Mysore summers

OK, so I know, it's been way to long since I updated. Almost two months? Really? I apologize. It has been busy here and I don't often have access to the Internet.

It's beautiful here! The evenings are my favorite time. The thunderclouds roll in and put on quite the show. Bolts of lightning flash from one cloud to the next and it continues to put me in a state of awe. It's wonderful! My favorite part is the rain that follows. The wind and the rain cool off the 105F temperatures from the day making the nights pleasant. Actually, I've been waking up cold as I keep the fan on while I'm sleeping. I actually don't mind that too much. It's much better than waking up sweating, which is what was happening a month ago.

At the beginning of the month I went to visit Bangalore and was able to see the kids at Vathsalya, which was delightful!


Last weekend I went out with some of my students to Planet X. We went bowling and go karting.. and, through playing air hockey, learned the competitive side of one of them is far different from his normal disposition!

About a month ago, before school let out for the summer, some of the kids that attend here were practicing the art style that is seen at the doorstep of most, if not all, Hindu homes. I snapped a couple pictures.


And, as promised awhile ago, here is a photo of me, with my friend Shashi, in authentic Indian garb, eating authentic Indian grub! And a photo with my friend Phoebe and her brother.

Karla and I had the wonderful pleasure, or so we thought, of attending a free concert of a few members from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. We were delighted to go, but when we left we both felt ashamed of the Indian culture's lack of respect toward such well-known people. Going to see the symphony in America is a special occasion, one dresses nicely and remains quiet while the performance is going on. Here, people came in jeans and constantly came in and out of the room, noisily slamming the door behind them. At times it was difficult to hear the performance over the voices of the people around us. How appalling! Another example, this is the stage and setup before the concert began. Please, answer me this if you can: How many men does it take to hang up a sign?

Welcome Summer!

Summer already? Yes, that's right. While I hear that there was snow last week in Seattle, I am diving in to the summer heat. With temperatures of 35/21 listed for today and no precipitation noted for any of the major cities in India according to today's paper, it is safe to assume that India, at least the southern part of India, is entering in to the brutally hot summer. For those of you unfamiliar with the Celsius scale, it's currently in the high 80s during the day, and the mid 70s at night. "How wonderful!" you may exclaim. Well, I suppose it is. Right now, it is bearable. I hear it will get significantly warmer and my brain and body do not really want to speculate as to what that might mean. All I know for sure is the fans in my room will only be off when current is unavailable.

In other news, my salwars are back from the tailor! I would upload pictures, but the upload speed is ridiculously slow, so when I have more time, I will try to upload more photos. I feel so much more "Indian" now! Actually.. I feel more professional. Although my American garb is nice, I do not feel comfortable in it here, especially around men that are not used to seeing so much exposed female skin. (Hello, it's called a tshirt...) However, I am certainly not going to complain about my new dress because I rather enjoy wearing bright clothing and will enjoy every moment that I am able to do so while I am here. I have a feeling I will be unable to be as free when I head back to the states.

Also, after three weeks of avoiding the scooter, I spent about 20 minutes driving it by myself. That was about all my nerves could handle. Seriously, I'm only going around on the neighborhood streets. I may have practiced longer, but the street that I was going to go on was in use by a herd of cattle. I doubt that weaving in and out of cows would have improved my confidence, especially with a red vehicle. I must say, it is significantly easier to drive one of those without another passenger on the back. An extra 150 pounds really makes a difference.

I should get back to preparing for my classes. I feel lazy because whenever I have an unexpected cancellation all I want to do is go into my room and sleep, or get caught up on things totally unrelated to classes, but I know I should be using my time more productively.

Sanjay

Two posts in consecutive days?! What??!!!! Well, yes, I decided that since I have a few minutes and my attempt at recollection late at night is nothing of note, I would add on to my previous post.

