Achieved by this team from January 25 - January 29
22.5 Hours of class room instruction in conversational English by 1 volunteers and 22.5 Hours of preparation time.
1 School, 1 children's Home and over 40 student
And then there was one.
Friday was full of good byes from the three two-week members of the team to the children and officials of Assisi, Seams, and the Grace School. Saturday night, they said good bye to me (the three week member), to Stephen, and to Sheeba. Mixed tears and relief of course; they were sad to leave but anxious to sleep in their own beds once more. We wish all of them well.
Saturday Heather got to see St. Thomas Mount and the Basillica. Kathy and I spent much of the morning organizing the many books volunteers have donated to the program, so that we can use them in teaching. In the afternoon, Stephen and I went to the Government Museum to see the bronzes and the stone sculptures dating from 1000 AD and even earlier. Most had themes from Hindu mythology. The museum is shady and pleasant, and is being re-done to keep it from crumbling.
Sunday Stephen, Sheeba, and Roshan moved in to the Guest House to keep me company, and we had a relaxed day. We all went to the Children’s Section of the zoo to see the reptiles, including enormous crocodiles and venomous snakes, birds, including a large enclosure of pelicans, swans, and geese, a few mammals, mostly deer and some sad monkeys, and a playground. Rosen enjoyed the trip and so did I.
Monday, back to work. In the morning I went to the Grace School. The children were quite wild but we managed to get through quite a bit of material. We each read a line or two from Green Eggs and Ham, and I was able to point out problem areas with “A”. “W”. And some other sounds. We got through Pinocchio, and a small amount of math, trying to distinguish between odd and even numbers. The 3rd grade was OK for 45 minutes, but the 4th and 5th grades for 90 minutes were a bit over the top. The hands up signal for quiet worked quite well. They did like the measuring exercise where we used rulers to find lengths in inches and cms.
When noon came, the children disappeared and four teachers sat down with their notebooks to learn how to write a letter and some other grammar. We discussed punctuation, and when to capitalize. They are very eager to improve fluency in English. Tomorrow I will have a better idea of what they need. The book sent out by GV is extremely helpful, and we will use many of their suggestions. I enjoy working with teachers, because I feel that what I do multiplies and affects many students. Also, I have to confess, they are a lot easier to work with than the wild boys who have been trying to sit still for an hour and a half
This is my third week, and new things keep happening. Tuesday was Republic Day, or Independence Day, as it is sometimes called. The morning started with a ceremony at Grace School.The children were all dressed in white, and had little paper flags pinned to their uniforms. They asked me to hoist the flag, which I did.
The children had short performances of nursery rhymes, songs, speeches, and dance, followed by speeches from adults. First a speech by a board member. Since it was in Tamil I did not understand it, but as India, Pakistan, Gandhi, and 1947 were all mentioned, it had to be about the significance of the day. Some of the teachers also gave short talks, and I was asked to say a few words, which I did, thanking them for allowing me to participate.
After the ceremony, I talked with four teachers for about an hour, discussing sounds and answering a few questions, such as the difference between “How do you do” and “How are you doing”.
Later in the day we went over to Assisi, and I worked with 5 teenage girls. They ransacked my bag, and settled down with flash cards and reading exercises. We read a few short books together, and the girls seemed happy. When I sat down in the multi purpose space, I was immediately covered with children, always a happy event.
Wednesday, today, we were back to our usual schedule. Someone had obviously spoken to the children about decorum, because they were angelic, enabling me to get through quite a large quantity of material. Their favorite was the old story about the one grain of rice which was doubled daily for 30 days, until it took a herd of elephants to carry it. The children loved doing the calculations. We also did a survey of family sizes. The mode was clearly 4 people (two children and two parents) but we also found some families with 8 or 9 people living in one house, including grandparents, aunts, and uncles. We also worked on “w” sounds and the kids managed to fill an entire blackboard and to pronounce words beginning with w.
I then had a session with the teachers, and we discussed idioms.The teachers should at least recognize them when spoken by the volunteers, even if they are scared to use them.
In the evening we went over to Seams, and I read with my two girls. The kids, meanwhile, were having a rousing game I didn't understand but which seemed to keep them occupied and very warm.
Thursday we went back to our usual schedule. In the morning the kids at Grace were fascinated by the idea of measurement, in inches and centimeters, and were soon measuring everything in sight, including faces, feet, tongues, and heights. Teachers again, and this time we discussed words with unusual pronunciations. Naturally, we had some amusing results.
After school and lunch, I made a final shopping trip to the government store, having thought of some people I did not want to slight back home. Then back to Seams for our evening stint, We had a short study session, and then all the girls put on their new finery for a photo op.
At dinner, Stephen, Sheba and I discussed the effect of expectations on culture shock. Every volunteer team is different, with different expectations and different skills.
Most of Friday was lost for me, because I was very much under the weather for some undiscovered reason. I did get over to Grace long enough to say good bye and to collect some sweet letters which had been written by a few of my favorite students. Evening we had the usual good bye ceremony at Seams, repeat with refreshments and songs. I tried to teach them “So Long, It's been Good to Know you”, with middling success, and everybody thanked everybody else. It was hard for me to leave, but I think the kids get used to the turnover from one high quality team to another.
And so ended a wonderful 3 weeks.
Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
Lucy
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