Still Staying at the School

Saturday, Oct. 15, Kumbalam

I worked at the office until 12:15. Then I caught the bus to Kundara at 1:30. After dealing with e-mail and the blog, I wandered around to see if there was anything down roads I hadn’t explored. I was recognized by one of the guys who delivered the refrigerator this week. He wanted to show me his shop, and it was the one where I had bought soap, water, etc., last week. Later, someone else recognized me—a student (not from our school) who had apparently visited with me sometime before. I walked back, stopping at Joseph’s favorite banana place (one that grows their bananas onsite without the use of insecticides).

The kids wanted to go for their walk when I returned, so I went out again from 5:00-6:10 with them. Almost immediately there was a problem. Abin and Jerry went to the side of the road to break off switches. In doing so, Abin got into a poisin ivy-type plant and had hives break out along his forearm. We took him back to the hostel, then the rest of us continued our walk. The kids can’t leave plants, especially flowering plants, alone. They want to break off blossoms every where they see them—not to appreciate them, but just to shred them letting the blossoms drop to the roadway. And Jerry has started a bad habit of spitting to the side of the road every 30 seconds or so. He also likes to toss berries or small stones at the others. I guess they are typical kids, but their behavior bothers me.

I showed Joseph the TEKS, the scope and secquence charts for the various subjects in Texas. We saved them on his computer so he could look more closely at them later. They may help us in organizing the scope and sequence charts in other subjects here.

Sunday, Oct. 16, Kovalam

I finished reading Out of India: Selected Stories by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. I gave it 3 out of 4 stars. The first story was the best. All the stories are filled with people accepting their problems rather than doing something about them. Do Indians really feel they deserve the bad things that happen to them?

I feel lazy today. I would love to be completely on my own. I did laundry while Joseph and the kids were at mass and laid it out on the grass to dry. There were small brown spots on some of it when I turned the pieces over, but they will be clean enough, I guess. Then I read much of the morning. I started A Black Englishman by Carolyn Slaughter. It’s a book set in India in the 1920s and was a gift from Nurse Grethe. But I became tired even from reading. I closed my door and took a nap about 1:45.
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I took the kids for a walk around 4:30. Then I watched the sunset from the front porch between 6:10 and 6:20. Although the mosquitoes start coming out then and are a problem to keep away from me, the sunsets are so beautiful that I try to watch them every chance I get. The clouds turn yellow, then pink, then glowing orange behind the curtain of coconut palm trees and against the rich blue of the evening sky. Birds fly across the open space, and even occasionally a large bat can be seen swooping across.

That was the end of the peaceful part of the day, for then began the homework period I hate so much. Although I had asked Friday night and last night about homework, nothing was brought out until tonight. Then, however, it became evident the teacher had assigned too much without teaching it well enough. I became frustrated because the students wouldn’t THINK. They wanted me to tell them the answers so they could write them down. Here, that’s what they think doing homework is all about. I decided and announced that I would help until 8:00 and then go to bed. That’s what I’ve done.

I guess I need to leave. I think I will tell Joseph I will finish the math scope and sequence chart and then leave. That means I’ll depart here on Wednesday probably. I think it will be best for me. I’m miserable having to be here so many hours a day, and I don’t like having to help with the homework. Joseph wasn’t even around tonight, so I will have to talk to him tomorrow.

Monday, Oct. 17, Kumbalam

Joseph and I talked today. He wants me to stay and is willing to be flexible. He likes what I am doing and said I can set my hours. When I expressed concern about taking free housing and food for doing less than he had originally expected, he told me he was very happy with whatever I do. He suggested that I decide if I wanted to work 4 or 6 hours a day—whatever. I told him I want to be free nights and weekends in general, although I may appear and assist them occasionally. And I told him that it would be a trial to see if I feel better over time. My thinking is that I will go to Kollam maybe one night a week and eat dinner and go to a cyber café. I’m not sure if that is feasible timewise considering bus schedules, but I will see. I also told him I’ll probably leave on Friday afternoons and stay gone for the weekends. I’ll try to go to Varkala, a beach resort not far from here, this weekend to see if that helps.

I’m tired today. Because I took a nap yesterday and then went to bed early, I awoke at 3:30 this morning and didn’t get back to sleep until 5:00. I must try to stay awake all day today or I’ll have a similar pattern tonight.

The big news here today is that Wal-Mart is coming to town. India has opened up to 3-4 mega-retailers from outside, and Wal-Mart has already purchased sites here (Kollam) and in Trivandrum, the big city south of here. They have agents seeking appropriate sites in two other cities north of here. Small shop owners are organizing to protest, but it looks like a done deal with national approval and land already purchased.

I know that news because the hostel gets three newspapers each day—two in English and one in the local language (Malayalam). Reading the English papers is one of the things I enjoy here each day. They have mostly South India news. But there is at least a page of international news (although space on it is often wasted with stories such as the one yesterday about Denmark sending musical pillows to their soldiers in Iraq to help them relax). There’s occasionally good guest editorials from American or British newspaperws.

There was a BIG spider on the tank of the toilet I use today at noon. The body was about the size of a quarter with the outer leg circumference being about 4 inches (10 cm). It was still there tonight.

I had to get mean with the kids tonight. I hated doing it, but the nice thing about them is that they don’t hold a grudge. Joseph and the cook had gone to buy some fish. I said I would watch them. It was fine until they started finishing their homework. They became rowdy. I kept asking them to find something to do quietly. All of them were being a problem, so when one chased another and hit her, I made them all sit down and be quiet. When one made a move to bother another, I was on top of him fast and told all of them they were not to move, not to talk, not to touch another etc. I told them I expected complete silence until Joseph return. And I got it. As I heard his car approaching, I told them I expected the complete silence to continue until Joseph entered the room. And they did that, too. But the experience just reconfirmed the fact that I want to stay away from the kids in the evenings and let someone else deal with them except in special cases when I am needed like tonight.