The Wait Is Over

I remember the night very clearly. It was a Sunday in September and I was talking on the phone to my friend Reshama. We were both feeling the need to escape at that particular point in time and she threw out the idea that we go to India for a couple of months. While the suggestion seemed too spontaneous for this practical Pam, part of it spoke to me and as oon as we hung up I decided to see if Fulbright had any programs in India (I had looked on their sight in the past for programs in Spanish-speaking countries but my language skills weren’t quite at the level that was required). That’s when I happened upon the English Teaching Assistantship and with each sentence I read, my heart beat a bit faster; my experiences and future goals coincided almost perfectly with their requirements. I spent the next five weeks writing essays, gathering transcripts, and requesting references. On October 18, 2010 I hit the send button and the waiting began. On August 1, 2011 I stepped through the gates of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Salt Lake No.2 as an English Teaching Assistant and the waiting was over.

My eight months at Kendriya Vidyalaya, Salt Lake No. 2 started quiet memorably at the school’s morning assembly. Besides the usual announcements, singing of the national anthem, and a prayer, there was also a special section welcoming me to the school; an adorable four or five year old girl, dressed in yellow and adorned with gold, presented me with a yellow rose before performing a classical Indian dance; a girl who was probably around 12 years old welcomed me to the school with an eloquent (and memorized!) speech; the principal presented me with a copy of Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali; and, the most touching part for me was when one of their highly talented music students sang Tagore’s Ami Chini Go Chini, whose first two lines, roughly translated, are I know you, I so know you, O lady of the foreign land. Needless to say, the first 25 minutes of school made quite an impression.

There are so many stories and reflections I could share about my first two weeks at the school but I’ll just give some highlights:

Friendship Day: While Friendship Day is officially the first Sunday of August, it seemed to be a weeklong event at my school. I received my first friendship band on August 2 and my last on August 8. In all, I racked up a grand total of 7 bracelets plus one cup of Fanta. Not too bad! When I asked one of the teachers where Friendship Day came from, she said the U.S. but, having never heard of it, decided to turn to my trusty pal, Wikipedia. And sure enough, it was started in the U.S. by none other than Hallmark! That’s right, folks. It’s a Hallmark holiday. It only lasted about twenty years in the States, from 1919 to the 1940s, but now it’s very popular all throughout Asia and South America.

Tiffin Time: I made quite a stir my second day at school when I brought daal and bhat (lentils and rice) to eat during lunch. All the teachers looked at me with shock and awe, wondering how I could have learned to make such an Indian dish. One of the teachers even pinched my daal-and-bhat-filled cheeks, as she exclaimed, “You’re turning Indian!” Of course, if she had tasted my so-called authentic Indian dish, she might have revoked that statement. It’s so nice to have at least those 30 minutes every day to socialize with the teachers. Sometimes I sit there, listening to their lively Bangla conversations, trying to pick out a word here or there; other times we talk about the best places to shop for food or clothes. They’ve given me recipes, advised me on the best way to get to South City Mall, told me where to take dance classes…basically, any question I have I can put before the teachers and someone will have an answer. They’re my Google!

Kheer: The teaching highlight of my first week was in one of my 8th grade classes during an activity about general and specific. I had divided the class into groups based on their interests and each group was supposed to present to the class four to five detailed descriptions or facts about their topic. The second group that went was made up of three girls and their topic was food, specifically the Indian rice pudding called kheer. I was not prepared for what followed. First, rather than one person giving their sentence of introduction, they alternated, each saying one word of the sentence. Then, each girl gave a description fit for The Joy of Cooking Indian Food of the ingredients needed, cooking instructions, and possible variations for the dish. I can only imagine what they would have presented if I had given them more than the 15 minutes I allotted for the activity!

Learning about teaching: The biggest realization I had this week was how much this experience is going to prepare me for being a teacher. When I enter graduate school next summer, I’ll have had nine months of learning ways to manage a classroom of 40 energetic students, of altering lessons on the spot to fit the needs of a class, of experimenting with activities to see what does and doesn’t work in a large classroom setting. While I knew I would learn a lot from being an ETA, after the first week I realized just how much “a lot” will be.