I blinked and this week was over. Of course a lot happened in that week, but it was over before I could begin to take a breath. I taught, organized, typed, visited schools, hugged people, answered questions, ate fabulous food, attempted to sleep, laughed a lot, cried a little, and when I opened my eyes this week was all over and it was Saturday morning and I was beginning my fourth workshop…

To back up a little however. Here are some highlights! On Tuesday I was invited to visit Nandenum a school for Aurovilian children 2.5 years old to 6 years old, and is actually the school that Auro (lives in our house – 2.5 year old son of Ramalingum and Janaki) just began at. The school was quite beautiful- mostly I loved the architecture of the classrooms, how they had little arches and nooks built into them for the children, and there is a teacher doing a very interesting project with sand boxes there. It is for Auroville children which means that there is quite a bit more money in the school than in Aikiyam or Isai Amballam. I watched during snack time a teacher interact with a child who was not wanting to clean her plate. She did it in a clear, gentle, but firm way- it was lovely to see! Quite nice of course to visit another school and meet some new teachers…

A child plays in one of the sand boxes at Nandenum

Nandenum creche

In the evening I went to New Colors again. I had decided to return just because I felt so awed by what this couple has taken on and also I wanted to give them some money that a very generous man had given to me to use wherever I thought it would be useful. Aikiyam and the boarding house, while surviving on sponsers and donations always needs money, still has a lot of people fundraising and working on projects for them, and New Colors I felt, was just the place, just beginning and taking on a big mission with very little, where a little money might take them a long way. So I decided to give the money from this man to them for the school. I spent the evening again helping the children with homework and reading to them, chatting with Kumar and his wife and photographing the amazingly peaceful scene in the middle of the tiny village life. Kumar and his wife were very grateful and happy to receive the money and we discussed being in touch, and how I could help and participate more next time I am here. It was very lovely and I am so happy that I got to meet them and can try and contribute in some way.

Kumar helping a child from 1st std at New Colors

Wednesday was also an exceptionally busy but wonderful day! After a normal morning at Aikiyam the kindergarten teachers and I attempted to make playdough in the kitchen at the school. Of course right now the dinning hall is undergoing construction so the kitchen is actually a little shed made out of some tarps strung up over one burner. The women squat down in the grass cutting vegetables and preparing food for about 250 people each day on this one burner! So I was basically teaching them a new play dough recipe and very soon we were all crowded around a pot, my hands were covered with sticky blue playdough and we were laughing and talking a lot! After some trial and errors this week the kindergarten now has 4 batches of different colored playdough. After the playdough making session I dashed off to visit Isai Amballam. I brought some activities from the previous workshop, spoke with them a little, and they gave me a good bye gift! Then I dashed back to Aikiyam where I had a short meeting with a woman from Bulgaria named Victoria who has been teaching Hindi and yoga at the school. I had asked her to come to the last workshop and teach the teachers a little about what she does with the kids about yoga and we were meeting to discuss it. After our meeting I dashed off to Saskia’s where I received a fabulous massage as Saskia just completed a training in Ayurvedic massage and needs people to practice on. After the massage, I drove home, very relaxed and Galen and I went to Selvaraj and Tamilinthy’s house for dinner.

Selva got married in an arranged marriage last November. Galen and I had been very excited to meet his new wife whom we had heard great things about and we have not been disspointed! The week before we took them out for dinner. Tamilinthy has a large smile and a kind heart. She is a little shy but likes to tease Selva and they seem to be very happy together. They are also expecting a baby in October! They had invited us over for dinner and Tamilinthy had cooked a feast of dosas, chappathis, daal, a chicken dish, a salad and coconut chutney. It was so delicious!!! We sat and looked at their wedding photo album, and they played their wedding movie as background during dinner. We reminisced a lot about the good times we had had in Selva’s house when it was his bachelor pad. We compared marriage customs. We talked about NYC and the differences between there and India. And mostly we laughed a lot. It was a sweet evening and a memorable one.

Doing work in the boarding house!

With the teachers at Isai Amballam!

