Shanti Bhavan's Choir Sings "Waving Flag"

The Girls of Shanti Bhavan

Shanti Bhavan Presents "A DAY (UN)LIKE ANY OTHER"

The Full Update

I wonder how long this is going to be….

First, my computer died but was brought back to life for a mere $40. This included a house call from the computer doctor to the hotel room, almost full recovery of my stuff and starting over again with newly installed Windows 7. If my computer had to die, I was glad it was here. Biggest issue is that I lost my photo editing program, so won’t be posting any more pictures for a long time I think.

Oct. 31: Halloween

I was impressed by the extent at which Halloween was celebrated here. I didn’t worry about a costume because I assumed that the children wouldn’t be dressed up. I was wrong. Again, amazingly resourceful kids had face paint and make shift costumes all around me. The 12^th graders were particularly impressive with a haunted house they created in their classroom. What they did in 24 hours was absolutely amazing, including a cauldron of boiling chemicals that they could lit on fire which they made themselves in chem lab. Crazy. We also quickly put together a haunted house for the 8^th graders who were allowed to go trick or treating to the teachers and volunteers quarters. Ours was not as elaborate, but pretty scary apparently because we made at least one girl cry in each group that came through. We made up a ghost story to accompany the experience that had spread throughout the whole school by morning. I would say it was a success.

Nov. 5- Diwali: Festival of Lights

This Hindu holiday is one of the biggest in India. The lights are meant to lead Lord Rama home from exile and they go on for 5 days, bursting crackers and all. We were given a long weekend at school, which meant no classes on Friday, and a special party and delicious meal that night. The children did some performances and they had a beautiful arrangement of flowers and oil lamps on the lawn. Then of course, they ran around “bursting crackers” which they had been talking about doing all week.

Nov. 6-7: Mysore

We hired a car to take us to Mysore (5 hours away) for the weekend. It’s actually a very economical way to travel around here if you have enough people to fill the car because it is a time saver and it gives you a tour guide for the weekend basically. We serendipitously met Mufaro as we were all waiting in the ATM line and he took the 6 of us in his brother’s “rickshaw” to get some wonderful food for lunch and then to his uncle’s shop to watch incents being made, smell some oils and drink some of the most amazing tea I’ve ever had. We also stopped by a local market and into a souvenir shop that is famous for the sandle wood, which is what Mysore is known for. I walked away with a wood carving picture and my impulse buy. We spent the evening at the palace and stuck around just long enough to watch it light up. I reminded me a bit of Christmas and Los Vegas combined. It was beautiful and gaudy at the same time. To top off the day we had dinner at a wonderful roof top restaurant under the stars and firecrackers.

The next day took us up Chamundi Hill to see the Sri Chamunderswari Temple and then down around Deveraga Market, both of which posed great photo opportunities. Then we jumped in the car to travel to Coorg, where a small Nepalese Buddhist community has settled and sat in the most beautiful temple I have ever been in.

Nov. 20-21: ABC World News

Apparently after 2-3 years in the making, ABC News finally made it out to SB to film a segment on the unique nature of the school. Lots of people were busy getting ready for their arrival, including some of my singing kids. They had a performance on Saturday night and some classes on Sunday for them to film. The crew also visited one of the 12^th grader’s homes, the recent graduates at their college and a nearby village. Everything went very well and we hope that the segment will air sometime before the end of the year on ABC’s World News with Diane Sawyer. I hope to get details out to people out on that one soon. You might even see me!

Nov. 25: Happy Thanksgiving

I had many students excited to wish me a Happy Thanksgiving this morning. We had a regular day of classes, but Dr. George (the founder) sponsored a special meal for everyone, and a party for the 12^th grade and staff. We had a delicious meal, small glasses of wine and a dance party. It was lovely. Today also marked the arrival of the founder of ASTEP (Artists Striving to End Poverty), Mary Mitchel, and the departure of Dr. Atkins, both of whom are very committed supporters of the school. It’s really amazing to be around all of these people who are so devoted to this place. They are very inspiring and this place really makes one think about what we should be thankful for.

