Singapore!

It's my first day back in Kadod after an amazing 10-day trip to Singapore! In a nutshell, 10 days felt way too short. Some people say that after that much time, you'll probably have seen most of what Singapore has to offer since it is a pretty small country. But despite that popular opinion, there was always too much to do each day I was there. I also owe it to so many of my friends that made my trip so much fun. Thanks Huei-Yu, Catalina, Jeffrey, Katherine, Natalie, Tiffy, and Jon for going out your ways to show me such a good time!

I hadn't been in India for an incredibly long time before I left to Singapore. It's been about 2 months, but I still had a minor case of culture shock once I arrived. On one of the first days I was there, I walked out of the MRT train station onto Orchard Road and couldn't stop myself from saying "Where am I?!"

The streets were amazingly clean, the trains and public transportation ran like clockwork, and things everywhere just seemed to work like a well-oiled machine. I did get a kick out all the "Do Not..." signs posted almost everywhere I looked. People there joke around and say that Singpore is a fine country.


One thing I'm definitely going to miss about Singapore is the food. Thanks to my amazing hosts, I got to have some of the must-have Singaporean dishes like chili crab, chicken rice, and laksa. One really memorable meal was supper (the meal after dinner) after a Singapore Symphony Orchestra concert at an outdoor food court type place. It was around midnight, and the place was packed. When it was time for us to order food, Jon just went into and ordering frenzy. He ordered piles of naan, pratha, a Thai rice dish, Indonesian satay, and drinks for the entire group.
Jon: I want a Milo Godzilla (an iced chocolate milk kind of drink with ice cream, whipped cream, and powdered chocolate on top).
Waiter: I'm sorry, sir, but we don't serve the Milo Godzilla. We have the Milo Dinosaur.
Jon: Well, can we have one of that then. But make it HUGE. (this is when he started getting his hands involved trying to explain HUGE to the waiter). Like, this kid's been in India for the past 2 months, so make it HUGE alright? And what's the best thing you guys have here?
Waiter: This Thai rice dish is very good.
Jon: Ok. What's BETTER than that?? And make it HUGE.

Thanks, Jon.


Apart from all the amazing food I got to try, the rest of the trip included a ride on the Singapore Flyer, a short visit to the Marina Bay Sands Casino with Huei-Yu's older brother, a late night tour of the Singapore Zoo Night Safari, and even some "relaxation" at a fish spa. The particular kind of fish in the pools like to eat dead skin, supposedly allowing more healthy skin to grow in those areas. The feeling of have hundreds of fish swarming around my legs and feet was interesting to say the least... but it did feel surprisingly refreshing!
I could go on and on about my time in Singapore... I really hope it won't be my last time there. It was really tough leaving the country to come back to India, but being back in Kadod now, I feel extremely refreshed and ready to get back into the classrooms!

I'm in Singapore Okay Lah??

After a 24+ hour journey from Kadod to Singapore, taking a few rickshaws, buses, an overcrowded train and a Kingfisher airplane, I finally made it!

7:45am
I hopped on a Bardoli-bound rickshaw leaving Kadod and, for the first time, experienced what morning rush-hour means in the villages. The rickshaw, at best, can comfortably seat 7 passengers. By the time I reached Bardoli, I counted at least 18 squeezing into, dangling off of and climbing onto the rickshaw. I say at least because I couldn't count how many had hopped onto the roof during the trip.

8:30am
I got on a bus heading to Surat where my train would be leaving to Mumbai. I let out a sigh of relief as I sank into an empty seat, glad that there wouldn't be unknown elbows and shoulders driving into my sides. I took out my iPod to start listening to some tunes and sadly realized that when I had updated my iPod the night before, it had only synced one album back on: the soundtrack to 3 Idiots. Aal iz well...

10:15am
My train to Mumbai was scheduled to leave at 11:25am, so I had about an hour to kill. I decided to grab breakfast at a restaurant on the second level of the train station where I struck up a conversation with one of the workers named Javit. I told him that I'm teaching English in Kadod for a year, and when he asked me if I knew any Gujarati, I said I hardly knew any. He gave me a crash course on some important phrases, and after a half hour or so, he told me that my Gujarati was perfect. I highly doubted that, but I thanked him for the compliment.

11:20am
Javit offered to take me to the platform I needed to wait on for my train, and thank goodness he did. I bought a second class train ticket not knowing what I had gotten myself into. For the 5 hour ride to Mumbai, it was each and every person's desire to be lucky enough to snag a seat on one of the pull-down beds in the train compartments. Otherwise, it would be standing-room only for the entire trip. Lacking the seasoned tenacity of most of the travelers swarming around me, I was at a natural disadvantage, but that's where Javit stepped in to save the day. As the train was coming to a halt, he spotted an empty seat through a caged window and threw his work hat to "reserve" the seat for me. He told me to hurry in and find the hat before someone moves or steals it, so I threw myself into the back of the surging crowd of people fighting its way onto the train. In the midst of all the chaos, my watch was torn off and wallet almost stolen as I felt a hand reach into my back pocket. When I was finally able to get both feet onto the train, I searched from compartment to compartment for Javit's hat, and luckily enough, his trick worked. I threw his hat back to him through the window and thanked him enormously for his help.

