UniBreak India - Jax Kotzur

A day in the life of Jax- India style......



Wake up from the thin straw-stuffed mattress on the floor because our chaiwalla (see slumdog millionaire!!!) is at the door with THE BEST WAKE UP TEA IN THE WORLD!! Lauren gets up to get it because she's the only one with respectable-enough-to-be-seen-in-public (in India) pyjamas on. Lauren and I chat, take medicine (i am officially now a pill popper... about 5 a day at least! this morning it was cold and flu- (praying the fever type thing I have is NOT dengue fever), malaria and vitamin c... and I forgot my inner health stuff which counteracts the antibiotics ive just stopped taking), drink our tea, then Rowan wakes up with a start (every single morning- its hilarious!) and we all get dressed, do some more planning for the lesson we are going to teach today and slip our thongs on ready for breakfast at 8am. Breakfast is a rice-type dish, couscous, or omelette (although we haven't got one of them since the first day... we are going to ask for it again as soon as the guy who can speak english and hindi gets back!). We then sit around and discuss what the hell we're going to teach our boys... hmm.... they can all copy english and read it aloud, but alot of them dont understand what they're reading. They are doing alright and the lesson ideas everyone has given will be put to good use, dont you worry!!
9.30 we leave our room, collect our packed lunch in metal bowls and containers and say sukreeya (with a rolling r) to the chef (its our in joke.. it means thankyou but we cant pronounce it!). we walk the 1.5km to the train station, buy a banana each on the way (5 rupee for 3 of them). Then buy the 4 rupee train ticket (10c) to Kamshet, wait till 10.15 and the train comes! We sit on the ground with the older women, which I'm not too sure is culturally relevant but that's ok, we get stared at regardless because we're white. The community we're in, and the ones surrounding it, are not tourist places so in the 3 days we've been here we have seen 3 other white tourists and a white guy in a wheelchair who did not look happy. We've seen thousands of indians though! We hop off an Kamshet station 4km away and cross the tracks behind the train (we're in the all female carriage right at the back). But we don't cross all the way, because there's a rock wall. You make your way along the track for about 200m (the grass soon appears on the side of the track but its long. its not a deathtrap all the way!) then follow the goat track to the road. Follow the road for about another km, past the little slum community where the little children all run out of their homes and scream out hi! hi! hi! a thousand times to us as we wave back, we end up at the gates of the orphanage. it is simple, but not neat. Clean for the most part, but dilapidated. We walk into Mr Ali's office (the principal) and talk to him for about 15mins. He heads the conversation, we just talk about whatever he talks about. Then, when he's done socialising with us, we wait in the library (full of koran-type books and karl marx and science through islamic eyes... all too hard for the children to read in english!). The school is fully islamic, they all pray for about 3 hrs a day and one whole row of boys started praying in class yesterday, which was distracting bacuse its a low chant with their heads bowed. I was reading a story.
Anyway,s after the library Lauren is our first at 11.15 to her class of little munchkins- 5 to 12 yr olds. at 11.30 Rowan and i are off to our classes, her the older guys and me the 12-14yr olds. They all chant goooooddmoooorrrnniiinnnggggggg Mmmiiissssssssssssssss to me while half standing and i say goodmorning back, and lessons begin. I sound like a pro but I have no idea what I'm doing! I've figured out that if I act confident, they think I am and listen. They are very attentive and want to learn. No behaviour problems whatsoever. I start the lesson with them each spelling a word on the board (they love using the chalk) and then I'll get one grade (its 5 and 6) to read aloud a story from their english textbook (they only have 2 between 8) while giving a past-present-future tense exercise to the other grade (or something similar). I keep checking the clock, knowing I have an hour and 20mins to keep them working. They then answer questions about the story they read from the textbook, but they dont really understand what theyre doing. Then they swap. Usually this leaves 20mins at the end to come up with something to do, so I've played charades but with words like writing and cricket and sleeping and running. I took my photo album in today and they all crowded around and loved it! they thought the pic of Jaydon buried in sand was in the snow and it took awhile to explain it, but they all asked broken questions and all said thankyou miss at the end so it was good! They clap after I read them a story in English too- they love it! I'm meant to give them homework, so I just give them words to spell out 3 times and I'll check it the next day. Then Mr Ali arrives at my door and says Alright, you finished now'. So I wave goodbye and follow him to the library. I'm writing a mini novel here! oh well. Yesterday we thought that was it, and we'd go and catch the train with the other muslim teacher back to Malavli (thats how you spell it i've discovered) but today Mr Ali says 'ok, eat lunch here and at 2.30-4.30 you will teach again'. ok! had no idea about that! so we spend the next hour frantically coming up with ideas of what to teach! we pulled it off, but were buggered afterwards. Today we asked not to teach in the afternoon because we have a report to write on the school and its repairs also, so Lauren is currently typing that up while I write this novel. Im going to do the photo uploads in a minute, when she's done. Ok, so after that we walk back to the train station and catch the train home to Malavli or to Lonavla like today (which is 4km the other direction from Malavli) and buy FUDGE!! and go on the internet like right now. This is a central place, so there are banks and random horses eating rubbish and stuff everywhere.
Once we're finished the train goes home, we walk the 1.5km back to our guesthouse and 15min after getting home are served tea by our lovely chaiwalla and a snack (something that resembles ritz biscuits, or just plain cooked pastry.. interesting! good with vegemite haha!)
Dinner is served promptly at 7.30 by our request (other wise it would be later) but we tried going down at 7 yesterday, to see if they'd get the hint. they didnt. we might ask tonight for it earlir because we get hungry! and tired. After dinner and chatting for awhile we basically have a shower or just go to bed. We sleep for a long time at night (10, 10.5 hrs) but we really need it. we're all tired today.
Did the head wobble to some guys sitting on the other platform of the train station yesterday and they did it back. and laughed and we laughed. then they tapped their noses and I have no idea what that means! so we just ignored it. was a funny interaction though!!
We wore the same outfits again today, because everyone around us seems to only have one outfit anyway. so we'll try to fit in all we can, which is not much considering we know zero hindi. and are glaringly white.
Im having fun, wishing I wasnt sick (should probably take more meds right now) and am happy with Rowan and Lauren, theyre really good to work and hang with.
I hope you like my mini novel, it has taken me an hour and 20 rupees to write (50c). Don't expect too many of them but you never know, they are like the best debrief for myself. I love hearing from all of my friends, because there are not too many things that are normal to me around. Vegemite this morning was like stepping back in to my kitchen (without burning the toast and setting the fire alarm off...). I'm wearing harry-high pants like the rest of the indian women and its comfortable, but sooooooo good to change into my normal clothing at night!
Food is gradually getting more spice, which is good because theyre weaning us on to it haha! I wonder if we'll ever eat it like they eat it.. hmm...
We get beeped at by 4 out of 5 cars that drive past, i think because we're white and we think they are just saying hello.. we dont know..
this weekend we've planned to climb to some caves (with a guide) that are 2500yrs old. theyre buddhist caves, should be interesting. Theres also a fort somewhere but its a full day's hike. would be awesome but no thanks! we all decided we dont want to go in to pune, becuase we dont really feel like doing city stuff right now. We desperately all want to see the Taj Mahal, but thatd be a full long weekend, a plane flight and a completely new part of India. We'll see.
Leave for Pen on Sunday, midday. Hopefully no more teaching! It is relatively easy, but I really want to do medical work!!
I hope this helps anyone who's coming to India with Antips, and feel free to email any of us who are here and we'll answer any questions :)