She was probably my age, maybe younger. She held an infant about a year old. She wore a bright pink and green saree that was wrapped around the baby like a sling. She had a large gold nosering. It started out like every other encounter. She whined and used the few words in English she knew. She gestured to her child like he was prop in a play. I ignored her like I always do, groaning inside and wondering when the light would turn green so the auto could move on. Then something extrodinarily ordinary happened. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the infant reach for his mom's face and started playing with her mouth and nose. Whether he was bored, or just trying to get attention, I don't know, but I cracked a smile at the normalcy of it. She must have seen because she took the child's hand and reached it to me. I ignored it for a while, now praying for a green light. Then I looked at his eyes. He looked at me and smiled. I smiled back, unable to help myself. He put his hand in mine and I squeezed it. In an instant, with this interchange between her infant and a stranger, her roll changed from beggar to mother. She smiled from her infant to me, coaxing him to be friendly and say hi. What struck me was the way it was done without all the whining and manipulation that is usually present in these situations. She was simply meeting a stranger, and facilitating a meeting between her child and me. I lost myself. Somewhere in all of that I realized that the change that I dug out of my purse was the equivalent of less than 20 cents. And yet, when the light finally changed to green and the auto started up it's engine, the mother and I looked each other in the eye, she said thanks, and the auto pulled away.
Today, when I got into the elevator in my apartment building and pushed the "2" button, for the first time I didn't worry about whether I'd done the right thing or not. I think sometimes we tell ourselves "they don't need the money" "they are exploiting you" "they are exploiting their children" just to make ourselves feel better about not giving. But honestly, who are we to judge whether they need it or not. All we are asked is to give with a cheerful heart. And for the first time today, when the auto pulled away from that corner, I felt I had helped someone, rather than feeling regret at missing a possible opportunity.

What's in my fridge..

I thought I would give you an interesting look into my life through my refridgerator. So here is a list of things you would find:

A couple of leftover chippatis
A can of Zwan mini chicken sausages
A doggie bag of chicken steak from the Rain Forest restaurant down the street
Eggs
One container of Raita (yogurt salad-reduces the spice in food)
Leftover casserole I made last week
A box of Kiri Laughing Cow cream cheese spread
A small container of brown sugar that I ground down into finer pieces in my Mixie
Excess sugar from the bag that wouldn't fit in the canister in my pantry
Cereal (kept in the fridge, like most food to avoid ants)
Bread (again, kept in the fridge because of ants)
Arabic sweets (candied dates! yum! and arabic chocolates!)
a 2 Liter of Coke (made with pure cane sugar.. no fructose corn syrup here)
Leftover spaghetti sauce
Butter
A veggie drawer full of veggies: capsicum (green pepper), onion, mushrooms
2 boxes of milk (which, by the way, in the store is bought off the shelf, not refridgerated)
3 boxes of juice
Syrup
Italian salad dressing

Hope you enjoyed!

The start of a Brand New Year!

As a teacher, I mark time by the school year, not the calendar year. And so, August 4, 2008 brought the start of a brand new year and a new season of my life. As the first two weeks have now finished, and most of the logistical kinks have been worked out (I had had one day of the week with 4 specials and another day with none) I can't believe how many moments I have stopped and just thought to myself "I love this." I mean, really realized I am in this place not necessarily physically, but in every way, this place that I was meant to be. These things inside me that I didn't know where there have come alive. I'm enjoying every breath in a way I haven't in a long time. Everything is new, and yet, familiar, like an old friend I've been missing for so long. I'm smart enough to know that I am still probably in what is called the "honeymoon phase" of culture shock/adjustment. But I can't help but feel that I am so much more the person I was created to be because of this environment.

I have a wonderful class of 15 students (14 right now because one has not arrived yet in Chennai.) It is so refreshing to not have the pressures of SOLs hanging over my neck and deciding how quickly I teach. I am able to take as much time on a topic or concept as the class needs. It is also refreshing to have a class that is mostly on or above grade level and therefore the majority do not need so much time on a concept. We are able to do more fun things and extension projects. We have even been able to spend some time doing team building challenges (build the tallest house out of cards, make the tallest tower out of 15 straws and 4 paperclips and some string, etc..) I feel like I've had more good days in the last two weeks than I did all of last school year as far as feeling like I accomplished what I wanted to and did my best at teaching the students. I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to teach these kids and to teach in this school. Everyday I walk through the outdoor halls feeling the warm breeze from the gardens and courtyards and hear the palm tree leaves playing like percussion on the railings. I think to myself what a gift it is to be there in that moment.

