Indeed! 6 days left. Well, it’s been fun. Fun because last weekend I went to Amritsar by bus and had a dip in the holy pool that surrounds the Golden Temple. Why was that fun? Because tradition means that men go in their underwear. I am glad Annike – a new friend of mine – convinced me to go actually. Aside from the peace that surrounds the temple and the free community kitchen, on the bus ride there the views were phenomenal. I woke up at about 7am, and past my new sleeping friends were flat plains with a few trees that met the mist at the horizon – like they went on forever – in a gorgeous mix of pale green and pale grey.
We also caught the border guard parade at the Pakistani border, which was quite something. It’s like a competition to see which guards from which country can stomp towards the border with the most ferocity. There are seats on both sides, too, which are packed with cheering crowds spurring on their ‘warriors’ (guards, but they may as well have been).
A challenge it has also been. 75% of my students in the second slum I teach at were missing by the end, due mostly to exams. Can you imagine trying to teach with that? It felt almost pointless sometimes. I am glad I came though. The students that do come – and almost all of the students in my other slum came continuously – have made pleasing progress, and it feels good to know that I taught them something so important to them.
I know I’ve said this before, but I definitely feel like I have learned a lot here, and about so many different things; decision-making, teaching, cultures, clarity, people, learning, and happiness to name but a few.
I must say, I’m upset about something though. I was going to pretend I’d been sent to hospital for April Fool’s Day because I’d fallen two stories from my balcony but I completely forgot. Terrible…J It would have been a great way to get back at Freddy (Asha founder), who, on the way to a dinner one night, told me all about this beautiful woman we were picking up, made me go and get her from her apartment, only for me to discover I was actually picking up a man. “You’re meant to be a woman” I believe is my quote of the year. Something like that anyway.
I’m so glad I came here. I’ve learned to go with my gut more when it comes to decisions (I’m faster now!), know that I need – and love – peace and quiet, and have realized that lack of appreciation can really kill your happiness, even if you have the world.
On that note, I shall leave you. Many thanks to all who sponsored me – you have done a good thing.
Warm and final regards,
Jon
пятница, 18 апреля 2008 г.
пятница, 21 марта 2008 г.
A bit of peace and quiet
Two months have passed? No way. It has certainly continued being amazing. The kids have been having exams - and consequently were not turning up to lessons - so we declared this past week a break for them. I still find it crazy how alike kids are all over the world. Aside from the fact that everyone stresses about exams, body language is always essentially the same. For example, I can tell when my students are lying to me, even if I have no idea what they are actually saying.
While on this very agreeable break I took a bus up to McLeod Ganj - where the Dalai Lama lives - which was very quiet and peaceful. There were protests going on concerning Tibet but I wasn’t generally near them. I stayed just above McLeod Ganj in a hotel that overlooked a valley topped by the Himalayas. So it was pretty nice!
I managed to get lots of reading done, too, a favourite pastime of mine I often do not make time for in the West. If you have not read Paulo Coelho, then do! He is an incredible writer and one of the wisest I know. I am still learning the importance of just relaxing and being quiet sometimes.
And hey, that’s about it... I could bore you with all the lessons I think I’ve learned while I’ve been here, but I’m going to leave it there.
Many blessings!
Jon
While on this very agreeable break I took a bus up to McLeod Ganj - where the Dalai Lama lives - which was very quiet and peaceful. There were protests going on concerning Tibet but I wasn’t generally near them. I stayed just above McLeod Ganj in a hotel that overlooked a valley topped by the Himalayas. So it was pretty nice!
I managed to get lots of reading done, too, a favourite pastime of mine I often do not make time for in the West. If you have not read Paulo Coelho, then do! He is an incredible writer and one of the wisest I know. I am still learning the importance of just relaxing and being quiet sometimes.
And hey, that’s about it... I could bore you with all the lessons I think I’ve learned while I’ve been here, but I’m going to leave it there.
Many blessings!
Jon
пятница, 29 февраля 2008 г.
Firm Foundations
Hello all!
