Teaching Finished for 2013

It is 6.00pm on Friday afternoon the 20th of December. I feel like I have been teaching up till Midnight Mass. I have just had my "ultimate" class with the sisters. The "penultimate" (second last) class this morning was reading silently and aloud. I get each of the ten sisters to read to me aloud while the others are reading silently (well semi-silently. Many sub-vocalize and it sometimes gets a little noisy in our small classroom.) In our last class we held a conversation circle. We put the chairs in a circle and we discuss a series of topics ranging from pets at home to religion and life in Australia; their favorite. Today they got to choose the topics and it was slow to start but after it warmer up it was really interesting. I try to say as little as possible but end up having most of the questions directed at me.

Today the Brothers left for their homes for Christmas. It was a couple of days early as the departure dates were supposed to be tomorrow and Sunday. Only two are left and they leave for Chennai on the evening train. They go home to their villages, towns and cities all over southern India as far north as Hyderabad and as far south as the bottom tip of the continent where Liam has been recently.
It is lonely without them but I have some work to finish off and then I can relax tomorrow. My bus departs at 11.45pm and arrives in Cochin at 9.00am Sunday. There will be a car to take me to the hotel and Liam will join me there sometime during the day.
Teaching these young men and women in India has been elating and challenging. I have struggled, despaired and rejoiced in their learning. They vary so much in the degree of acquisition of English that I sometimes don't know at what level I should pitch my lessons. 

Christmas Destinations

There are three Novices in the convent who are pretty competent and their only struggle is to turn, "His name, what is it?" into "What is his name?" Their mother tongue influence is rea

lly dominant. I listen to the older sisters in the community speaking and I think that most of them will not ever get to more than a doggerel English where the words are thrown out in any order and the listener has to make sense of them.

The aspirants (younger ones) are only Year 10 so they sometimes struggle to understand what is going on. They wobble their heads in that Indian way which means Yes brother I understand but I know they don't. I have taught them to say, "Brother, I don't understand" and then they get the best smile and encouragement I can muster. They are learning to nod and shake their heads for "yes" and "no".

My gift to them was a 2014 calendar showing Australian animals in their native habitat.

I will be back here over the weekend of the 4th and 5th of January. Classes start on January 6th. I hope to have lots of activities and resources for them courtesy of some shopping during the holidays.

The lights have come back on so I am no longer typing by the light of a torch. Power and internet are very fickle here.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas with family and friends. Liam and I plan to do just that with Jineesha's Parents and baby Albert.

May God bless you all this Christmas and for the coming year. (2014 already? Will this be my last as a full time teacher? Will I come back to India next Christmas? Where will we all be in 12 months time?)

Gerard in India.

Twas the week before Christmas, almost.

It is Monday  December 16th and the Brothers and Sisters are preparing for various Christmas events. The Brothers are preparing a Skit and some songs for tonight's celebrations. I think they may be including my First Aid lesson in their skit. I wouldn't be surprised to to see the volley ball inside a dress getting some compressions.
On Friday the sisters had their Program for the Disabled event with the Bishop and the local politicians and religious assembling. They danced in their saris and looked fantastic.
I had a trip to Mysore on Saturday morning and helped with the brothers Christmas Shopping. I am helping the brothers and sisters with their English as much as possible. They need help to construct their sentences, speak them in the proper order and read and write in English not in the structure of their Mother Tongues.
Yesterday, Sunday I went into Mysore on my own on the motorbike. There was a market and it was exciting. I got lost but didn't care.  I just kept looking for a sign that said Bogadi and I was on my way home.
Christmas will be great if our plans come together. Jineesha's family then a resort for  week.
Liam will be with me until Dec 28th when he will fly to Cambodia to meet Shell.
I am correcting student's work after a lunch of rice, curry, vegetables and fried onion donuts. I will be eating the pink equivalent of Quickeze all day and I have to struggle to stay awake.
My health is good and my spirits are high. I got word this morning that two of my R&S (Religion and Society Unit 3 & 4) students got 40s. One got a 46. This is the first year in the last 6 years I have been teaching it that I have had such successful students. I was hopeful since I usually don't have students putting in that much effort for their 6th subject. 
This is an interrupted week with singing practices and a variety of distractions but I am looking forward to an overnight trip on Sunday morning to Cochin. I will keep teaching and marking until them.

Gerard

Mysore Tourist

I’m not much of a tourist. I enjoy seeing sights but instead of traveling to marvel at a sight of interest I would much prefer to go to a community, settle in and get to know people. That is what I have done with my two student communities here in Mysore. I live with and the sisters and teach 7 Aspirants and 3 Novices. I spend most of my day with the brothers where there are 15 Aspirants, 4 of whom are in second year.

