Last Day at SB

I said goodbye to my students on Saturday morning by taking them on a nature walk to "The Rocks," their favorite place at Shanti Bhavan. We climbed upon large boulders and enjoyed each others' company for nearly an hour. The children used my camera to take pictures, and I let the girls braid ('plait' they called it) my hair and we talked and sang and generally had fun in this unstructured time together.


And then when it was time for me to go, the tears began. I thought I wouldn't cry, but when even the boys joined in a group hug without hesitation, I knew this was a special class, a special moment. With sadness in my heart at all the goodbyes they've had to say in their short lives, I taught them how to blow kisses, and we blew them until we coud see each other no longer. They have a wonderful place to live and go to school, yet this reminded me that school is and always has been about relationships.

I smile every time I look at their sweet faces. May each little person achieve a happy and successful future! Namaste.

Beautiful Children

I am getting so attached to these children that it will be very difficult to say goodbye at the end of this week. I know all of their names (a bigger accomplishment than one might think) and I know them both academically and socially. I've been teaching them reading (yes, reading comprehension strategies), creative writing (narrative, expository and persuasive), English grammar (which as you can imagine is quite difficult in a language that's not your native tongue), science (plants and vertebrates), math (same fourth grade math concepts I taught in Highland Park), social studies (I've been learning lots about India by teaching this subject! Love it!), and a myriad of other things that come up in the course of a schoolday.

They're happy to learn and so appreciative of every little thing. They refer to me as Miss Nancy, and upon entering the classroom they stop at the doorway and ask permission to enter the room by saying "excuse me, Miss." The title 'Miss' does not refer to marital status here, but rather is a term of respect reserved for teachers. They also thank me for teaching them. Ah!


As I've mentioned before, Shanti Bhavan is near the small village of Baliganapalli in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India. It's amazing here for many reasons, especially the children. My students are fourth graders (Kathy's are fifth) and we're having a good time although their academic schedule is rigorous and behavior expectations are demanding. These children are from some of the poorest families in India yet are so like children that I've taught anywhere.  

Since this is a boarding school the children live and sleep and eat and play here. They have 'aunties' who tend to their needs, take care of them when they're not in class, and tuck them in at night. One of the more interesting fusions of living & going to school in the same place took place earlier this week when all the girls got their hair cut instead of coming to science class. I only found out by word of mouth about this so I had about a minute to re-plan! And then of course I'm sure you can imagine the uproar when they all eventually came back sporting short haircuts that they self-consciously covered with hoods or caps.

The staff and volunteers are also here day and night, always at the ready for a meeting or an assembly or a special project. It has been interesting to be 'on the job' 24/7. 

My Birthday at Shanti Bhavan

I had a wonderful day here yesterday! The whole school knew it was my birthday and everyone I saw stopped me, shook hands, looked me right in the eye and wished me a happy day. How sweet!

When my fourth graders came into the classroom that morning they stood up as a group on their own and sang Happy Birthday to me. And then they wanted to clap for me the number of years old I am. I told them if they could keep a secret I'd tell them. So they stood up, clapped and counted probably higher than they've ever done before!! haha!! :)

And the fifth graders also spontaneously stood up and sang to me when I popped in to see Kathy for a moment.

Throughout the day I noticed surreptitious cutting and drawing and coloring on little scraps of paper from the recycle box. Every once in awhile, during a grammar lesson for instance, someone would come up and present me with an intricately designed little gift with the sweetest words of appreciation and birthday greetings. Karthikeyan made a monkey that slides in and out of a tree. He said he made it because I told him Max likes monkeys. They may not be learning much about possessive nouns, but I am sure learning about making do for others with what you have!

It's a tradition in India to give to others on your birthday, so I gave each student and adult in the school a piece of candy which I bought last weekend in Bangalore. And also at assembly last night I presented the school a book about character traits and values, something highly respected at this school. The book is Of Thee I Sing: A Letter To My Daughters by Barack Obama.

I think this may be about the best place in the world to be having a birthday!

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!

Living at Shanti Bhavan

The Gates to Shanti Bhavan

Here's an excerpt from my journal written Saturday evening after just one night here:

Gorgeous tropical scenery here. Fantastic people here. Rigorous academics and global values embodied here.

