Kids and Cameras

After a terrific five days in Sri Lanka, I headed to India with a bit of nervous excitement. The whole of my trip I had heard about the overwhelming, but incredible experiences that awaited me in India, and I was eager to dive in.

An uneventful flight landed me in Delhi on a Friday afternoon. And, to my surprise, the airport was very subdued. I made my way to the hostel I had already booked, where I dined with some fellow travelers and stayed in for an early night. The next morning, I woke up and headed into the heart of the city via the clean and efficient--something I would find to be rare in India--metro to procure an evening bus ticket to my first destination, Palampur, and then relaxed in my hostel until departure.

The overnight bus journey was pleasant and uneventful, except for the nice chat with my seat mate, a kind Japanese fellow headed to visit family in the north of India. After arriving, I was picked up by one of the volunteer coordinators Sahil at the Palampur bus station and taken to the volunteer house a few miles from the town. For the next two weeks, I would be based here and teaching English and Mathematics to some young kids at a local school. At the house I met Joginder, a quite amiable gentleman, who cooks meals for the volunteers, which I found unfortunately to be only myself for the whole of my stay. After a delicious cup of chai and a quick tour of the surrounding area of Thakadwara--including a trip to find some much-needed laundry services--Joginder made a fine meal of chapati, rice, dal and a curry and I was ready to start teaching the next day.

To my disappointment, the program was rather disorganized. I woke up the next morning to find out it was the very first day of the school year, and so the kids were getting acquainted with their teachers, and my services were not needed. So, my volunteer coordinator Amit and I stopped by the school to introduce me to the principal and my main volunteer coordinator at Gayan Deep School, Monish, and discuss my schedule. It also turned out my schedule consisted of only three, thirty minute classes in the morning, and I was finished by noon. Finally, I was told I could teach whatever I wanted. I didn't know what to say about that one. I was hoping to meet the fellow teachers and discuss how I would fit with their schedules, but that was not to be. Instead, I studied the math curriculum, and was dismissed for the day. After a fine afternoon chatting with Joginder, I met with Bobby, the other volunteer coordinator, and discussed the limited schedule, to which he suggested I could teach some local kids who can't afford school, and I eagerly agreed. He would set that up and get back to me. Then, in the evening, a young lady barged into the place rather hurriedly and introduced herself as Monica, my housemate, then vanished to the upstairs quarters. It turned out she was a dentist along with my volunteer coordinator, Bobby--dentistry being his primary occupation and volunteer coordinating a secondary commitment--and over the next two weeks, she would turn out to be a very friendly, if reserved, housemate whom I wish I could have got to know better with more time.

My first day teaching was both awesome and frustrating. I went to my first class, grade 6, who were really amazing. The class clown, Adutya, was the first to talk, and he never seemed to stop. Since teachers were not provided with a copy of the material, Nandini, a sweetheart, lent me her math book so we could get started. For thirty minutes, we went over their latest math section ordering numbers smallest to largest, and had a fantastic time. The kids, though a bit unruly at times, were good sports and very sharp. My next class, seventh grade, was a bit smaller, but also a bit less cooperative. Also nice kids, but not looking to do math. So, we did English instead. Since I had no idea what I was supposed to teach, I supposed practice reading English could only help. So we read a story and I was relieved of class at the bell--which was a hand-held bell rung inconsistently by one of the teaching assistants. Finally, my eighth grade class was stellar. I got in there and they were eager to do math. I must admit I was skeptical at first--what 8th graders ever want to actually learn math--but they were genuinely interested in going over math problems. So, we solved single variable equations for the period. They were a really superb group of kids, and I was looking forward to that class again. That was all for the day and I was dismissed.

I was getting into a bit of a rhythm by the second day of teaching. On my way to class I stopped by the stationary shop and picked up a notebook, which I immediately put to good use. I cut out small sections and had each kid write their name and place the name-tag on their desk to help me get to know them better. It was a good first day exercise, but I had totally forgot about it on Day 1. Rookie mistake. At the end of class, I picked up the name-tags so I could do a little homework of my own memorizing all the kids names. I found that, for the most part, the three classes represented different grades of unruliness: 7th was the most, 6th in the middle, and 8th was a breeze. The classes were all full of good kids, but some were harder to manage than others. In the afternoon, after classes, I headed with Bobby to a tea plantation to meet some kids I was supposed to teach English to for the rest of my stay, and found them quite nice. There were no books and the kids were ace at the alphabet and counting, so we mostly drew pictures and played games, learning a few words along the way. Some teacher I was!

The third day of teaching brought a bit of a realization: the other teachers were still teaching math and english regardless of what I taught. Initially I was hugely disappointed by this development, but realized that there was no malice intended and, as I would become more intimately familiar during my tenure, that's just how this school works: totally disorganized. So, I set about using my time with the kids to help them further understand the math and English assignments given to them and working with them on their homework. I also introduced the game Hangman, which was to be a favorite of all the kids, and we would play a little bit pretty much everyday. I figured it was good for helping their spelling and I would introduce harder words each time, before letting some of the kids choose words to use. At the tea plantation, I brought some markers and paper from my notebook to do some drawing. When the kids were done drawing, we learned some of the English words for the pictures they drew, like "river," "mountain" and "flag." That was satisfying to help them pick up some vocabulary, even though I didn't have any idea how to properly teach them English.

Friday was filled with more math exercises and games in the morning. The most eventful part of class was finding out, from my students, that Monday was a holiday and not to show up. When I went to confirm with the staff, they replied, "Oh yeah, no class." That was all. Oh, India. This was followed by hanging with the kids at the tea plantation in the afternoon. There, I pulled out my iPhone and the kids and I had some fun snapping pictures. They were pretty enthralled, and though they do not know much English, they know "camera." Thoroughly enjoyable time with the kids that day.

