher with rowdy and energetic boys in the classroom it can be difficult to have them sit and listen.  I know the frustration all too well from working with youth at-risk.  Especially when they are that little and they have so much energy.  I also while working at the Academy had been pushed to my limits by behavioral issues within the classroom-but never had physical violence ever crossed my mind.  I guess that is why I am struggling so much to fathom what I saw.  I struggle with how I will react in the future if it happens.  The teacher speaks only a few words in English so it seems like it would be very difficult to have a conversation with her about others ways to manage behaviors and preventative ways for these young boys to burn off some energy so that they may focus while asked to do a task in the classroom.  Perhaps I could offer to run a physical education class which would show the teachers how important physical activity is in the lives of young children.  Any other suggestions or recommendations would be of great use and appreciated so much.

Well, on to happier things.  Last night my headmistress came over and we practiced English together.  She has her master's in English literature, has a massive vocabulary, and knows all there is to know about grammar-she just needs help with the pronunciation and a little work on her confidence and she will be good to go!  She told me a little about herself.  She has two sons, one in fifth standard and one in ninth standard.  Last night her son was studying for an exam which she was supposed to be helping him study for so she had to ask him for permission to come over.  He gave her one hour-her stay was short.  The headmistress really is a beautiful woman.  The school which she runs is seriously underfunded.  She acts as the headmistress and the fifth standard teacher.  It is also her job to make sure that the grounds which the school are on are maintained.  She does this on her own once a week with a small group of boys and girls.  I think its kind of nice-it definitely helps them take ownership of their school and harnesses a sense of pride.  But it is such hard work-she puts a lot into that school and those kids.

A random little side note:  This week I have also made a pact with myself to get off my butt and do some physical activity!  Mostly for my mental health since a lot of what I see and experience is kind of exhausting emotionally.  But also because eating rice and rice products with little to no veggies is starting to make me feel all lethargic!!  I was also on facebook and saw how awesome Alwyn has been doing and it truly inspired me!  Alwyn-your hard work and dedication is truly beautiful.

New School...again!!

So last week I was officially moved to the Tamil medium only school.  I am so excited to be working there!  The children tend to come from very poor families and there are several children attending the school that stay at the Children's Home.  They are the most beautiful children you could ever imagine.  They all are a little disheveled.  A bright pink blouse with the uniform because they don't have the white blouse.  A white blouse which is actually a brownish yellow and the buttons aren't lined up.  Shorts which are too big and are held up by zipping down the pants a little and putting the last button of the shirt through it and buttoning it.  Some wear shoes, most don't.  I love them and all their beautifulness.

On Monday I went for my first full day of teaching.  I was all prepared-lesson plans in hand, smile on my face, and nervous as can be!!  I was scheduled to teach one period in each standard.  The school serves standards 1st through 5th.  I would be starting my morning out in 5th and working my way down.  Well after about 20 minutes of being in 5th standard the teacher (who also serves as the headmistress) told me I would now be teaching two periods in 5th standard and two periods in 4th standard in the morning.  The students were all shy and eager to impress.  The teacher was even taking notes and asking clarifying questions.  She speaks a little English and hopes to learn more from me while I am at the school.  I quickly improvised and moved on to my lesson for the 4th standard since I had not prepared for two periods in a row in the same class.  It was successful.  Unfortunately, I had come down with some sort of illness and needed to go rest.  So I tried to tell the headmistress that the day before I had bad water and didn't feel well.  Well, she took this as I needed water.  I was feeling like throwing up and here we were unable to communicate.  Finally, one of the kids chimed in and they all pieced together what I was trying to say!  She insisted that I go home and rest and come back when I was feeling well.  Thankfully she is a very lovely woman.

I returned to school yesterday after two days of resting.  It was madness!  I felt so overwhelmed because all the kids talk while you talk.  The expectations for the classroom are different here than they are in most American educational settings.  I kind of let it get me down yesterday.  But I went home and spent my whole evening determined to teach these children and I did in fact come up with a few things which were seriously effective.  You cannot imagine how silent a poster with colors/greetings/weather on it can make a classroom full of Indian children!  I really got the fifth graders working hard today which felt good.

