The Haggle

Today was begun with yoga with our good friend Rajesh-ji. He found out today that we’re English teachers (well – until Wednesday anyway) and his enthusiasm for learning the language as he seems to have been doing all along has been renewed. He’s so easy to make laugh. It’s cute, if you’re reasonably patient.

We did two hours this morning, starting pretty much the second I woke up and finishing when I was very hungry for breakfast (for those of you wondering, my stomach is the only way I measure time). What’s really nice about yoga is that` it’s not overwhelmingly aerobic, but still, if you do it every day, you’re a pretty healthy horse. It’s all strength and flexibility but you somehow get pretty fit whilst doing it as well. Handy. I need to write down Rajesh-ji’s moves for when we’ve moved off to Leh and Kerala and wherever else we go on our travels so that I don’t lose the run of myself for my Goa bikini.

This time next week I’ll be relaxing in Leh – the placement will be over, we’ll have said our goodbyes and I’ll have seen the kids probably for the last time ever. It’s going to be a hell of a week to get through.

It began raining during the class, so afterwards we raced upstairs with our shampoo and shower gel and had a lather fest on the roof. It was fantastic. And all over Delhi, thousands of Indians were doing the exact same thing.

When it cleared up a bunch of us headed out to Connaught Place and Dillihaat to get presents for the teachers. The first stop was Connaught Place where there’s an underground market called Palika Market, I think. Compared to Dillihaat it’s really not that nice but it’s cheaper. When you go down into it, it’s a bit like going down to the metro – first you pass security, then there are the crowds and the noise… There’s that blue lighting that they have in the bathrooms of nightclubs to stop people shooting up, and the “streets” if you can them that are pretty tight so the salesmen are shoving stuff right in your face as you walk by. There’s much more men’s clothing there – it’s pretty hard being one of the deadlier of the species there. All the men are very charming when they’re showing you their stuff and when you walk by them without interest you can tell they’re swearing at you behind your back. If you do stop and show any kind of interest in something, on the other hand, it’s much easier to haggle. They’ll give you a price first and you’ll both know it’s absolutely ridiculous. Then you’ll give a price which is hopefully equally so, and you don’t budge.

“Six hundred.”
“But SIR! They’re bangles. And I don’t have that much money. I’ll give you fifty for them.”
“Ma’am, no. Is cost price.”
“Is not! I got some here last week for eighty.”
“Alright ma’am, what is your good price?”
“I told you. Fifty.”
“No ma’am.”
“OK, look. I have a hundred and fifty in my wallet. I need fifty of that to get an auto home. I’ll give you one hundred.”
“Three hundred.”
(Starts putting bangles in a bag.)
“Sir, I can’t.”
(Stalls with bag.)
“Two hundred and fifty.”
“Bye, sir.”
“No ma’am, wait! For you is special deal. I give you for two hundred.”
“That’s more money than I have, and I need to get an auto home.”
“What is your good price?”
“A hundred.”
(Lengthy silence.)
“Ma’am…”
“Look – here’s the hundred. There’s the money.”
(Stalls, then reluctantly passes over the bag. Thousand rupee note slips out of wallet whilst folding back together. Awkward eye contact.)
“Thank you sir! Byeeeeee!”
(Scrams as fast as possible.)

Imagine doing that with EVERYTHING you’re even thinking about buying. It’s exhausting. And you have to lie a lot, which I’m not good at, but I think the stories about the amount of money that’s in your wallet and your auto home and the bangles you bought last week are the same ones everyone uses, so they know, but it seems to work anyway.

One hundred rupees is a ridiculous price to pay for bangles.

Funny enough I made it into a rather nice little book shop run by two very nice guys. It was all fixed prices so there was no conflict over haggling and the guy we were talking to was great for recommendations. I got a lovely big fat book about yoga that’s going to add another couple of kilos to my baggage weight on the way home. I intend to read as much of it as I can bear.

After that we just couldn’t take the market any more; it was getting pretty unpleasant. We headed from there to Dillihaat, which seemed especially lovely after the grungey feeling of Connaught Place. We got the rest of the presents for our teachers which was no struggle at all because all things are lovely in Dillihaat. I only had a couple of things to get after Connaught Place so it was fine; finished in about half an hour and then I just swanned around for a little while before we all withered and headed home.

