9 June 2010

So I can’t decide which are worse, third grade boys or fourth grade boys. When I taught CCD to fourth graders my senior year of high school, I was convinced there could be nothing worse. Now I’m not so sure. The girls can be a handful themselves at times, but they’re nowhere near the troublemakers that the boys are. Today we had to teach a combined class of third and fourth graders, which we knew wasn’t going to go well before it even started. There was barely enough space in the classroom, and everyone was fighting and hitting each other. We had to make one boy and girl sit outside, and they definitely got a couple whacks on the head for it (not from us, of course). We tried to teach shapes today… well, four of them: circle, triangle, square, and rectangle. I’m pretty sure that maybe three kids got it… and that might be overestimating.

The sixth standard is much easier to deal with. I’m pretty sure the boys are in love with Christi and I. This is actually a good thing, since it’s easy to force them to do things when they’re intent on impressing us. Christi brought her video camera to class today, and we tried to get the kids to talk on camera. The girls were too shy to do anything but wave and giggle, but we got one of the boys, Prajwel, to introduce himself. He’s probably going to be the next Dev Patel, that is, if we have any say in the matter (yes, Melissa, we succeeded in finding him… sort of).

Today Christi and I also started a small evening tutoring session with some of the girls that are behind in their studies. There are four of them—Ambika and Shylu from 4th standard and Ashwini and Lakshmi from 6th standard. These girls still don’t know the alphabet, so we tried to make progress with that. In the end, we had to focus on only part of the alphabet, A through I. Progress is going to be slow.

In other news, Christi went to the doctor on Monday to seek treatment for her mysterious illness/swollen glands. It was this little hole-in-the-wall office, and like many places in India, you had to take your shoes off before you went inside. The good news is that Christi is feeling better, though this is mostly due to the passing of time (seeing as how she actually hasn’t taken any of her prescribed medicine). The experience of accompanying her on this doctor visit has also helped remind me of my goal of NOT getting sick while in India.

Lucky for us, the doctor’s visit also required a nice, long car ride. I’m sure you can guess that it was a very safe, smooth ride there and back. Before coming back, we stopped in a marketplace so Sister Mary could buy a few small things. “A few small things” also included the biggest bags of rice I’ve ever seen. Each one probably weighed as much as me. During this time, we were once again abandoned in the vehicle (this happened in the Bangalore marketplace, too). Don’t worry, the windows were rolled down… but I’m starting to really understand why exactly you should never leave children or pets in a car alone in severe heat. The effects are both physical and emotional.

I’m also going to run out of reading material before the summer is over. I brought three books here and I’m already on the third. (Hey Kevin, remember that time you loaned me that Kerouac book? The one I never gave back? Well, you should be proud, because I’m finally reading it.) I’ll move on to Christi’s afterwards, but that might only get me through June. What are the chances there’s an English language bookstore anywhere around these parts?