Thursday life slowed down a little. Free Play and choice time and a yummy dinner at the boarding house prepared by Geetha and Ramalingum and Janaki. I wore my new churidad which Vanitha and Manju helped me pick out in Pondi the Sunday before and had their tailor sew for me! The children in 4th standard had quieted down a lot this week as Mala has been out sick for a bout a week and they had had to adopt to my style of teaching and being. When Mala first got sick they were being extremly talkative and loud but on Monday we had done an activity during which I had them drawing and writing to music (Nick Drake) and they had had to really become quiet in order to hear the music. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we were finishing up a book that the children have been making of stories about a sailor named Sinbad. The idea came after we read “the Adventures of Sinbad.” Over the week I gave the children the freedom to choose if they wrote their stories first or made the illustrations first. They had already completed a rough draft of their story which  I had edited. This also helped with their focus and the children seemed very invested in their work. One child, Ajit, had been struggling with re-writing the edited version of his story. “I can’t Meghan,” he would say, “its too hard!” After I told him that he could choose in what order to work, that he just had to finish by the end of Thursday, he was able to focus and complete the whole assignment! I believe that he alternated between the two different tasks! And then Friday morning I went to teach 6th std and announced that I was leaving the following wee. The children all looked at me with big eyes. “Why did you stay for 1 year before and now you have to go back?” Kavishma asked. They were all silent waiting for my answers. So I explained about my job and money and everything else. “Do you live with Deborah?” was another question. Actually one of my favorite questions this week came from Divya in the 4th std. “In your village what is the God’s name?” she asked me. “There is just one God and his name is God.” I said after some thought. “Thats it?” she said. “There arn’t any other Gods? And why would the god’s name be God?”

Saturday morning I woke up extremely anxious about the workshop. I focused this week’s workshop around the importance of movement, sensory activities and body awareness in schools. I had a plan that I had gone over again and again, but for some reason I was feeling nervous. Fortunately it went fine. I began with sensory materials set out on the tables: wet and dry sand, water, pebbles, marbles, seeds, dry grass, playdough etc. Most of the teachers immediately went to the playdough – they were so excited to play with it! 3 teachers came from the Montessori creche this week in addition to the Aikiyam teachers, a teacher from Nandenum, a teacher from Deepam and Victoria who is working at both Aikiyam and Udavi. During the introduction I spoke about how children learn in many different ways and that some children learn through movement and being physically active. I also spoke about how we notice different sides of children when we seem them in different contexts so that seeing children do movement activities may reveal something new to us that we don’t see when we observe the same child coloring or trying sit still during a meeting.  Then we played a movement name game which had everyone laughing and Nava of course put everyone to shame by being able to say each person’s name and do the movement that they had created to go with their name in order! Then Victoria spent 20 minutes leading the teachers through some simple yoga exercises and talking about when and how to use yoga in the classroom. This prompted a lot of interest from the kindergarten teachers to possibly learn more from Victoria and have her work with them in their classrooms.

More yoga!

After yoga, I lead some movement activities. 2 were focused on breath and 2 were focused on learning gross motor actions such as running, hopping, skipping, jumping etc. The previous two weeks I had spent some time talking with Sathiyavani (who teaches special needs for the young children) and Saski about Awareness through the Body Activities. I had also read the book the week before and some of the activities were ones that come from the book and their philosophy, some of them were activities that Sathiya and I discussed together. I ended up writing up descriptions for about 24 body awareness activities. (Which Nava informed me that she knew all but 6 of them- bless her of course she knows all of them!) After the activities I had planned Vijaya lead the teachers through a sensory activity that she had been wanting to try!

Breath and ping pong ball activity!

Breathing with bean bags!

Vijaya's sensory game!