So now we’re facing into our our last three days at school and then moving out of Delhi this day next week. I’m dreading it, I can’t wait for it, and my heart is in my mouth thinking about it. All I know is that this time next week it’ll be over, and then the next thing will happen.

That’s much too heavy a note to finish on – on a brighter side, I’ve just done my ice bucket nomination for ALS – have a look here!

Over it goes to Ireland! Orla and Cathal, you’ve got 28 1/2 hours (time difference included). Donate at alsa.org!

Isha and the Cigire

We got a Happy Friendship Day from our teachers when we came in this morning! They gave us bracelets – the boys in the morning weren’t very into it of course but the girls in the afternoon gave us some as well. The only thing is, they’re little bracelets made for kids – they were constricting circulation by the end of our day in school! Damn these fat wrists. Even the ones the teachers gave to us are pretty close-fitting! But it’s the thought that counts; we were chuffed by the end of the ceremony with all our bracelets – and a corresponding friend for each.

We started the past tense with the boys in the morning – just regular verbs, none of those tricky irregular ones. The problem is that all the verbs we use regularly tend to be irregular. Was, went, came, made, did, saw, heard, felt… while all the ones we DON’T use that often have “ed” at the end. They’re coping well so far. We haven’t confused them that much yet. God, English must be so annoying to learn – it’s annoying enough to teach because there are a ridiculous amount of exceptions to every rule. When you’re getting them to give examples of certain things like hard and soft “g”s, they’ll give some word that follows the rule perfectly but is in fact wrong, and I feel like it’s my fault when I have to break it to them that actually it’s not right. At the same time, Amy and I were talking about how all these little rules in English make it so fantastically specific that if you’re fluent, you can express something exactly as you mean it – it’s the tiny little things that aren’t even THINGS that make it like that. So I guess it’s like anything that’s hard – rewarding.

Have I told you about Isha yet? We’ve had a couple of students called Isha who say their names with an “ee” sound at the start. There’s a little girl called Isha who says it with an “eye” sound at the start. She’s three years old, her hair is very short (it was shaven when we first came here), she has these massive eyes that don’t look like they belong to a three-year-old and they’re always painted with kajal. We don’t have many kids that are as young as her. She looks like she’s barely able to walk, or even support the weight of her own head, but she comes in every day and is doted upon by the teachers. Her cheeks must be swollen from being pinched all the time – she is very cute! I find it surprising that it’s taken me this long to mention her because she always takes up a little part of our day in some way, whether it’s her entrance in the morning during which she leaves her father at the door of the school, braves the lone five-second journey through the entrance by herself and is met by the fawning teachers on the other side, or whether it’s something that happens during class, like when she goes up to present her work: strings of letters that she practices every day without fail. Even the hardy boys dote on her during the morning class – THAT’S when you know she’s cute! There’s something that’s sort of strange about her. Maybe it’s that she’s so young – she just doesn’t have the same hyperactive air that all the other kids have; she’s not fidgety, her movements are slow and almost measured and she almost never smiles. She rarely says a word and when she does, your ear has to be right by her mouth, otherwise you won’t hear what she’s saying. She practices writing out her letters for the English teacher every day and presents them to her silently, and always watches with those huge eyes.

Did you know that in Hinduism there’s a goddess who is said to inhabit the body of a young human girl of maybe ten years or so? I don’t know what the selection process is exactly but every while she changes body and a new girl is picked. She is worshipped like a goddess, because after all, she IS one, and she’s carried everywhere: her feet don’t touch the ground until the goddess leaves her body and finds another. I feel like Isha has this goddess inside her and that’s why, despite being such a small child with the clumsiness and innocence that goes along with it, she has a divine air about her. She’s just a special girl; I wonder who she’ll be when she grows up.

I thought I’d mention her because today I had a small encounter with Isha during the first class – she was doing letters with the English teacher, showing her work to her intermittently between her strings of letters when the teacher got up and moved off somewhere else for a minute. I was sitting at the time while a Science class was going on, and when Isha was finished her letters, in the teachers’s absence she came over to me and showed me her work. At first I was a little lost. It just took a little while before initiative kicked in and I gave her more work to do. I showed her the next letters and then she just stuck around, leaning her copy on my lap. I guess the reason it stuck with me today is just because I feel like I’ve earned her trust – she felt comfortable enough around me to call me her teacher instead of her usual one. It just seems significant.