One of my new friends here is Sanjay. There is a picture of him in a play car a couple posts down looking adorable, as usual. My classroom is on the third floor and borders an open terrace. The terrace is his play area for most of the day, so he frequently comes to the door or peaks in the window, calling out to get my attention. He is the most adorable thing ever. He's three, or almost there, and always calls me "Acca" which means 'older sister'. I have no idea what his other words mean, though I can usually understand his intention. He always wants me to pick him up for follow him to the kitchen, or play some game with him. He has definitely become a bright light during my days here. Everyone here says he behaves badly, but I figure, he's three. He's supposed to run around and play and act like a three-year-old boy. My interactions with him are always pleasant.. though I can't say that I truly enjoy him pretending that I am a mountain or a jungle gym. Ah well.. he's good company :)

a month in review

My apologies for not keeping anyone up to date. The last month has been incredible, busy, and rewarding. I am teaching a ridiculous amount, though this week I have had random breaks in my days due to students canceling for some reason or another. I am grateful for the breaks because last week's 11 hour days were a bit much. I am enjoying teaching and even though I have had long days, the relationships that I have built with my students have totally been worth it. I have felt as though many of my teaching times are an opportunity to spend time with my friends. We get to know about each other, but they are also learning English rather well. They are improving and I am glad that I have been able to help them.

On Sunday I went shopping! By the end of next week I will have four new outfits! I'm pretty excited about that. I bought the material, I just have to drop it off with a tailor. Hopefully I'll be able to do that tomorrow. I am also delighted by the incredibly low price of earrings! I may need a whole suitcase just to hold the collection I have been acquiring here when I return to the US in a few months.

Here are some pictures from Brindavin Gardens.

Read the sign carefully.
"Don't miss if visit once you will again and again"

By the way, the aquarium was rather lame. There was a fish from Malaysia that they had paid 40,000 rupees for (approximately $800) and it was floating lamely near the top of the water in a tank that was far too small for the fish's size. That was rather sad. We were all in agreement that they shouldn't have paid so much for it.

Here I am with a couple of the girls that work here. The girl on the left is an amazing cook! I have thoroughly enjoyed everything that she has made. She does quite a bit of the cooking for the crisis center and also for Tim and Karla. Mostly, she makes the breakfast. This morning it was chapattis with a potato mixture which is one of my favorite dishes. Yum...

Here I am sitting all my myself. I am, of course, the center of attention. Isn't that my favorite place to be? Well, I'm certainly getting used to it. It's pretty easy to ignore, especially since I'm honing my skill of being oblivious.

This I thought was beautiful. The way the sun shone off the fountains at the gardens was amazing. Pictures will never do it justice.

my new adventure begins in Mysore...

I arrived in Mysore on Wednesday and since then my schedule for the coming weeks has filled up faster than I anticipated. I'm hoping I have time to breathe.. but I'm not going to schedule that in. I will have a 1.5 hour break around lunchtime, but other than that I will be teaching students from 7:30am-8:30pm. Yes, I know. I am crazy. That is my Monday-Thursday schedule.. Fridays I will be done at 4 and Saturday I will be teaching 2 hours, but only for one month. All I can say is I will be trusting God to carry me through all this, because there is no way that I'll have the strength to do it on my own. I don't have time right now to think about all the work that I will have to do in addition to the teaching, because I know I will feel overwhelmed. God will provide me with the time. I will be saying no to all future inquiries unless the prospective students are at the same level as another student I already have. Most of the time I am tutoring one on one, but I will be teaching three TOEFL courses (an international English exam). I'm actually starting that course here.

I am living in a small apartment on the Hope Center campus.. I would give measurements, but I don't know them. All I know is that it's the perfect size for me. The bed is like sleeping on hardwood, but at least it doesn't feel like concrete. That is the only thing wrong about it.. well.. that and the small roaches that I discover in the mornings. I don't know where they come from, but Tim and Karla's son (he's 3 or 4) doesn't mind picking them up for me and disposing of them - glad I have someone to do that for me! I have a couch and a couple chairs in the front room, along with a small table and a coffee maker. There's a fridge and a microwave and a small assortment of Indian tea.. which actually gives me the shakes if I drink it on an empty stomach. I do think the tea will become my friend for the next month, I'll just have to eat a banana with it or something.

