1.25.2009

Weekend Trips and Bathroom Breaks!

Hello all!
I am writing to you from Mysore, a small city of one million people, about four hours away from my school. There is an awesome palace here that is pretty well known that we heard was a must see. This weekend is a three day weekend because of Republic Day on Monday. Five of us volunteers got a driver for the weekend to show us around and have been here since Saturday morning. We’ve gotten to see a few Hindu temples which are stunning. The carvings on the outside are so detailed and perfect, its hard to think about actually making them. Inside the temples is very different than anything I’ve ever been in. It is really plain stones and very dark. There are shrines of Gods everywhere and just not a lot of decoration. It’s a pretty interesting experience though.

We went to the palace today and I loved it. It is so different than the European palaces that are all dark and stone on the outside. This one is very open and everything is painted gold and bright colors. Rulers lived there until 1947 when this area became part of the state of India.

It’s so crazy to be in a city. At our school we’re so sheltered from the real India we all see in movies. This city has been very eye opening to what it is really like for the people here. There is so much poverty everywhere. It’s hard to take in and comprehend as we drive by all of it. It really is overwhelming.

I’m still loving it here and the second graders are finally starting to listen to me. One funny thing that happened this week was about the bathrooms. So their normal teacher is away for two months because her daughter is having a baby. Apparently this teacher is very strict on the second graders and they’re all well behaved for her. So one boy, our hellion, Vasanth, decided that he would take a 20 minute bathroom break. Joe had to go in there and find him. I was so mad I told the kids that after their first recess no one was allowed to go the bathroom until lunch because of Vasanth. Mind you, this is only a 90 minute period. Twenty minutes after break it began. One by one they all started coming up to me and telling me how bad they had to go. “It’s an emergency Miss!” they all kept saying. I held firm until one girl starting getting tears in her eyes telling me she had to go so bad. One by one, the whole class went to the bathroom before lunch. The teacher that teaches next door to me came over laughing during lunch and told me that all the kids have banded together and are all trying to take advantage of having a new teacher, Apparently none of them really had to go. Perfect.
Anyway, life is good and I’m so happy I’m here! Much love to everyone!

1 comment:

Katie Berger said...

Molly, those kids are GENIUS. I love it.

Miss you tons, I'm so proud of you!

Love love love you times a million,
Keb

 
SITE DESIGN BY DESIGNER BLOGS