In other news… oh, an inspector came in today. The Science class was still ongoing at the time and from where I was sitting I could see him talking to one of the teachers in the entrance. the Science teacher came in and gave a very excited gesture that we all soon understood meant “There’s an inspector coming!” when the inspector came. She then adopted her previous professional air. It was just amusing, is all – everyone gets excited when there’s an inspector around. I remember in primary school the Cigire had almost celebrity status – he/she was someone we always heard about but only met maybe once or twice. It’s only now that I’m a grown up that I see him just as a man doing a job.

During the break the teachers taught me how to knot my hair the way they do. It was a great bonding exercise! It’s very elegant but it requires very long hair and even for me it was a bit of a stretch. All you need is a pen or a pin and a foot or two of hair, and then you’re away. At the end of the day one of the girls who comes in and does sewing at the break got me to do her hair. It was another Isha moment because this girl, called Kajal, who is seventeen, is a little shy despite being smiley and I got the same feeling of earning her trust. I did a French plait and turned it into a fishtail. In India the word for a fishtail plait is “kajuri”, which I’ve got to say I much prefer to “fishtail”. If I try to use it at home though my friends will all disown me for being a pretentious twat. You know what else? They have a word for the day after tomorrow, which is “par so” – SO much easier to say than “the day after tomorrow”. I have exactly one Indian friend at home I can actually use this stuff with. Would that I had a few more.

During all this the teachers were busily talking away in Hindi. Often when they’re doing this I’ll hear a word I recognise and throw in a quick “Kya?” “What?” They’ll always make an effort to include me in the conversation which is great because it’d be so easy for them to exclude me completely. Often they’re talking about one of the kids, or what they’re doing during the week, or sometimes it’ll be about us. Today I asked, and they came right back with “Ais, we are planning your marriage!”

Oh. Right then.

So that was my day in school. After that, got an auto home and it was time for yoga. Amy was going to join us this time but she ended up being sick so she stopped but she left mat up on the counter. Rajesh was hilarious about the whole thing because often with the harder poses it’s difficult to balance, and Amy was using the counter to balance herself. He said “Amy-ji uje to shupport balansh. Now shupport only her mat.” Much as I was gutted for Amy, we always find these comments hilarious because his English is so limited. I don’t know why but when somebody with limited English makes a joke in English, it automatically makes it ten times funnier. Poor Amy… The rest of the class was great. I did fall asleep briefly when we did the meditation – this happened on Sunday as well – and both times I’ve had a whole bunch of dream sequences, even though I could only have been asleep for a minute or two. Both times I’ve conveniently woken up before Rajesh has had a chance to notice. I may not be so lucky next time.

We finished our evening with a showing of Aladdin, which was just fantastic! I’d forgotten how much I love that film. It’s funny because even though it’s set in Arabia there’s a lot of cultural stuff in there that we could relate back to the kind of people living here – the people at the stalls, the haggling – I guess it’s just funnier to us because of it.

Anyway, that’s all for now – time for a snooze and see you tomorrow!

More Yoga Stories

What an entrance back from the Eid holidays – the first kid who came in this morning was Sonu, happy smiley Sonu, and he met me at the door and spoke quietly so that the other teachers wouldn’t hear.

“Ma’am, I am sad.”
“Why, Sonu?”
“Ma’am… Mother is beating me…”

As it turns out his mother beat him because he was playing instead of studying. When he told me he was standing at the door beside me and there were tears in his eyes, and he still managed to smile through them. I didn’t know what to say. I asked him why she was beating him and was he OK, but what do I say to comfort a child in that situation? I think he was looking for consolation I couldn’t give. I can’t tell him that I think what his mother does is wrong – it’s not my place; that’s not how they do things here and I think her main concern is having both her boys properly educated. She stood up for him last week when the teachers called her in after Sonu calling them mad. Poor Sonu. He can’t seem to please anybody, despite being the one of the smartest, happiest, most charming kids I’ve ever met.

We did the same work we did on Monday – verbs, the simple present tense and the present continuous. I’m trying to get them used to converting them from one to the other, so we do out charts that have an “Every Day” section and a “Right Now” section.

“Every day I go to school.”
“Right now I am going to school.”

