Week 4...CHECK!

This week I...

• Enjoyed a rooftop BBQ with the young folk crew.  Hamburgers, chicken, and vegetable kabobs with sweet rolls is what was for dinner.  I learned how to play Indian pool while listening to some U.S. R&B, pop and Christian tunes.  It's funny that even in being thousands of miles away in India, the taste in music still overlaps.  Globalization or Westernization...I will let you decide.

 

Getting the grill started

Indian pool

• Accompanied the students to Mercy Park.  This is the track-and-field stadium where the big inter-school games competition will take place.  The athletes took a half-day fieldtrip to practice on the real grounds.  The exciting while also frustrating part of teaching in India is I never know what to expect when walking into the athletics practice each morning.  While planning to return back to my room immediately following practice for some needed studying, my plans were soon changed when I was informed that I would be riding on a bus with 40 kids to practice offsite at another field and not return until about lunchtime.  Ummmm...I was so not prepared for this and all I could think about was that I have no toilet paper (when travelling to other places in India, you must always carry toilet paper because not all restroom facilities provide such, if you know what I mean;)  Anyway, lesson learned.  I am always prepared for the unexpected when coming to sports practice.



Waiting to board the bus

• Finally began practicing with the school's older choir members for a gospel choir group  and boy are they SANGIN'!!! Because they are excited, I am even more excited.  I guess the other students also agreed that they sounded great because once practice was over, a number of faces could be seen lined up against the window, peering in and listening.

• In light of the Trayvon Martin case and verdict, my subject this week in class dealt with the evils and violence associated with identity.  In India, religion is what identifies and divides people.  In the U.S., it is race.  While there are other factors that are considered by many in the identities of citizens of both countries, religion and race in each respective country is the primary form of identification.  In comparing the race issue in the U.S. (offering my assistance with this portion of course) with the religion issue in India, I asked the children to list the effects of such divisions or distinctions for each country.  Some words that came up for both included VIOLENCE, CASTE, FEAR, and HATE.  Is it ironic that two different countries, with two different issues end up with very similar results??  I think not.  I label this as one of the human ties that bind all of us together--The "Superiority Complex."  Unlike Alfred Adler, I use this term not to explain the need to make one's self feel superior because of an entrenched and hidden issue of feeling inferior, but the need to make one's self feel superior because of fear of the other and all that such an unknown could possibly entail---hmmm, I think I just found my next blog (stay tuned...;)  Anyway, I asked the students what they could do differently.  If they are our future, how will they change it?  Do they believe it should be changed?  While everyone unanimously agreed that something does need to change, I had to pull teeth to get responses about what each student's individual contribution could be in helping to foster such a change.  I am still working on this, but the discussion was interesting nonetheless.