It is currently 4.22pm on Tuesday, 19th January (Tuesday week 3) and there is a large red powdered smear between my eyebrows.
Bertina has been kind enough to allow me to use her laptop. Alyce is downstairs doing some reading. Christine is out buying our tickets to see The Three Idiots. Gillian is still at a temple celebrating Ganesha's birthday. I have just gotten home from lunch with the teachers. It is currently 4.22pm on Tuesday, 19th January (Tuesday week 3) and there is a large red powdered smear between my eyebrows.
Today is the Birthday of Ganesh. His story – his mother wanted a child and prayed to a God. She made a statue of a little boy and said a mantra and rubbed special cream into her skin and the statue came to life. She told this little boy she was to have a bath and that he should protect the house and refuse entry to all. The woman's partner turns up and the little boy, unknowing that this is his 'father' refuses him entry, in anger, the guy decapitated the little boy. Hearing a commotion the mother comes out and goes nuts at her partner for killing their son so she sends him away to resurrect him. The man goes off and decapitates n elephant, brings the elephant head forth and places it on the little boys body. So Ganesh awakes with an elephanty head. The end... vaguely.
The little girl who told me the story said that she and her friends runs to the Ganesh temple if it is dark as they are afraid but after they visit ganesh they have his protection so they walk back home. (For all you worried guys out there about girls wondering home in the dark they live practically next to the temple).
I went to lunch with the teachers at a house which had been converted into a roof top restaurant. You leave your shoes in the driveway turned rice kitchen. In the lounge room aka shrine to Ganesha you wait. I was served crisp potato chips on a paper plate with chai in a plastic cup. They sat us down (me being Western they insist on me being in a throne/big chair). Then we stood and sang and clapped for about 30 minutes. We then kneeled to Ganesh and gave him flowers, powder and Rs.11. I;m guessing that is called paying our bill because that is the only money we handed over.
Upstairs (no banisters, strange how odd this was) on the roof of this house was a concrete floor with a long strip of thin material where we ate with our hands. Of course, I have been eating with my hands since my arrival but today – I've realised I've not been doing it the right way. I've been taking a square of chappatti, wrapping that around a chunk of food and in the mouth, But Indian people have an innate magic skill of creating food balls. So they all laughed at me and got sick of me taking so long to eat. I normally eat slowly but these people eat so fast... honestly, I can't keep up. They got me a spoon. BUT I haven't used cutlery in 2 weeks so I was just as clumsy. Anyways, the food was fantastic. I fell in love with these green tuby vegetables that I have never seen before called “drumsticks”...
Everyone has been asking me about how the food is:
We have a female cook who lives nearby. She cooks us three meals a day. Every meal is at a later time than in Australia but we run on India time and I like this. Indian meals work like: lunch at 9am(ish), lunch at 2pm (3.30pm) and dinner at 8pm (10pm). Breakfast is like a lunch, we have had spicy breakfasts. I normally throw in a banana to whatever it is. At lunch and dinner we always get a vegetarian curry, dhal, chappatti and rice. We don't really eat much of the rice and there are some puppies that were born during our first week here so we leave our rice in a chappatti on the side of the road near the puppies and watch them edge towards the pile of food before lunging. I have no issues with the food here. It is all vegetables and mostly spicy and delicious. In Goa I ate butter chicken (so I could say that I did it but butter chicken is actually a Western dish) one night and fish the next night but at first I ordered the mixed vege curry. So good.
We also drink chai – constantly.
Tip: if you do not want to eat something offered just say “it is my fasting day”. People fast for all sorts of reasons so make it up.
Aside: In the villages – the people would rather go hungry for the day than not feed you a huge meal. You HAVE to eat.
If the food is blessed - you eat it. Even if it looks like mouldy fish and still twitching, you eat it. Fortunately, I have not yet been stuck in that situation but on occasion I've had no choice but to drink the water. I took a vaccine before I left against the water bugs and I drink filtered and bottled water the rest of the time so I'm sure I'll live.