Sometimes they get it wrong but on the whole they seem to understand the difference. I think it’s just a matter of practice. I’ve talked to the teachers about them continuing on the tenses when we’re gone. It arose when they were asking why we weren’t teaching them the past and future tenses. The truth is I don’t want to confuse them. A lot of the time when I think about how I should go about teaching English, I try to remember what worked for me when I was learning French. All of first and second year as far as I can remember was present tense stuff. We didn’t move on until we’d nailed that and I think that was good because otherwise we would’ve mixed them up pretty badly.

Funny story – there was a little girl who came in for the first time today, maybe only three years old, and she was NOT happy to be there. The teachers tried soothing her with this doll, who had reddish curly hair in two ponytails, a red dress and blue eyes, and she was wearing a red hat. I picked it up at one point and Bilal immediately said, “Ma’am, is your hair.” I had to laugh. One of the other teachers said, “Ais, this is your childhood.” How weird must it be to see red hair after having seen only that jet-black Indian hair all your life? I wonder if they’ve ever seen Harry Potter. Dem Weasleys.

After that, we came home and began yoga after an hour or so when Rajesh came. He comes every day, and because he’s had more time over the last few days he took us for meditation after the yoga. It’s really amazing stuff. First he did all these breathing exercises. You absolutely flush your body full of oxygen with all the heavy breathing you’re doing during the exercises, and when we did the meditation I found I hit a point where I just didn’t need to breathe. It was such a weird feeling. Imagine not having to breathe!

Our instructor is really something. He’s a small, skinny guy with not very much English, and I bet he could tie himself into a knot if he wanted to. He calls us “Shauna-gi” and “Carolina-gi”… mine is “Ass-gi.” He can’t say the “sh” sound in “Ais” – something I just don’t understand because every other “s” he uses that’s meant to sound like an “s” comes out as a “sh”. Much like when we’re trying to teach the kids the difference.

“Now – leg shtraight and arm shtraight and head touch off kneesh… Head down, Ass-gi!”

It’s like that. He’s a really polite, unassuming guy and he’s super-easy to make laugh. If we take one of his instructions the wrong way and end up doing something ridiculous he finds that funny. He also loves it when I make a comment in Hindi.

“Both side finish?”
“Yeah. Hogya.”
“Hogya? Done?… Ahaha, very good, Ass-gi! You speak Hindi!”
“Tora-tora.”
“Ahaha… Some-some. Very good Ass-gi. Hahaha.”

When one of us is particularly good at something, he says, “Very good. You are champion!” He finds that funny too. I really like it; he’s a really good instructor, even if the communication is very difficult. Plus, the meditation is great! Last night one of our team mates slept really badly and five minutes into the meditation he was conked. Poor fella. It just goes to show though, it’s good! You feel really good afterwards.

After that we watched The Town, courtesy of our Boston boy of course. I was so tired by the time it finished; I was practically sleepwalking to my room. Hitting the sack; see you guys tomorrow!

Eid al-Fitr

Happy Eid! Today is the Islamic holiday of Eid Al-Fitr, which marks the end of the month of Ramadan during which the Muslims fast and don’t eat during daylight hours. Two of our teachers, the sisters, are Muslims and they told us that while fasting they’d be getting up at shockingly early hours, before four in the morning, to have breakfast, if you could call it that. Then they’d have to wait until seven or eight at night to have dinner, which is crazy. They can’t drink either – and that includes water. Isn’t that insane? Anyway, today they’re actually not allowed to fast as far as I can make out so it’s the equivalent of our Christmas dinner.

We, meaning our entire team, were graciously invited to our teachers’ houses to share this feast, which was again an incredible show of their level of kindness and hospitality. After getting slightly lost with our autos, we found their home and were taken inside. First of all we were taken to the bedroom and after a few minutes the rest of the teachers came as well. It was fantastic, having them meet my team! It was really exciting for me, as would be the case for anybody introducing two groups of friends to each other first time. They all looked great, decked out in their best clothes (many of which had been made by themselves).

After that we went into a different room and met the sisters’ mother, who was very gracious and had a smattering of English. They had food laid out on a mat on the floor and we all sat around and were given drinks and began eating. There was a very exciting mix of food there – the first one was a tray of this white sweet stuff which may have been something called ras malai, I’m not entirely sure. I liked it anyway – I think we have a very different palate to these people, which means that the food strange to us, despite being quite enjoyable. Mostly – there were some things that I don’t think we’d ever get used to as long as we’re here! We could see the amount of preparation that had gone into it; it was very impressive.