Congratulations...if you have read this whole thing you are more commited to knowing what I'm up to than I ever thought anyone would be =)

Another Quick Update

In the past two weeks we have celebrated Halloween, Diwali and Children's Day with a two day trip to Mysore thrown in there for good measure. I have tons of pictures to post, but no way of doing so as my computer has broken down. It is currently with a "doctor", but could be pronounced dead at anytime. Further proof that I'm just not meant to be communicating with anyone while I'm here I guess.

peace.

Look at this!

And if you haven't looked at my facebook stuff lastly these are some photos and videos my fellow teacher Yazamny has been working on since I've been here. I teach most of these kids:

http://vimeo.com/16317609

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1371602663759&set=a.1371562542756.2048712.1642550899&pid=30845524&id=1642550899#!/album.php?aid=2093061&id=21204211&fbid=579327955183

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1371602663759&set=a.1371562542756.2048712.1642550899&pid=30845524&id=1642550899#!/album.php?aid=2093069&id=21204211&fbid=579333753563

http://sbchildren.blogspot.com/

http://shesthefirst.org/blog/2010/10/10/shilpa-shanti-bhavan/ - an essay written by one of our 12th graders

A quick one

A little update:

*I no longer wear western clothes simply because cotton takes too much effort to wash. I will eventually post a picture of the bucket in our bathroom that is both our washing machine and shower.

*I find the difference between vegetarian here and vegetarian in Korea very funny. In Korea if you ask for vegetarian you will still get fish or spam in it. Here a something is "non-veg" if it has an egg in it.

*Check out from a hotel is 24 hours after you get into the room. Way better than 10 am standard check out.

* I've been so frustrated with the internet situation around here right now that I've considered "radio silence" for the next two months. I'm sure that won't happen...but I've thought it.

The Kids

The kids here are so wonderful. It was funny at first, because somehow I thought they would be very different from any of the children I’ve taught in the past. That is not because we are in India, but because of the situation they all come from. I guess I was picturing these calm wise souls who would all be focused on their studies and very gracious and thankful. I think I was picturing a bunch of Buddhist monks for some reason. They are not a bunch of Buddhist monks.

They are loud and energetic. They run and play and don’t pay attention in class. The older ones are often too cool to being what everyone else is doing. The young ones fight amongst themselves. The old ones fight amongst themselves. They are rowdy in the class rooms, but most of all they are enthusiastic. At least what I have observed. There are talks of how to better motivate the high schoolers to study more, but every class I have had is eager to please. Every time I have to stop to quiet down the 3rd and 5th graders it’s because they all want to share the answer. I have had the younger grade come to me to request to have singing class with me once a week instead of going back to their dorm for free time. They have all asked if they could perform, so we are now having a choir concert in November. I’ve added classes and scheduled a performance all based on their requests. I wish I could say it was because of some kind of inspiration I have given them, but they have been inspired by so many before me and they are carrying that with them every day.

The biggest different between teaching here and anywhere else is the resources. I knew this would be true coming in, but it still hits me at strange times. Like the other day when one of my 3rd graders in creative writing came to me to let me know that her notebook was full and she needed to start a new one. Well the “key master” (the student in charge of supply cabinet key, because, yes, they keep all supplies locked up. Paper and pencils are like gold around here) came up to inspect her notebook. She looked through it and told her that she had plenty of one sided and half sheets of paper empty throughout her book and she would need to fill those first. This whole interaction was fascinating to me because you could tell it was an everyday thing. It also meant that in order for me to read her story I would be searching through her entire notebook to find the next page.

Supplies are a constant issue. In the 5th grade they each have a single piece of loose leaf paper they write the exercises on in class and hand in to me at the end of the day. We use one piece of paper week I’d say. When we need a new one someone has to go to the principal’s office to request it. It comes to us as double sheets that have to be cut in half before being handed to the students.

