November 23, Tuesday
6 am
I woke up with six mosquito bites on my face. Eniku iddi ishtamailla.
Children's Day last week was a great success. The program lasted around 4 hours; and while the crowd was slightly less than cooperative--chattering, standing, sitting, coming and going-- nothing stunted our beaming proud smiles as the kids performed. As the program ended, we congratulated the children on a job well done and scampered down the dirt road in our lovely red sari (Colleen), and princess Jasmine-like salwaar (Summer) to begin packing for a much needed vacation to Bangalore. We arrive to the flat drenched and drained only to find that the power is out…again. The only remedy for the sweltering heat, sheer exhaustion, and fan-less flat was to strip down to our skivvies and collapse like gumbies to the cool tile floors. Our much needed floor naps ended and sparked a spastic-excited Sumleen packin' and shakin' to club music until we had to leave around 7:30 pm. We hopped onto our overnight bus, giggling with excitement, and headed up the winding road to Bangalore.
The reason the trip to Bangalore sparked in the first place was due to Sir's request that we observe at some developed Montessori schools. RIMS is hosting a Montessori Teacher Training Program, and the educator is a woman who runs a M school in Bangalore. Munira helped set us up with accommodation and observation times at her school. She also surprised us by providing us drivers to take us around Bangalore. I was very impressed at the YWCA at which we stayed, as it had comfy beds, hot water, and a bad-ass mamma who ran the joint. This white-haired, furrow-browed, sari-clad woman could star in the Bollywood rendition of Diary of a Mad Black Woman--she takes no prisoners when it comes to "her girls." She declared to us that no man has ever set foot in the building, and she has no fear in taking necessary measures to deal with any intruders. After holding out her thumb to show that she has never told a lie in her life (I think straight thumb = truth teller?) this Auntie gave us the low down on how she runs the place. "I keep gun in my sari," she exclaimed, and rolled on with a story of a maid seeing it under her pillow, officials receiving complaint calls and holding a meeting to fix this issue. When she was asked to remove the gun from her sari and place it on the table, the officials quickly realized that the pistol was, in fact, a plastic toy gun. Colleen and I just smiled and head wobbled as old auntie shook her finger at us and swore by this toy gun bluff. We scuttled up to our room in hopes that she wasn't packing anything serious in that sari of hers.
Bangalore is a swirly blend of New York City shopping, Calcutta crowds and craze, mountain fresh air, and hipster streets of Chicago. Business suits and briefcases rule this computer geek metropolis as it is the IT hub of India. You may very well have spoken to someone in Bangalore when calling a customer service number in the past. Streets are lined with shopping mall windows decorated with skinny-jeaned mannequins, fast food McDonalds, Taco Bells, and KFCs bragging western grub in gaudy, red and yellow signs. Tank-topped super model types float across the bustling streets, and screen-tee and tight jean clad characters smoke cigs on the corners. While I normally dislike western invasions like this, there was something unique about the hodge podge of cultures bubbling in Bangalore. There was certainly no shortage of vendors, saris, rickshaws, and spicy street food--the vibe was both invigorating and relaxing.
The cultural diversity of Bangalore was evident--no one stares at the fair-skinned as tourists and locals come in all colors in this metropolitan city. Even the Montessori school, Little Feat, had only about 15% of born and raised Bangalorians. Little Feat was remarkable and quite the model Montessori school. You pass the gleaming jungle gym, remove your chappals, and enter into two stories of ten beautiful, clean, colorful environments. Children atop floor mats trace sandpaper letters, build geometric towers, and finagle intricate puzzles into place. These kids are reading at age 3 and can add, subtract, and multiply by the time they graduate to first standard. We observed on Monday and Tuesday to learn more about the Montessori presentation and learning. I was elated to participate in circle singing time (thats my favorite at RIMS) and teach them a few of my stand-by songs. Thank you Mrs. Joy, my third grade teacher, for teaching that silly version of Singing in the Rain, as it is now being spread across India--the kids love it! The more exposure I have to both the Montessori method and its results, the more interested I become. Who knows, maybe the non-profit I open for Latin American street kids could involve some Montessori!
