First substantial post...ever

Well, first I should apologize for not doing a better job of writing in this blog or writing emails. My days here are very busy, but I could probably have made some time for it. So, sorry.

Where do I start? This is going to be hard, because over the past month and a half, I've experienced so much that deserves to be shared. Do I move chronologically, or start at the present and work backwards?

Well, I guess I'll start by detailing my day today, and from that you can probably get a sense of what my life is like here. I'll try to fill in the blanks of the past six or six and a half weeks sometime later. (Incidentally, it is AJWS's policy that fellows should not put the name of the organization they are working for in their blogs, so I'm not going to. If you want to know, email me!)

My alarm went off at 6:45, but it didn't pull me out of too deep a sleep; the pigeons that call my windowsills home had already been cooing their stupid heads off since some time soon after sunrise. Indians apparantly don't distinguish between pigeons and doves, so when I complain about it I'm just told that they're symbols of peace, and that the cooing is nice. People don't seem to understand my opinion that pigeons are filthy, worthless animals unfit to be called birds.

I lifted the mosquito net up and climbed out of bed, and moved over to my desk, which, besides my bed, is the sole piece of furniture in my room. I turned on the computer, and connected to the internet by way of my absurdly expensive wireless modem, purchased almost exactly a week ago. Being able to check the New York Times in the morning is calming for me, since I've been doing it almost every morning for the past 6 years or so. It was a bit odd not being able to do it for the first 5 weeks here; since I'm somewhat addicted to the news, I was going through a mild withdrawal.

After washing my face, brushing my teeth (with water from a small cooler I keep in my room, not from the tap) and putting on some clothes, I headed out of the dorm in which I'm staying and into the dining hall, about a two minute walk away. I brought my plate, bowl and spoon (all made of stainless steel) with me; everyone is responsible for their own dishes here. I sat at the teachers table, and said good morning to a few of the friends I've made. The lines for food were long, since there are about 170 students here, plus staff, so I waited until they'd shortened to go get my food. This morning's breakfast was some kind of yellow rice that I don't really know how to describe, and chai. When I finished eating, I went over to the washing area to clean my plate. First, I used my spoon to push some ash (leftover from the fire that cooked last night's meal) onto my plate and bowl, and then moved the ash around with my hand until it had wiped away the oil residue. Then, I washed my plate in the communal sinks. There are five sinks. The first is to rinse off the ash or dirt, and that is the only one with running water. The second is also for cleaning off the dirt, and you just kind of dip your dish into the sitting water. The third is soapy, and the fourth and fifth are for cleaning off the soap. All the "grey water" from the sinks is later used to water the plants on the campus here. It's part of the "eco-san" system that I'll describe later.

I brought my plate into the staff room, where I've been teaching English classes. It's a small room with a round table and a blackboard made of plywood painted black. I basically make my own teaching schedule, and I leave the first period free so I don't have to rush breakfast and can plan my lessons. So, from 8 till 9:30, I made some notes for the day's lessons, studied a bit of Gujarati, and zoned out a little. There was a 15 minute break at 9:30, and at 9:45 I started the advanced English class for the 5 best students from the computer course and the photography/videography course. I enjoy that class, because the students are enthusiastic and have a relatively high English ability. I taught for the full 90 minutes until the next break at 11:15. The staff then came in (it is the staff room, remember) and had tea. Everyone is always curious to see what's on the board.

From just before noon until 1, I had my first class with the police traning course students. That course is made up of 8 boys and 1 girl, all of whom are about 20 years old, give or take a few years. The instructor is a great guy who speaks English pretty well, had a graduate degree in something or other, and generally impresses me. The students are friendly, and remind me a bit of the sports course students I taught at one of my high schools in Japan, though of course they're older and more mature. But they are similar in that they are not shy at all, and have good senses of humor. One of them makes me call him Rocky, another goes by John Cena (who apparantly is a WWF star), and another goes out of his way to talk to me around campus.

Anyway, I did my self-introduction lesson (well-honed from two years in Japan), and had the students write introductions for themselves. The lunch bell rang just as we were finishing going over "classroom English" (with sentences like "Could you say that again please?" and "Please wait just a minute").

I grabbed my plate, and went over to the dining hall, again waiting until the lines had shortened before getting up. Lunch today was some kind of vegetable sauce thing and rotli, which is the Gujarati word for chapati, which is the Hindi word for what is basically a tortilla. It was a little spicy, and not the best meal I've had here. At the table, a few teachers asked me about the staff English class I was to teach in the afternoon, and I reminded them that today was for advanced English, Tuesday for medium, and Wednesday for basic. They seemed excited to come, and practiced by saying things like, "You want onion? Take onion! Food tasty, na? I am English!"

After lunch I taught the lower level students--about 12 of them--from the computer course. It actually went really poorly, despite the fact that previous classes had gone well. I think I was pushing them a bit too hard. It's hard to make classes when all the resources you have are a blackboard, some chalk, and a dictionary, but I should have made a greater effort to keep the lessons fun instead of overly focused on grammar. After the class finished (I ended it after only 45 minutes, because everyone looked out of it), I scribbled some ideas for English games to keep things interesting for them.

I used the next period to study Gujarati and make some additional notes for the staff class. At 5 (the end of classes for the students) I joined the students and staff in a snack of tea and little fried dough nuggets, and then went back to the staff room. Some of the teachers with the highest level of English didn't show up, so I ended up doing a class at a slightly lower level than I had planned, but it still went fine. I introduced myself for a while, and then had the teachers and staff write their own introductions. It went pretty well, and I felt good about it. Class ended at 6:30 (only an hour).

7 pm is "prayer" time. They use the word loosely, and what happens from 7 to 7:30 is not what I think of when somebody says the word prayer, but in any case it's pretty cool. Usually, it is lead by the guy who runs the organization, a really charismatic, intelligent man of about fifty who is basically awesome personified. But today he had to leave early for some other engagement (his presence is in high demand for all kinds of events, both within India and abroad...a few weeks ago he was in Switzerland for some human rights conference), so prayer was lead by a much younger staff member. Regardless, it followed the same structure of all the sessions. Everyone sat down on the floor of the prayer hall--the girls on the left, the boys in the right, lined up in neat rows. It began with a 5 minute silent meditation, following which one boy and one girl read something illustrating the theme of the day, and then the staff member leading the prayer lectured about the topic for about 15 minutes. At the end, as per usual, there was a song, this time lead beautifully by a female student and sung in the traditional Gujarati folk style. How can I describe it? I can't. Sorry.

After prayer was dinner at 7:30 (a rice-thing with spicy sauce), and now here I am in my room, typing away. The students have diary/reflection time in the prayer hall from 9 to 9:30, and I'm supposed to be there too, but I thought it was more important to finally write something in this blog.

I will definitely post more stuff and fill in some of the many holes I've left here. I'll try to write in this thing at least once a week, at least for the next few weeks. There's been so much that's been worth writing that I sometimes feel at a loss of where to even start, because if I want to get it all down I'd have to just summarize, which wouldn't do it justice. Feel free to email me any time you want. Take care!