Today when I arrived at my school all the children were outside singing a song.  I am not sure what song but it sounded so lovely.  It almost made me cry from happiness because they are all so beautiful and they all seem like they are marginalized by society.  But here they stand in front of their school in their mismatching outfits, their messy hair, their bare feet, and mostly pride- pride in themselves, pride in their Tamilian culture, pride in their school, pride in each other, and pride in their country.

As I walked to my class I continued to see just how beautiful and communal these children are.  There was a boy crying and sitting on the ground.  I went over and bent down and asked why he was crying.  A rather fluent fifth grader told me he is new and didn't have a lunch.  Well, just behind him a group of boys were working to remedy the situation.  They had their lunch containers and were all putting food into a container which had some vegetable curry in it.  They were beautiful with their little hands at work trying to get all the food from various containers into this one.  The oldest came over and handed the container to him and grabbed him by the backpack rather aggressively and walked him to the 2nd standard classroom while all the other children followed and waved him good bye.  I had to tell myself not to cry over and over!

An Indian Wedding

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to attend an Indian wedding!

My weekend started by worrying about Jonathan all Friday night.  He was riding the bus rather late in the evening for the first time.  I was to arrange transportation to pick him up!!  Who would have known it would have been such a task?!  Ravanan was away for the weekend visiting his family so it was nearly impossible to ask someone for help.  Except for Manni.  Manni was looking after us for the weekend.  Manni speaks three words of English and just half smiles and stares at you when you attempt to communicate with him.  Manni is a driver for the Periyar Complex.  So after many awkward, funny, and at times frustrating dialogues I was finally able to convey that I needed him to drive to pick up Jonathan.  It even involved Jenna showing him a picture of Jonathan and him studying the picture for several minutes and then finally repeating Jonathan's name.  So, Manni and I went to pick up Jonathan-he didn't arrive in Trichy until 11:30!!!!  I was very happy to see him!!

When we arrived at the wedding we were forced to eat despite the fact that we had literally eaten about 1.5 hours before.  But it was all good because there were several different varieties of semeya upmah with chutney-which is my favorite two dishes!  There was also this sweet on the side which was quite possible the greatest sweet I have ever had.  The coffee was also the first coffee that I've had that actually had a strong coffee flavor.  All the food was of course served on banana leaves!

After food we went and got dressed.  Anusha, her mother, and her aunt dressed us girls.  We then went down to the main floor where the wedding was taking place.  There was a music circle and a ceremony happening on stage.  It was unclear most of the time what was actually going on with all the people on the stage.  There were many gifts being passed back and forth.  The bride sat on her father's lap to signify leaving the family.  The bride received at least three new sarees while we were sitting there and with each one she was to go and change into it.  All the sarees at the wedding (the brides and the guests) were absolutely beautiful.  Most people wear silk to weddings.  The silk sarees are heavier, vibrant, and so pretty.

After sometime the groom went to temple.  The bride waited around the wedding hall.  During this time there was a drum performance which was very nice.  Finally, the bride came out of the wedding hall and got in her own little chariot which was carried by four men.  The groom was coming around the corner with a whole parade he had some how picked up at the temple.  In the front was an elephant, a camel to follow, dancing horses (which made me sad), and a chariot pulled by four horses with the groom in it!  Fireworks and firecrackers were sent off as they went to go and meet each other.  Traffic in the street stopped and a full on parade/carnival was happening!  It was craziness.  There was even a really awkward pink bunny!!

After watching the stage for some more time we were then instructed to...you guessed it...eat again!  I was not prepared for the meal that they were going to put in front of me.  I am not even sure what I ate, I just know I wasn't hungry and there was a lot of food.  But the nice thing about banana leaves is that you fold it over when you are done to signify that you do not want anymore food...I folded mine over and it had a bulge in the middle!!

The next morning we set off for the wedding hall again.  Laura and I were quickly put into our sarees by Anusha and her aunt and we headed off to watch the actual vows take place.  It was a lot of watching the stage again not really knowing what was going on but a lot of it seemed beautiful and interesting.  The bride of course received another saree.  For the actual vows she had on a deep red saree which looked beautiful with her long hair that was wrapped in jasmine flowers.  She also had on tons of gold jewelry as she kept getting that as presents too-so she had to wear them all.  There was also a large gold belt adorned around her waist-it complimented the red of her saree.