Yet on Saturday last we, Liam and I, had the most wonderful day visiting 4 major tourist sites. (Did I forget to tell you that my son Liam visited me for a memorable 6 days during which he made friends with everyone that he met. He lived with the Brothers and played cricket with them every day. As he left last night he presented them with two new cricket bats. They were ecstatic. He is in Chennai now starting his southern tour, scheduled to meet me in Kerala for Christmas. ) Fr Gerard and Fr Immanuel took us to the Maharaja’s Palace, The Zoo, Charmundy Hill with its massive Hindu Temple and the Highlight was the Brindavan Gardens.

The palace is a tribute to power, opulence and unfettered extravagance. Everywhere you look there is fine architecture overlaid with gold leaf and jewels.

Then we went to the zoo. We took many photos and wandered through a reasonably attractive but not spectacular zoo. Then the fathers took us to a hotel for a curry lunch served on banana leaves.

Charmundy Hill has a Hindu Temple to rival all temples. The Prince built it there in gratitude to the Goddess Shiva who killed the demon Charmundy who was plaguing the city. There were thousands of other tourists there in various stages of sight seeing and devotion. After a long and chaotic trip into the country we joined a throng congregating in the most beautiful gardens at the base of a huge lake and beside a lake. There were fountains and cascades of water and many, many tourists. Then when it got dark we were treated to a spectacular light display. This included a dancing fountain with colour and music.

On the way home we came across an accident where a man was knocked off his motorbike. Liam and I stayed in the car while the priests went for a look. Everyone stood around while this man lay on the bitumen bleeding. They eventually turned him, unconscious, onto his back. I could see he was going to vomit and choke so I got out and took control of the situation, putting him into the recovery position. As soon as I did this he could breath and so he recovered enough to get up. We seated him by the side of the road and left him in the care of the others until the ambulance arrived.

Teaching is both a joy and a challenge. The sisters vary from very little to much proficiency in English. Thanks to Olga, I now have access to many books with a grading for ability. I have downloaded and printed about 30 books. I have exhausted three sets of cartridges but the classes have really taken off. They are writing reports on a format I created which they will then present to the class. Reading, writing, speaking and listening.

The Brothers are generally better with English but we are now concentrating on speaking as this is the thing that the other teachers cannot give. We have finished our impromptu speeches and will begin debates tomorrow.

I will be traveling to Kerala on the 21st so have 8 days more teaching here. Then another 20 next year and I am done for this trip.

I miss everyone and everything at home but am well and effective which is so good.

Best wishes to all.

Gerard

Looking back from the end of November.

After 2 full weeks away I have time to reflect. It is the weekend and I am having a quiet two days.
I am here to teach and I am doing that, well I hope. They certainly lap it up, even the dad jokes although most of them need an explanation.
With the brothers I have been working on the theme of Identity. I had them write a piece on who they are and where they come from, their family, their talents and their aspirations. I corrected these carefully and then had them deliver these verbally to the video camera. I have now compiled this into a movie and will show it to them before we set some more goals.
They also wrote about their significant experiences and their relationships. The former were sometimes pretty traumatic. I asked them to create a mind-map of their relationships and what each means to them. These I corrected closely again and had them write a perfect copy that they could study and practice.
Now they are working on a topic related to Indian culture. We ended up with a possibility of choosing from 20 topics ranging from music, architecture, sport, clothing etc. I used the Knight poster to stimulate the topics in an Australian context. They don't have much access to information resources so I do some searching, page capture and printing for them
Other random things:
I bought a monitor and a printer to help me teach the sisters because they need to see a lot of pictures as their language is not as good as that of the brothers.
I taught the brothers to recite Tiger by William Blake and added that to the video which runs for about 30 minutes.
I have taught the brothers to play the guitar. I bought two sets of strings and restrung the two guitars that were there not being used.
I have taught them kincha slapa, Gotsen arma (Sleep child in God's arms in Dutch.) They don't say, "Papa does that," but I think it when we say it at the end of the meal when heading for bed.
I am staying at the Novitiate of the Daughters of the Church. I have the a large guest room at the front of the building off the marble foyer with an en suite. Western toilet but bucket shower (cold). Luckily the weather is very mild.
I get up for Mass every morning at 6.45 and breakfast is at 7.45. A bell rings just like in the old days of my novitiate.
I prepare lessons until I teach the sisters at 9.00 for an hour and then ride my motor bike up to the brothers for an 11.00 - 12.30 lesson. I stay there for lunch and then have a rest in Fr Baskers room until my 2.30 - 3.30 lesson with them. I then go back to the sisters and teach them for an hour until 5.00pm
The brothers do gardening and then play a game of cricket.
My meal with the sisters is at 7.45 and they feed me too much. Rice, curry, potato, rote, fish (with many tiny bones) and lots more. They are very conscious of satisfying my needs and go way beyond anything I could wish for.
I sleep in my room on a narrow, firm matrice and the mozzies are a pest. I cover myself with spray and hide in my sleeping sleeve but I think I need to get more serious with some pesticide.
I get plenty of time to write, read and internet.
Liam is arriving on Wednesday so that will change my routine somewhat although I hope to keep teaching in the morning and be with him in the afternoon and on the weekend. He will stay for a few days in Fr Baskars room.
Two weeks has gone quickly and I have taught the brothers for 7 days and the sisters for three. It is too soon to hope for a noticeable improvement but the video at the end will tell the story.

