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

 

A belated blog...

Apologies for a very delayed next blog! Also apologies for a lack of photos on here, I'm still trying to work out how to put them on here! Life here in India has come back to normal now since our short holiday travelling more sites of India. It was a really nice week to spend away and I was so glad to get to explore more of this interesting country. We had alot of fun looking around Kovalam and enjoying the sunshine, not so much the intense heat though. We also managed to fit in an Elephant ride which was great fun and something you must do once in your lifetime if given the chance.

When we returned back to the compound we still had a few days of relaxing, largely reading and baking, whilst we awaited the children to return back to us again. We initially thought we had 2 weeks with the home children but the Indian government decided to give an extra week's holiday so we've had 3 weeks with them, with some of the older children returning earlier to start their classes, if only such a thing would happen in England! The majority of our time has been spent playing with the children here and doing prayers with them in the evenings but we've also had the odd chance to go into the school and help write out registers or move classrooms around, all preparation work for the start of school again next week. I have been told I will most likely be taking some Art and RE classes when school restarts again on Monday so anticipation is creeping in of what to expect and the difference in teaching in an English classroom with a thousand resources and helpful aids to here in the Indian classroom, which from the sound of is largely on contrast.. I will updated you all soon!

I've also really enjoyed our evenings here with the 3 different families, one of which has been visiting family and friends in Canada and England for the past couple of months so it has been great to start to get to know them and enjoy meals twice a week at their home. Us ladies have also started to make some of our own clothes which has been great fun to learn and something I will really try to continue when I'm home again; please don't all send your measurements at once! As it was James' 19th birthday last week, we also had a party for him to celebrate which was great fun with all the families together and their children; I also particularly loved having my favourite Indian food called Barotta which is sort of like a pastry pancake which you eat with a curry or samba (sauce), so tasty!

We've also seen some beautiful animals here including a snake, baby birds, some beautiful butterflies, lizards, huge toads, billions of ants, baby chipmunks and Labradors. All such amazing creatures of God and all so interesting to catch a glimpse of, especially the faster moving ones like the snake and lizards. Some amazing colours and looks. We also hit a bit of a monsoon week last week and had so much rain for the entire week.I don't think 'heavy down pour' quite makes the cuts for how powerful it was. It also resulted in us only  having a few hours of power over 4 days, something we really take for granted in England!

It appears I have a very busy few weeks ahead of me now with school starting so please do pray for guidance and strength when starting my classes. Also alot of inspiration for what to teach the children would be great, my teaching brain seems to be temporarily switched onto mute.I am still really enjoying my time here and all that India brings, I still eagerly await how I will next be surprised and amazed at something here.