45 days! That seems like a while. Surely I haven’t been here that long? Well, fortunately that means there’s much to say. First of all, HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!! I know it’s a bit late but I simply must tell you some of the cute things the kids wrote in the cards that we got them to make. Here are my favourites:
“My love….is like mutton”
“Love is life, husband and wife, and another knife”
“Love is not like a cabbage.” How true…
We also had some of them insert quotations such as “You are my sunshine” and “My love for you is infinite” for those who didn’t speak as much English. They enjoyed it so much! Many of them are very artistic, and the boys in particular got very into it. Speaking of cards, if you sent me your address you should be getting a letter within the next few weeks!
On a slightly more serious note, did you know that in slums there are often illegal arranged marriages? So no one goes to jail if there are any domestic problems, because it does not officially count as a marriage. Not that the police care enough anyway. Nice, eh?
Teaching is great though. It’s lots of fun trying to make lessons relevant to the kids by using cricket and their Bollywood TV stars as examples in what we’re trying to say.
It would be nicer if all of the students always turned up, but I suppose that is unrealistic here. For example, in one of our classes today - which started off as 25 students strong – only eight kids turned up. That said, in the slum we teach in most often 98% of the kids turn up every time. And I’m still getting used to the smell! Mayapuri (the slum that’s heavily industrial) was very smoky today – I am sure my lungs are not too fond of me at the moment. Having said that, the classrooms are not; you only really smell it when you go outside.
All in all, I thoroughly recommend living in a different culture for a while. I am actually referring to my experience in Kyrgyzstan here, which has proved pretty much invaluable here in terms of teaching English. For, due to the fact that I grew up in a country where very few people know English, it became instinct to know how to talk to such people! Not only do I speak slower and clearer, but – for example – I know that when someone asks a question, to use as much of the vocabulary they used in the question to answer it, because I know they know those words. Just being aware of the vocabulary I am using helps so much.
Well, anyway, I am very tired, so will sign off here.
Warmness,
Jon
45 days! That seems like a while. Surely I haven’t been here that long? Well, fortunately that means there’s much to say. First of all, HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!! I know it’s a bit late but I simply must tell you some of the cute things the kids wrote in the cards that we got them to make. Here are my favourites:
“My love….is like mutton”
“Love is life, husband and wife, and another knife”
“Love is not like a cabbage.” How true…
We also had some of them insert quotations such as “You are my sunshine” and “My love for you is infinite” for those who didn’t speak as much English. They enjoyed it so much! Many of them are very artistic, and the boys in particular got very into it. Speaking of cards, if you sent me your address you should be getting a letter within the next few weeks!
On a slightly more serious note, did you know that in slums there are often illegal arranged marriages? So no one goes to jail if there are any domestic problems, because it does not officially count as a marriage. Not that the police care enough anyway. Nice, eh?
Teaching is great though. It’s lots of fun trying to make lessons relevant to the kids by using cricket and their Bollywood TV stars as examples in what we’re trying to say.
It would be nicer if all of the students always turned up, but I suppose that is unrealistic here. For example, in one of our classes today - which started off as 25 students strong – only eight kids turned up. That said, in the slum we teach in most often 98% of the kids turn up every time. And I’m still getting used to the smell! Mayapuri (the slum that’s heavily industrial) was very smoky today – I am sure my lungs are not too fond of me at the moment. Having said that, the classrooms are not; you only really smell it when you go outside.
All in all, I thoroughly recommend living in a different culture for a while. I am actually referring to my experience in Kyrgyzstan here, which has proved pretty much invaluable here in terms of teaching English. For, due to the fact that I grew up in a country where very few people know English, it became instinct to know how to talk to such people! Not only do I speak slower and clearer, but – for example – I know that when someone asks a question, to use as much of the vocabulary they used in the question to answer it, because I know they know those words. Just being aware of the vocabulary I am using helps so much.
Well, anyway, I am very tired, so will sign off here.
Warmness,
Jon
воскресенье, 10 февраля 2008 г.
Three Weeks
Well, it’s been three weeks since we arrived, and that is truly hard to believe! Delhi is very different from anything we have known, and that is certainly saying something, considering that we as a group (there are four of us now) have collectively lived in Canada, Central Asia, England and Northern Ireland. It is great!
It is also a challenge, and a joy. Graham and I are teaching English together full-time, in two slums, covering about 85 children with 13 lessons a week (we have more lessons than I wrote previously), which makes up to 18 hours of pure teaching, not including lots of planning and travel time. Did you know teachers in India only turn up about 50% of the time?