The day of the Wedding and the Night before

We are dressing and readying ourselves for the wedding. We had a lovely time last night at Vipin's home and they looked after their many Australian friends very well.
Here are some photos.

Kerela - Amazing

Good morning  all. Sunday morning (24 Nov) very early.

Greetings from this extraordinary place called Kerala. I have been here less than 24 hours but have had a most enjoyable and amazing time. And, the best is yet to come.

I left my sanctuary in Mysore at 6.00 am yesterday when two of the students drove me to the station to catch the train to Bangalore. I was booked in "common class" (people call it cattle class) which is old carriages with bench seats facing each other each side of the carriage. I sat with two others amongst the common throng. They were well dressed and very civil. A few nods and quite a number of stares which disappeared when I made eye contact and smiled.

I helped a man cut some leaves from the bars of the window and he was grateful. I had nail clippers in the top of my pack.

Every few minutes men would walk up the narrow aisles yelling in their language for the wares they were selling, coffee, tea, water, dossa, rice balls etc.

Once we got closer to Bangalore lots more people started to get on the train at each stop and things got interesting. We were crammed in, two women joined me and the person next to me on a seat designed for three sitting close together. They were joking about one of the women connecting up with this big Australian.

When I got to Bangalore station I was part of the throng. I caught an auto and then a taxi to the airport and waited until my flight at 2.00pm. Fr Tijo met me and we drove to the nearby Novitiate which is an extensive series of buildings next to a beautiful and large river, And it is empty. He had hired a car for me and we toured the local district, visiting the amazing churches (I cannot describe how intricate and detailed and beautiful and old they are.) I have some photos and will do some work on this in a later blog.) In our tour there were many shrines to Hindu gods and there was a street parade.

In the Church of St Thomas, Kerala. Amazing and beautiful

We went out to tea in a swanky restaurant and it cost Rs.1,500. ($30). Amazing. 4 things are cheap: food, clothes, accommodation and travel. 

Then we had a tropical storm and the power went out. I had a good sleep for most of the night and now it is 6.00am and I am getting this done while there is power and internet.

Gerard

Some Photos

Teaching in Mysore 1

I have internet and phone. At last! It has only been a few days but I feel like I am cut off from the world, my world, your world.

I am situated in an idilic setting south of Mysore. Once you go towards the city it becomes bedlam but here in our secluded little hide away things are tidy and clean.

I am living as part of the MSC postulant community. There are three priest and 15 students ranging from 18 to 30.

Four of them are finishing their second year and will be moving on to Uni study in Bangalore in April. The rest are called Aspirants because they aspire to be MSC and are in their early stage.

My journey to get here was disjointed, tedious and tiresome. I stayed in my seat for most of the trip to Bangkok as I was in a window seat with a couple between me and the aisle so I watched 4 forgettable movies, drifting off to sleep occasionally.

I had to run to get from Arrivals to C8 departure gate as there was only 20 minutes between. They were waiting for me.

The trip to Bangalore for me was really strange. By then I had put my watch back 5 1/2 hours to get me onto Bangalore time and I seemed as if my day would never end.

The priests collected me from the airport at 12.30am. One of them approached me initially but I didn't see the sign with my name on it so I motioned him away. 20 minutes later they got up the courage to come and approach me again and showed me the sign. It was a joyous reunion. We laughed at the misunderstanding.

I slept fitfully and then had an enjoyable day. I walked to the local shopping centre to buy a phone and a few other things.

The next morning (Monday) I was supposed to be driven to the station but there were no vehicles available so they called me a taxi which did not come So we took an "auto" which was a hairy ride. Michelle and Liam know what I mean.

