Rubber Ducks In India: Or How I Try to Teach

Unfortunately my computer did not save my last blog entry so I am rewriting it all. :(

Anyways, I gave my first formal English lesson on Wednesday. Before this I had just been sort of informally teaching the kids. I had hoped that I would have been able to watch the person who accompanied us on the trip teach before he left yesterday, but it wasn't possible. So I was basically left trying to figure it out myself.

They did give me "sample" lessons, but after reading through all of them I didn't think they would fit my personality or help the kids that much. The lessons basically had the kids parroting back phrases and repeating whatever the teacher said.

So I taught four of the youngest kids the days of the weeks. They already knew the names of the days because of a song but didn't actually know what they were singing. I made a chart and taught them it in Tamil-English. Since I was going on a trip from Thursday - Saturday, I told them they should study. I was having a hard time getting some of them to focus, especially since they are so young and don't really understand the purpose of learning English, so I resorted to bribing them!

I feel so guilty for doing that! It worked and I gave the kids some rubber ducks (that are absolutely adorable) but I still feel like it was wrong! The other kids who hadn't had the lesson all wanted a duck as well and I told them that they could only get prizes after lessons but now I'm worried that I will have to give them presents every time to get them to learn! Help! Any suggestions??

Here are some pictures of the adorable ducks :)

Some adorable ducks. When the warden (Esther) came into my room she teased me and asked if I sit in my room and play with the ducks when I'm alone.

Of course I play with them!

Cute Cupcake! Not so tasty though!

This picture speaks for itself. Look at that tractor!

Cooking Mama: Hallie's Edition

On our morning walk on Friday, we saw a whole auto rickshaw filled with children going to school. I was not expecting it to stop so they could all ask us questions like our names and where we were from and shake our hands. Everyone shook our hands, even the auto driver!!

Shopping in India is totally different from shopping in the United States. There are always way too many employees just standing around, so when there is a customer they all watch you and follow you around. I always say that I'm just looking but I still don't get any space. They do it to everyone and it makes shopping much less enjoyable. When I get home, maybe I won't complain as much about there not being as many employees around to help!!

On Monday, we went back to Lady Doak College and met up with Jazmin, an American student, a few of the teachers, and one of the teachers sons. We split up. Jazmin, Max, and I went to India's version of a mini walmart called Reliance. It was a lot smaller than I had originally expected but had a ton of stuff! Then we met up with the whole group for ice cream before splitting up again. Jazmin and I went shopping and I got a nice Chudidad along with some nice jewlery! I love all the bangles here! I won't get the Chudidad until tomorrow since the lady is adding sleeves to it. I didn't get to finish my shopping since the other group kept calling us impatiently, even though we had agreed to meet much later so I plan on finishing my shopping when I go back to pick up my Chudidad. I liked these stores so much better than the one on Friday! Less stress!

Yesterday I helped make lunch!! The dish I helped with was vegetable briyani, which is a type of rice dish. The knives here are very different but not to hard to use.

A Batik instructor (spelling??) came to visit. He is hoping to start selling his work in the US. With his work, he supports 11 orphans and gives a good salary to a bunch of people in his village.

This is the one I bought!! It's of the traditional Indian dance. A few of the girls are teaching it to me!

These are the vegetables for the Briyani I helped make :)

Marudupandi Thambi: Or Pandi No 2. He knows virtually no English and so it was hard to try to keep him from getting distracted in my lessons!

Another pose of the traditional Indian Dance. It looks really pretty when someone who knows what they are doing does it!

This is a picture of a woman making butter.

PROOF!!! See! It IS me cooking!

Sorry for the Late Update!!

I know I've been seriously neglecting this blog, but its so hard to update! I only recently got internet out here in Madurai and even that is marginal. It takes forever to actually get an email to work and I have to keep disconnecting and reconnecting my internet connection since i tend to get stuck with either receiving 0kilabites per second or having the computer just suddenly disconnect.

However, every other part of Madurai has been great. The people have all been wonderful, the children are BEYOND ADORABLE, and I've been able to try lots of different foods while avoiding all the spicy ones!

Also, since coming to Madurai we have gone on many "field trips" and adventures. For example, we visited Tehmali, a really rural and small village where we ate a meal prepared by a chef home from Kotocanal, went to the Southermost tip of India (where three oceans all meet; Bay of Bengal, Indian Ocean, and Arabian Sea), visited a school started for children who are the first in their families to get schooling, and attended a wedding today! I promise to update more in detail now that I finally have a way to use the internet!

 

This is a view from the top of the (small) mountain we climbed in Tehmali. I had so much fun

and learned a lot of Tamil!

 

Here is another view from the mountain. The town pictured is Tehmali.

This is one of the boys from the Home in Madurai

Here are some of the boys who are supposed to be napping.

An adorably cute boy we met in Tehmali. He was extremely shy.

Three of the boys from the home in Madurai. They all love taking their pictures taken and so keep posing and posing and posing.

Two of my favorites: Radiku and Muttupandi

SlumDog Hallie

Today is only Monday, the start of my fourth day in India, but already I have learned some pretty interesting things. Yesterday at the worlds second largest beach, I learned that Indians have horse rides and amusement attractions there, and not many people actually swim. I also learned at the MGR memorial that they had a movies star as a chief minister of state and that in his later life he was never photographed without his glasses. People visiting his tomb were also leaning in to listen to his watch that is still ticking!

When we visited the Santhome Church, I saw a huge replica of Santa Claus in the St. Thomas Museum. When we asked a few people what the connection was they had no idea and some didn't even know who he was! It is kind of hard to explain that he flies around in a sleigh with magical reindeer in Tamil!

On Saturday we went to St. Thomas Mount and I saw a funny picture of Jesus laughing, something I have never really seen before but the lady unfortunately didn't let us take a picture. We also went to a few really big shopping malls and it was interesting to see how the newer ones resembled ones we have in America, only larger, while the older ones are definitely different. They wind every which way and its so easy to get lost! Additionally, while I was buying some traditional clothing, they offered us tea and coffee!! (It was very good :) )

Another huge culture shock was seeing all the animals in the streets. Going in I was expecting to see stray dogs and cats. I was not expecting to see roosters, goats, and a ridiculous amount of cows roaming around. Even with all the crazy traffic, cows just walk right down the middle of busy streets and all the drivers have to swerve to go around them! If I figure out how, I will upload some of the many cow pictures I took!!

And one real quick last note before I sign off is that Indians love Chinese food. I'm not sure why, since we had some and I think Chinese food in America is better, but they love it. 

A Vendor on the Beach 

Cows IN THE ROAD

MORE COWS IN THE ROAD

A Cow standing on a Colomb (Tamil Word). Every morning people go outside and draw these elaborate designs in chalk as a sign of good luck. Some people don't do these, and when I asked, I was told they were just "lazy."

Another Fruit Vendor

Jackie, Vanessa, and Anthony

Some adorable children who followed us around. I have multiple pictures of them.

A pharmacist who has a vendor on the side of the road.

A picture Vanessa took of me after I took off the Saree

A temple

A sign on the beach. (So dangerous!)

More vendors