After that we moved from one teacher’s house to another and were treated to yet another course of food – here we met more of the family and had a good chat. I try to use Hindi whenever I can with them which always results in them laughing, probably because my attempts are so feeble! But I reckon if I can be funny without even trying in Hindi, it’s all for the better. My teachers certainly love it!

The room was their bedroom, with a lovely double bed at one side, a three-side mirror and a cabinet with china and metal cups in it, and on one wall there was a big picture of a lagoon in spring up north in the mountains, which was lovely. Sonu was there; he was dressed up to the nines, as fancy as I’d ever seen him! He looked like a little prince in a white and gold kurta and deep red trousers. His mother was wearing green and the same dark red, with sparkling gems all over it. Their jewellery was all fantastic! There were gold rings on every finger and many small bangles that went halfway up their arms with the sheer amount of them. Sonu was so cute – with all the foreign strangers in his home he was quieter than usual but he still smiled and talked to me – in Hindi, as always. He even played tricks on Amy – he had a napkin and was nestled in his mother’s lap, and Amy was sitting just down from them, and every now and again he’d rip off a bit of the napkin, roll it into a ball and whenever she wasn’t looking he’d flick it at her. She didn’t notice for ages, not even when the little bits of napkin were piling up like flakes of snow around her. The others who noticed were close to wetting their pants laughing. Sonu’s such a charmer!

The food here was different again. There was a liquid-y semolina dish with tiny little noodles in it and soaked nuts that I really enjoyed and then there was this savoury dish of ground flour and curd deep fried with spices and soaked in a milky liquid that was quite strange to our Western senses; I think many of us found it quite hard to swallow. Aside from that there were little floury biscuits and they brought chai out for us as well, which was really nice.

At the end they brought us up to their rooftop and we took in the view. The Delhi skyline from their terrace is buildings at different levels all around. They’re all quite close together so they’d have to be fairly cosy with their neighbours. The buildings are all different colours and shapes and sizes – it’s a patchwork quilt of a city; there’s so much diversity.

It’s moments like that when I’m standing on the top of a building in Delhi, overwhelmed by all the food I’ve just been given and the conversations I’ve been having with the hosts and guests that I wonder – what the hell am I doing here? I’m in India! How did I get here? It hits every now and again – just an accumulation of unfamiliar circumstances that remind me of where I am, that geographically I’m half a world away from home, and that culturally I may as well be in a different universe altogether. Sometimes I feel quite lost.

After that, full and happy, we said goodbye and the teachers and headed out with the teachers, who walked us to our guesthouse, which as it turns out is not that far away at all. It was a lovely day; I loved having the teachers meet the team and they were so hospitable, as always.

Our yoga instructor arrived shortly after we came home and we had the class – it was probably not such a good idea to have it so soon after eating; he noticed without us even saying anything. It was still great though. I think I’ve said this already but a lot of the stuff he does stretches you without you even feeling anything.

When he was gone we did some pilates with our co-ordinator and just when everyone thought the party was over we stuck on some tunes on my laptop, turned off the lights and danced the night away! It was in our common area which is pretty hot anyway but with six of us dancing around like mad things in there, we were all sweating like crazy. My hair was wet with it and my cheeks were radiating enough heat energy to power the entire city of Delhi I’d say, but we had the time of our lives and we only stopped when my laptop died (we were in the middle of a power-cut so continuation was regrettably not possible). It was so good! Then we settled down for a good movie night in and we watched The Departed. Our Boston-born team mate has downloaded a bunch of movies that basically have anything and everything to do with Boston on his laptop so that was one of them. It’s a really great film in fairness, I think we were all on the edge of our seats watching it!

Going to bed now. I kind of do feel a bit Christmassy – the day had all the right elements to it, except for the fact that it’s not deep-winter (although that said it did even rain a bit today for us!). I had a really lovely day, thanks to my teachers and the team – going to bed, sleepy, full, happy. Couldn’t ask for more.

