Two Weeks!

Still settling in a bit, but things are continuing to go well. I can’t decide whether two weeks feels like a long time or if it has gone by really quickly. No pictures again, I’m afraid, as I forgot to bring the appropriate equipment. Sorry! Instead I’ll try to describe to you what everything looks like through text.

- quick sidenote before I get started! Two things have just happened in the internet caff that have been really disorienting:
1: Somebody’s cellphone went off and they have the exact same tone as my phone does at home and for a moment I thought it was mine
2: Today they’re blasting more contemporary pop songs, including Love in This Club(!?!?!?!?) – I don’t think I can quite describe the feeling I had sitting here on the top of a mountain in India listening to that song! It actually made me feel a bit homesick (first time too)

Anyway, my life in Ghayabari so far:

Teaching:
Thanks so much for words of support. I had a few good classes this week, so I am feeling a bit better about it. Those classes are always going to be difficult, because you’re battling communication problems as well as wildness (so even if they wanted to co-operate they can’t understand what you’re saying). I don’t know that I’ll ever particularly enjoy teaching the little ones, but I know I can cope, and after this week I know that it is possible to do SOMETHING with them. And then I think the more we do, the more likely they’ll come on to my side a bit.

We’re teaching at 2 schools. On Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays I teach at Blue Diamond, and then Tuesdays and Wednesdays I’m in another village called Tindharia, where I teach at a Nursery called Regal Academy (all the schools have really posh names). Rosalie teaches at Tindharia on the days that I’m at Blue Diamon & Blue Diamond when I’m in Tindharia. Every other Saturday we teach in the mornings, so we’ll still be able to go off and do weekend trips.

Funny story about teaching: quite often the boarders are the worst of the lot!!! I was quite miffed in my first Class 2 class, when it was Rahul (one of the boarders) who was the ringleader in climbing up the walls! One of the boarding girls in Class 1 (which is #1 of my Terror Classes full of Terror Children) is one of the worst ones for whacking other children. Typical. I so thought that in seeing them all the time they’d automatically be more cooperative with me, but this is not the case!!


Sights:
Perilously steep cliffs and mountain ridges, covered by trees and tea plantations. Even though they’re in the dry season (it’s funny to think that their winter is their dry season, coming from Vancouver), everything is very green.

Houses are tiny, usually made of tin and/or brick, and painted bright colours. Almost everyone keeps potted flowers outside their houses, it’s lovely (geraniums, daisies, pansies, and several more that I don’t recognize).

Vast majority of people are of Nepali descent. There are flags, posters, slogans, and signs everywhere, calling for Ghorkaland. Some people paint “Ghorkaland” over “West Bengal” on signs with their addresses. I’m hoping Mr Thapa will tell me more about that, as I really feel that I know nothing about it.

There is litter everywhere. People drop their garbage on the ground without the slightest thought. It’s automatic for them. This has probably been the biggest culture shock thing for me so far. It’s really weird for me, because the idea of picking up after yourself is something that has been instilled in me right from when I was tiny. It’s such a shame, because the scenery here is incredible, and yet continuing to be spoilt by piles of litter everywhere. Even the tiny ones at Regal Academy drop all their food on the ground, & it’s not seen as something bad. It’s a bit depressing, because I really don’t know that there’s anything that you could do to change it, when it’s literally everyone who litters. And there certainly aren’t garbage/recycling facilities up here, so what can one do?
Sounds:

In the mornings: children (they wake up before 6am to study for an hour & a half before school! Try getting any Vancouver children to do that), chickens (they roam around the yard, everyone keeps them it seems), and quite often this really nice, relaxed Indian pop music that someone nearby plays.

AAnnnnnd I need to stop. Sorry about the quick conclusion. Will continue, hopefully next week.