On Saturday, I headed off on  my first excursion. Destination: Dharamshala, the home to His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Also home to many western backpackers preparing for treks into the Indian Himalaya I would find. After a dizzying hour-long bus ride through the foothills of the Himalaya, I arrived at Dharamshala, and immediately headed to the hilltop town of McLeod Ganj, just outside of Dharamshala, where the heart of Tibetan culture--including the Dalai Lama--resides. There are two methods to getting to McLeod Ganj from Dharamshala: walking and taxi. I was going to take a taxi, but upon leaving the bus station, I asked a few young folks if I could join them on the walk. It turned out these kind folk were Tibetan refugees and moved to McLeod Ganj in 2008. Now they were on holiday from studies in other parts of India and visiting family. On the 9km walk up a beastly hill, we discussed the status of Tibet and their hopes for freedom in their lifetime. They were not overly optimistic, but the prevailing opinion was that as more refugees come to India, the collective Tibetan voice will become louder and the issue will gain more exposure. After parting company with the kind Tibetans and wishing them luck in their studies, and their fight for freedom, I spent the rest of the day checking emails in the internet cafe, purchasing a few new reads, including Jon Krakauer's intense account of his summit of Everest called "Into Thin Air." Also, I tried a little traditional Tibetan fare called Momos, which are small vegetable-filled steamed dumplings with a spicy sauce accompaniment. Quite tasty indeed. On the way out of town, I visited the temple housing the Dalai Lama's residence and found the monks in the courtyard paired off arguing, which I found out later was a mental exercise challenging fellow monks to contemplate a philosophical question. Unfortunately, the Lama was out on the road, so I could not stop in for a chat. Maybe next time.

Sunday was a lazy day, with the only notable activity being an exploration of the city of Palampur where I purchased a soccer ball to give to the kids at the tea plantation. They were without much in the way of games, and I thought this would give us another activity for Tuesday. The rest of the day I spent reading and eating Joginder's fabulous feasts.

Monday, without class, I decided to go hiking a little ways outside Palampur to see if I could get an even better view of the Himalaya than I had from my front deck, so I headed to Neugal Cafe. As I started walking, I started to feel a bit queasy and ended up cutting my hike short and finding a nice rock overlooking the town of Palampur and the rolling hills in the valley preceding the Himalaya. I enjoyed the hot sun and cool breeze as I sat reading my book and enjoying the views, before heading back towards Palampur in the early afternoon. On the way down, a kind fellow offered me a lift back to town. He was a retired contractor working on consulting projects for the local planning commission and was just back from a site outside of town. We chatted briefly before he dropped me a short distance from the Bus Stand and I made my way back to the house. From there, things took a turn for the worse. I still felt a little nauseous and my lunch of chapati and jam was not well received by my tummy. The rest of the day and all of the night were spent commuting to and from the bathroom as Pepto Bismal struggled to combat the bug. I spent Tuesday curled up in the fetal position recovering, and was ready for a strong Wednesday at school.

The Wednesday I received was solid too. I started out by finding out that Friday was another holiday, and so no class. Again, this came from my students and had to be confirmed with the staff. This meant that in two weeks, I would teach a grand total of 6 days. High impact right there, folks. But, the kids were great and were already sad to see me leave. We played some games and worked on Math in 6th and 8th grade and read a story in the 7th grade class, to which their comprehension was up dramatically from the previous days. Where before they would just read and move on, this day they actually could answer the comprehension questions at the end of the story. So, I decided the next day, my last, would be candy and games for the kids. This was probably not well-received by the lady-teachers who would have a fun afternoon of hopped-up pre-teens, but then again they were not so keen on my presence, so oh well. In the afternoon, I finally got the chance to give the kids the soccer ball I purchased on the weekend, which went over well. We spent the afternoon playing a little 4v4 in the rows between tea plants.

My last teaching day at Gayan Deep was by far the most interesting. First, the already disorganized schedule was further muddled as while I was waiting to start teaching the 6th graders, another teacher walked in and started teaching. When I inquired as to when I was supposed to teach, she made a comment about this being her period. Oh well, it was my last day, and I was armed with candy! So, I bounced between classes in a completely random schedule, including being literally dragged by some third graders into their teacher-less class to practice english and shake hands (a favorite of the little ones). After saying good-bye to the kids at lunch time, I headed home with a heavy heart but loads of good memories after just two weeks. In the afternoon, we played with my camera and engaged in some general rough-housing, made educational with some practice of the English words we had previously learned.

Friday morning I headed to Palampur to snap some pictures of the town before heading to the meet the kids at the tea plantation for some cricket--a game I still am not quite sure how to play. We played for a few hours amongst the tea plants, and my crowning achievement was hitting one headed for a 6, only to hit a tree and drop into the awaiting arms of the opposition. Wicket. Those last two sentences encapsulate 90% of my understanding of cricket and the terminology. After saying good-bye to the kids, I headed back with a heavy heart yet again, but definitely loads of memories from my time with those great little kids. In the evening, I explained to Joginder that the kids and I played cricket and how fun it was, so he suggested we go to watch the local team, Kings XI Punjab, play on television. So, after dinner, we headed to Monal Restaurant, an establishment close to the house and run by one of the teachers at Gayan Deep, and watched an inning over some banana lassis as Joginder tried to explain a little more about the rules. I picked some more up, but was still light years away from properly understanding the game.

That night marked the end of my Palampur adventure, as the next morning I would head to Amritsar, Punjab, to see one of the most important Sikh temples, made entirely of gold and aptly named the Golden Temple.