Across the Universe

February 11th, Shanti Bhavan
I arrived at Shanti Bhavan this morning at 4:30 a.m. The flight to India was pretty uneventful – no individual TV monitors on this leg. I slept a lot and only woke up to eat…curry. I sat next to two young Indian guys - Sadheep and Senthil - who, it turned out, were from Kerala, the state in southern India that I plan on traveling to when I’m done at Shanti Bhavan. They asked me what I planned on seeing and when I told them I hadn’t made plans yet, they took my guide book, circled and underlined all the places I should see and gave me an itinerary! I guess I was right to decide to leave my plans up to the locals. Anyway, I exchanged email addresses with them and they promised to send me some more information on a few sights, so I guess I’ll see if that happened when I get to check my email.
When I arrived at the airport, it was about 1:30 in the morning. The airport in Bangalore is new and very clean and modern. I followed the crowd through customs and to baggage claim, where two extremely attentive workers insisted on helping me with my bags. They put them on a cart for me and went with me to the taxi area where the driver from the school was waiting for me. By this time it was about 2:30 a.m. and the driver and I set out on the 2 hour trip to Shanti Bhavan. I tried to stay awake as long as I could to look at the scenery, but I after observing some little road-side towns and enjoying the painted trucks (they really do paint all their vehicles so vibrantly and intricately the way you see in movies!), I quickly fell asleep. I woke up about an hour later to the sound of drums beating and I looked out my window to see a festival in full swing. In the middle of a dirt road in the middle of the night, about fifty people were dancing, playing music, and partying inside of a semi-circle of trucks with what looked like pinball machines on the back of them. They were covered with garish Christmas lights and portrayed images of Hindu gods. The driver laughed and turned the car around without much thought… does this kind of thing happen all the time here? We took a detour and about an hour later, we pulled up to the school.
It really is in the middle of nowhere. It’s sort of like summer camp or a dude ranch or something. The security guard let us through and I was let off at the volunteers’ quarters. Mr. Aneesh – the general grounds-keeper guy – met me and escorted me into the room I’m sharing with Amanda. She’s one of the other volunteers with ASTEP and she’s already been here for about a month. I put my stuff down, got into bed with my clothes on, and fell asleep.
I woke up this morning at around 7 and took a cold shower (the water heater is solar-powered, so there isn’t any hot water until the middle of the day). I tried to unpack a little until Amanda got back from her morning aerobics class with the kids and then we went down to breakfast. The dining hall is basically a big open-air pavilion with folding tables and chairs and a small kitchen in the back. The volunteers get a hard-boiled egg every morning and today there were dhosas – sort of an unsweetened pancake with a sauce. I skipped the sauce, but everything else was pretty basic and good. As soon as I walked into the dining hall, the kids started staring. They are so adorable with their big eyes and huge white smiles. Amanda introduced me to some of them and some of the teachers and “aunties” (the women who live with the children and take care of them). After breakfast, I went to see Miss Beena, the Vice-Principal, about my class schedule. I’m going to be teaching 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders language classes – grammar, creative writing, and reading – and working with Amanda on the Musical Theatre classes for all grades.
I start on Monday with my own classes, but since I arrived in the middle of the week, I’ll be observing and sort of assisting with them for the next few days.
After my meeting with Miss Beena, I went to meet Mrs. Law, the Principal. She is lovely and intelligent and seemed very happy and grateful that I was here. She told me to feel free to disappear and rest any time I needed to today, but I told her I was going to try to stay awake as long as possible and go watch some classes. My first class was Amanda’s creative writing class with the 4th grade. They are so cute and curious, “Miss, how did you come to Shanti Bhavan?” “Miss, what movies or Broadway have you been in?” “Miss, why is your hair longer on that side?” They ask anything and everything that comes to their minds. Amanda gave them two minutes to ask me questions and then I settled in to watch. After the third period, there is assembly, which is where the whole school comes together to say a prayer, hear about world news, meet new volunteers and say good-bye to the ones who are leaving, and just have a bit of time as a community. I was put on the spot and had to introduce myself to everyone, and after it was over, I was bombarded by kids who wanted to say hi and tell me their names and ask me more questions. “Miss, were you in that ‘Sound of Music’?” “Did you play the eldest daughter?” “Miss, will you be taking our class?” (That means teaching).
After assembly, we had a music class with the 2nd graders, who are so tiny that they look like kindergarteners. They were so cute (albeit tone-deaf), and they showed me the dance one of the pervious volunteers had taught them to James Brown’s “I Feel Good.” They may not be born singers, but these kids can dance!
Lunch was next and the curry was too spicy for me to eat. I think it was a combination of my stomach being off from jet-lag, and it being spicier than usual, but man! I had to stick to the white rice and poori. After lunch I went back to my room for what I thought was going to be a short nap… Amanda woke me up 5 hours later for a short walk around the grounds before dinner. We are allowed to sit with the kids at dinner time and I was beckoned over by a table of 6th and 7th graders. We had a fun time eating and there were, of course, more questions. They also tried to help me learn their names, but they all have quite long and unfamiliar names and so I wasn’t so great at that game. It was fun to sit with them though, and I look forward to doing it tomorrow night.
After dinner, I was ready for bed, but the other volunteers warned me that I should try to stay up as long as possible to avoid waking up in the middle of the night. I reluctantly agreed to stay up and watch Jurassic Park in the volunteer lounge, but I’m glad I did… I forgot how good that movie is. Now I’m off to bed… hope I’ll sleep through the night!