Wednesday was a holiday for Muslims, Eid. The holiday is celebrated by fasting for a few days and then the third day one sacrifices a goat for every member of the family, and giving the meat to a family in need. Times have changed, and while many families still slaughter the animals to give, others elect to just give an equivalent in a monetary donation. Just like any holiday, it is a festive time where everyone dresses up, spends time with family, and eats way too much food. Noor and her mother (our flat roomies) visited Bangalore this past week as well to celebrate the holiday with all their family and invited us to join them to meet the whole gang. Colleen and I did not go for the 'official' holiday meal, but spent the evening with the giant family. Noor is the youngest of eleven children, and while I swear that I met close to thirty new faces while being stuffed with delicious biriyani, chicken, gulab jamun, and other interesting concoctions, she claims that we only met TWO of the siblings' families. At her sister's house, we were peppered with questions by inquisitive uncles, aunts, and cousins. The questions came in order as always: "how many brothers?" "how many sisters?" "what? you both are the only one?" "are all Americans that tall?" Colleen and I are a interesting representation of America as we both come from 3 person families and tower over India at just under six feet. Then the inevitable cluster of "how old are you?" (Summer 23, Colleen 24)…"married?" …"no"… "why?"… I always say, "why not?"… then the uncle shows no effort in holding back a grimace at the sheer impossibility for a woman to marry at the decrepit age of 23. Sorry buddy, I got places to go and people to see. Noor helped explain that in America, its perfectly normal to get married at any age, even after…..oh my god… 30! These discussions always seem to end in a laugh at the physical and cultural differences and a jovial joke at Colleen or I running into a door frame, or the fact that we probably should look for love somewhere besides India. Everyone was so kind and welcoming I felt like I was celebrating a holiday with family. Two of the younger girls presented Colleen and I with salwaar fabric and jasmine flowers at the end of the evening--a gesture that still chokes me up. We have never met, or ever talked to Noor's sister, and yet we are greeted with warm hands and kind smiles. It was touching, and in all honesty, made me miss my family and friends more than anything.
After observing at the school, eating western food (I had my first giant salad in months!), strolling thru the botanical gardens, and celebrating a holiday, we were about ready to head back home. However, thanks to the randomness of India, we received a call from Aaliya that we didn't have to be home until next MONDAY! So we hopscotched and scidaddled on down to the lovely mountain town of Mysore! stay tuned…
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Energizer Bunnies
Sunday, Nov 14
6 am
This past week has been absolutely exhausting as we have been practicing and preparing for today's Children's Day festivities. There will be a big program at the school where the children perform all sorts of songs, skits, and recitations. I cant wait to see how my three montessori girls perform in their puppet show (they get distracted pretty easily) and how the 4-6 standard girls sing One TIn Soldier--I always get goosebumps hearing them sing it as this song's lyrics are my favorite. Colleen has the 4th standard boys doing a drama called The Farmer and the Son and it will be simply amazing. The children have never put on such a performance like this and we are so excited to see them decked out in costume performing a real drama. One of the teachers has first standard singing Doe a Deer---I figured this would excite any sister in the Ryan family haha. I was really sad that the older girls were not allowed to perform in a play, so we have them singing songs and doing recitations. Two of my fifth standard girls will recite a poem they wrote called "I am" . I hope I don't ruffle any feathers in doing this but I was so happy with their writing that I wanted them to share themselves with the audience. This whole project for November 14 seems to have cracked the kids shells a bit, let them a little more free. Lets see how it goes!
