We went to Auroville yesterday!!! I heard so much about it before we came to India, and have talked to many people here in India about the unique vision of this little city, so it was exciting to finally make it there.....it's only 45 minutes away from us here in Kadapakkam, so it's kind of funny that we hadn't been there yet! For those not familiar with Auroville - it is a city outside of Pondicherry founded about 40 years ago by people aiming to create a completley clobal community....a place that nobody owned and therefore belonged to everyone in the world. Yes, many of these people were hippies. The Uluru Children's Home has a partnership with a group from Auroville that is devoted to reforestation and environmental education. Hopefully construction will begin soon in the UCH compound on an environmental eduction center that will be open to the general community. (There will be a fence deviding it and the main UCH area). The long-term aim is to also return the area adjacent to UCH to how it was years ago before human development and then se that area for nature walks/eduction open to UCH children and the whole community. There are so many exciting things happening at UCH! We also visited a school in between Auroville and Kadapakkam that used to be one of the very worst in Tamil Nadu before this organization became involved about ten years ago. It is now an incredible place for school children, high schools, and locals looking for vocational training. We were treated to a tour of the facilities including the art classroom (!!!), the environmentally friendly water-recycling program, the science classroom, and the general grounds. More ideas for UCH.....
Well, the children are watching "Narnia" - in Tamil...we just spent the day on an epic quest to help them update their photo-albums. It was TRULY epic in scope and execution but I will allow Kate to explain it because she's funny and another Kate's Korner is sorely overdue.
Love to you all!
~Alice
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Musings....
I'm in Mammallapuram and only have a few minutes left on internet.....I was going to post something long, but it's just too overwhelming at the moment. We're leaving the Children's Home on the 27th or 28th which seems so so so soon. This place is so difficult to capture and the longer I'm here, the more normal it seems. It's my life - it's not some social experiment, or exotic adventure anymore. (though it certainly is an adventure, I suppose). I've been here long enough that I've created my own little world. Not that I won't want to come home or won't be excited to see friends and family back home - but my two lives are becoming increasingly separate. I know it will be easier to blog about my travels because again things will be new, and changing, and not my everyday life. That aside....I can find some things to say about the past few days!
Deepa and I taught our last class at the local school on Wednesday. 6th, 7th, and 8th standards are having exams until he 20th and then holidays begin....so we had to finish up! It was a little sad, but luckily we knew it was coming so w taught every day we could last week and this. We have developed quite an extraordinary rapport with 7th standard. There aren't any UCH kids and that standard, so all our relationships there are completely based on our teaching. That somehow makes telling the really bright students off for always answering more fun, more of a game. in 6th and 8th it's kind of awkward because the UCH girls are simply better educated and we know them better, so we have to worry about not playing favorites. There were still lots of good things going on in those classes, but 7th was our big success. One of our last stories was The Lion King. They were so fantastically excited about it and all shouted, "Nooooo!!!" along with me at the point when Simba yells no at Scar because Scar killed his father. (there had been a similar moment in Pocahontas so they were ready!) One of our star students, Prabu, gave Deepa and I a little Indian sweet as a thank you which was too kind of him, but so thoughtful. I'll miss 7th standard! Deepa and I are going to keep coming sticking around school for the fifteen minutes or so after the UCH kids get there and before the bell rings so we can chat with all our students.
I hope all is well with you!
Love,
~Alice
Deepa and I taught our last class at the local school on Wednesday. 6th, 7th, and 8th standards are having exams until he 20th and then holidays begin....so we had to finish up! It was a little sad, but luckily we knew it was coming so w taught every day we could last week and this. We have developed quite an extraordinary rapport with 7th standard. There aren't any UCH kids and that standard, so all our relationships there are completely based on our teaching. That somehow makes telling the really bright students off for always answering more fun, more of a game. in 6th and 8th it's kind of awkward because the UCH girls are simply better educated and we know them better, so we have to worry about not playing favorites. There were still lots of good things going on in those classes, but 7th was our big success. One of our last stories was The Lion King. They were so fantastically excited about it and all shouted, "Nooooo!!!" along with me at the point when Simba yells no at Scar because Scar killed his father. (there had been a similar moment in Pocahontas so they were ready!) One of our star students, Prabu, gave Deepa and I a little Indian sweet as a thank you which was too kind of him, but so thoughtful. I'll miss 7th standard! Deepa and I are going to keep coming sticking around school for the fifteen minutes or so after the UCH kids get there and before the bell rings so we can chat with all our students.