I am also amazed to look at the student’s work. In general these kids have the most beautiful hand writing I’ve ever seen and we are talking about cursive writing here. Everything is done by hand. There are no worksheets, so they copy complete exercises from the chalk board (yes, chalk board). I was in awe of looking at a 12th grader’s hand written 15 page history project. It’s a very different way of getting things done around here. But they do get done.

Oct. 16 – My First Festival

We celebrated instrument puja http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puja_(Hinduism) on Saturday, where you worship your tools once a year. The whole school gathered in the power house and around the cars and such things in order to give thanks and pray. This is a hindu festival, even though the school is not religiously affiliated. Part of this festival is to take a white pumpkin, fill is with coins and the red powder they use to mark their foreheads and smash it like a piñata for people to grab the money. There is also Dasara going on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasara. We awent to Hosur on Sunday to do our regular errands and many shops were closed for the holiday. We also saw many parades in the streets.

If I Could Talk to the Animals

There is a pretty interesting array of animals that we run into on a regular basis here at Shanit Bhavan. I have mentioned already that we have frogs and geckos that come and go as they please from our bathroom. These are welcomed roommates compared to the scorpions some have found on their beds and rats that have taken residents in other’s rooms. Someone even woke up in the middle of the night with one nibbling on her finger.

We also have a pack of wild dogs who have decided to live at the school. They are often seen around, and I have heard they get into a few squabbles, but I haven’t seen one yet. They are not aggressive towards people at all, thank goodness. We have also “adopted” a lone wild dog that are pretty sure was a pet at one time. One volunteer wants to call her Skeeter, but the majority of people who were not happy to have a wild dog hanging around called her Rabies. She now has a make shift collar and is loved and care for by most, ticks and all, but the name Rabies has stuck. A more recent development is that we are trying to nurse a kitten back to health, too.

The villagers come by every once and a while, and for those who have a view of the PT field from class, sometimes you see cows and sheep roaming around. The other day I went out for afternoon PT and got to see a new born lamb just a few minutes old.

And last but not least are the crows. If you leave your food sitting on the table unattended for too long they will come and eat it off the table. I had one of my pancakes taken this morning.

Oct. 9: In the Car

The craziest sight I’ve seen so far: We passed a public transportation bus in one of the villages on the way into Bangalore and we saw a couple of boys hanging onto the back of the bus holding onto the ladder. I thought that maybe they were just hanging the outside so as to avoid paying for the ride, but as we pulled around the bus we realized that there were tons of men hanging off the side too. The bus was packed and people had to hang off the outside if they wanted a ride. The whole bus looked like it might tip over. I can’t believe I couldn’t get a picture of it.

Oct. 7: The Blackout

Now blackouts aren’t all the uncommon here. In fact the power is turned off every day in the afternoon to conserve on energy, which isn’t a big deal because the classrooms have enough natural light coming in, but after the sun goes down it becomes a challenge.

Every day the 6^th-12^th graders have “prep time” (which is study hall) in their classrooms from 5:45 until dinner at 7:30. This is also when most music lessons take place, so kids are always going in and out for piano, guitar and choir. Today we had a pretty good thunder storm roll through. Once it past the power went out as the sun was going down. I had choir and enjoyed holding rehearsal with a flashlight in my hand the whole time. We had dinner by candle light, but there wasn’t enough to go around. I also got to enjoy stories of the classes huddled around the only light sources to study and chasing a mouse around the 10^th grade room. Power was out until mid morning the next day, and with no power for a long time comes no water. We spent most of the day waiting and wondering when our next opportunity to bathe and flush the toilet would be. It came in the evening thank god.

Oct. 6: What I’m Up To

Looks like I’ll be spending most of my time with the 3rd and 5th graders teaching them grammar, reading creative writing and spelling. Besides the academics I also get to teach 4th and 5th grade music (which consists of recorders for now) plus 2nd, 3rd and 5th grade singing during the school day. In the evenings I’ll be helping with the two choirs 4 days a week and checking in on the beginning piano students every day. I hope I can be of some help to them. So far I feel pretty comfortable with it all, but we’ll see how next week goes once we are in the full swing of things. My only concern is learning over 100 names like Madhubala, Marysheela, Karthikeyan and Janani.