4:45pm
My flight's departure time was at 11:00pm. I knew I'd be really early, but I figured I could find a coffee shop or something of the sort inside the airport to relax and read a book to pass the time. I approach the entrance and was stopped by two men in uniform. They checked my passport and reservation and told me that travelers are not allowed to enter the airport until 3 hours before their scheduled departure. I told them that I had no where else to go and that I all I wanted was a place to relax. In a completely unnecessary move, one of the officers put a hand on his rifle and told me that he would only give me one warning to step away. Great. I found an abandoned Smart Carte, propped it up against a wall along the curb, and waited out the 3 hours reading a book and listening to my new favorite Bollywood songs.

The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful. I touched down in Singapore at around 7am local time, exhausted but also extremely excited about what I'll be experiencing (eating) in Singapore! More updates to come in Singapore!

We're Getting There

A few weeks ago, Yogesh, my co-teacher, and I made an agreement that if I taught him how to speak English more fluently/accurately, he would teach me Hindi. At the get go, we had a pretty hard time communicating with each other. For example, I'd say something like "We should think about how we can get the students more interested in their English lessons." He would stare at me for a couple of seconds then turn back to his work hoping that whatever I just said didn't need a response.

Since then, we've taken huge leaps in our ability to communicate with each other, but there's still more work to be done. We had this conversation yesterday:

Me: What exactly do people mean when they say Muhje samaj pari?
Yogesh: (says something that I just could not understand) Do you understand?
Me: ... No.
Yogesh: I know. (laughs and puts up his hand for a high-five)

Kho-Kho Competition

One of my classroom routines in Spoken English class is to ask students what they did last night, and 9 times out of 10, I get the same response: Last night, I played kho-kho. What was this kho-kho? It sounded a lot like a board game to me, so that's just what I assumed it was.

This morning at Spoken English class, a few of the boys told me that the school was having a kho-kho competition and that I should go and watch. "Sure!" I said. I imagined a bunch of students sitting in the auditorium, huddling over boards and game pieces. I'll stay for a few minutes, say hi to my students, and head back to the staffroom, I thought.

After teaching third period, Yogesh, Dave, Apeksha, Adarash, and I headed to the competition. "It's at the third ground," Yogesh told me. The third ground? That's just a huge field by the hostel. Students are playing board games there? On the other side of the bridge connecting the third ground to the rest of the school, we saw a mass of students surrounding a playing field marked with white powder, much like a football field. We got closer to find students in team uniforms running and chasing each other down a line of other squatting team members. Each time a player was tagged out, the audience wooped and hollered. I tried to figure out what the point of the game was by watching, but after a few minutes, I just felt more confused.

I found Dhirenbhai, the computer teacher, standing on the opposite side of the field, so I went over and asked him to explain the rules to me, and it all started to make sense. Here are the rules in a nutshell: How to play kho-kho

We came when the first half of the finals were underway, and the Kadod team, made up mostly of juniors and seniors, were the chasers. The opposing team finished the 7-minute half tagging out 4 members of the opposing team. Here’s a picture taken of the Kadod team during half-time as they kept repeated to themselves over and over again all they needed to do was to prevent 4 of their teammates from being tagged out to win.
The whistle signaled the start of the second half. There was shouting. There was diving. And there were some very close calls. Two Kadod players were tagged out within the first 2 minutes of the half. I could feel a wave of anxiety spread over the onlookers. But then Jaunti, Kadod’s star player, stepped out onto the field. Even in the wet mud, Jaunti was able to maneuver swiftly away from chasers, making split-second decisions to cross over the line to avoid falling into traps. One minute passed, then two, and then three. Out of frustration, players of the other team began lunging at Jaunti desperately. Each time he was able to avoid begin tagged, Kadod fans would jump and cheer to push him on. The final whistle blew, and Kadod was victorious 4-2! All at once, the students rushed the field and lifted the players onto their shoulders. It was an awesome display of school spirit.

With this victory, Kadod will play in the district competitions on August 30th. Since most of you readers are probably new to this sport, you have no other team to root for besides Kadod, so wish them luck!

New Kids on the Block

Introducing the newest members of the Nanubhai team in Kadod, we have David, Apeksha, and Adarsh. Apeksha and David are both sophomores at M.I.T., and Adarsh is Apeksha's cousin, a sophomore in high school. They'll be joining us in the wonderful village of Kadod doing field work/research for Nanubhai and also spearheading their own project concerning women's education and advancement in India.

For the past couple of days, they've been going from classroom to classroom giving students a questionnaire designed to evaluate the effectiveness of English education at the high schools in Kadod and Madhi. Some of the questions ask students to describe their favorite and least favorite activities, how English classes could be improved, and how satisfied they are with the amount of English they're learning. I'm sure a lot of the responses will be very helpful, but it was a challenge to keep students from just copying responses off their neighbor's form. In one class, a few students (out of 58) wrote their own responses, and the rest of the students just waited until their neighbor copied answers from their neighbor, and so on and so forth. In total, we got about 5 unique responses.

It's been fun having them here though! David's got us all doing P90X workouts at night, which is turning out to be a great way to bond. We're about to watch 3 Idiots, a Bollywood movie I've only been hearing amazing things about, so until next time, namaste!