That’s what it’s all about!

You put your right hand in, you put your right hand out, you put your right hand in and you shake it all about…”NO, your rigghhhhtt hand. Nope, other hand. Very good!” That’s what I found myself saying to a few students on Friday and now I have the Hokey Pokey stuck in my head. We’ve been using the ever so popular song to help the children at both schools distinguish the right side of their body from their left. The song is also being used to keep the little ones entertained. Who doesn’t like the Hokey Pokey?! Let me rephrase, which child doesn’t like the Hokey Pokey? As I looked around the Nirmal Nagar classroom yesterday morning, there was a clear contrast: the bubbly and bouncy children vs. the bushed and beat Dukies.

Tonight/early tomorrow morning marks our 2^nd week in Hyderabad! Time really does fly when you’re having fun. Take the car rides to and from the schools for instance. Everything from watching the movie Love Guru in Hindi to having dance parties to Telugu music makes us forget about the bumpy 45-min drive. We’ve also started a competition to see who can learn the most Hindi. It’s me against John and Manoj (I’m going to win…of course). Sneha and Anamika, our 2 Hindi experts, will be schooling me while John and Manoj rely on Rosetta Stone. Stay tuned for updates about our language battle. It will be epic!

The fact that we’ve been enjoying ourselves so much, both in and out of the classroom, shows how accustomed we have become to the culture already. Yesterday, we even noticed how immune we are to the beggars on the street that come up to the car windows. I’ll admit that their persistence and fearlessness made us uncomfortable at first, but I think we’re learning to deal with it as best as possible. Also, it’s safe to say that the entire group is in for a culture shock upon returning to the US of A. Silence, or what will seem like silence to us, is going to be quite strange. As other posts have mentioned, the roads in Hyderabad are anything but peaceful.  However, the constant honking of horns has started to sound like an impromptu symphony, of which I can actually fall asleep to.

Today, we watched a great movie named Taare Zameen Par, which means ‘Stars on Earth.’ This isn’t your typical Bollywood movie, which is filled with upbeat music and dancing. Conversely, the film is pretty relevant to our work at the two schools. It is about an 8-year-old boy named Ishaan whose talent and creativity get overshadowed by his poor reading and writing skills. He bears the burden of constant ridicule, laughter, and punishment. Ishaan is misunderstood by everyone, especially his father, until one art teacher comes along and helps Ishaan regain confidence. We even got a couple of good ideas from the film that can be added to the curriculum used at the schools. It even made me think of the kids at the schools who are struggling a little more than the others. I have all the confidence in the world that they will improve, but sometimes it takes a new perspective – hopefully, we can provide that. I don’t want to spoil the film for those of you who haven’t seen it, but I highly recommend it. I cried…and I definitely heard others sniffling in the room as well.

The movie was actually quite long, so we all took a 5-minute walk to a nice coffee shop as an intermission. We got on the topic of palm reading. I used my skills to predict how long people will live, how wealthy they will be, and how their love lives would turn out (these so-called skills were made up on the spot by the way). Anamika still owes me $5. I gave her a rather good fortune, if I say so myself. We headed back to the apartment for the rest of the movie, which fit in perfectly with our relaxing Saturday. Oh, and I still have the Hokey Pokey stuck in my head….my life.