19 June

19 June 2010

This morning, in lieu of the traditional school assembly, there was a swearing in ceremony for class leaders. Apparently at this time every year, the students elect leaders, one for each grade. Then, as a whole, the school is divided into teams, each with a 6th or 7th grade captain. The teams are for a competition that culminates on Independence Day, which is August 15th in India. The competition involves everything from classwork and grades to behavior and ethics. Think Harry Potter and the House Cup. There’s a prize for the winners, though I’m not sure what it is. Anyways. The class leaders and team captains got “sworn in” in front of their classmates. They were all dressed in white. Sister Maria told us that the positions are taken very seriously. They’re supposed to set an example for all the other students. I think we’re going to use this to our advantage over the next month.

So during class today, we played a G-rated version of “Hangman” that we like to call the “Flower Game.” Original, I know. Instead of drawing an executed person on the board, we draw a flower. It’s more family-friendly. We hadn’t yet introduced this game to 5th standard (since they can’t exactly spell), but we decided to attempt it today. They caught on fairly quickly (minus the spelling issues). However, this whole raise-your-hand rule? Not so much. They understand the raising their hands part, but then they proceed to jump up and down and scream out answers, or worse, beg us to call on them. “Auntie, Auntie! AUNTIIIIEEEE! Please, Auntie, PLEEEEASE!” Those screams haunt me in my sleep. Sahana, the class leader for 5th standard, was the worst beggar of them all. We scolded her for not setting a good example for the other kids, and she was quiet as a mouse for the next five minutes. Those were the best five minutes of the whole class.

Classes on Saturdays only run from 8:00 to 11:00, and after that, the students have recess for about half an hour. Usually during breaks or playtime, the girls like to play clapping/hand games with us, or games that resemble American games but have been modified to Indian standards (like Ring around the Rosie… which, here, is in some interesting Indian-English language that Christi and I still can’t decipher). Today, however, the boys decided to take over and make us play sports. For the majority of the time I played “shuttlecock” with Kiran, a boy in 7th standard. The game was pretty intense… he even got me to trip over a bag of dry cement lying in the yard. I was completely graceful about it, of course. By graceful, I mean that I think I sprained my toe, if that’s even possible.

The biggest event of the day was Christi’s and my transformations into complete Indians. Sister Mary had picked up our completed sari blouses from the tailor the night before, so Sister Maria came up to our rooms before teatime to help us try them on. So. Much. Fabric. Putting on a sari is a complicated process, in case you were wondering. It involves a lot of pinning and wrapping and folding. When we were finished, Sister Maria gushed over how “cute” we looked and then she paraded us around the convent. The girls freaked out, to put it nicely. After tea we got attacked with hairbrushes and bindis and even glitter for our faces. Yes, glitter… then necklaces, bangles, rings, watches, and earrings. An entire hour later, the girls dragged us around the grounds for a photo shoot (ha, just wait until you see these photos). We went to evening mass dressed in our saris. Keeping our heads covered using the extra material was difficult… and the women make it look so easy on Sunday mornings.

After mass, we came back to find the girls watching TV. We thought they were watching the news, but we were mistaken. First of all, the program wasn’t in Kannada or Hindi, it was in Tamil, a language spoken in a different state of India (two girls tried to teach me some of it the other day… I failed). I’m not sure how many girls here understand Tamil, but it can’t be that many. Anyways, it turns out that this program was a movie, and not just any movie, it was an English movie dubbed over in Tamil. It was most definitely a horror movie. If there’s a Final Destination 5, that’s probably what it was. Sister Maria said the girls are going to keep us up all night because they’ll scream in their sleep… I’m just glad I wasn’t forced to watch it.

Speaking of which, I’m off to sleep, but a few last comments before I go:
1. It is not easy to walk in a sari. I don’t know how women do things like work or dance in them. Yikes. I’m busy worrying about mine falling off.
2. They served potato chips at tea today. Sister Maria was surprised to hear that we have these in America.
3. Now all I need to do to be 100% Indian is get my nose pierced. Haha, JUST KIDDING, Mom. There is no way that I would let anyone in this country anywhere near me with something that resembles a needle.