I do want to mention Sumleen's adventure yesterday. We headed to Calicut at 6:50 am for a film festival. Anis Sir had informed us that we would go to watch some movies and sit on a panel to discuss the educational implications or something of that nature. Colleen and I eagerly agreed as we love trying new things and we both really enjoy talking probably a bit too much. We squished into the general class train car and made the two hour journey to Calicut. We were greeted at the station by a smiling principal of Calicut University, Mohammed Ali, who packed us in his car, fed us egg curry, and hauled us to the film festival on campus. We arrived to a very nice seminar venue and escorted to a room where we could change from our sweaty train clothes. Dang, we were getting VIP service here! I started to worry that they thought we were more important than we really were, but before a thought could finish Sumleen was directed to the front row of the auditorium filled with teachers and students. Sir had informed us that we were to be part of the discussion, but I was already getting a feeling that we were being perceived as a bit more important than necessary. I flip to the first page of the program to see what the heck is happening (as no one really ever knows whats going on here) and see printed on the first page:
Film Anchors
Summer Ryan Dunham
Virginia Beach, USA
Colleen McKown
North Carolina, USA
"SH**!!!" I turn to Colleen… is this T-II?? Babox? I cant fit this situation into any of my Indian schemas! The program began, we were introduced to the crowd, "We have Summer Ryan Dunham and Colleen Mckown from the USA to lead our discussion on these films today." Mmmk so we are leading a discussion about the movies Dead Poet Society and Daddy Day Care. Rather than panic, we pulled out our notepads and put our movie critic caps on. Better to just accept this duty gracefully. I had never seen Dead Poet Society, so the experience was quite enjoyable. At the end of the movie Colleen and I went up to the stage and sat behind our official microphones and let the opinions roll. It was great to see the students participate in the discussion as Venugopal (a scholarly man who put us up to this. He is studying the acquisition of language in the child brain and visits RIMS often) stated that this was the first program of its kind that the students have attended. Many of the participating students expressed interest in more progressive ways of learning (like in DPS), or commented on the teacher-student relationship. Our comments and questions came to an end and we snapped some pics with some students and headed back to Kannur in the sweltering, jam packed train--first falling asleep standing up and then practicing Malayalam with a cluster of dudes.
6 am
This past week has been absolutely exhausting as we have been practicing and preparing for today's Children's Day festivities. There will be a big program at the school where the children perform all sorts of songs, skits, and recitations. I cant wait to see how my three montessori girls perform in their puppet show (they get distracted pretty easily) and how the 4-6 standard girls sing One TIn Soldier--I always get goosebumps hearing them sing it as this song's lyrics are my favorite. Colleen has the 4th standard boys doing a drama called The Farmer and the Son and it will be simply amazing. The children have never put on such a performance like this and we are so excited to see them decked out in costume performing a real drama. One of the teachers has first standard singing Doe a Deer---I figured this would excite any sister in the Ryan family haha. I was really sad that the older girls were not allowed to perform in a play, so we have them singing songs and doing recitations. Two of my fifth standard girls will recite a poem they wrote called "I am" . I hope I don't ruffle any feathers in doing this but I was so happy with their writing that I wanted them to share themselves with the audience. This whole project for November 14 seems to have cracked the kids shells a bit, let them a little more free. Lets see how it goes!
I do want to mention Sumleen's adventure yesterday. We headed to Calicut at 6:50 am for a film festival. Anis Sir had informed us that we would go to watch some movies and sit on a panel to discuss the educational implications or something of that nature. Colleen and I eagerly agreed as we love trying new things and we both really enjoy talking probably a bit too much. We squished into the general class train car and made the two hour journey to Calicut. We were greeted at the station by a smiling principal of Calicut University, Mohammed Ali, who packed us in his car, fed us egg curry, and hauled us to the film festival on campus. We arrived to a very nice seminar venue and escorted to a room where we could change from our sweaty train clothes. Dang, we were getting VIP service here! I started to worry that they thought we were more important than we really were, but before a thought could finish Sumleen was directed to the front row of the auditorium filled with teachers and students. Sir had informed us that we were to be part of the discussion, but I was already getting a feeling that we were being perceived as a bit more important than necessary. I flip to the first page of the program to see what the heck is happening (as no one really ever knows whats going on here) and see printed on the first page:
Film Anchors
Summer Ryan Dunham
Virginia Beach, USA
Colleen McKown
North Carolina, USA
