A little part of BandraI've been in Mumbai for nearly a week now and I'm happy to say that the not moving around constantly and home cooked food has sorted me all out. I've been fit and healthy for the last 4 days and loving every second of it. Its amazing how much lovlier everything is when you're not doubled up in pain and rushing to the toilet!
We are living in Bandra, a leafy little suburb north of the centre, in the One! International apartment. Right now there's the three of us and one other volunteer. She's leaving next week and then we'll have the apartment to ourself for a while. Its very small but we're getting by... although it is regularly completely without water. It seems to only be our apartment that's affected, all the others are fine! So far I've only managed one regular shower, and this was at the apartment across the street that a couple of the other volunteers are living at. The rest of the time its just me, a bucket of water and a small jug. The no water also means we can't flush the toilet or wash up or any normal things that involve water so we have all these massive bottles that we have to rush around filling up everytime the water comes on. It adds to the drama of things.
I've also powered through a whole week at school which is both amazing, exhausting and terrifying all in equal parts. We've been completely thrown in at the deep end and have spent most of this week trying to cobble lesson ideas and plans from the curriculum. Everything is disorganised and we have no idea what they do and don't know. The children are beautiful little people and are so warm and funny and welcoming. Occasionally they end up covered in dirta dn water and try to hug you, but when they're clean theyre lovely. So far I've learnt three different handshakes that the kids come rushing up to perform with you. One of them ends with a game of thumb wars, which I'm hopeless at. They're also all pretty good with the high fiving so I feel like we have a mutual form of communication. The school has an amazing community feel to it as lots of the parents work there as well. At any point in the day there are ladies rushing around in saris and babies crawling around on the floor! We're teaching English, Maths, Craft, Exercise and Computer. The kids English is pretty good, they can understand more than they speak but we haven't had any problems teaching them, yet anyway.
There are a million more things to say, but I won't pile them all into one post. Lets just say I'm enjoying it but the first week of school has completely put me off teaching for the rest of my life!
We are living in Bandra, a leafy little suburb north of the centre, in the One! International apartment. Right now there's the three of us and one other volunteer. She's leaving next week and then we'll have the apartment to ourself for a while. Its very small but we're getting by... although it is regularly completely without water. It seems to only be our apartment that's affected, all the others are fine! So far I've only managed one regular shower, and this was at the apartment across the street that a couple of the other volunteers are living at. The rest of the time its just me, a bucket of water and a small jug. The no water also means we can't flush the toilet or wash up or any normal things that involve water so we have all these massive bottles that we have to rush around filling up everytime the water comes on. It adds to the drama of things.
I've also powered through a whole week at school which is both amazing, exhausting and terrifying all in equal parts. We've been completely thrown in at the deep end and have spent most of this week trying to cobble lesson ideas and plans from the curriculum. Everything is disorganised and we have no idea what they do and don't know. The children are beautiful little people and are so warm and funny and welcoming. Occasionally they end up covered in dirta dn water and try to hug you, but when they're clean theyre lovely. So far I've learnt three different handshakes that the kids come rushing up to perform with you. One of them ends with a game of thumb wars, which I'm hopeless at. They're also all pretty good with the high fiving so I feel like we have a mutual form of communication. The school has an amazing community feel to it as lots of the parents work there as well. At any point in the day there are ladies rushing around in saris and babies crawling around on the floor! We're teaching English, Maths, Craft, Exercise and Computer. The kids English is pretty good, they can understand more than they speak but we haven't had any problems teaching them, yet anyway.
There are a million more things to say, but I won't pile them all into one post. Lets just say I'm enjoying it but the first week of school has completely put me off teaching for the rest of my life!
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