I hope all is well with you!
Love,
~Alice
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Village Games part DEUX
first of all, i hope matthew caught the subtle reference of hotshots in the title......
so i didn't get to a computer the next day, or the next,. and now the thing i typed up won't come off the disk,. so i'll talk abotu something else for now....interestingly, though, village games have come up a LOT recently! In english class yesterday, one of the girls (this was a community class for people 14-25) told me about this game she likes to play with colored coins, and spinning and some set of rules that didn't make it across the language barrier) also....after class I came back to the children's home to find deepa avidly watching some o the girls (12 or so) playing some complicated game that involved one person singing a song while running grom one line, around someone who is sitting a ways away, and then away from chasers positinoed at various places depending on....well, i don't really know what. We were utterly lost. THEN, i played cricket with someone briely and engaged in enthusiastic cheering while a younger girl tried to play badmitton with me. THE ROCKS (!!!) still ahve a special place in my heart. I have spent countless hours throwing and catching little pebbles and i'd be glad to show you all the moves when I'm stateside. There are 33 levels of the rock game according to one UCH inormant.....phew! I've gotten thorugh them all, but, of course, i was lapped MANY times in the process.
We're back at the children's home now and it feels good to be home. (Don't worry, mom, i know where real home is!) Being away made me realize how settled I have started to feel at UCH. When we got off the ECR (main road) bus from Chennai to Alamparai, we were greeted by Muragan, one of the two watchmen at UCH. He was one his way home to the next village or the night, so we were lucky to catch him. It was uncannily idylic to actually step into Kuddapakam and see a familiar face within two seconds. We were all giddy during the auto-ride back....and then overwhlemed by the kids in a very good way. After being back for literally about five minutes we started tutoring our fourth standard group, which was just how we wanted it - they told us we should rest. I had quite a good time with mine in the beginning. One of my girls in that group is increidbly industrious and loves having any new learning thrown at her....when I don't give her something to do, she creates little projects for herself which range rom building the perfect study-fort complete with a seat for both o us and an English notebook etc.....so making up math problems or herself to do. She's kind of a dream to teach. (She can also be quite wild, so it's not all sunshine and daisies, but I really enjoy her) My other girl in that group is without a doubt the most stubborn person I have ever met. She struggles a lot because of that; she is way behind for her age group and doens't like accepting help. She read one book to me very, very well and I was beyond thrilled because that usually takes a huge battle of wills.....She was excited to see me after a hiatus, and so was working hard. Then things got tough for the second half of tutoring time. I think about how best to interact with and help her all the time; I want to appreciate her unconditionally because she hasn't had a lot of unconditional support in her life, but I also can't bend to her incredibly powerful and stubborn will. Sometimes I have to be a bit abrupt and mean with her....and 'm getting surprisingly good at it (I'm kind of a softie.....). I guess it helps to explain that she is quite possessive of me in particular, and truly demands my attention in a bit of an alarming way sometimes. I'll be tutoring her again on tuesday, so I hope it goes well!
A note on Tuesday......about a month and a half ago, Deepa and I changed our schedule such that we teach Monday,. Tuesday, Friday at school.....but since have never taught on Tuesday becaue of the crazy holidays and schedule things that go on here and random days of feeling sick.....so i we actually do teach this Tuesday we're going to have a party. When I say party I mean - we're going to open Kate's bag o Cheese-puffs that Annette sent in the mail! Living on the edge, to be sure! well i don't have much time, so this is totally unedited, but that's okay, my audience will appriciate the authenticity o my typos, perhaps?