Games… and More Yoga

Many on our team had the weird feeling that the weekend should’ve been longer than it was. We were all pretty sleepy going off to school this morning. I think it’s because this weekend was the first one in a while that we’ve taken a break and not gone anywhere, and because we were anticipating a long rest, it didn’t perhaps last as long as it was in our heads. The weekends pass by slowly when you go places, not because you’re not enjoying yourself but because you’re having a lot of attention-consuming experiences over a short space of time. When you’re lazing around the house, time flies.

Still, managed to give the teaching a good stab. It was the same story as yesterday. Amy was with me today so I took the boys’ class in the morning and she took the afternoon class with the girls. Dem kidz… I absolutely love teaching them because they’re ideal students. I don’t think every kid in Ireland is that enthusiastic about their education – although it’s been a long time; maybe if I actually looked into that I’d be surprised. They’re always smiling and they really try; they’re never quiet. We continued going through present tenses and I think they’re really getting it. They’re all really bright.

During the break, we were talking to the younger teachers who started a week or two ago, who are roughly our age. One of them flat-out asked, “Are you in a relationship?”, and when I said no, she asked me if I wanted to be – not in a creepy way, just genuinely wondering, I guess. I gave her and the older teacher the right answer.

“Ais tum achhi lerkhi ho! You are a good girl!”

I asked all the same questions she asked me in return – she reckons she’ll be married by about twenty-four, to a man of her parents’ choice. I probed around to see how she felt about that – she gave me some conflicting information; she said she’s happy that her parents are picking out her husband and would prefer not to do it herself, but at the same time she would like a loving relationship and says she can’t have a love marriage because her parents are quite traditional. She also mentioned about women being second-class citizens – neither teachers were happy about that obviously, both being female – but they’re some of very few I’ve seen so far who are willing for change. I think everyone LIKES the idea of women being seen as equal but I think there are a certain amount of them, possibly a considerable amount, who accept being a housewife and adopting their (dare I use the word) natural role as mothers and providers for the children. The truth is, I haven’t been here long enough or know enough about this culture and I wouldn’t dare to presume I think I know what they want… I just can’t help wondering why change for women isn’t happening faster, if every woman in India feels this way. Obviously I’m being very general about the whole thing and I’m only brushing the surface. I hope this causes no offence; it’s just a thought.

We got to talking about teaching as well. They said, “Ais, you are very good teacher. Doctor – no.” They wanted me to become a teacher instead of a doctor! So that was insanely flattering.

I actually got to giving it more thought than I would’ve normally. I’m getting a great kick out of teaching here. Maybe it’s the shortness of the stint or the kids I’m teaching, but I’m having the time of my life with these kids. Maybe I’d be happier as a teacher than a doctor. For one thing I might have a bit more control over my life, speaking as someone whose father is a GP and can barely make it home for Christmas. I don’t think I’ll change but if for whatever reason I ever need a complete change of direction in my life I’ll know where to go.

For the girls once they were finished with the class, the teachers played a game with all of us – we sat around in a circle and one person went out of the classroom. We’d secretly elect a leader and they’d start doing an action – hand-clapping, head-scratching, finger-clicking, hand-waving – whatever. And we’d all copy them. Once we were started, the person who left the room would be called back in and they’d stand in the middle of the circle, watching us, turning, and while their back was turned the leader would change the action and we’d all follow them as fast as we could. The person in the middle had to try and guess who the leader was, within three guesses. It was an immensely enjoyable game.

Came home after that, did our yoga sesh which was great, had dinner and another game of Scrabble, and now we have just finished booking our flights for the south. WOOOOOOOP! Super-excited!

OK. Tired now. Going to bed. And Happy Eid!

Also, check me out doing yoga!

Yoga Day!

So the yoga at the gym kind of fell through – only last week, we were all sick so I wasn’t going to get up that early to push my body that hard. So instead someone on our team had the bright idea to have a guy come to our house and take everyone for classes every day in the evening before dinner. He came for a tester today at twelve and we all lined up with our gear on and our mats out.

At first I was pretty sceptical. He started with the whole prayer-hands eyes-closed humming chanting thing and I just wanted to get down to the exercise – but when we did it was pretty fantastic. A lot of it was the kind of stuff that you do that doesn’t really feel like much, but that makes your muscles scream with stiffness the next day. More of it was the stuff that feels REALLY hard when you’re doing it and is pretty much nigh impossible. The instructor was there bending his legs every which was possible before us and sometimes it was all we could do to just stand there in amazement and watch him. He’s a petite little guy; he doesn’t look like much but God, the things he can do with his limbs is incredible.