Week 2 was a short week as Thursday was a religious holiday. I have no idea what for because everybody I asked either had a different story or told me in another language. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I taught the children as per usual and they are now accustomed to me being there and occasionally present me with drawings and show me their workbooks for me to check because I always say things like “good work” and “excellent”... I have also taught them the 'thumbs up' concept. This thumbs up concept is great to use on the children who have limited English. Today, one of my favorites who I have never heard speak any English apart from “teacher”, “question” , “answer” and “I write” showed me his book, when I stuck my thumbs up and smiled he said “good work”. Ah! I taught him a new phrase. I also seriously wish I remembered to bring merit stamps and stickers because writing out praise by hand in 100 text books can get tiring but the children absolutely love it when I write things like “wow” and “great work” because they never get that. It's fantastic to see how happy they are.
So apart from trying to get enough nerve to actually approach the now-scary school principal I have been developing my relationships with my fellow teachers who frequently ask me for help with grammar and get me to teach a range of subjects such as English, Math (hardly), Science, General Knowledge on Australian Life (a new subject which can occur at random), and Value Education. The children were so amazed to see Australian currency. I brought in a collection of Bertina's unexchanged currency and tried to explain what dollars and cents were and what the exchange rate is at the moment – how could one $1 coin actually be 42Rs when that was so much money... One of my smaller classes placed the coins under thei paper and rubbed with their pencils to get the image. 100 cents = 1 dollar and 1 dollar is 42Rs so 5 cents is what? (They still don't really get the concept but neither do I. Five cents to them is still Rs. 5 but I know it is less.)
The children are sponsored by NGO (so if you want to sponsor a kid and be assured that the money really does go to a child then sponsor through NGO because I teach these sponsored kids and can tell you the money is in the right place.) and they bring everything from home (throught their sponsorship) to school. All higher education (University level) is in English here so for these kids to achieve their dreams (as I asked them they want to be teachers, doctors... &c.) a school like MT is an excellent place since it is English Medium. The school itself has no actually supplies – they can not get merit cards, stickers, treats, &c. They don't even have Western toilets (but they're used to this and the Western toilet in our sharehouse has foot holds on the opening for those who are used to or prefer squatting). The local cinema has nicer toilets than the local hospitals. I've learnt to hold it.
Last week we (12 student sized class) were making houses out of paddle pop sticks, matchboxes and paper for Craft. So, the day before they were told to come to school prepared with these materials to make these houses (because the school has no craft supplies itself). One of my favorite kids brought all his supplies but his interpretation of “paddle pop sticks” left out the paddle pop part so he brought sticks. I tried so hard but gluing twigs to matchboxes with camel paste is not as easy as it may sound. I even got super creative when he gave up on his twigs and made sticks our of paper and cardboard but he was not impressed because everyone else had sticks. When you are seven years old and everyone else has sticks - it matters that yours is made from paper. The whole time I was asking kids to give this little one their spare sticks – he only needed 4 (even though the instructions use about 10). But none of the kids would give away their paddle pop sticks because – and I quote - “my mother will beat me if she counts I have some missing”. A sentence like that in an Australia school to a teacher would lead to so many interviews and questions and an obligation to call the police and report it to the Department of Children's services and school counseling.....Western ideals. Eventually I managed to scavange 4 paddlepop sticks from different kids and made them promise to not tell their parents that they shared their supplies. Oh the conflict. I had left Australia as a young, University student, youngest employee of a retail chain, teenager, eldest child, independent traveller, passionate about Human Rights across the globe, most likely to do something amazing. And here I was. This little boy was going to cry if his matchbox house wasn't going to work, these other kids were going to be beaten if they did not bring home x amount of paddle pop sticks and I was Teacher. Authority. Adult. Responsible. Saviour. Only fluent English speaker. Most educated person. In a school that I fell in love with from day 1 only to discover that my ideas are just that.
So, he got his paddlepop house after 30 minutes of my personal anguish as I helped the other 11 kids to build their houses. Just as the bell was ringing and the Paddle Pop Kid was filling his bag - the zipper broke. This kid was destined to be beaten up by his father and no matter how hard I tried to fix it, it was broken. It was then I re-realised that I can't fix everything for this kid. There were a hundred kids around me wanting my attention as I worked on this one zipper.
By Friday of this week I will have started to set some wheels in motion to get this anti-violence campaign going. The only problem is that it is such a big problem, it is everywhere and I can't fix it. I know from experience that all my Western Ideals on justice, fairness, equality and merit card systems that all my passion could very well come to nothing. After all I am here for less than 4 more weeks. Who can change the world in 4 weeks?
At least I will have tried.I choose to feel empowered by my situation.
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