It is hard to describe the happiness of these children. For some reason I expected everyone to be sad, for their quality of life is extremely poor, but quite the contrary, they seem happier than we are!
Indeed, just from being here you start to wonder what exactly it is that makes us happy…these kids have little food, tiny houses, no money and no safety, and yet – somehow – they are still full of joy and energy and love. Lunch breaks in Mayapuri (the second slum), for example, are carefully planned so that we have time to play with the 15 or so children that always turn up. The kids actually fight to get to us! I would not be surprised if more start turning up, either, for there are 10,000 people in Mayapuri, and most of them will be kids.
In other news, I recommend The Lotus Temple (soon to be The Baha’i House of Worship), which is very beautiful, shaped like a lotus (surprise!!!), and echoes inside last about six seconds! Very quiet and very peaceful.
Asha is also much bigger than I realized…they work in 46 slums, and their work is statistically very widespread and effective. Many of the children we see from day to day were being cared for medically by Asha before they were born, and thank goodness.
With care,
Jon
It is also a challenge, and a joy. Graham and I are teaching English together full-time, in two slums, covering about 85 children with 13 lessons a week (we have more lessons than I wrote previously), which makes up to 18 hours of pure teaching, not including lots of planning and travel time. Did you know teachers in India only turn up about 50% of the time?
It is hard to describe the happiness of these children. For some reason I expected everyone to be sad, for their quality of life is extremely poor, but quite the contrary, they seem happier than we are!
Indeed, just from being here you start to wonder what exactly it is that makes us happy…these kids have little food, tiny houses, no money and no safety, and yet – somehow – they are still full of joy and energy and love. Lunch breaks in Mayapuri (the second slum), for example, are carefully planned so that we have time to play with the 15 or so children that always turn up. The kids actually fight to get to us! I would not be surprised if more start turning up, either, for there are 10,000 people in Mayapuri, and most of them will be kids.
In other news, I recommend The Lotus Temple (soon to be The Baha’i House of Worship), which is very beautiful, shaped like a lotus (surprise!!!), and echoes inside last about six seconds! Very quiet and very peaceful.
Asha is also much bigger than I realized…they work in 46 slums, and their work is statistically very widespread and effective. Many of the children we see from day to day were being cared for medically by Asha before they were born, and thank goodness.
With care,
Jon
пятница, 25 января 2008 г.
7 days later
Well, a week has passed, and much has happened!
Firstly, I have realized that teaching English, while difficult, is not nearly as hard as I thought it would be initially. I have Graham, who took a teaching course and so knows the ropes a bit, and once we got started we relaxed more, because we were actually having fun. Standing up in front of people I have always enjoyed, and the kids are so happy and energetic it’s hard not to get swept along! It is tiring trying to keep up your energy level during class to make it fun, as well as trying to account for a range of abilities within each class, but I think we’ll be fine.
I cannot tell you much about what the slums are like yet (we’ve been teaching lots!), though I have seen a house that is 8 foot by 10 foot, and the others do not tend to be much bigger. Also, at the Mayapuri slum where we teach two days a week, the air is so polluted there that your head and face start itching within minutes of being outside. Most of the adults we see on the way to the centre are covered in black soot and grease from the work they are doing. While we only teach about 40 kids there, in the entire slum live about 10,000 people.
We are cooking for ourselves too! It is lots of fun because you can’t always get what you want but you realize that the next best thing still tastes good when you’re hungry. Speaking of which, red powder, while obviously spicy, is about 8 times stronger than chilli powder in England. We found that out the hard way!
Warm Regards,
Jon
Firstly, I have realized that teaching English, while difficult, is not nearly as hard as I thought it would be initially. I have Graham, who took a teaching course and so knows the ropes a bit, and once we got started we relaxed more, because we were actually having fun. Standing up in front of people I have always enjoyed, and the kids are so happy and energetic it’s hard not to get swept along! It is tiring trying to keep up your energy level during class to make it fun, as well as trying to account for a range of abilities within each class, but I think we’ll be fine.