Before we left we were almost forced to eat another meal at the wedding but luckily we stood strong and insisted that we would wait for our lunch at the guest house!  The wedding definitely got me thinking about arranged marriages.  This wedding was in fact an arranged marriage.  The couple met in February and has not dated.  I think it is interesting.

Jonathan and I spent the afternoon going on a walk exploring my town.  We came across a beautiful temple which is not too far away and a new happening soda joint called Mr. Soda.  It was their opening day so we go free samples of their soda which is made out of natural ingredients and mineral water.  The mango soda was quite tasty.  And of course Mr. Jonathan had to try the beer flavored soda-he liked it, I wasn't convinced that it tasted like beer and I really didn't care for it!!  After a lovely afternoon I sent him back on a bus which we both hoped was going to his desired destination!

I love random walks to explore the world...

Sorry for the long delay between posts.  I had a very special visitor (Mister Jonathan) and was ill for a few days.  I am now back on my toes happy to report the happenings of my beautiful Indian life!!!

Last Thursday we did not have class because it was a holiday.  I am not sure what holiday but it was nice to have the day to walk around town and explore with Laura-my super cool roommate!  We headed off mid-morning with no aim but to explore our little area of Trichy.  After five minutes of being out of the house we were asked by a rambunctious group of 12th standard girls if we wanted to go to a birthday party with them.  We laughed nervously and they asked us questions and headed on their way.  We did want to go, we just didn't want to be invited on the spot and be the white people who show up and totally crash that poor girls birthday party!!  We ventured on!  We walked in and out of beautiful streets.  The streets were filled with children playing.  Some running toward us as we approached and others hiding and giggling as we came near.  

We came across a group of boys who were stealing mangoes from a wealthy house's yard.  It was actually a funny scene.  One stood on the cement wall (to protect the yard) and picked the mangoes.  He then tossed them to his friend.  The other one then quickly ran away with them and hid them in a plastic bag.  They were quick little dudes and were sure happy to see us.  We took their picture with their stolen loot.  They also had two girls with them.  I am not sure if they were sisters or not but they appeared very suddenly ready to be in the pictures!  

About one block later we were in the thatch village area.  I will front load this with a little information.  Several people have told us that the thatch village area are 'slums' and that we should not go in there.  Having studied sociology-I am always interested in space and perceptions or thoughts tied to certain places.  Such as some people would refer to a side of town where people from a lower socio-economic status tend to reside as 'the ghetto', when in fact it is not a ghetto and has many beautiful people residing within that area.  I am not negating that some places do have gang life, violence due to lack of resources and decreased police presence, and drug use which create an unsafe environment.  I am saying however, that sometimes these perceptions of spaces that we have can be incorrect.  We must take more than one opinion before ultimately deciding how we feel.  As for space:  in some areas it appears as though there is literally a line dividing towns or neighborhoods.  Well, that was clearly the case here.  All of a sudden we were no longer surrounded by cement houses with gates.  We literally stepped off of the dirt road onto a path and about ten feet away was the first thatch house.  People were sitting outside chatting and kids were running around.  The poverty was apparent but the danger was not in the atmosphere at all.  People glanced at us like normal-our white skin is very eye catching.  We continued along a trail made in the orange dusty soil.  It was apparent that it was a heavily walked trail.  We walked past some thatched houses that looked very well maintained and others which looked like they could use some work.  The poverty surrounding me was a little much.  Such poverty is so hard to describe for those who have not seen it.  For all the children, it makes me want to cling to the education system with all my strength because I know that education might be their only chance out of such extreme poverty.  

We kept walking until we came upon a dead end.  Suddenly, we became surrounded by three little white dogs.  They were actually very scary.  I think that my fight or flight turned on almost because my brain told me to kick the one closest to me and then pick up anything and strike the others.  And just hope that Laura kicks one too.  I was really scared.  But suddenly four very beautiful young boys came to our rescue!!!  They were the owners of the dogs and called them away from us.  We were instantly invited to sit down.  They dragged us to the front of their thatch house and ordered us to sit down in the shade.  We did.  We sat across from an older woman who just smiled at us the whole time.  And of course like any Indian made sure our needs were met by asking us if we needed water-she asked several times in fact.  The boys with their limited English and our limited Tamil asked us questions.  They were so intrigued by us.  We asked them questions and surprised them with our little Tamil.  We even got a roar of a laugh out of the older woman!!  

