New Beginnings

It's been a little weird being settled in India in a brand-new place. I'm used to traveling and not knowing where I'm going, or I'm used to having everything figured out - my favorite lunch spots, how much items should cost, or where I am.

Nirman uses unorthodox methods for an Indian school, which is to say they focus on imagination and creativity rather than rote memorization. For the past three days I've been going through teacher training with around 30 Indian teachers. The majority are women, ranging in age from early twenties (the majority) to forties. There are some young men and one older man, and everyone has some level of English. A lot of the women want to talk to me, but only a few feel comfortable speaking in English, so two or three have taken to translating for me. Everyone knows my name, since I'm the only white person, but I am overwhelmed at trying to remember 30-plus names!

The training, led by a CMC professor, consists of lots of brainstorming on topics such as, "What is a child?" and "How can we use our imaginations?" It seems elementary to someone who's grown up with excellent teachers in a good educational settings, which I didn't fully realize until seeing that educational models aren't the same everywhere. For example, one of the teachers from last year demonstrated how to read a book to an elementary school class. She held up the book, showed the pictures, and asked questions before she read from the page - all things that I would have done instinctively, but teachers here don't normally read to their classes.

Nirman really encourages teachers to present ideas creatively and let children use their imaginations, and the canteen has books made by the students and examples of their artwork. To me, that's just what school looks like, but normally Indian schoolchildren don't spend their time making art or music or learning how to dance.

Today the teachers split into three groups to present a mini-lesson, on cooking, crafts, or games. I chose the cooking group and learned how to make dokpa, an Indian snack. It's comparable to polenta, except made out of chickpea powder and doused with a chili sauce. it's not too difficult to make, assuming I actually write down the recipe and can find ghee in America. Supposedly it goes with tea, but it's so spicy that I can't imagine how that would work. My fingers are burning from cutting green chilies, because we also made some in the afternoon for the two new interns who arrived today!