Monday 24 June 2013

A teacher's life...

It has been a very busy 2  weeks since my last post; school has restarted, wedding month is in place and the creepy crawlies are very active.

Friday was a very nerve racing day as I had an unexpected visitor in my room. An also very unwelcome visitor as it was a huge tarantula, bigger than my hand! I was terrified but luckily the families here are very used to dealing with the beasties and so caught him and set hime free, but he was onlly let go as far as the garden so please pray he didnt like his stay too much to come back for round 2.

So to fill you all in we started teaching 2 weeks ago now and for the first 5 days every morning I taught 4th standard (year4). I did maths, english, re and art with them, alot of fun but hard work with the limited english they know! It was also quite a challenge when they started talking Tamil to me expecting me to respond and not registering I had no idea what they were saying. It cant have gone too badly however as on my second day with the class, I received my first teacher gift of a guava from one of my pupils! That class' teacher has now been organised so I am now doing art lessons for the two 4th, the two 5th, 6th and 7th standards. Im also doing a few RE lessons too for the same ages, alot of fun but also can be challenging! The younger pupils can be harder as it can be tricky to get to a stage where they understand what to do and what I want them to do which sometimes takes a long time. That all takes place in the mornings and after we have eaten lunch at the girls home, the afternoon is games  and sports either with senior girls or 4th and 5th. They love rounders and it is alot of fun to play it with them! At half 4 we then go down to the girls home for outdoor games and having fun with them, whatever they want to do really! The younger ones particularly have enjoyed being taught stunck-in-the-mud! 6 o'clock is then prayers which I lead twice a week on tuesdays and thursdays. Evenings are at either of the three families homes which is always great fun watching movies or chatting over dinner.

We got the chance to go to an Indian wedding yesterday, it was such a strange experience; the opposite to any English wedding in england. Even though it was a Christian wedding, in English terms the couple did not appear joyful or happy on their big day, a very traditional Indian part of life.

Josh and Hannah, Sarah and Simon's other children have also come home from their boarding school which is about 6 hours away in a place called Ooty. It has been really nice to start to get to know them and we have had alot of fun dancing and playing games, especially videoing silly dances at their welcome home party.

There is also a new addition to the family called Orion. He arrived Friday morning and is a lovely pony that is going to live here. Luckily Pippa, the other volunteer, has had horses all her life and so is a great help with all her expert knowledge when dealing with him. He has already been keeping us on our toes with a great escape plan on Saturday where we lost him for about half an hour, better precautions have now been put into place like cow ropes and soon a paddock, so hopefully he wont go for another wonder any time soon, especially as an Indian custom when seeing a donkey in the tribal villages is to cut of all their limbs.

God has been teaching me alot out here about being patient and also being brave. I have felt out of my comfort zone quite alot here but God has always shown me how to deal with these circumstances and always shown he's with me. I have had to teach myself that I'm only here to please him and impress him, I don't need to impress anyone else now please anyone else, it is all for him.I hope and pray you are all ok, please get in touch if you can, I'd love to hear from you!

Love, Hannah

 

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