"SH**!!!" I turn to Colleen… is this T-II?? Babox? I cant fit this situation into any of my Indian schemas! The program began, we were introduced to the crowd, "We have Summer Ryan Dunham and Colleen Mckown from the USA to lead our discussion on these films today." Mmmk so we are leading a discussion about the movies Dead Poet Society and Daddy Day Care. Rather than panic, we pulled out our notepads and put our movie critic caps on. Better to just accept this duty gracefully. I had never seen Dead Poet Society, so the experience was quite enjoyable. At the end of the movie Colleen and I went up to the stage and sat behind our official microphones and let the opinions roll. It was great to see the students participate in the discussion as Venugopal (a scholarly man who put us up to this. He is studying the acquisition of language in the child brain and visits RIMS often) stated that this was the first program of its kind that the students have attended. Many of the participating students expressed interest in more progressive ways of learning (like in DPS), or commented on the teacher-student relationship. Our comments and questions came to an end and we snapped some pics with some students and headed back to Kannur in the sweltering, jam packed train--first falling asleep standing up and then practicing Malayalam with a cluster of dudes.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Jumbo Circus
Tuesday, November 9
9:30 pm
Ticket to the Jumbo Circus-- Rs 40 (90 cents)
Ice cream and popcorn-- Rs 40
Seeing acrobats, bendy woman, frolicking camels, ripped African men making pyramids in their underwear, hula hoop woman, and an elephant playing cricket….in INDIA ---priceless!
9:30 pm
Ticket to the Jumbo Circus-- Rs 40 (90 cents)
Ice cream and popcorn-- Rs 40
Seeing acrobats, bendy woman, frolicking camels, ripped African men making pyramids in their underwear, hula hoop woman, and an elephant playing cricket….in INDIA ---priceless!
India Theme Park
Monday, November 8
Holy crap a gazillion things happen and a week flies by without any blogging! Maybe I could turn this blog into some reality show where I leave you dangling by a thread each week, "stay tuned for Frolic sin Fronteras, summer season 1." Get it? Summer season? baha! I'd like to thank Barb Ryan for my pun skills, and the honking motor vehicles outside my window for sleep deprivation.
I'll start by explaining "babox" like I promised last entry. There are many occasions where Colleen and I will find a situation completely normal until one reminds the other of how extremely strange, awkward, hilarious, or foreign the situation really is. Now we use "T-II" when we encounter something that we have only seen in India, and it typically refers to one individual thing. Example: I see a man on a motorcycle, steering with one hand, rolled up mattress in a one arm bear hug. I would say 'babox' when referring to an entire situation. Stating 'babox' calls attention to the situation so that both Americans can take a step outside the box and glance in at the absurdity of their lives at that moment. Example: Summer and Colleen get on the Disco Spin (equivalent of the 'merry mixer') at the local theme park in Kannur. Summer says, "babox" and instantly both Americans freeze the situation at hand and take a gander at whats happening. We are on a sketchy carnival-like ride, listening to Indian techno, barefoot, soaking wet pants and long shirts, and watching a mother and her baby no more than 1 spin around in the car next to us…..oh and the baby is laughing and clapping to the techno beat. Yeah thats cool…. wait WHAT?!
Now you are just dying to find out about this theme park experience! Anis Sir decided that we should see the local amusement park and gave Colleen and I tickets to attend on Sunday! We had a cute little RIMS group go and we all had a blast. I was very impressed with Vasco de Gama's Ship (a rickety replica of the Battering Ram at Busch Gardens), the mini water flume ride with one 6 person car for the whole park, the Wonder Show (sit in a theater that moves with the movie) the twisty water rides, and the gender separated wave pool that went off only at 3 pm. At the beginning of the day when we all placed our belongings in the locker, I was told to remove my shoes. "i thought we were riding the dry rides first," I said. …:::look at the American awkwardly:::…"yea we are," replies Aaliya. Summer--"Well, don't we have to wear shoes to ride the dry rides? Like isn't that required?" "No! Of course not! How would we ride the wet rides after if we had our shoes on!?" exclaims Aaliya so matter of factly. Well there I go breaking Rule #1…dangit its so hard sometimes! So we frolicked about the park barefoot wearing long pants and shirts on dry and wet rides alike. I was elated to arrive at the Wonder Show,--who knew that India had a rendition of the old school Questar or Corkscrew Hill from Busch Gardens? We all settle into our seats when the screen illuminates to a Windows Desktop. We watch the cursor move to a folder, double click, and then double click again on a Run Program icon. Bahhahaha it took all I had to not die laughing! Aside from the awkward intro of some old man in overalls sending us into the deadly coal mine roller coaster, it was so much fun! Aaliya cracked me up with her Barb Ryan ride-screaming skills as every twist, turn, and twitch jolted a piercing screech. The day was a great break from the school's chaos, and we all trudged in Monday morning with big silly grins. It was a great time!