The train ride was an air conditioned 2 hour joy and Fr Immanuel was there to meet me. Fr Gerald greeted me with the students all over me when I arrived. They love me and are so happy I am here.

Fr Baskar is away so I am using his room. It has a shower (bucket with warm water in the evening) and a toilet. They do everything for me. My dirty clothes disappeared yesterday and came back washed and ironed.

The food is India but very nice. They get me special things. Today I had lady fingers grown in their garden and an apple smoothy.

Next week when I come back from Cochin I will be staying with the sisters of the Church up the road and will travel by motor bike. That will be different.

My plans for Kerala are in place. I catch a train on Saturday at 6.45am back to Bangalore. I catch an airport bus then fly to Kochi where I will be collected by Fr Tijo. I will stay at the Novitiate Saturday night and then find the Hotel Sunday. On Tuesday I fly back to Bangalore and then a bus to Mysore from the airport.

It seems a round about way but it saves a long, overnight bus trip.

My teaching is going very well. There are other people here to provide the teaching of grammar and such. My job is to promote spoken English. Some are very good and need only a small amount of teaching and coaching. Them I am pushing (listen to me after 2 days) to use more complex ideas. Others, particularly the Tamil students, need a lot of help. I sit in prayers with them and wince at some of the pronunciations. Then I remember they are speaking in a foreign tongue and I resolve to keep teaching them.

With the exception of the weekend, I will stay here till just before Christmas and then start heading west.

(Br) Gerard

Melbourne to Bangalore to Mysore

Early this morning I landed in Bangalore after a long trip via Bangkok. I spent the morning arranging communication. I have a new phone with an Indian SIM. The MSC have looked after me again. I travel by train to Mysore tomorrow and begin teaching on Tuesday.
Pictures will follow.

A week to go and I am nearly ready. I have arranged my transport to India and am being picked up when I get to Bangalore. I have a train booked to Mysore on Monday and am being met there.
I have also arranged to attend a wedding of some friends from Hamilton in Cochin the following Monday.
I have completed my i-to-i TEFL course which qualifies me to teach English overseas.
I have even prepared the first three lessons, which are designed to analyse the level of english skills of reading, writing and speaking of the students. I have an assessment sheet for each of them and name tags for them to wear until I get to know their names.
Having all the India pieces in place, I am now spending the last week getting things ready at school. Correcting student work, writing their reports and preparing lessons for when I am away have consumes much of my time. In addition, I have a class sitting for the Religion and Society Unit 3 & 4 Exam on Monday, after I have left. I will review their essays and exam technique during the week and then I have a picture of myself to put in the window near the door to the exam. It has my three main reminders on it. It also says that I won't wish them lucy. I believe in the saying, "the harder I work, the luckier I get."
Next Blog will be from India.

Teaching English in India

I am going back to India to teach English in Mysore from the middle of November until the end of January next year.
The Story So Far
Last year I went to India for 17 days. I spent a fortnight visiting with my daughter Michelle on her Latitude Placement teaching in Tiny Angels school, Takdah, West Bengal way up in the Himalayas. It was a wonderful experience, made especially precious by the beautiful, gentle people there.
I then flew to Bangalore to visit the MSC priests and brothers in that region and I stayed in the Chevalier Bhavan with them. They picked me up from the airport on Friday night and treated me as an honoured guest until they put me on the plane on Monday night. I was Brother Gerard for the weekend.
During my stay I met with the rector of the postulancy house in Mysore who invited me to come and teach his students English.
Since then my wife Jenni and I have been to Sydney to meet Br Greg McCann MSC who has been teaching there. He has encouraged me to go and has made contact with the Indian officials in the MSC order to pave the way.
So, here is the plan. I have Long Service Leave from Monivae for the last three and a half weeks of the year so I plan to leave (subject to Visa and flights) on November 16, fly to Bangalore and catch the train down to Mysore. The formation house is outside Mysore so I will need to be collected and taken out there. My accommodation has yet to be finalised but I intend staying there until just before Christmas when the school shuts down for a fortnight.
Michelle and Liam are planning to come to meet me in Kerala where we will spend Christmas with our friends and do some sight seeing until school starts early January.
No, Jenni is not coming with me. She will spend Christmas with her parents.
There are many hurdles ahead but the main one is to keep my focus on school here and do all the work that will be needed to free me to get away. I am also taking on a 60 hour course about teaching English oversees. It is pretty simple stuff but it gives me a lot of resources and a document to smooth some administrative bumps.
So, here I go again.
Gerard in May