My first day at school

So, these last two days I spent teaching English at the local government school and it was a whole new experience! If anyone is the US wants to complain how the government doesn’t provide, well, come here and there won’t be anymore complaints! I entered a school which pretty much has only one classroom (the rest are outside on good ole Mother Nature), no desks and a chalkboard that I haven’t even found yet. The teachers are another story, I doubt the phrase “children are the future” is more than foreign to them, it’s probably nonexistent! I think here, the government tries to find the laziest person who only wants to knit and drink chai and then offers that person a job as a school teacher. Yup, that’s how it goes! (Can I just say a side story in parenthesis? So, these teachers are so absent minded that they even had the nerve to laugh at ME when they found out I do not speak Hindi! Then they snickered in Hindi about me! And did I laugh at the silly teacher’s question he asked me: “You read in America?” No, I didn’t even though it MADE NO SENSE to me!)
But despite the lack of desks and classrooms (and worthy teachers) the children are more than anxious to learn. I’ve never seen such young children work so diligently and be so determined while their teachers are staring into Neverland. When I entered and started teaching English, all the kids stood up and said “Hello Ma’am.” That’s the one complaint I have about the children, I’m too young to be a “Ma’am!” The kids love to learn English and I think bringing in an American teaching approach excited them even more. I forced them to interact with each other in English, not just with me and rewarded their efforts with simple phrases like “Good! That’s great! or wonderful!” I even taught them the simplest game of rock, paper, scissors. It sounds silly but they were playing with each other and learning the concept of winning and loosing in English and even the idea of “championship,” since I took this game to the next level. But I did have to end the day with normal teacher character: homework and boy was I not nice about it either. Pooja was also in my class and she told me afterwards that the other children said that I was a “Good Ma’am,” so I know they enjoyed me. Now I just have to work on their Ma’am calling!
As for the girls at the Ashram, well I started cooking more Gujarati style food and they’re in love! I just add a couple more chilies than Maneesha the cook usually adds but I think the girls have to learn sometime about spice!