Teaching English to MSC Brothers in India, 2013 & 2014
18 March, 2014
I am 8 weeks into Term 1 back in Australia after my 10 weeks experience in India. I am moved to report to you all on the achievements and events I experienced. Now that I am back and enmeshed in my full-time teaching life, it is possible to provide an objective reflection on the enterprise.
I spent a week last November here at Monivae getting all the details of reports and preparations for exams finalized and when I boarded the plane on Saturday Nov 16th I was both excited and very tired. The flights to Bangkok and then Bangalore were enjoyable even though they were long, but I was very grateful for being greeted at the airport by the friendly MSC community members.
I slept most of Sunday but was happy to be back in the Chevalier Bhavan community again. I was welcomed and cared for as a member of the MSC Family. Catching the train to Mysore on Monday and being collected by Fr. Baskar and Fr. Immanuel was an adventure and then the ride south to the Brothers community at Hridhayalaya Bhavan gave me a glimpse of the life of the city and the rural setting of the postulancy house. The Brothers greeted my with warm friendship and I immediately became part of their community. Teaching started that day.
While I concentrated on conversation, I tried to engage them in Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking each day. We started the lessons with the topic of “Identity”. They told me where they came from and then they wrote a response to the question, “Who am I and how did I come to be who I am?” It delved into their background, their families and the events of their lives and their stories so far. They wrote these out for me and I corrected them minutely so that they had a perfect draft. This they presented to the class. I recorded these on video with the intention of showing them back late in the stay.
They then did a poster presentation on various topics relating to “Indian culture” choosing from a long list: Music, love and relationships, government, dress and fashion, food, history, sport – cricket and hockey, movies and drama, agriculture, terrain and geography, climate, resources, proximity to other neighboring countries, philosophy, rituals and religion, education, wealth and resources, the class system, transport, languages, technology, entertainment, architecture and medicine.
Incidentally, I taught them also about positive attitudes to life under the heading of “Victors or Victims”. I also did a First Aid course with them as a result of an accident which we attended on the road from Mysore. They also learned the William Blake poem, “Tiger”. They did an exam for me after Christmas and the standard varied greatly. Some were quite fluent and some were struggling. I gave a report on each to Fr. Baskar.
One marvelous feature of the early part of my experience was the wedding I attended in Kerala in the weekend after my arrival. Friends of ours from Hamilton had returned to their family to get married. The help I received from Fr. Tijo collecting me and showing me around the area around the novitiate was wonderful. What a beautiful place for the novitiate.
When I returned from Kerala I moved up to live with the Daughters of the Church sisters and started teaching them as well. I really loved my life in the convent. Each morning I attended Mass with the sisters and then had breakfast with them. I taught the Aspirants for an hour starting at 9.00am. I concentrated on their speaking and their reading as these seemed to me to be their areas of greatest need. I rode the motorbike up to the brothers in time to teach for 90 minutes starting at 11.00am. I really enjoyed teaching the brothers as they were very fervent and keen. They were very interested in Australia and my life here. Likewise, I was very keen to learn about India and they were keen to teach me. We kept everything in English so I learned only a few words in a couple of languages. I also taught them a few basic guitar chords.
After prayers I enjoyed beautiful lunch with the community. I really enjoyed the diet although I occasionally had to temper my enthusiasm as some of the dishes were quite spicy. This was despite Mary, the cook, preparing them especially for me.
Then when the brothers had an after-lunch rest I usually connected with my family in Australia and Cambodia via email, Skype and phone. I enjoyed keeping in touch and some of the brothers looked forward to seeing my family members.
I had another lesson after lunch with the Brothers and then another with the sisters. This hectic pace was challenging but very enjoyable. For both groups we concentrated on reading after lunch. Tea in the evening with the sisters at 7.45pm closed my day. I loved being part of their community as well. I do not sleep well at night at the best of times so I usually communicated with family and friends during the night by email.
Another highlight for me was to welcome my son Liam to Mysore. He fitted in well with the brothers and taught both them and the sisters for a few days. Fr. Baskar was particularly welcoming of Liam and Fr. Immanuel and Fr. Gerald took us on a tourist treat on the weekend including the Palace, the Zoo, the Hindu temple on Charmundi Hills and the Brindarvan Gardens. It was a wonderful day with lovely memories. Liam then caught a train to Chennai and spent two weeks touring Tamil Naidu meeting me in Kerala for Christmas.
The preparations for Christmas and the liturgical celebrations were very holy and most engaging. I have some beautiful photos of the Mass and the crib.
I had a most marvelous trip to Kerala for Christmas after a very long bus trip from Mysore to Cochin. I met Liam and we travelled by train to Calicut for Christmas Eve with friends of ours from a Hamilton connection. Then we had a few days in Thiruvananthapuram at a resort before he flew back to Cambodia on December 28th. I flew to Bangalore on New Years Day and stayed with the community until Fr. Gerald and I went by train back to Mysore on Jan 5th. During my stay in Bangalore I purchased as many secondhand books as I could carry for the brothers. It is important that they continue to read all the time.
I settled into the routine again for another 2½ weeks, adding guitar lessons for the sisters in the evening. I found it a little harder to concentrate on my teaching, as the end was in sight, so I kept busy and focused until the end.
On Tuesday January 21st the Sisters and the Brothers both said farewell in their own lovely ways. The Mass, the Program and the meal are a special highlight of my stay and I cherish my friendships in the community. The skits and the musical items are so clever and funny. Jules Chevalier cherished a sense of humor and it is being fostered in these young men. Again, the photos from Fr. Immanuel bring back these beautiful memories.
I caught the train to Bangalore on the 22nd and stayed for a couple of days, purchasing more books for the brothers and some gifts for my family and friends. I left India very early on the morning of January 25th and was met by my wife and daughter that night at 11.00pm in Melbourne. I had travelled for 22 hours. It is always longer getting home. Then it was immediately back into work here at Monivae. We took the year 12s on Retreat for three days on Wednesday Jan 29th.
My life here in Hamilton is very full. My wife and I live across the road from the school and spend a lot of my free time here. I am an officer of cadets and this takes a lot of my time. I am involved in my parish and I tutor a young Indian adult in an English course. While I am very conscious of my Indian connection, I am engrossed here in this busy life.
My school has offered me the opportunity to attend a Heart Spirituality course in Issoudun in September. This will give me a resource that I might share with the brothers in India should I be able to return. I have also been in contact with Br Greg McCann who will spend some time early in the year in China and then some time in India in the latter half of the year. He and I will meet when he comes back to Australia and it is my wish to come back to India for more teaching early in 2015.
I have informed my school that this is my last year as a full-time teacher at Monivae. I will take the first half of next year as Long Service Leave. I hope to come to India in February and March for about seven weeks. I wish to go to Andhra Pradesh for a week to meet with the four brothers doing philosophy there and perhaps be of some help to them. Then I would like to visit Amritsar and the Golden Temple of the Sikhs. After my sightseeing I would go back to Mysore via Bangalore and spend about a month with the brothers.
The Lord had truly blessed me through my membership of the MSC community and I am very grateful to all those who welcomed me and made me part of their lives. These lives are given generously for the service of God and the people that they meet each day. I am so pleased to share a small part of them.
Farewell from the Brothers & Sisters.
Gerard Bourke