Soon the boys asked if we, "had picture."  Which I was sure meant, "Do you have a camera?"  We did make the mistake of not lying which led to several thousands of pictures!!!  It was all good though they enjoyed themselves and actually learned how to use the camera quicker than I did-and they even showed me a feature that I was unaware of which is funny considering I have owned the camera since 2007!  

Meeting the boys was a great moment for me.  It confirmed my belief that I shall not judge a place just based on perceptions that others have and on the socio-economic status of the people residing in that space.  I am so grateful that I am able to put judgments that others feed my brain aside and make my own opinions.  I am happy to have found such beauty in an area which brought me sadness due to its troubles with poverty.  I am so overjoyed to have met those boys-I just hope they know how much it means to me.

Meals!

One of my favorite thing about learning and experiencing another culture is tasting their food!  I must say South Indian cuisine does offer some very tasty dishes.  For example, I cannot seem to get enough chutney!

Chutney is a sauce which is made of coconut and spiced with hot chilly peppers and black pepper.  Every time it is served it tastes slightly different.  Some times it is so spicy I need to eat tons of yogurt after.  Other times it is nice and cooling to counter act the flames coming off the sambar.  Don't worry I will tell you what sambar is very shortly!

Typically we hear the word curry and we think sauce with spices and some meat or veggies--served over rice!  Not the case.  We have been wildly mislead by Indian restaurants in America.  Curry is actually a vegetable dish and it is dry.  No sauce to be found in South Indian curry, just some veggies and lots of spice!  What we generally think of as curry (the saucy dish with vegetables or meat) is called kooteuh.  There are really just two varieties of this:  sambar and rasam.  Sambar has veggies, leaves to season, blended lentils, and tons of spice!!  Rasam, my favorite, is tomato based and it is usually just seasoned with lots of garlic.

Now what do we eat these saucy dishes with?  RICE.  Okay we do eat other things, however, rice is the staple.  We frequently have idlies.  Idli is a fermented rice cake.  They are delicious!  Seyiyah upmah is one of my favorites.  It is made with rice noodles and has lentils mixed into it.  Pongal (my least favorite) is served often.  It is rice that has been finely ground and it sort of resembles polenta but white in color!  Now on to my favorites:  dosas and chapati!!!  Dosa tastes like sourdough and they are soft and warm and oh so delicious!  Dosa is round and sort of looks like a pancake.  Lastly, chapati is the best food ever.  It is like a crepe except fried more.

Spicy Wednesday Lunch!!  Left to right:  Sambar (where all the spice is), Rasam, RICE, curry, yogurt (to ease the flames)

 Wednesday Dinner:  Chutney, Sambar, Dosas!

 Close up of the delicious Dosas!

Thursday Breakfast:  Coconut rice with spicy chutney.  The black bits in the chutney are hot peppers which have been cooked into the chutney!

Thursday Lunch:  This is the tower which Ravanan brings lunch to us in each day.  Ravanan is enjoying his meal!

Thursday Lunch:  Rice, Sambar, plantain curry (extremely spicy), Rasam, and an additional sweeter curry!

Aww Thursday dinner:  Chapati!!

Chapati and Korma-The Korma was very spicy this week but very delicious.

Friday Breakfast:  Nothing like starting the day out with some spice.  Chutney (which was sooooo spicy), idlies, and Sambar!

Now do keep in mind that while our food is delicious--it is hostel food which means that it is repetitive.  So just imagine the possibilities out there at those fine restaurants!  Stay tuned for more food!!!

A summary of my past few days!

It has been a few days since I have written-sorry!  Monday I taught my first class.  My lesson was with a room full of overly animated 10th graders!  It was enjoyable.  I learned a lot of things about myself as a TEFL teacher and as an educator in general.  There are many things that I need to work on.  And have I mentioned lately that I love teaching these children English!  I just need to keep working on my skills as a TEFL teacher.

