Day 4:
On Thursday Ushma, the grumpy english teacher who had disappeared Tuesday and Wednesday, reappeared, which was kind of terrible. She warmed up to me, which was nice, but I disagree with her teaching style completely. She is also occasionally wrong, which is frustrating. I was once again relegated to sitting on the edge of the classroom, quietly observing, and sometimes being called upon by Ushma to see some failure in the students. They also changed my schedule, which was mildly terrible. Instead of having the 8th graders, who I enjoyed teaching, I had the 1rst graders for 2 periods, and they don’t even realize I don’t speak Hindi. Halfway through my first period with them I was informed that I was supposed to be teaching them science! It was a confusing day but I continued to do my best, and I continued to have success getting through to some of the students.
We chose to take a walk that afternoon, with the specific goal of visiting Heena and her family, the lovely people who had helped us when we got lost on our first day. It was an awkward visit, just because of the language barrier, but extremely friendly. We were ushered inside and brought glasses of water and then lemon-lime soda on little trays, in the very hospital way Indian families serve you welcoming liquids. After slow conversation and many smiles and thank you’s Heena’s brother asked how long we were going to be in the country. Upon discovering Caitlin would be around through July he immediately extended an invitation to his upcoming wedding, which Caitlin was happy to accept, as one of her great goals for the summer was to go to an Indian wedding.
That evening a yoga instructor came to our apartment. We moved the table and chairs in the dining room and put extra mattresses on the floor to serve as mats. The session was interesting, not in the least because of his insane number pronunciations, but also because the yoga was put into some historical and spiritual context. He also pushed us a little too far in some of the poses, and I woke up the next morning feeling much more stiff than relaxed.
Day 5:
Friday was very similar to Thursday in terms of teaching, I still had my less than ideal schedule, and I was still quietly sitting behind Ushma, but I kept doing my best. I did indeed end up teaching the 1rst graders science, but luckily their textbooks were in English and I was able to act out the motions they were supposed to be learning. They were particularly fond of “jump.”
We spent the afternoon at the market as there were some last minute essentials we needed before our trip to Amritsar. It wasn’t great, we were hoping to go to the market only once a week, but it was fine, and our spirits were bolstered the entire day by the promise of wifi over the weekend.