School visits

Yesterday and today we have been conducting some school visits. The students yesterday were so sweet. We actually divided into smaller groups of about 6-8 to get around to the classrooms easier and my group kept getting smaller and smaller as we lost teachers who wanted to stay and visit with the different groups of students along the way. Apparently one was able to participate in a basketball game, another was shown the "secret hiding place" for students wanting to talk out of sight of the teachers, and other one learned a great deal about reptiles from a pair of students. Although I wanted to find out the inside scope from the students, I figured I better make it to the science labs to see what was going on. One thing about the chemistry lab is that (if I understood it correctly) the students had purchased their own lab equipment and lab coats. It was quite impressive to see the 12 grade students all in lab coats doing an analytical chemistry. They were deeply engaged in their lab and didn't seem to mind us watching them in action.

Oops! I better head out to the next school....


Back again...

I just returned from another fabulous time observing a school. Since each of us went to separate schools – alone or in pairs, it was a chance to see a school under more normal conditions…although it was quite humbling when a group of students had prepared a special chant for the two of us that visited the one school. In addition, we were both presented flowers from the school. Apparently we were the first Americans that had visited the school (at least for this school year.) The students were just adorable and so polite. It was fascinating to see how many similarities there were between the schools in both countries (similar content, similar experiences, etc) but also some of the differences (their class sizes were almost twice the size of those in the US and they had some very different perspectives in one of the history classes we saw.) All in all it was a great day.

(Okay…now for the non-educational stuff...)
The other teacher from my program and I were offered some fruit, different breakfast items, and some lemonade. I loved the breakfast items we were served (a yummy fried cheese patty that was slightly sweet and a stuffed bread thing (sorry, I don’t remember the real names of either one of them) along with the spicey chutney. We have been told to not eat fresh fruit while we are in India but since they had cut it up especially for us, it seemed rude to not try it…and it was very good. After the spicey chutney, the lemonade or “lemon blast” was very refreshing. However, when reflecting on it later with my fellow participant we realized that it was most likely tap water when we passed by the room later on and saw only a sink (no signs of bottled water.) So, I have broken the two main rules we were told concerning food in India: I have had fresh fruit and I have had tap water. I am surprisingly calm for realizing that I will most likely have some restless days/nights ahead of me due to “Dehli Belly”. Perhaps I should figure out where I packed those antibiotics…