I will be learning to ride a scooter!!! Mercy, one of the girls that works here, is going to teach me! I'm kind of excited. I wasn't really excited about it at first, but today I went with her and Somiya, another girl that works here, and the associate pastor of the church that meets here - I can't remember his name - to Bandavin Gardens and the KRS Dam which are 40 minutes away by scooter. The ride was so much fun! I mean.. we only went up to 40mph (that in itself was rare), but it was so enjoyable. What a freeing feeling to have the wind blowing back my hair as we "sped" through the villages and countryside.. at sunset. I mean, really, what could be better than that?

Another thing that is great about this place is that there is always some kind of activity. Tim and Karla have four children, so their house is always busy. The school meets on the bottom two floors, and during the school-day there is a lot of activity there. I can hear them playing and singing throughout the day. I start teaching on Monday, and my life will be very full from there on. However, two of my morning courses will not start until the 26th, so I'll be easing in to the craziness of my scheduled life rather than diving in..though I feel like I'm diving in. One student who will by in my TOEFL course handed me his 265 page thesis to mark this weekend. I told him I would have it done by Monday...and even though that is ambitious, it will have to be done by Monday because I won't have time to work on it after than.

I'll add some pictures later. For some reasons my computer isn't reading the picture card :( Ah well. I'll make sure that works next time :)

Mysore for the day

Today Cindy and I went to Mysore to take a look at a ministry that her church is considering partnering with. Mysore is about three hours from here, so though we only went for the day, it was well worth the time spent in the car. I have to confess, the prospect of riding for 6-8 hours in the car (time dependent on crazy Bangalore traffic) did not thrill me, and I was originally thinking that it may not be all that interesting..we'd sit in someone's office, they may give us a tour of the facility, but mostly it would be talk about what they're doing, how we can help, that sort of thing. I think it was the sitting and talking about something that I wouldn't be involved in that didn't immediately grab my attention. However, when we arrived, we were greeted by two incredibly welcoming people. The couple we met run the ministries at the Hope Center which consist of two schools, one is in another part of town, both of which are comprised of over 300 students from the slum areas! In addition to the schools, there is a Crisis Center where women who are in crisis, usually pregnant or with children, can come to stay temporarily and be cared for. They aren't officially open, but there is a woman who is staying there with her small baby and her two year old son. This is him in the toy car.

This is where I think it gets even more interesting.. The woman was approached not too long ago about teaching English to a group of Iranian PhD students. She has no formal English training, she studied to be an elementary school teacher, but she is American. Apparently Iranians want to learn American English rather than British English. Also, she is the only American English teacher in Mysore (Did she say the only non-Indian English teacher? I can't remember.). She and her husband, have been praying for someone to come teach the students starting in January so that she will have a bit more time to put into the other ministries, to have more time to dream up ideas for the ministries with her husband, and so that they can accept more students into the ESL classes. Mostly, the need is for a tutor, as private instruction is what these students most strongly desire. She offhandedly, while giving Cindy and I a tour of the facility, asked if I had any English training. ...Totally not expecting the truth that I responded with, I told her I did, in fact, have ESL training. I graduated with my TESL certificate.. I had to do a practicum at the end of my classroom education... she was thrilled! I told them I would pray about it. I do have commitments here that I am enjoying, but this offer greatly intrigues me.

Here are some other pictures of the facility for you:

-All lined up for morning assembly! There are 330 students that attend this school.

-The headlines of the paper are read every morning after the state and country anthems are sung. The school medium is Kannada.

-This is one of the classes at the Hope Center. Here there are about 20-30 students per class and they go through grade 10 standard. That's the normal range of education before pre-college courses.

-This is one of the classes at their other facility. This school has 450 students! They only go through grade 6 standard here, and the class sizes are at minimum 50 students! The kindergarten was around 60. I can't imagine having a class that size for such young kids!

-Here is a mural of Jesus with the children at the smaller building, which, interestingly enough had the larger student population.

-I couldn't resist this picture! I thought the ponytails were adorable....

-This is the room for the women in the Crisis Center

-The playground for the kids

Jupiter and Venus

Last week I was able to witness a beautiful sight just after sunset: Venus, Jupiter and the moon lined up in such a way that they looked like a smiley face! It was beautiful! And, I was so glad that it wasn't cloudy so I could actually see it! I took a couple pictures, not thinking that they would turn out, but I think they came out okay, so I'll post them.