Tuesday July 22, 2008
Well we are now over half way into our travels. Today we visited an “elite” school called The Cathedral and John Connor School. The fees for this school are about 14000 rupees from k to 12. It is certainly the bet school we have seen so far. I made contacts with two teachers. One for Indian pen pals for next year, and the other for teaching students who speak English as a second language. However, she teaches Hindi as a second language! We are going to exchange strategies so we can ensure we reach these children and make their education successful. They were in the middle of preparing for this Year 10 exam that everyone fears so I went over to the primary school. They have about 40 :1 ratio with no aides. The children were excited about my visit and shared many of their favorite book titles and they were very similar to our classroom; Captain Underpants was a BIG favorite.
Later in the afternoon we had free choice so three of us visited the home industries that we were unsuccessful with earlier in the week. I bought three children’s outfits for our reader’s theaters from India. No bargaining here and you could peruse with leisure which is my type of shopping.
In the evening we had a yoga class which was great. We learned about how the institute started and their techniques and then we had a lesson. The voice of the instructor was so smooth that one of the part fell asleep at the beginning when we were getting in touch with our bodies and he did not wake up till near the end of the session. I know I have to get into yoga more when I return as the stretching and peacefulness was super and I slept so well last night. It was late when we returned so we grabbed room service and went to Cally’s room to watch an Indian movie about the street children of Bombay (Mumbaii now.) It was very sad but all too true.
Mumbai is definitely the most cosmopolitan city we have visited and it feels pretty safe although I would not want to go out and about by myself at night. We leave tomorrow for Bengaluru. We have three days there and two in Thiiruvananthapuram ( meaning the abode of the sacred snake god Anantha – I hope there are not lots of snakes there!!!) which is the very southern tip of India and then it is off to Sri Lanka. I am so excited about that. I hope you are all enjoying your summer too. Signing off….
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3 comments:
Wow! sounds like so much fun, you have to show me some of the yoga you learned when you get back.
I've had so much fun reading your blog! What amazing places, people and fun experiences. How cool to visit all the different school! That's great that you will "pen pal" with the some kids there. I soooo want to go to India after reading about all the incredible and interesting places you have visited. Take lots of photos!:) We all send you a big hug. Take care! xoxo Katie
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