First Update

The following was the first update email that I sent out to those that I had email addresses for. For those of you who didn't get to see it here it is:

Dear Friends,
I have arrived safely in Chennai, once more. This time I was picked up by people from the school and brought straight to my beautiful apartment which I just took pictures of for you all but was unable to upload them because I can't find the cable to go from my computer to camera. (mom, please take a look on that marble table in the living room) The school has made me quite comfortable in a furnished three bedroom apartment. I love the colors for the curtains and bedsheets, and I've got a very comfortable couch set with love seat and comfy chair, A/C in the common room and two bedrooms, and plenty of stuff in the kitchen to keep me happy until my shipment arrives.

Monday was spent just relaxing at the apartment and getting over jet lag. We ordered Pizza Hut for dinner and that was about it. Tuesday I had the joy of experiencing the wonder of the efficiency of the Immegration office. (please note sarcasm) We arrived around 10:30 at the office and were told to sit down. Every couple of minutes everyone started getting up and moving down a couple of chairs. It took me a minute to realize that this was not any ordinary game of musical chairs, you seriously had to move fast if you didn't want someone cutting your place in line and taking the chair you should have sat in. About 40 minutes later we got to the front desk and gave our papers and they wrote some stuff down and told us to go wait infront of door number one. We sat there for about another 20 minutes, and then it was my turn to go in, the guy asked a bunch of questions and reviewed my paperwork. "Phew, it's over" I thought to myself naively.. Unfortunately he handed me back my papers and said, ok, give them to that lady over there on the other side of the wall. I was like ok, thanks! when I turned the corner I realized it was another crazy game of musical chairs twice as long this time. Eventually I got a seat up at the front and was able to hand over my papers. She looks them over briefly, hands me them back and says: ok go through that door back there and wait for the lady at the second window, it's window number four. (no, i did not mistype that, the second window was, indeed, window number four.) Finally when I got to the window she took my papers for the last time, and said alright, come pick up your residency permit on August 12th. sheesh.. 3 hours later we left. and about half an hour later we were sitting in the Park Hotel. One of the nicest restaurants in the city with A/C and a buffet most Americans would die for! Incredible contrast!!

The next couple of days were spent getting my apartment more set up and getting settled. I bought a TV and DVD player on Wednesday (and promptly discovered that all of my DVD's are the wrong region to play in the DVD player) and I'm hoping to get a mobile phone soon. The Head of School arrived back in Chennai on Wednesday so yesterday all the new staff was invited out to dinner with him. (According to the grape vine, he's a great "wine and dine" kind of guy.) I sat next to the Elementary Principle (who is also new this year and I had met at the immegration office) and then several other teachers as well as the rest of the returning administration. It was a fairly surreal experience for me to be sitting around this huge table in possibly another of the nicest restaurants in Chennai with all white faces and drinking wine and beer and eating Thai food while discussing how happy we are to not be having to deal with NCLB (No Child Left Behind) but also the struggles of what we will be having to deal with (daily power cuts etc.) It's fascinating. I had a good time anyway. I had some pretty good conversations though about my previous experience in Chennai and a lot of people said they would be interested in talking to me more or visiting the children.

Today was my first day of a full orientation. We had a meeting with the Head of School and got to take a tour of the whole school. I found my classroom and I even went and got them to print out my class list! I've got 15 kids! (6 girls and 9 boys) only 3 of which are American. I can't pronounce the other 12's names because they are all from miscelaneous Asian countries with crazy hard to pronounce names. :-) Still I'm looking forward to it! I've met some great teachers and it's funny to see how different some of us are and how some people come just expecting to have so much. Someone commented to me the other day how great it was that my first experience in India was in what is called "the real India." Just very basics of living and no frills or trappings. So now I'm not scared to get "dirty" even in spite of being set up in a really nice apartment.

Well, tomorrow for part of our orientation they are taking us down south of the city to a very posh resort outside of Mahaballapuram (Ideal Beach Resort). So I better get some sleep before they come pick us up. I'd love to hear from you!
Blessings and Love!
-Becca