Love you you all!
~Alice
PS: Tamsin - if you give me your email I would love to email back and forth about Uluru and answer any questions you have! Where are you from? How did you hear about UCH? I won't respond right away due to internet availibility......but I will respond eventually. All the best, Alice.
so i didn't get to a computer the next day, or the next,. and now the thing i typed up won't come off the disk,. so i'll talk abotu something else for now....interestingly, though, village games have come up a LOT recently! In english class yesterday, one of the girls (this was a community class for people 14-25) told me about this game she likes to play with colored coins, and spinning and some set of rules that didn't make it across the language barrier) also....after class I came back to the children's home to find deepa avidly watching some o the girls (12 or so) playing some complicated game that involved one person singing a song while running grom one line, around someone who is sitting a ways away, and then away from chasers positinoed at various places depending on....well, i don't really know what. We were utterly lost. THEN, i played cricket with someone briely and engaged in enthusiastic cheering while a younger girl tried to play badmitton with me. THE ROCKS (!!!) still ahve a special place in my heart. I have spent countless hours throwing and catching little pebbles and i'd be glad to show you all the moves when I'm stateside. There are 33 levels of the rock game according to one UCH inormant.....phew! I've gotten thorugh them all, but, of course, i was lapped MANY times in the process.
We're back at the children's home now and it feels good to be home. (Don't worry, mom, i know where real home is!) Being away made me realize how settled I have started to feel at UCH. When we got off the ECR (main road) bus from Chennai to Alamparai, we were greeted by Muragan, one of the two watchmen at UCH. He was one his way home to the next village or the night, so we were lucky to catch him. It was uncannily idylic to actually step into Kuddapakam and see a familiar face within two seconds. We were all giddy during the auto-ride back....and then overwhlemed by the kids in a very good way. After being back for literally about five minutes we started tutoring our fourth standard group, which was just how we wanted it - they told us we should rest. I had quite a good time with mine in the beginning. One of my girls in that group is increidbly industrious and loves having any new learning thrown at her....when I don't give her something to do, she creates little projects for herself which range rom building the perfect study-fort complete with a seat for both o us and an English notebook etc.....so making up math problems or herself to do. She's kind of a dream to teach. (She can also be quite wild, so it's not all sunshine and daisies, but I really enjoy her) My other girl in that group is without a doubt the most stubborn person I have ever met. She struggles a lot because of that; she is way behind for her age group and doens't like accepting help. She read one book to me very, very well and I was beyond thrilled because that usually takes a huge battle of wills.....She was excited to see me after a hiatus, and so was working hard. Then things got tough for the second half of tutoring time. I think about how best to interact with and help her all the time; I want to appreciate her unconditionally because she hasn't had a lot of unconditional support in her life, but I also can't bend to her incredibly powerful and stubborn will. Sometimes I have to be a bit abrupt and mean with her....and 'm getting surprisingly good at it (I'm kind of a softie.....). I guess it helps to explain that she is quite possessive of me in particular, and truly demands my attention in a bit of an alarming way sometimes. I'll be tutoring her again on tuesday, so I hope it goes well!
A note on Tuesday......about a month and a half ago, Deepa and I changed our schedule such that we teach Monday,. Tuesday, Friday at school.....but since have never taught on Tuesday becaue of the crazy holidays and schedule things that go on here and random days of feeling sick.....so i we actually do teach this Tuesday we're going to have a party. When I say party I mean - we're going to open Kate's bag o Cheese-puffs that Annette sent in the mail! Living on the edge, to be sure! well i don't have much time, so this is totally unedited, but that's okay, my audience will appriciate the authenticity o my typos, perhaps?
Love you you all!
~Alice
PS: Tamsin - if you give me your email I would love to email back and forth about Uluru and answer any questions you have! Where are you from? How did you hear about UCH? I won't respond right away due to internet availibility......but I will respond eventually. All the best, Alice.
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