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.