Westward Through Norway

Even as I write we are traveling by train fom Oslo. The train is comfortable, quiet, smooth, and fast, and the scenery is truly amazing. Yet we know the best will come when we actually get to the Sognefjord area in a few more hours.

We are sliding by an ever changing array of green fields, hilly mountainsides, rippling streams, large clear lakes, tall pines and white bark birch. Pictures would help describe this, but the train is moving too fast for that - sorry to keep making excuses for a photo-less blog! 

Here's what I love: 

• The gracefulness of tall pine groves creating an upward pattern of parallel vertical lines, 
• white wispy clouds hanging low in the valley, 
• the occasional herd of fat white sheep on a green hillside, 
• small yellow or white tidy houses tucked into a background of rolling hills,
• red wooden barns, 
• the quietness of the train as it moves quickly along, 
• bright sunshine highlighting hilly golden fields of mown oats,
• inlets of water & harbors with sailboats tucked in, 
• flatbed cars loaded with cut trees and lumber.

Yes, Norway is all about nature. So why oh why did I feel the need to pack that dress? 

Teaching at Shanti Bhavan

Into my second week now, I'm still trying to process how teaching here compares to my other positions through the years. As I muse a bit on this topic, have a look at these studious and lovely children during our nature walk/writing time today.

A major and quite apparent difference is the scanty amount of resources, such as paper, pencils, chalk, markers, crayons, scissors, technology, teachers' manuals, current textbooks, workbooks, library books, leveled readers, teaching specialists. I could go on and on. I could mention lights - my particular classroom has no power, ever, and most of the others use solar powered electrical lights - but it's not considered appropriate to turn them on during the day. Oh, and I could mention window panes.

Yet teachers and children here are beautifully resourceful - and that's definitely not detrimental to teaching and learning. One of the many wonderful things about teaching here is working with children who are bright and creative and eager to learn and who are learning to think critically and solve problems just as we hope all children will.

To be completely honest, some moments are fine and some aren't. What gets tiring is needing to be on top of every behavior at all times especially since there are so many needy children - essentially every single one. Every child here has had a more difficult upbringing than any of the other children I've taught through the years. Some will be as good as gold at most moments and others will try to get by with everything at all moments and others will only try occasionally. Just like a classroom full of kids anywhere.

And I should probably mention that these are definitely the first students I've ever taught who are fluent in Hindi as a second, or in many cases third, language. In fact we have Hindi class every single day, sometimes twice! Um, no I'm not their teacher for that!