I cannot tell you much about what the slums are like yet (we’ve been teaching lots!), though I have seen a house that is 8 foot by 10 foot, and the others do not tend to be much bigger. Also, at the Mayapuri slum where we teach two days a week, the air is so polluted there that your head and face start itching within minutes of being outside. Most of the adults we see on the way to the centre are covered in black soot and grease from the work they are doing. While we only teach about 40 kids there, in the entire slum live about 10,000 people.
We are cooking for ourselves too! It is lots of fun because you can’t always get what you want but you realize that the next best thing still tastes good when you’re hungry. Speaking of which, red powder, while obviously spicy, is about 8 times stronger than chilli powder in England. We found that out the hard way!
Warm Regards,
Jon
пятница, 18 января 2008 г.
First Impressions
Well, well, dear readers, hello!
The past two days have been intense. Taking in all the sounds, all the sights, trying desperately to learn any Hindi whatsoever, remembering everyone’s name, planning meals and mentally preparing myself for the task ahead have all been tiring. Delhi traffic is the most dangerous I’ve ever seen and the loudest I’ve ever heard. The concept of lanes, for example, does not really exist. I am getting used to the driving, though, and the constant horn-honking apparently becomes like music after a while (or, at the very least, it will feel strange when I return to England where the roads are quieter).
I have also experienced culture shock for the first time I can truly remember, for even though I have been moving cultures a lot, I am now in a completely different culture from anything I know, I do not speak the language, and I am doing something I have never done before.
Concerning what I am going to be doing – I have just been told that the only thing scheduled for me to do is to teach English to 60 beginners (divided into 4 groups) 5 days a week, which will take up most of my time, and anything else will have to be off of my own back (i.e. I’ll have to think of it). This is not the impression I got, but life does go on! I am terrified and euphoric, because while I am completely unprepared for this, it will be a test of my (and my roommate, Graham’s) creativity, work ethic and endurance, and we both want to do well. Graham – who, by the way, is a very nice Irishman – has done a short teacher-training course, which should be helpful.
A few quotations before I leave. Today we went to one of the health clinics, and there we had a chat with the women from the local slum, with Dr Kiran (Asha founder) translating. They described how local politicians care nothing about them, and that a term in office is viewed as a race to grab the most amount of money possible:
“The very air you breathe is corrupt”
Furthermore, when Asha started redoing one of the houses, they were told that they were not allowed, for it was a government building. The women then rallied together and kicked out the official, saying:
“You do nothing for us and yet when someone else tries to help us you make it difficult for them!”
No matter how much we teach, I am sure we will learn a lot here!
The past two days have been intense. Taking in all the sounds, all the sights, trying desperately to learn any Hindi whatsoever, remembering everyone’s name, planning meals and mentally preparing myself for the task ahead have all been tiring. Delhi traffic is the most dangerous I’ve ever seen and the loudest I’ve ever heard. The concept of lanes, for example, does not really exist. I am getting used to the driving, though, and the constant horn-honking apparently becomes like music after a while (or, at the very least, it will feel strange when I return to England where the roads are quieter).
I have also experienced culture shock for the first time I can truly remember, for even though I have been moving cultures a lot, I am now in a completely different culture from anything I know, I do not speak the language, and I am doing something I have never done before.
Concerning what I am going to be doing – I have just been told that the only thing scheduled for me to do is to teach English to 60 beginners (divided into 4 groups) 5 days a week, which will take up most of my time, and anything else will have to be off of my own back (i.e. I’ll have to think of it). This is not the impression I got, but life does go on! I am terrified and euphoric, because while I am completely unprepared for this, it will be a test of my (and my roommate, Graham’s) creativity, work ethic and endurance, and we both want to do well. Graham – who, by the way, is a very nice Irishman – has done a short teacher-training course, which should be helpful.
A few quotations before I leave. Today we went to one of the health clinics, and there we had a chat with the women from the local slum, with Dr Kiran (Asha founder) translating. They described how local politicians care nothing about them, and that a term in office is viewed as a race to grab the most amount of money possible:
“The very air you breathe is corrupt”
Furthermore, when Asha started redoing one of the houses, they were told that they were not allowed, for it was a government building. The women then rallied together and kicked out the official, saying:
“You do nothing for us and yet when someone else tries to help us you make it difficult for them!”
No matter how much we teach, I am sure we will learn a lot here!
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