Hope Center Motipur, Part I
In the fall of 2009, I originally became interested in working for Teachers Across Borders, a group of mostly American World History teachers who coordinate joint meetings with teachers in other countries (primarily Vietnam and India). I opted to work with the India group, applied and was accepted.
In May, much to my dismay, the meeting was cancelled. However, by that time, I had purchased tickets, had my entrance visa and was very much wanting to go. I told several people at my Church in Atyrau about my dilemma, that I am prepared to go to India to work, but that I have nothing planned when I get there. One good friend, Phil, put me in touch with Global Action. Within a couple of days, representatives of Global Action expressed interest in my coming to The Hope Center in Motipur, India, near the Nepal border.
I accepted their to come, and have been working at the Hope Center for about the last week. Here is a picture of the front of the Center.
On Tuesday, June 29, I came back to Lucknow after being at the Hope Center for about four days. I will go back on either June 30 or July 1. It is a joy and a privilege to work with such dedicated staff and such amazing children. For example, even though temperatures can exceed 43 degrees celcius (110 degrees farenheit), the children are still willing to study English (even without fans to help cool them).
Here is a picture of Renuka, who is always singing as she walks around camp. One day, when I was so sick, she sang me a song. I was so grateful for her act of kindness on that day.
Here are some notes of my trip there. (There are many more pictures on Picasa.)
This morning I started work with the children. However, before talking about the success and challenges of that, I should mention how last night went.
Abineet, my main contact and Hope Center co-director, our driver and I arrived in camp at about 7 PM. We drove about five hours from Lucknow to get to the camp. The drive itself was amazing, as we transitioned from the hot, desert-like conditions in Lucknow, to the heat of what amounts to a forest in Motipur (where it is still hot, but very green also). Along the way, we drove on highways that were all under construction. There were numerous times when massive transport vehicles came straight at us. Sometimes it was because they were in our lane, but sometimes it was because we were traveling toward them on the wrong side of the road. In India, the road is there for everyone to use as needed. If someone is in front of you, and in the way, they still have priority. Horn-honking is rampant, but the most one can hope for from incessant honking is that the vehicle in front will move inches out of the line of travel.
We arrived at Hope Center just before dark. The children quickly finished eating, and then sang and prayed. I was greeted by many of the children. As it turns out, most of the children are Nepalese. There are several who are brothers and sisters.
There are two main buildings that make up the Hope Center. The Chapel is being used most at this point. It consists of a large central building, divided into several smaller rooms being used for sleeping rooms, classrooms, and a kitchen. Surrounding the Chapel are a series of small structures that are used for storage, an animal corral, and an outside eating area.
The other main building is located about 200 yards from the Chapel, and is actually still being built. It consists of six apartments. On my first night, I spent the night on the roof of this second building. Why did I sleep on the roof? This time of year it is very hot here. Temperatures can easily reach 45 degrees celsius. The Hope Center does not have regular electricity and must therefore rely on generators. Needless to say it is expensive. Therefore, even though rooms are equipped with fans, they are not generally available at night.
So I slept on the roof of the apartments. It was a surreal experience. There was a full moon. All night long, Hindu karaoke music played from what must have been a Hindu celebration not too far away. It was very loud. And yet I was somehow able to get some rest.
In the morning I went to take a shower. As I walked into the apartment, there were two baby goats who had wandered in and were playing there. I chased them out, but was laughing too much to get angry. Water here is in short supply. Shower water is even more precious because it takes a pump (run by generator) to get the water to the roof of the building. Therefore the shower was short and cold.
After showering I prepared for my first day of teaching. In the morning I got ready for my teaching. I expected 27 students, from about age 6 to about age 15. Instead I got about 36 students, some as young as 3. I worked with them for about 30 minutes before asking the little ones to leave. They were too distracting to the older students and they weren't getting anything out of what I was trying to teach.
I am relying heavily on QSI curriculum. On the first day I decided to teach about responsibility as a success orientation. Some of the students got it, but many did not. It took a long time to get them to understand. They were unable to answer questions without a great deal of shyness. Group work was difficult at best. And yet as time went on they did get slightly better.
I made a quick decision to do a couple of things that I think will pay off. First, I am very strict about start and stop times. Second, I invited those who want to attend English classes to attend from 6 PM to 7 PM. I limited my morning teaching from 9 AM to 12 Noon with a 20 minute break in the middle. I am taking a subject per day. Thursday was responsibility as a success orientation. Friday was Mathematics. We worked on decimals with the older students (addition and subtraction only), and addition and subtraction with the younger students. (Note: There is perhaps nothing more important in education than "monitor and adjust.") I have made additional changes to the curriculum, so that now I am primarily teaching English. Students take many notes, but there is plenty of time to practice speaking as well.)
On Sunday 27 June the plan is to work on Cultural Studies, with an emphasis on learning landforms. This lesson went OK, with students learning how to create flash cards to learn vocabulary. However, I eventually folded their learning into English lessons.
Now I also am planning to teach evening English classes which will add to my responsibilities. I am planning on using the materials that I learned about from Karina for teaching English in Kazakhstan - Basic English Grammar. I am hopeful that the Hope Center will see the value of this approach to teaching English.
