Day 20 & 21: SEDS school

The previous night i forgot to mention that i had been learning Telugu. Its funny how certain humour or sentences can make ppl shy and laugh no matter what culture. I had learnt to say 'Dance chesthawa' (which means 'can you dance?') and also 'bata pardu thawa' (which means 'will you sing for me?'). So i was testing it out on all the teachers and boys who live here and everyone is just shy, and laugh. i ask them to dance bollywood style and i know they can but they are just shy.

So we went to school on Thursday and Friday. SEDS has its own school on its campus. They have 5 female teachers and 5 male teachers for around 48 children aged from LKG (lower kindergarten) up to Grade 10, so pretty much its private tuition for the kids. This school is classed as private with mostly disadvantaged children coming to it. Here they get taught the same subjects as public schooling but they also get to learn english as well. So they benefit greatly. 

We arrived and were greeted with the headmaster stopping classes and assembling all the children so that we could get a sneak glimpse of their performances for the upcoming Independence Day on 15th August. Each grade had to present something. We were shown an array of performances - singing in english, comedy skits, personal stories etc. I guess its an attempt to show their english skills and what they've learnt. Its funny in that telugu is spoken quite quickly, thus, they bring that when they speak English. Its almost like the 'full stop' doesn't exist. Its one continuous sentence haha. They also asked one of their brightest students to come up on stage and was quizzed with what they knew about Australia. Luckily my Telugu came in handy, and before he could sit down i yelled 'bata pardu thawa' to his embarrassment. #success

Then with a turn of events, i was called up to the front of the assembly. They wanted to learn about Australia by interviewing me. so spontaneous. After answering their questions about the Australian schooling system and some personal information about myself, i was about to go and sit back down in the back row, when i realised i had been played. There was yelling from the back telling me to sing! It was Ronny and the boys stirring up the crowd and wanting me to sing. They got back at me from last night. Dang it! i went through the song list i knew off the top of my head. Only bon jovi or ronan keating came to mind - i couldn't sing that. So luckily after some quick thinking i got Cait to come up on stage too and we sang the national anthem....after standing there trying to confirm the lyrics of the anthem, i realised that i couldnt really remember it haha. But we still sang it, with a few mumbling of lyrics here and there. But i definitely remember the 'girt by sea' bit. With a few chuckles from the crowd, i got one back on all the teachers by asking them to sing their national anthem, to their embarrassment of having to stand in front of the crowd. Afterwards, all classes got cancelled and it was play time for the rest of the day. bahaha. i guess its the effect we have on schools (Which wasn't what we want, we just want to observe classes). Of course when the camera came out, the crowds of intrigued children came too! it was awesome to see the teachers playing with the kids as well. 

Here's an interesting thing. Indian culture is a very physical affection culture. although romantic physical touch is taboo anything else is acceptable. So its interesting seeing teachers of the same gender holding hands or just being close with each other. but then that rolls onto the children too. they are very affectionate and squeezing the cheeks of the little ones. they aren't afraid show off their prized child or their favourite kid. They would say 'Jon she's my favourite, she's always smiling' and just pick up a little kindergarten kid and prop them on their lap. on the flip side, discipline is still strict and the hitting of kids as well as the threatening of children with a raised hand is prevalent, although its in a joking and playful gesture....usually.

i ended the day by dropping some of the children home in the jeep followed by a sweet game of volleyball. It gets quite competitive which is awesome. Theres one guy here who suffers from polio. Compassion for him has really grown so i try to hang out with him as much as possible. He's a great kid with good english so we can converse well. He's teaching me telugu.

The next day we went back to the school and actually were able to sit in on a class. i sat in grade 4 and watched them learn subtractions. It was one teacher and 4 students. they use a textbook which has every subject in it for the term so they carry that around with them the entire day. It even has telugu lessons in it. I had a bit of an ethical dilemma in class where the teacher was showing the symbols for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. With the division symbol he wrote in a way that it looked like the percentage symbol. now, u might think this is nothing at all, but he is teaching the children an incorrect thing which is effecting their learning. But the dilemma is that i am a guest, and i came to observe, not correct. It would be absolutely shameful and loss of face if i came in and corrected him. Also the way the write the letter ‘r’ is the same in thailand, its this looped ‘v’ or if u can imagine that ‘pink ribbon’ for breast cancer but upside down, thats how they write their ‘r’s. and as much as i want to correct i cannot, its shaming and so so not good. but the thought passed my mind, did the same guy travel from thailand to india teaching this weird ‘r’ shape? garh lol! i had a chance to sit and play with the kids again.

 again i cant help but have compassion for the kids who are sitting by themselves. theres this one girl who always rides in the jeep, whose quiet, and i saw her eating lunch by herself, so we know each other. she doesnt talk, but we just made up a game. i said hello to her in telugu and she has the prettiest smile, just these glowing white teeth show everytime she smiles. so we played a few games as we sat under a tree. i would throw a leaf in the air and she would try and catch it. then she would throw a leaf in the air for me and then i would catch it. possibly the stupidest game ever invented but she loved it so that made me keep playing haha. next minute i grab a branch full of leaves and counted to 3 and tossed it to her, just to warn her that i was gonna throw it. To my surprise she started counting to 10 and then threw it back to me. SO i counted to 15 and threw it to her. then she counted to 20. little did i know her counting in english went all the way to hundred haha. everyone started coming in and joining as we would throw this branch to each other as they all recited their numbers. wow, their english was incredible. wot an amazing thing this school has taught them, as government school dont have an english sylubus. 

 We also had a couple from australia come to stay for 3 weeks. They are from an organisation called PIA (partners in aid) and have been helping sponsor children for over 20 years i think. it was funny and awesome to hear an aussie accent as well. oh and previous aussie students had left their jar of vegemite here. thank goodness! luckily i've got my tube in my bag just in case.

also, meal times here are delayed for some reason. we eat brekkie at 9am, lunch at 1:30pm and dinner at 9pm. something i will never get used to haha

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the teachers