End of Term!

23rd April

Today marks an end to our first term of teaching which at just short of fourteen weeks, has flown by!

As an end of term celebration some children from my fourth section classes had arranged a surprise party. Though lacking the surprise elemenet having being told of the party the day before, to my actual surprise a cake reading 'Abiiee Miss' was sat surrounded by eclairs in the middle of the room. In all the excitement of 'Thumbs Up', (a drink similar to Coca-Cola), along with ripped paper confetti being thrown in every direction... it's hard to tell how much cake was actually eaten and how much was traditionally smothered over my face by the children... (However when I say traditionally, I don't reckon it's every teachers face)...!

At the start of the week I also began giving prizes to the winners of the reward charts I made earlier in the year. Last week a parcel from home arrived with a set of ball bearing maze games which I was able to use as prizes for the top sticker chart winners. Along with these my grandparents had also sent various stickers, from butterflies to robots. Topping these up with some chocolates and rubbers made for happy faces and I throughly enjoyed handing out their gifts.

Invilgating too has been an experience in itself. Over the past week the students have been busy revising morning and afternoon in prep for their exams. In February we invigilated unit exams accompanied by other teachers, however hitting April, Jadey and I, being the trusted teachers that we are... we were given our own rooms to watch and by watch I mean control! The exams last roughly two and a half hours, usually 3 children to a bench. Having recently sat exams, walking into a shiney white hall, exam papers layed out at the ready, seat numbers allocated, a desk and personal space - two fans and elbow banging distance is a whole new story... Though luckily, being in India, everything seeming much more layed back, the stress of exams seemed to escape the kids and the task of keeping the talking at bay began. Feeling their sense of 'yes another one down', we managed to power through together with the kids all super excited for their summer holidays!

Talking of summer holidays... Jadey and I are off on our travels on Monday!! The school is closed until the start of June and many of the children are returning to their villages and family homes for the month of May. We are travelling around the South coast before heading up North. 

Our route is as follows; Chennai, Mahaballipuram, Madurai, Kodaikanal, Kanyakumari (Southernly most tip of India), Varkala, Kollam (Kerela Backwaters), Munnar, Fort Kochi, Goa, Mumbai, Delhi, Agra, Varanasi, Jalgaon and Aurangabad (Ajanta & Ellora Caves), Hyderabad, Hampi and Ongole!

Here's a few piccies from the last days of term... Enjoy!

 

April antics!

Since the end of March we've found ourselves being flipped into a new routine of hot, sweaty, Indian summer half days! The temperatures have been soaring up in the high thirties, on some days stretching into the forties. From the moment we arrived people would ask about how we were finding the climate and joke about the heat in the summer months of April and May. Taking their comments lightly we've now discovered that yes, it is very, VERY hot and taking a nap midday is no longer such a crime!

Our school day now starts at 7.45 am and classes run from 8am till 12.30pm. Recently school has been a mix match of revision and dance practice. We have spent numerous afternoons teaching tiny nursery children some funky moves for 'Humpty Dumpty', 'Incy Wincy', '5 Little Ducks' and 'Happy and you know it'. Not only are we english teachers but new found dance teachers also! Though arguably, ammature ones. The actual dance function however, which took place yesterday, was brilliant. The children from nursery up to fifth standard were giving it their everything regardless of the heat. As we've grown closer to the children and recognise so many more faces it was exciting to see them giving it their all. The best, most enjoyable function yet! Hands up to Jadey who managed to wear a sari in the midday heat. The girls from school were also dressed beautifully.

Raju, a boy, in my second b section also really stood out. We see him regularly as he lives in the hostel, the building beside our room. We spend our days in the same place and follow similar timetables of school and leisure. This means that after school we often spend time chatting with the children who stay in the hostel rooms. The hostel consists of three large floors over three stories. The hostel boys occupy the higher two and the girls share the bottom floor, with a UKG, (upper kindergarden) classroom. After being asked to spend some time in the hostel with the boys encouraging them to use their English it soon dawned that they really do have very little. They sleep on the floor with a blanket only, surrounded by bare walls yet they seem happy. They keep themselves entertained and have created they're own sense of a community. Just watching them, they act like brothers. Their families are elsewhere but it seems they have their own home away from home.

Though Raju's parents didn't attend the function yesterday, unlike many others, he really gave the dancing his all. He took centre stage surrounded by other second standard boys. It really hit - a sense of overwhelming pride. His parents weren't there, but we were. He dances because he loves it, and he's brilliant at it. Being so far away from home at the age of nine and growing up alongside 'hostel brothers' only, he excels as a person. Not just in his studies but in his attitude to everything. He's brought himself up, away from his family in Hyderabad. He has the courage to come and see if we are around on afternoons to chat in a language that isn't his first. His manners and etiquette make him seem much older than he is and like many of the people who stay in the hostel he has become part of our 'school family'.

In our free afternoons we've been able to spend more time with the cooks, our host family, school children who live nearby, the hostel boys, other teachers, tailors and have been teaching Estru (madams relative) some English to help with her exam. We've been invited to many houses for tea and coffee, to play with their children, let them pleat our hair, paint our nails and watch some telugu television! We've lounged on a roof top spotting the moon, practiced some yoga moves, watched a small fireworks display with men dancing dressed as ladies, and visited the railway station copious times to book our trains for our travels in May when the school is closed for summer. On the Easter weekend we even made an 'easter special' of easter nests stuck together with icing sugar and chocolate. Jadey eventfully tried to melt her choccy over chai tea in madams kitchen. 'Quick take it off the flame, turn it off, turn it off!', is the best way to describe how that went, though the end result was fabulous!

And today... It rained! Our first real downpour of rain in three months! The air was cool, fresh, and we didn't hesitate for one moment running out into it, unashamedly in pyjamas! 

Excited for what's to come...