And now for a quick people update: my peers consist of 11 other volunteers, 7 were here before I arrived (1 guys, 6 girls, all from the states), then 3 girls and one guy (he is the volunteer coordinator’s dad) came within a day of me including a girl from Germany. My roommate just so happens to be a Korean American and we have already bonded over the Jimjeelbong experience and other things Korean. =)

Oct. 3

The Trip

Of course I chose the last few hours before my departure to research how to spend my 10 hour overnight layover in Dehli. I would say that it certainly added to my anxiety to see that it was once rated the worst airport to sleep in. There were many descriptions of dirty, toilet paper-less bathrooms and no food. But I can thank the Common Wealth Games that are taking place in Dehli right now for a nice renovation to the airport. I had no issues except for having to sleep in a very uncomfortable chair.

Coming out of the airport I found my ride and hopped in the car. An hour later I was surprised to hear we were still in Bangalore, and picking up two other volunteers who were coming back from their two week vacation. An hour after that I arrived at Shanti Bhavan.

Traffic observations: I would never ever attempt to drive in India.

1. There are no street signs/road names that I could see.

2. There are dividing lane lines, but no one seems to pay any attention to them. Everyone is always weaving in and out of traffic, but they make it work granted a lot of honking is involved. I suppose in a way it makes them better drivers because they are constantly aware of everything around them.

3. I spent most of the trip bracing myself for what I was sure was about to be a collision, while the women riding side saddle in their saris on the back of their husband’s motorcycles without a helmet don’t even flinch.

*Something else I noticed; only the driver of a motorcycle wears a helmet. You could have a family of four piled on there and only the man driving had his head protected.

The School

I arrived in time to put my bags down and relax for a quick moment before going to a delicious lunch in the open wall dining hall with the rest of the volunteers and all the students. Oddly, it reminded me a lot of eating at the camp this summer. They even played “Waving Flag”. Then I took a nap, took a shower (from a bucket), unpacked and went to PT out on the main field to interact with the kids some more. Got to know Rebekka, a German girl who also arrived today, then went back to my room to find two largish spiders that took Yazmany (my neighbor) and I about 15 mins. to get into position (and work up the courage) to kill. I spent the rest of the time writing this trying not to fall asleep before dinner. Oh, just discover a largish gecko and larger frog in the bathroom too. I’ll deal with those after dinner. Still waiting on the roommate to get here too…..

A New Blog for a New Adventure

Just over a year ago I got an email from a long lost college roommate of mine, Torri Newman, telling me that she was going to India to teach at Shanti Bhavan (http://www.shantibhavanonline.org/) and I knew almost instantly that I would need to get myself there sooner rather than later.

Well, sooner has arrive. After receiving shots for Hep A, Hep B, Typhoid, Polio and Japanese Encephalitis and getting 122 pills for Malaria, I'm ready to head over to India this coming Friday. My ticket has me leaving O’Hare at 7:30pm Oct. 1 and arriving in Bangalore at 9:10am Oct. 3. That trip includes a 10 hour layover in New Delhi and a 9.5 hour time difference for a total of 30 some hours of travel. Should be a fun day and a half!

Once I finally arrive someone will be at the airport to take me to the school where everyone will be returning from a two week break. I currently know very little about what my personal day to day will be like. I’m currently assigned to 3rd and 5th grade English classes along with K-5 general music, but have been told that could change at any time. I know I will have at least one roommate, but not a clue who. I’m not too worried about the unknown though. I'm officially comfortable with the unfamiliar. I will have two and a half months to get into the swing of things with my students and classes and peers.

One thing I am sure of is that internet access is going to be scarce, so I will only be on here to update on the Sundays I decide to go into town. If all goes to plan you'll be hearing from me again on Oct. 10. See ya later!