It is what it is

So I've decided that if you have to drive in India, the best time to do it is at night. When I arrived at the airport and we drove to the house I am staying at, there were relatively few cars on the road and the darkness somewhat dulled the vast visual differences there are between the U.S. and India. It was nice to have a less jarring transition. The school was awesome and had me picked up from the airport, so I didn't have to worry about finding my way around Bangalore. I’ve always wondered what it was like having one’s name on a sign to be picked up. It was just what I thought. Very odd. But, it made things easy for me. Even with the ease through which I got through security and the relative comfort I felt, there were still some things I noticed that I thought I'd point out. 

1. Turn signals are optional as are road lines. Instead, honking horns is a much more useful way of letting people know where you are on the road. There are also speed bumps. Everywhere. So breaks are hit pretty frequently.

2. Dogs just kind of hang out everywhere. Even on the highway. I saw one that wanted to get on the other side of this wall for some reason, so it just jumped on it, like a cat, and walked along it like it was the most normal thing in the world. The wall was at least four or five feet high. 

3. Billboards range from the size typical to those seen in the U.S. to 4-6X that size. I have never seen them so big. And oddly, they usually have people of European descent on them rather than native Indians. 

4. Bangalore is an entire city under construction. The population recently boomed, and you can see a building in progress nearly every block.  

That was my first night. I thought for sure, I would be in complete shock, that'd I'd be overwhelmed from the get-go. But it wasn't so. My nice driver dropped me off, I was introduced to my host family, and I went to bed in order to get ready for school the next day at 10 am. I don't know how, but I avoided the jet lag! The 20 hour flight was just long enough that I was able to adjust my sleep schedule prior to my arrival. 

So I woke up the next morning and ate some fruit and drank some chai tea (not American style) before chatting with the ladies who were home. My host mom has her home open to many of her friends, so they'll be in and out, I've been told. I chatted with one of her physician friends who spends half the year in Bangalore and the other half working as a family physician in Toronto. We chatted about the ins and outs of life here, some things to look out for, and some of the major changes in mentality that the country is undergoing. Highly informative. 

I was told I was being picked up at 10, so when the car honked its horn, I went out, asked if the driver was going to Christel House (my school), and then trusted I would get there. Being in India is really going to have me trusting in others a lot. There aren't really road signs, just landmarks. So when I was on my way home tonight and it was time for me to get off the bus, they pointed to the white building across the (approximately) 4 lane roads, and I just did what everyone else did, walked through the traffic with my eyes closed. Just kidding, but you do just kind of walk around the cars, weaving in and out, sometimes stopping in the middle of the street, and observing when others have decided to walk. I recognized where I was at that point (not bad for having ridden from the opposite direction only once) and walked the few blocks home. I must have looked like I knew what I was doing because no one questioned me. I didn't even get stopped by the auto-rickshaw drivers!

Oh yea, the whole school day that I did between 10 am and 5 pm. I don't know what I was expecting, but going to the school was entirely different from whatever notion I may have had. My school has approximately 1,000 students. They are selected based on poverty levels, number of siblings, etc., the least fortunate being chosen to attend. Tuitions, uniforms, transportation, breakfast, lunch, and snack are all paid for by Christel House. The school is sponsored by various individual donors, as well as some major companies. The generosity of those individuals and companies provide the many benefits for the students, in addition to the teachers’ salaries. Students are chosen in kindergarten and attend through 12th grade. There are about 31 students in a class and two classes per grade. 

The teachers’ schedules are quite fascinating. The teacher I am with teaches English for grades 6, 7, and 8. In between those three classes, she either pulls a few struggling students and works with them in a small group, or it’s her break/prep time. Today, they had a spelling assessment, and most of the students desperately wanted to be the ones to answer questions she asked. I’ve never seen anything like it. The amount of respect for the teachers was incredibly. Each teacher is called by her name and then “ma’am,” but it sounds more like “mam.” So I’m “Theresa ma’am.” The teachers are all very friendly, but I’m really going to have to work on getting their names down. They tend to get stuck in my mouth like a tongue twister, so I have to hear them a few times before I say them correctly.

And the students. Absolutely adorable. But it’s so sad thinking about the lives they lead when they are not at school. Most of them don’t have access to a toilet, food, or any sort of learning support outside of school. Some even live in the partially-made buildings throughout the city. Most of them do a double-take when they see me. I thought I could get used to it because I was warned ahead of time, and I had experienced something similar when I went to Haiti. It was different, though. In Haiti, I was at least in a group of blancs, or whites, and I saw others here and there, but here, I am the only white person around. I haven’t seen another white person since I left the airport. Being such a minority is something that will definitely take some getting used to.

These are all things that I will have to adjust to throughout my time here. I thought I’d be freaking out by now because of the culture shock, but somehow I’ve kept this “It is what it is” mentality, and nothing has thrown me for a loop…yet. I’m excited to learn more about life here. In addition to helping with English, I’ll get to help out with science too. I’m oober stoked! Oh yea, and Diwali, the festival of lights, starts next week. So I get a holiday during which to explore the city. Wahoo! Tomorrow after school, Rhoda is taking me for a walk around town to get acquainted with things a little more. I’m sure it’ll be grand.