On Tuesday my class was quite uncontrollable.  They were all just way too excited and never stopped chatting despite my many requests.  Any time I made eye contact with them they all just giggled to each other.  The hum of chatter never ceased the whole time I was in that class.  Hopefully the novelty of a white woman teaching in their classroom will wear off soon.  Also, hopefully I will gain the skills to have them quiet down and focus on the lesson.

Yesterday, I went to my new school to observe some of the classes to get a feel for what they are like.  On my walk over to the school I encountered a large group of the small children from the Periyar Tamil medium school (not my new school).  A few of the children are from the Children's Home (the orphanage that we work with) and all the others are from the surrounding neighborhoods.  These children are very poor and it is very apparent by their hygiene and clothes.  They are just the most beautiful children.  One thing we learned from a school administrator from the Higher Secondary School at Periyar was that in India everyone has a right to receive an education.  Only, families must pay for their children to take English classes and to be in English medium classes.  It just seems like a policy which keeps the poor, poor, and the rich, rich.  As I kept walking to my new school away from the Tamil medium school kids from the orphanage, I began to wonder who had selected these children to go to the Tamil medium school and not the English medium school, aren't they worthy of an English medium school just like most of the other girls from the orphanage?  Who has such power to decide the fate of another.  I was wondering if they choose which school the orphans will go to based on their assumed caste.  Wouldn't it be beneficial for the Indian government to educate all of its children in Tamil and English?

Tuesday afternoon was quite eventful.  We went to the mall area so that Laura could buy some essentials since she just got here on Friday.  The three of us had lots of fun together-many laughs.  The best part of the whole experience was right when we got home and the pharmacy boys from upstairs were all out in front of the house like usual and suddenly a motorcycle zooms by followed by a motorcycle with two police officers on it.  They pulled over eventually toward the end of the block still in our sight.  The police officers jumped off their bike as did the other two men.  The police officer ran up to them and slapped them on the head.  We all three nervously laughed because we didn't know if we should be scared or not.  Then we asked the pharmacy boys why the police were hitting those men and they told us that the police slap you around instead of giving you a fine!

I also completed my first English lesson with Ravanan.  It was very successful.  He took it very seriously and actually has a great foundation that I will be able to build off of.  I even quizezed him a little this afternoon (without his notebook) and he did pretty well.  After our lessons the pharmacy boys were talking with Ravanan.  When I asked one boy who speaks English quite well what they were talking about he said they were making fun of Ravanan but Ravanan was telling them that they are not to interfere with him learning English!  I was so proud of him.  He then took out his notebook and asked the boys some of the questions that we went over and none of them could answer!  He just walked away after that-more like he floated away on a cloud!  Ravanan is beautiful!

Speaking of personal Spoken English services.  While we were at the shopping mall yesterday all the women working in the women's department got to talking to us and figured out that we are teaching English and demanded lessons.  We told them we could do once a week.  They all became overly excited.  We gave them our address and on Monday nights they will be coming over for spoken English lessons!

Today, after my lesson, which was way more successful compared to yesterday, I became very aware of how much I miss working with youth at-risk.  Every time I venture away from youth at-risk I miss them and it makes me realize that I truly do want to continue working with them.  Don't get me wrong-I love teaching English to these beautiful children but I also look forward to the career path that I have ahead of me working with youth at-risk.

Today is spicy Wednesday!  We ate lunch and then I served Ravanan his lunch!  I decided that I am going to make a food diary.  I am going to start taking pictures of every meal that we eat and then I will put the photos on photobucket once I have a full week of meals!  That way everyone can see just how often we are served rice!!!

One more thing:  This morning the woman who cleans the guest house was here and last week she said she would do our laundry.  Anusha's mom had told us that she could use the money.  So we decided to have her do our laundry!  We came back from class this afternoon and the clothes were all hanging on the line.  I went out to give her money and when I did she grabbed my hand, kissed it, and then bowed.  I almost cried.  She is such a beautiful woman.  Her and her daughter came into the house a little later and we offered them food. They were hesitant but they finally ate.  I am glad that we decided to have them do our laundry.  I wish everyone could see just how beautiful these two women are.

