Ev Star

It’s hard to believe, but we just have 1 week left at Shanti Bhavan school.  I’ve had a lot of fun there!  The kids are very cute and are also very outgoing.  They like to talk and ask questions all the time which makes it fun to be with them.  Every evening at dinner Mad and I go sit with another table in the dining hall.  It’s been neat to have a chance to talk to all the different students.  We’ve heard lots of stories about what they do for their birthdays (a favourite topic with the little kids!), their favourite books, movies and sports, about their families and all about the things they do at school. 

We did not go to Hosur last Saturday afternoon to use the internet because we discovered that there is no electricity every 3rd Saturday of the month in this area.  I had a couple of classes saturday morning, including environmental science.  It was fun because apparently in grade 3, environmental science means going on a nature walk and so I embarked on a journey with my 19 students.  They took me to ‘the rocks’ which are a couple of big rocks behind their dormitory which we climbed all over.  It was pretty fun!

 Saturday evening was the month end performance for students from preschool to grade 5.  Miss Berni had asked me if I could teach the students a dance, so Mad and I made up a line dance routine to the song ‘Man I Feel Like a Woman’ by Shania Twain.  We had rehersals throughout the week and then the kids performed Saturday night.  They did a great job!  The kids’ house mothers got jeans and plaid shirts for the boys and plaid skirts and white shirts for the girls which definitely added to the effect! 

On Sunday, Mad and I took a rickshaw from the school to Hosur and then caught a bus into Bangalore.  I didn’t have a chance to update my website because i went to the travel agent to book train tickets and flights for Mad and I.  I’m glad it is done!!  Trains seem to fill up really far in advance. 

This week at school the children have been preparing for sports day.  The actual event was this morning (it started at SIX THIRTY AM) and it was huge!  The kids marched in formations and then did routines with coloured pompoms (there were 4 house colours, red, blue, yellow and purple).  Then the races began!  The preschoolers and kindergarten kids did races where they had to do things like build a tower out of blocks and then run to the finish line, or put on a shirt (buttoning it up was very tough for them and a few kids started to cry) and then run to the finish line.  The older kids had running, cycling and skipping races.  It was all very thrilling especially as all the staff and volunteers were divided into the houses as well (i was in the purple group).  We all dressed up for the event in our colours and cheered loudly!  I am happy to report that my house won!  After the races were over we had breakfast and then the prize ceremony.  There were prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place for every event for every grade…needless to say it took awhile, but it was fun.  The kids were excited to get the prizes (notebooks, folders, pencil sharpeners, etc.). 

After all that, Maddy, Jacques, Micheline (the couple from montreal) and I had to give a presentation on Canada to the whole school.  They like to spring these presentations on you, usually at the end of assembly so that you have no choice but to go up and do some sort of a presentation on the spot.  This time we actually had 1 day of notice, so we prepared a presentation including lots of acting (canadian wildlife, dogsledding, flying by airplane and so on).  On top of that each one of us had a category: history, geography, arts and culture and industries & wildlife to talk about.  The presentation was successful and we ended it by handing out canadian flag pins and pennies to all the students and staff. 

Mad and I are spending the afternoon in Hosur while the kids get the rest of the day to relax and watch videos at the school.  We are at the internet place now, but we will probably go out and do a bit of shopping shortly.

 xoEv