And living is, well . . . basic. Since I've been here I've barely looked in a mirror (its all clouded and very small in a dimly lit bathroom) and haven't yet taken a shower. When I do it will be by pouring water - with any luck warm water - over me with a cup from a bucket while I sit on a stool in an indented area of the bathroom. Neither of us are really looking forward to it! I pulled my hair back and didn't even think about it all day. Rather freeing.

Also, we get hungry between meals and keep forgetting what time to go; they seem so much later than we would ordinarily eat. We missed morning tea today since we didn't know about it, but have made it early to every meal and snack since! First ones there!

As we were walking from the school building to dinner tonight, we heard the children give a shout in the dining hall and realized the lights were all out. Everyone seemed to quickly take it all in stride and the aunties lit candles at each table. After eating we began to walk back to our room with flashlights but no umbrella. Auntie Roj insisted on walking us all the way back to give us shelter. So nice.

We changed into pjs and then realized our toilet was leaking from the tank. We tried to call Aniish from the phone in the courtyard but the phone didn’t work (of course) because we have no electricity! Then we found a solar powered phone but the recorded operator on the phone was speaking Hindi (of course) which made us laugh.

So we put more clothes on to go back out, and when we picked up our umbrellas a lizard and a giant cockroach scrambled out and scurried up the wall and onto the ceiling. Disgusting! But what to do?

Now we have rain, no electricity, no phone, broken plumbing, a lizard AND a cockroach!

My journal continues with the rest of the evening including enlisting the plumbing helper to chase the bugs away for us. We also received the assurance of a new room starting tomorrow night.

After these escapades, as we lay in our respective small beds with flashlights, we started laughing and giggling uncontrollably and talking about the crazy silly unbelievable things that have happened so far on this trip. We decided to make a list. It was all funny enough to pass the time in the dark. Oh my, just what do we have in store here?

Arriving at Shanti Bhavan

On Friday, we left Delhi on a comfortable 2.5 hr flight to Bangalore where we were met by a driver holding a sign saying "Nancy and Kathy Shanti Bhavan." That really thrilled us, I think because we've been talking about and preparing for and planning for and learning about this school for over six months. And here we are at last.

Or I should say ALMOST there!

We climbed into the jeep and took the ride of our lives for two hours through the countryside, dodging other cars and trucks and motorcycles and busses, passing on the right or the left, honking, hitting potholes, bumping up and down, listening to Indian music on the radio. We looked for seat belts to no avail and a few times we bowed to each other with hands in a prayer position. Mostly we giggled, held on, gasped at the closer calls, and marveled at what we were seeing when we dared to open our eyes. We both decided that we would never again complain about any traffic and safety laws in the US.

We sped past fields of red dirt, fields full of marigolds (or a similar orange flower) and roses and some type of beans (sure looked like soybeans), a gigantic statue of Hunaman the monkey god, villages with tiny colorful stucco homes with cows grazing outside, herds of sheep, a roadstand with about a dozen men selling vegetables, round straw mats drying on racks in the sun, beautiful large-trunked trees (need to look all of these up - perhaps baobab?),women walking along the red dirt roads in colorful sarees, men in kurtas, busses and motorcycles decorated with floral garlands. We were on a somewhat paved road for awhile and then crossed over 11 or 12 lanes of a major highway onto a dirt road that turned into a semi-paved road with gigantic potholes.

We eagerly anticipated arriving at Shanti Bhavan long before we actually pulled through the gates. We kept saying to each other, "Oh, I bet its right around this bend." Coming through those gates and seeing this place that we'd heard so much about was really a moving moment and I actually had tears in my eyes. We were greeted by Aniish and he drove us to the building where our room is.

So now that we ARE truly here I wonder about the reality of what's in store . . .

[Photos later - it's probably obvious why I wasn't snapping from the car! Ha!]

My Itinerary

Here's a brief overview of this trip:

June 23 - Chicago to London
June 24-27 - London
June 27 - London to Delhi
June 28-July 1 - New Delhi
July 1 - Delhi to Bangalore
July 1-25 - Shanti Bhavan in Tamil Nadu, India
July 25 - Bangalore to Chicago

Click here for the current time in the United Kingdom
Click here for the current time in India

India: Shanti Bhavan

I am heading to India in a few weeks to teach at a very special school called Shanti Bhavan. The school was recently featured in a segment on ABC World News. Click the link below to watch the short video and catch a glimpse of life in southern India.