India!

This post is long overdue, and after over 2 weeks here, I am finally writing my first (real travel) post of the new year. As you may be aware of, I have arrived and settled in India! After many hours of travel and very few of sleep, we arrived on January 17 in Hyderabad, where we stayed with Vasentha, a family friend, and his family.  The next few days were an absolute whirlwind of sightseeing, meeting various people, and going to events- we managed to go to an anniversary party, going away party, birthday party, and wedding in 4 days! On the 21st we headed of to Chennai to meet up with another friend, who we did even more sightseeing with, along with a notable day in a a village about 3 hours outside of Chenai, where we spent the day with a women's fellowship group from Chennai and the village community. 

I've been in Kochi since the 25th, living with 11 other volunteers (though as people stay between 2 weeks and 3 months, the number fluctuates) and 2 program coordinators, most of them between the ages of 18 and 26. Everyone here is great, and it's a really laid-back atmosphere where everyone is comfortable with each other, which is wonderful. All the girls (coincidentally all of the volunteers are girls, though we will be getting a male volunteer on Saturday!) are from either the US, Australia, or England, and we have a lot of fun making up accents and learning each other's slang. I was assigned to work (with about 5 other volunteers) in a local elementary school that teaches children from ages 5-15, though we only teach English with kids up to the age of 10. My teaching work that I did in Nicaragua is definitely helpful, because I am more familiar with teaching methods and the rules of English, however it is much more difficult than I anticipated, due to the fact that I am teaching English in English, rather than the local language like I did in Nicaragua. While immersion techniques can be effective, it's difficult to simply speak English to them and expect them to understand because they only have English class for one hour a day. An example of one of my recent difficulties was trying to explain in English the concept of "you" and "me" when the student did not speak any English. Challenges aside, the work is definitely rewarding. Every hour, each of the volunteers works with 1 or 2 students of a different standard (grade), so I have about 7 specific students that I work with 1 on 1 and see throughout the day. I love this set up because it allows volunteers to develop a relationship with their students, and understand their habits and learning methods, as well as follow their progress. 

My first week here has been great, and culminated with a fantastic beach trip in the lovely beach town, Varkala (I felt like a successful Indian traveler for buying and drinking chai on the train), and I can't wait for my next 5 weeks here in Kochi, and the following weeks in Chennai!