The theme park also prompted another Sumleen term of which I'll let you decipher yourself: 'lawsuit'
Holy crap a gazillion things happen and a week flies by without any blogging! Maybe I could turn this blog into some reality show where I leave you dangling by a thread each week, "stay tuned for Frolic sin Fronteras, summer season 1." Get it? Summer season? baha! I'd like to thank Barb Ryan for my pun skills, and the honking motor vehicles outside my window for sleep deprivation.
I'll start by explaining "babox" like I promised last entry. There are many occasions where Colleen and I will find a situation completely normal until one reminds the other of how extremely strange, awkward, hilarious, or foreign the situation really is. Now we use "T-II" when we encounter something that we have only seen in India, and it typically refers to one individual thing. Example: I see a man on a motorcycle, steering with one hand, rolled up mattress in a one arm bear hug. I would say 'babox' when referring to an entire situation. Stating 'babox' calls attention to the situation so that both Americans can take a step outside the box and glance in at the absurdity of their lives at that moment. Example: Summer and Colleen get on the Disco Spin (equivalent of the 'merry mixer') at the local theme park in Kannur. Summer says, "babox" and instantly both Americans freeze the situation at hand and take a gander at whats happening. We are on a sketchy carnival-like ride, listening to Indian techno, barefoot, soaking wet pants and long shirts, and watching a mother and her baby no more than 1 spin around in the car next to us…..oh and the baby is laughing and clapping to the techno beat. Yeah thats cool…. wait WHAT?!
Now you are just dying to find out about this theme park experience! Anis Sir decided that we should see the local amusement park and gave Colleen and I tickets to attend on Sunday! We had a cute little RIMS group go and we all had a blast. I was very impressed with Vasco de Gama's Ship (a rickety replica of the Battering Ram at Busch Gardens), the mini water flume ride with one 6 person car for the whole park, the Wonder Show (sit in a theater that moves with the movie) the twisty water rides, and the gender separated wave pool that went off only at 3 pm. At the beginning of the day when we all placed our belongings in the locker, I was told to remove my shoes. "i thought we were riding the dry rides first," I said. …:::look at the American awkwardly:::…"yea we are," replies Aaliya. Summer--"Well, don't we have to wear shoes to ride the dry rides? Like isn't that required?" "No! Of course not! How would we ride the wet rides after if we had our shoes on!?" exclaims Aaliya so matter of factly. Well there I go breaking Rule #1…dangit its so hard sometimes! So we frolicked about the park barefoot wearing long pants and shirts on dry and wet rides alike. I was elated to arrive at the Wonder Show,--who knew that India had a rendition of the old school Questar or Corkscrew Hill from Busch Gardens? We all settle into our seats when the screen illuminates to a Windows Desktop. We watch the cursor move to a folder, double click, and then double click again on a Run Program icon. Bahhahaha it took all I had to not die laughing! Aside from the awkward intro of some old man in overalls sending us into the deadly coal mine roller coaster, it was so much fun! Aaliya cracked me up with her Barb Ryan ride-screaming skills as every twist, turn, and twitch jolted a piercing screech. The day was a great break from the school's chaos, and we all trudged in Monday morning with big silly grins. It was a great time!
The theme park also prompted another Sumleen term of which I'll let you decipher yourself: 'lawsuit'
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