We were properly dripping sweat (even more than usual) five minutes in. It felt great, actually, and we’ve decided to do it every day. It’s much more flowery than the classes we did in the gym, but it’s much more intimate, and it’s a team thing, and I actually think I got a better workout from it than the gym. I was getting used to the same stretches over and over again, and I think my body was adjusted to the point where it wasn’t being productive any more. So, yeah – I’m really glad to get started with this!

In the evening I went to Connaught Place (how funny is that? I didn’t think I’d see a place called “Connaught” in INDIA of all places) – it’s at Rajiv Chowk, the metro station we change lines at usually. The place itself it huge. There’s a huge park in the middle, like an enormous roundabout, and all around the outside are huge white buildings with massive pillars and underneath those there are shops and stalls all around selling jewellery, books, clothes, sunglasses, hats – anything really. It’s a pretty upmarket place.

We went to this bar – it was dark inside and they were playing loud music, despite the fact that it was only four o’clock in the afternoon so I decided to leave it. We had a night up on the rooftop instead with coconut water and some pillows. It was so soothing. I’m absolutely covered in bites now and am anticipating dengue fever but other than that it was great!

That’s all for now, talk after school tomorrow!

Monday Update!

Beginning of Week Three! I’m back to my yoga/ school routine, after sickness and the productive weekend. This morning the yoga class was packed, a stark contrast from last week when my team mate and I were worried about being the only ones there, until two others joined us. What can I say? We made the place popular! In fairness it’s really good. It’s the perfect amount to do in the morning, not too much, but you still feel like you’re getting a good amount in and it gives you energy for the day rather than saps it from you.

This morning in our auto in we noticed a smattering of rain against the windscreen – the temperature was noticeably cooler too. We got ridiculously excited for it, but it lasted about 30 seconds… so disappointed. There are storms cast for tomorrow – fingers crossed!

When have I ever prayed for a storm? India is doing weird things to me…

Aaaaaaanyway so today was the beginning of our third week of teaching. We gave the kids a test to see how they’re doing which included letters of the alphabet Q-Z (we did A-P last week), numbers, greetings, directions and parts of the body, which was the topic of the week last week ( I say topic of the week – it was only meant to be for a day but our Marker game was requested on so many occasions that we’ve played it to perfection at this stage!). I think the main mode of testing is not actually in the test itself but rather how long it takes the kids. Most of them will eventually get all the answers but the range of time it takes them is incredible. Shahnwaz had it done in about ten or fifteen minutes but the rest took maybe an hour. It’s not fair on him – we try to keep him occupied and all the rest that finish early, but it’s difficult.

Especially today – we noticed today in particular how advanced some of the girls in our second class are. There’s three girls and a boy who are miles ahead – almost, almost conversational – except for one of the girls who is a genius when it comes to reading English but cannot speak it apparently. Does that sound crazy to you? It does to me. I do understand how that’s possible, particularly here, where words and spellings appear to be drilled into the kids, so I guess with this girl we can try and encourage her to speak it as much as possible. I know I’m much better at reading French than speaking it, so I suppose hers is just a much more extreme version of what happened to me. I think when you’re learning a written language, it’s all about learning the rules and learning the words by heart – there just is no other way to do it – and then when it comes to the spoken language it’s all about repetition and muscle memory with your mouth. I think that’s how we’ll benefit those girls the most.

OK, so just a brief update on what’s happening during the week: tomorrow after school, heading to V3S for a quick shopping spell, just for food and school supplies; Wednesday we’re going to Delhihad I think – it’s a market that’s not too crowded apparently and sells nice clothes so maybe I can replenish my stocks of suitable clothes then. Friday we are going on Safaaaaariiiiiiiiiii! It’s to the Corbett Safari Park where we’re preying we might spot a tiger (pun intended) and that’ll take up the whole weekend. I can’t wait. I’ll let you know everything as it happens, if I can – not anticipating WiFi while on safari, understandably (although looking at my Mac that also seems like a joke. It’s not. Don’t laugh) so I’ll update you next week. But listen out for it; I’m pretty sure it’ll be amazing!