First Impessions

So, its day three of the GVI Kerala project and I am teaching at SDPY with one other girl, Maia. The experience I have had so far has been nothing else that I have ever experienced in my life.

The journey starts at 6.30am with a cold shower (using a bucket) breakfast today consists of a peanut butter and banana sandwich and a litre of water (only 2 to go to reach the minimum needed to avoid passing out). The tuk tuk collects us at 7.30am on the dot, the journey to school is like some kind of kamikaze mission; every sense is taken to the max.! The sights and sounds; the beeping horns carrying on for the entire journey. Smells that are not often pleasant.

This morning I did a netball session with the Manipur kids after breakfast with the orphanage girls. They were awesome, they all picked it up so quickly, although I’m not sure that any decent umpire would be as tolerant as I am over their footwork! This afternoon we are teaching a dance class, Tanja and I are going to teach them how to dance the kuduro. I can hardly wait.

To stop me blithering on I am going to list for you some of the things that I have seen since being in India, this truly is an amazing experience and one that I would recommend with all my heart.

Bollywood movie on the roof with fairy lights, salted cashews, breakfast with the orphanage girls, squat toilets, sweating 24/7, lesson planning trying to control my class of 50 children, houseboat trip booked for the weekend, the heat, lovely food, great people, super cute kids, bottled water, valentine’s day (without my boyfriend), feeling exhausted after a day at school, men in saris, the fish tank in the garden, coconut macaroons after school. Honeymooners on holiday together (3 sets of them) asking for a photo with me and Maia.

Everything is a wonderful experience one that I will treasure forever. The most challenging thing is trying to control the classes, with 40 to 50 noisy, excited children it is complete chaos. It can be difficult to see where we are adding merit, but if we weren’t here then there would be no-one to do this work. The one to one lessons are also difficult; the kids here really struggle with their English. One of my kids has a problem sitting still he is a joy to teach but WOW has he got some energy. The sad thing is that they have nowhere to run around and expend that energy, if they did maybe it would be less bonkers, and they may learn a little more.

Christina x

First Impessions