Lots of love from Incredible India-Kylie

My new school

I have been told that I will now be teaching at the matriculation school here at Periyar.  I will still be in Trichy living in the guest house!  I am very excited because at the matriculation school I will have the pleasure of teaching K-6.  It is an English medium school but most of the children do not speak a bit of English.  It almost appeared as though it was a Tamil medium school.

I stopped by the school today to meet with the Headmistress but she is gone to the States to visit her daughter in California where she is studying to be a doctor.  Instead I got to meet the Vice Principal.  She seemed genuinely enthusiastic about my presence at the school.  I will start teaching there on the 16th of this month.  I got to visit a kindergarten classroom on my way out of the complex.  It was quite possibly the cutest thing ever!  The children were all scared to say hello.  They were so tiny with cute little dresses and big socks.  The boys wore shorts with big socks and little ties.  There was a few children in the classroom who were crying.  I asked why they were crying and the teacher told me that some are still not adjusted to leaving their parents but by lunch time they will stop crying.  That made me really excited to teach there.  I love adorable little children!
  
The children at the matriculation school are not from the orphanage-they are from the surrounding area.  Luckily, I will still have contact with the children from the Children's Home Orphanage because I still have to run extra-curricular activities during the evenings for the children there.  I have really come to know two or three of them.


Well, off to teach.  I am teaching a 10th standard class today and then running some errands. 

An evening at the Children's Home

We went over to the Children's Home tonight.  The Children's Home is the orphanage that is linked with the school that I will be teaching at.  We brought our camera which was exciting for all the girls.  They treated us like we were all celebrities-handing us pens and demanding autographs-some even asked us to sign their arms!  It was funny and awkward.

Here is the link to our most recent photos:
http://s1150.photobucket.com/albums/o602/kyliejedwards/Trichy/

There are many photos from tonight!  When we came back to our house tonight Ravanan our caretaker sat down in the living room with us and asked about getting his picture taken.  So we all posed with him and took his picture-he seemed very pleased after that.  Ravanan is a really great person.  He takes such great care of us.  When we came home late last night he came out to the car to get us.  He goes above and beyond his duties!  There are also some random shots from around my neighborhood and a few of the school where I will be teaching!

Ron, there are a few pictures of some sitting cows-haha!

The Tailor

Today was a scheduled power outage-meaning that the power was out all day.  The past two days have been some of the hottest since I have arrived, not having a fan to sit under makes it quite unbearable.  Not to mention that I decided to wash our laundry today by hand.  Well, after I already had the garments in the bucket with a little water and soap-the water decides to go out as well.  Luckily we got some water around lunch time and we could finish doing our laundry.  I did learn that wringing out our clothes on an extremely hot day is not that ideal-especially Jonathan's clothes as they are a lot bigger than mine!

We decided to set out on an adventure to get the blouse to my new sari tailored since it was too tight in the arms.  After walking around for a few moments in the hot sun unable to find a tailor-we stopped by a clothing shop where we really liked the people.  We asked them if they were able to tailor the blouse or if they knew of anywhere.  Of course this conversation all happened with our limited Tamil and their limited English.  One of the three women walked us to a nearby tailor who said he was unable to do it.  She quickly walked us back to the shop.  Another one of the three women then walked us to this hair salon where she explained to the woman there, in Tamil, that the blouse was too tight around the arms for me.  She agreed to fix the top!  She had me try it on and then quickly took it off of me and began removing the stitches.  I went back out to the parlor area and sat next to Jonathan.  There was another woman who helped to run the show.  She was stringing jasmine flowers.  She spoke English very well.  We talked to her until the blouse was ready.  She told us about how she is a Sri Lankan refugee and is not able to work here because she is unable to get a work permit.  Most of her family in here in India but she has a brother and sister in England and they send money.  They were the sweetest ladies ever!  My blouse was done and she had me try it on-it fit perfectly!  She then offered to make me a blouse if I buy the fabric-a blouse that would be a perfect fit for me.  We thanked her over and over again.  She then asked for 20 rupees-that is less than fifty cents.  Jonathan tried to give her more money but she wouldn't take it.  She responded by saying that she only charges for the work she does.  We couldn't leave it at that.  We went to the sweets shop, bought them some la doo (a delicious South Indian treat), and brought it back to their shop.  I will definitely go to her for some tailoring in the future.

