Volunteer Teaching – One More Week in Rural India

With the Founders Day celebration behind us at Maa Anandmayee Memorial School in Raiwala, students and teachers could get back to focusing on classes. And we could get back to fulfilling our role as volunteer teachers, and exploring the cultural and natural curiosities of the local community. We didn’t have to go far to have some memorable encounters with the native critters; in fact, as we found out, the monkey population can be rather aggressive toward humans under some circumstances..

The bird is a Greater Flameback

TUESDAY:

No school– exploring the backroads of Raiwala walking to the Song River

The Song River flows into the Ganga

WEDNESDAY:

DENNIS: At about 7:30 a.m. I get a message from the principal that I am needed to fill in for a teacher at 8:00. So I quickly get ready and head over to campus, where I learn that the class I am to teach is 11th Grade Geography. Not a subject I’ve ever taught before, but hey, I know how to wing it. As it turns out, I have two class periods of Geography. These are followed by my usual subject, English: one session with 12th Grade and two with 11th. Both groups are extremely unruly. Having tried everything I can think of to gain their attention, my patience finally wears out in the midst of teaching Grade 12, and I resort to raising my voice at them — something that I have rarely done before, in 3 years of being in a variety of teaching environments. I point out, among other things, that I have volunteered to come here, and if they don’t want me here, I can leave at any time; and I promise them that the class will be enjoyable if they give it a chance. At the beginning of the first 11th Grade class, I repeat essentially the same spiel, but in a somewhat calmer tone. For the time being, both grades behave in a more orderly fashion.

THURSDAY

DENNIS: English literature class with Grades 11 and 12 again. Today I begin to teach them story analysis, using the plots of their favorite moves. They are much more attentive and well behaved today than yesterday.

White-crowned Hornbill in the tree next to our apartment

FRIDAY

DENNIS: I have no classes today (as usual on Friday), making it a very short work week for me. So I take advantage of the time to stroll into the village to do some grocery shopping and hit an ATM (which turns out to be out of order). Along comes a man on a motorbike, and asks, “Where you going?” I answer, “Just walking,” And he goes on his way. It’s common in Indian culture to not only strike up a conversation with total strangers, but to ask questions that some people would consider intrusive, and even rude. But it’s also common to be very helpful toward strangers, even offering them a ride. And apparently that’s what this gentleman had in mind. This becomes clear when another fellow on a motorbike pulls up and, since he evidently does not speak any English, just motions for me to hop on.

Now I’m not at all comfortable riding a motorized two-wheeled conveyance, but this is not the first time I’ve been offered a ride on such a contraption in India; and since I accepted previously, riding with TWO strangers at once (I was desperate to get to a dentist’s appointment at an office I couldn’t locate), I hesitantly figure that I can ride with just one other person this time. So with much trepidation I climb on the back and he zooms away, seeming to know intuitively the general area of my destination. I frantically struggle to make myself more secure and stable, finally figuring out that the best course of action is to hold onto the bars behind me. When he gets to where he is going (his home, I figure, which is on the way, and fairly close to, where I am headed), he stops and indicates that the trip is over. I thank him, he nods, and I continue. I’ve stepped out of my comfort zone, and it not only has saved me some time, but has given me what I would consider the equivalent of an amusement park ride.

Malabar Pied Hornbill

KIMBERLY: At the Junior Wing the younger students are commemorating “Blue Day”. They come to school dressed in blue and color pictures with blue crayons. They line up to pose for pictures with cardboard cutouts of things that are blue.

SATURDAY MORNING

KIMBERLY: I was informed late Friday night that I would be responsible for leading a teachers training workshop at the Junior Campus. So I spent a few hours throwing together an impromptu slide show about what I know on how to teach reading following principles of the Science Of Reading. I spend Saturday morning, putting the finishing touches on it. As the school buses are not running on Saturday and it is not a typical day for me to volunteer, I am not clear about how I am to get to the other campus. I figure they will let me know, but as it gets close to the time to start I still haven’t heard anything. So I contact them to ask about transportation to the Junior Campus. They say they’ll get back to me. About 30 minutes later someone just shows up pounding on our 2nd floor door and yelling something in Hindi. I gather the driver is here and I have to scramble to get ready to leave. Furthermore, I end up having to pay the driver myself. I am promised a refund. (Spoiler alert: I never get it.)

The workshop seems to go well and after an hour and a half I have covered all of the material. The staff, however seems surprised that it didn’t last longer; apparently it was supposed to fill 2 hours, another detail that my mind reading skills failed to pick up on.

photos of Teacher Training Workshop from school’s Facebook page

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

Today’s tourist itinerary is taking a stroll down a new route to the Ganga (Ganges) River, only a couple of miles away from us. As we leave our apartment and head out through the clinic downstairs, Dennis is carrying a plastic bag filled with garbage to dispose of. But the monkeys happen to be active at that time, and they know what a plastic shopping bag often signifies. Accordingly, several of them start heading toward him. One of them, an oversized bull, is especially aggressive, and it becomes very clear that he intends to snatch the bag away at all costs. So Dennis heads back inside to wait for them to go away. But they do not go away, In fact, the big alpha male bares his teeth and hurls himself against the glass door as if he expects to break it. Kimberly, meanwhile, is already outside, and witnessing the comic spectacle with camera in hand. Finally, a man in the lobby picks up a large stick from one of several kept in the lobby for the purpose, and chases the brutes away. From this we learn to keep a cudgel near the door when we head outside — a staff staff — and to be discreet about plastic bags.

Pilot Baba Ghat by the Ganges

Down by the river, we pass a mandir and a ghat. A mandir is a temple, and a ghat is a set of steps that people use to access the water for Hindu ritual purposes. On this day, the ghat doesn’t have much work to do, because the water level is extremely low, in both the Ganga and the Song Rivers.

As we’re approaching home, we’re a bit wary of the monkeys. Maybe they’ll remember, and maybe they’ll still expect us to be armed with grub. But no, the few who are loitering about pay us no heed. It seems they have a short memory, or else their impulses don’t get triggered until they see a plastic bag. So we have a clean slate with them. And we have another unique (we hope) encounter to enter into the annals of our adventures.

10/22-26/2024

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