The Big Field Trip

My family and I started teaching at a small public school in India at the end of January, 2010. We taught 1^st and 2^nd graders in the school for three weeks. We started teaching at the school after we met Maneesh in our small town of Badgaon, India; he is my friend’s cousin. Maneesh lives in Bombay, but he was in Badgaon visiting his family. Maneesh created an NGO (like a non-profit organization) and wants foreigners to come teach English in tribal villages. The school where we taught was in a teeny tiny village called Kavita, so we called it the Kavita School. Most of the people there were very poor; some earned less than a dollar per day. Many of the kids had health problems, like worms and infected cuts. Most of the people in Kavita are farmers from the Bihl tribe, but Bilh people were traditionally hunters. They are some of the best archers in the world and are also great singers.

From The Big Field Trip – India, 2010

When we first went to they Kavita school, all of the kids were afraid of us. When my dad tried to help a student named Arjuna (pronounced Ar-june) with his math, Arjuna shrank away from him, nodding at everything he said. But a week later Arjuna was answering many questions and playing games with no fear. The students really enjoyed playing outdoor games that we taught them; it helped to “break the ice.” It took a while for the kids to warm up to us, but they did eventually.

We had about 30 kids in our class; it varied day to day because only about ¼ of the kids in the community came to school everyday. We did lessons on math and English. We also played games with the students. I was surprised about how little they knew, but how fast they learned. Most of the second graders didn’t know how to add numbers together. There was one genius who could add numbers together in his head and say it in English.

From The Big Field Trip – India, 2010

A normal day for me in India went like this: First I woke up at 8:30, started homeschooling at nine o’clock and studied until 1:00, when my family and I had lunch. My dad would have planned the lessons for Kavita earlier that day. We would all pack the supplies for the school, and when we heard the auto-rickshaw’s tuk-tuk-tuking along our road, we would run out of our house and jump in. On Tuesdays and Thursdays my mom and my little brother, Cruz, did not go to the Kavita School. After stopping at a fruit stand where we either bought 100 guavas, oranges, or bananas for the students, we drove 20 minutes to Kavita. When we got into the village, at about 2:00 pm, kids in blue uniforms came out of their houses and ran after us until we got to the school. I’d say about 30% of the kids in our classroom just came to school when we were there; they didn’t come in the morning.

When we got into the classroom, which was empty of desks and chairs for students, there would be about 50 students sitting on the floor of the room. Two teachers would come in to remove students that weren’t in first or second grade. They had to threaten the children with sticks, because they really wanted to be part of the class. Apparently it’s ok for teachers in India to hit students. We would first send our students to go wash their hands. I had to guard the door so that only our students got back in. Then we greeted the students with a hello and a good-afternoon.” Then I counted all the students in English (me: one, students: one, me: two, students: two, me: three, students: twee etc.). After counting, my mom would sing the ABCs with the students. Then we would either teach them a song or practice one we’ve all ready taught to the (like the Hokey Pokey and the Itsy Bitsy Spider). Meanwhile I drew a scene of the school with lots of doors, windows, people, trees and animals. Then my dad would ask “how many _____?” (i.e. how many students?).

From The Big Field Trip – India, 2010

After that we would split off into four groups, one for each member of my family, except Cruz, who participated as a student. I played memory with the students, my dad taught math, Bella played UNO or other card games and my mom drew pictures of objects with the students and taught them the name of the objects in English. We switched groups every 15 minutes, so groups lasted for about an hour. After the four groups we went outside for a game. We played games like duck-duck-goose and Simon Says. These games lasted for about 20-30 minutes; we played with the whole school, there were about 90 kids. Then we passed out the fruit to all the students. At this time it was about 4:00. We then took the tuk-tuk (auto-rickshaw) back to our house. For the rest of the day I played cricket with the kids in the neighborhood until the night time, when I did my homework.

From The Big Field Trip – India, 2010

Communication with the students wasn’t a big problem because we had a translator to help us. His name was Pinu; he volunteered each day to help us teach the students. He translated everything we said into Hindi. The students first language is Marwar, but all of them spoke some Hindi. We also learned a few Hindi words like “chup”, which means quiet, and “suno”, which means listen. On our first day, Maneesh, the man who ran the project, was our translator. Maneesh created a NGO, a project that enabled foreigners to come teach at the schools. He thinks it will be a good experience for the kids because they would come to school more, because whenever we came to the school, the attendance doubled.

On our last day teaching at the Kavita School, a doctor came to check the student’s hygiene. We had a regular school day except it was twice as long as it usually was, four hours. Every half hour the doctor would come in and take another group of students. The last day was sort of sad, but also fun. We (Bella, the students and I) played lots of games that day, like duck-duck-goose, Spider’s web and Steal the Bacon, while my parents clipped dirty fingernails. By the end of the day, all the kids had clean, clipped nails and were clean. We had prepared bags for them the day before, 100 of them, one for each student. Each bag had a toothbrush and toothpaste, a box of pencils, a sharpener, an eraser, crayons, and notebooks (for school), a bag of peanuts (for nutrition), a guava and an orange (for vitamins), a bar of soap and a photo to remember us by.

This experience has changed my way of thinking, I understand how simply people can live. I really enjoyed teaching; I hope many people can teach the kids in Kavita in the future, teaching was a great experience for me and the students.

From The Big Field Trip – India, 2010

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