Happy Fourth of July

Yesterday I had my first teaching experience in an Indian classroom.  My lesson involved a listening activity, a group writing assignment, and a small speaking component.  I think it was well received by the students.  It also gave me an opportunity to see what level they are at.  I got a lot of sentences that looked like this:
Tiger name Juju.  Tiger age 6.
I guess I know what my next lesson in that classroom will look like.

And of course Fourth of July did fall on a spicy Wednesday.  I was served a lot of the spicy dish so I thought this spicy Wednesday was extremely spicy.  About half way through lunch I wanted to cry from pain-it felt like I had just eaten two full jalapenos.

Since our stomachs were burning all day and it was the hottest day outside in a while we all went to The Garden restaurant to have a sweet lassi.  The Garden restaurant is this cute little place right near our house.  They make delicious sweet lassi but they were all out yesterday so instead I got almond milk.  It was delicious and helped to put out the fire in my stomach!

As a fun activity my field director planned an evening out!  We went to this very fancy hotel in downtown Trichy.  We were going there to swim, have an alcoholic beverage, and eat dinner.  South India is very conservative-especially in regards to what women wear, how much skin is showing, and where on the body that skin is showing.  For instance, it is perfectly acceptable for your stomach to be seen while wearing a sari, however it is not okay for any part of your shoulder to be seen.  Now back to the pool:  Us three girls dressed for the pool.  We all dressed slightly differently were all dressed in a way that was appropriate to the culture.  I had on my bathing suit bottoms with a t-shirt on, my field director was wearing a shirt and leggings, and Anusha (the only South Indian among us) was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.  We are all a little nervous to leave the changing room because we were already glared at by a pool full of men as we walked into the pool area.  We finally muster up the courage to come out, we quickly put our bags down near Jonathan, and then we move to make our splash in the pool....quickly two men working at the pool run over and tell us we are not dressed appropriately.  It is pool rules that you must be in a bathing suit!  HAHA!!!  We all just stood there so awkwardly as all the men in the pool watched and we tried to negotiate.  We were unsuccessful and quickly bee-lined it to the changing room.  On our way out the guy asked us if we wanted to use the gym instead....we all just laughed really hard.

We then went to a bar in that same hotel which had a Wild West theme.  It looked like a salon out of an old western movie.  It was a lovely evening spent with my co-volunteers.

Weekend in Keeranur

Here are a few random photos from our weekend.

http://s1150.photobucket.com/albums/o602/kyliejedwards/

Random thoughts which Jonathan and I have been discussing

Anusha, our Tamil translator/teacher, told us that the reason why the kids are fascinated with us and like us so much is because we are so light skinned and to be light skinned is considered more beautiful.  The darker skin is undesirable while the lighter skin is considered more attractive.  The Brahmins have lighter skin, they have more money and power and therefore it has become desirable to have skin like theirs.  I just wish that I could teach these children how beautiful their skin is.

One of my favorite courses in college was Poverty with Professor Bolduc.  I loved that class because it was the first time in my whole life when I realized that all these thoughts and ideas that I had for so long were actually thought by other people too.  There were people who had written books about it and there were actually people like myself who wanted to sit down and have in depth conversations about poverty.  Besides all the shocking statistics and very important literature that I read, the most important thing that I took away from that class was the actual definition of poor and rich.  We often think of these terms only in the monetary sense.  That course and especially Professor Bolduc helped me to learn that those with a lower socio-economic status are rich and in fact sometimes they are richer than those with a higher socio-economic status.  I have seen and experienced that everywhere here in India.  Those who have little-have so much.  They are rich because they possess such a beautiful happiness-a happiness that most Americans do not have.

Jonathan and I have been talking quite a bit about our role of teaching English in India.  At times I struggle because I feel as though teaching English here is indirectly teaching these children that our culture is almost superior.  As Jonathan pointed out, it almost feels like an extension of Colonialism.  I also ask myself what good does a homogenized culture do?  I am a person who loves different cultures.  It scares me to think of a world in which a monoculture exists.  Along the same lines, I recently read that there are only two languages having the status of classical and one of them is Tamil (the other being Sanskrit), why would we want to begin just teaching these children English?  How do we teach them English while teaching them that their own language and culture is extremely important to us and to the world.