"What scare of you?"

Monday, October 11
6:30 am

    It will be common that I go a whole week without blogging now.  Between classes, lesson planning, learning Malayalam, tutoring, company, and playtime, Colleen and I are normally so pooped that we eat some dinner and pass out with Malayalam characters swirling about in our heads.  Colleen helped some dude with a film project on Indian Americans when she was in college, and researched how many of them celebrated Indian culture, and how they felt after immigrating America.  One common thread among them was that they all felt like there was too much space in America, that it was lonely and very open.  I can completely grasp how an Indian immigrant would feel that way in America.  Here, homes normally have several generations and branches of families living there.  A fellow teacher, Asiya, lives with her husband, his brothers and wives, all their children, and the parent in-laws.  People are constantly in everyones business, coming over to say hello, tea here, coffee there, personal questions asked non-stop.  (My personal favorite from 11 year-old Malu, "how many rupees you get for one month at RIMS?")  Colleen and I have a posse that is typically coloring, singing, and dancing at our flat.  They pamper us with cards saying "Im proud of you" and "Colleen and Summer mam" colored about the pages. We originally were tutoring Aysha last week, and  now Malu and Thamana want to be tutored too.  I feel like we'll have an overhead projector in our flat by the time we leave!  At RIMS, Colleen and I will teach a few classes a day, and then go to a montessori class to sing songs, tell stories, and interact with the children.  I taught them "Singing in the rain" (a ridiculous version that I remember from my third grade teacher.  Ill have to tell her it came in handy) and "Little Goldie Goldfish," a song my mother and aunts sang together as children.  Between classes I am teaching the teachers Spanish (baha oh yeahhhh!) and trying to learn Malayalam…oh and lesson planning.  There is one computer with internet for the teachers at the school (administration has some, but we cant use those), so access is limited. (I ordered a broadband internet USB thing and will have it within the next week….so Ill be online more frequently and will be able to Skype!!!)  Once Colleen and I get home, within minutes theres a doorbell ring and all the flat kids are skipping about asking for us to come out and play or to come in and color with us.  They will leave at about 8 pm, we eat dinner and pass out.  PHEW!  It is a lot of fun though because the little girls always love to sing and dance, so its not uncommon for us to whip out some Lady Gaga, Spice Girls, N'sync, and lets not forget… TECHNO!!! 
    Power outages at school are common.  I also discovered last week that if I press PRINT on one computer, and someone else is already printing something, then the printer will completely ditch that printing job and begin to print my papers.  I was unaware that this happens so one teachers double sided worksheets ended up with a math test page on the backs because, silly me, I didn't know the printer was so fickle with print jobs.  Its like the teachers at the school.  Whenever you are talking to someone,  you will be interrupted or distracted by someone else; thus, providing constant chaos and never really finishing conversations.  I'm totally fine with this except I want to understand how the heck this trait rubbed off to the computers and printer…."computers are smarter than countries!!!!!"  i shouted at colleen on the walk home that day.  Oy veh.
    I could eat some of my students with a spoon.  Ah they are so cute!  They are so quiet when I try to get them to speak English in class!!  These kids can be loud, I've heard them screaming and yelling in my class, attempting everything in the book to get them to settle down.  But, once we start doing a dialogue on "What scares you?" they recoil and whisper "sppspsssspsspsssssssppp"  …."Class, could you hear Amin?"  "Nooooooooooo." "Amin, could you please speak up?"  "spspspspppsssssss"  Ten minutes ago this kid was running all over the place screaming.  I know you have it in you kids, C'MON!  When I ask for a volunteer, the hands shoot up and I hear a roaring clash of voices "Summer maam! MAAAAM! MAAM! MAAM! MAAAAAAAM!!!!!!!"  Colleen and I have resorted to the numbered sheets of paper system.  Every kid gets a number and we call out a number 1-23, and that student is the 'volunteer'.  This works sometimes except that a lot of the kids are screaming and running up to me in class "ma'am my number is 13"  "summer ma'am!!! 22! Im 22!"  They may also write the number on the back of the sheet of paper i gave them and sprint to the front of the class screaming "14! Im 14!"  No your not because I didn't write in a purple marker on the back of a chit of paper that says 8.  Anyways, I clearly have a lot to learn about class control, and hopefully the novelty of "foreign ma'am" will wear off eventually and they'll settle down.  Its so worth it though when Im outside of class and someone will walk up and say "Summer ma'am, what scares you?"   This is quite a feat as most of them will say "what scare of you?" No matter how many times I remodel and write this on the board, they still will say it like that.  So when Sara walks up with her toothless smile and says it correctly, I get very excited that I did something right.  
     Between classes I'll have little girls ask to touch my hair, poke my face, squeeze my cheeks, etc.  One of my favorites, Fathima Hanan, always had a ginormous, toothy, smile, with magnified brown eyes twinkling behind her glasses.  "Good morning Summer ma'am!"  she'll always say.  After she poked my face and touched my hair one day, she just scampered off giggling.  I have funny hair I suppose.  Another girl in my fifth standard, Ridha, brought Colleen and I chocolate one day.  Talk about becoming a favorite!!!  Haha, I love this girl!!  Actually at the end of one of my classes with her, everyone is packing up and Ridha asks, "would ma'am teach us some Spanish?"  Oh my gosh I think I melted into the floor, I have and Indian child asking me to teach her Spanish.  Its agreed that the last few minutes of class I'll give the girls a tiny Spanish lesson :-)  There are only 4 girls in the class so it is absolutely wonderful!  Last week we did haikus and proverbs.  The girls were able to get the concept of syllables and write their own haikus, and we went over proverbs like "don't cry over spilt milk" and "the grass is always greener…" and their homework is to write a few sentences about a proverb they like and why.  Their level of English is clearly higher, as they can communicate easily.  The main issue is pronunciation and grammar.   "I have a nice two pets"  was a sentence in my 5th standard last week. 
    I have to mention something a student said in Colleen's third standard last week.  First, let me explain that whenever Colleen and I mention that we are from USA, the majority of people will say "Obama!!!"  Everyone knows about Obama.  So, last week in Colleen's class, she explained to the kids that she was from America.  She asked, "does anyone know who the president of the United States of America is?"  ….ya know, expecting to get a class response of "OBAMA!!"  BAHHAHAHA no.  One kid shouts, "BUSH!  BUSH KILL IRAQ!"   Hahahaaha, talk about an awkward collar tugger there…."hmmmmmmk , yes. Bush was the president….does anyone know the president now??"  Hehe.
    This week the students all have exams, so hopefully Colleen and Summer ma'am will have some more time to figure out some lesson plans and class control techniques.  I have plenty more to catch up on, but I must get ready for class now!  Oh, and Colleen literally just smashed a (at least two inches long) cockroach with her sneaker and showed it to me.  Hmm, nifty.

Pinne kanam.