Then it was tea time. After tea Anandi lead us through some movement activities for focusing energy. Then I did an activity where I had each teacher think of 1 child and describe his/her physical presence. This brought up some interesting discussions about what certain children may or may not need in the classroom in regards to their physicality and how provisioning for their needs could help them to be able to better focus and concentrate in school. To me this was a very important discussion and piece of the workshop as I think it helped to tie together why doing body awareness and physical activities in school can be so important to children’s learning and development.  Afterwards we looked at a slide show of pictures of children engaged in movement activities such as dancing, and rolling on large balls. I also showed pictures of Bimal, a child from LKG who had made himself a kite one day in cutting and pasting. After creating the kite Bimal run around the classroom examining how the kite would blow in the wind as he ran. Then he stopped and tried throwing the kite up in the air and watching it float to the ground. I talked about how Bimal had done all of this without disturbing anyone else in the classroom and how wonderful it was to watch a child have the space to experiment with his body, wind, and something that he had created himself.

Writing descriptions of a child's physical presence

Bimal dancing with his kite

August 29, 2011

Hello again dear followers of my adventures! It has now been a week and a half since I landed back in NYC on a gray cloudy morning and trudged from the subway station with my backpack to my apartment in Astoria, Queens. It has been a whirlwind as family obligations and weddings took us immediately away from NY to VT, Boston and New Paltz, but we are now back in Queens having survived Hurricane Irene settling in- which means rearranging out furniture and doing laundry and looking towards fall.

Our last few days in India were emotional and busy. It was a long weekend and so some of the kids went home for the weekend and we had some time to pack, visit Pondicherry and I was frantically finishing a book of activities for the kindergarten teachers. Sunday night Nava cooked a splendid meal for Galen and I as well as 3 other volunteers who were leaving the same night that we were and have been in Auroville for a year. We all stuffed ourselves while sitting on the roof at protection. Selvaraj and Shankar came over and it was wonderful to just sit while the night sky got dark and the stars came out and talk about so many different topics with such good friends.

Monday was India’s Independence day as well as Sri Aurobindo’s Birthday. Galen and I woke at 4:15 am in the dark and quiet to go celebrate his birthday at the bonfire at the Matrimandir. Arriving in the dark with many Indians and Aurovillians and sitting under the stars next to the majestic Matrimandir and the even more majestic moon still in the sky was very beautiful. We watched the fire and the  sun rise and then greeted many friends who had all gathered their as well. When I am there in India it is easy to see how my life could be that- India, Auroville- even after 6 weeks there I felt so completely absorbed into the community.

The problem with getting up so early was that after we went home and then I went to the Independence day celebration at Aikiyam, I was so exhausted and drained that I spent a lot of time being emotional and crying. Finally I rallied Dhinagar, Partiban and Galen to go have ice cream with me and we ate ice cream sundaes. We were all tired but the ice cream gave us a little boost  and I let Dhinagar drive me home from the gate in New Creation back to Roy’s house. Then we all went to see Manjula play basketball which was amazing as she is fiery and fierce on the basketball court and her team easily won the game. Then Geetha came over to watch a Tamil movie on my computer. Our evening ended as all the Tamil adults were out, at the boarding house with Galen teaching Partiban. Dhina and Geetha how to make grilled cheese sandwiches and all of us enjoying a western/Indian medly of sandwiches, salad, miso soup, idly and tomato chutney. The kids gave us big hugs as they went up to bed. Tuesday, my last real day at the school I had parties with the 6^th std and 4^th std classes during which we ate peanuts, dates, sesame ladus, and other fruits…and I ran around getting things finished up.

4th std class on my last day!

Pachayappan from 6th std making a card for Deborah on my last day at Aikiyam!

With Rehka, a child from the creche at the Independence day celebration!

Last lunch with all my favorite teachers!

Tuesday night Galen took the boarding house out for pizza at Giorgio’s.  Suffice to say we had fun- just look at the pictures! Our time in India ended with a big lunch and cake with all the teachers which was moving as they could not stop hugging me and they presented me with a necklace, “to keep us al next to your heart,” they said. Then before our taxi, driven by Vanitha’s brother took off, a lovely gathering of friends in our room as Vanitha, Tixon, Manjula, Ramalingum, Auro and Dhina all gathered to wave goodbye to us. This goodbye was different though from the tearful, and wrenching parting we had last time we departed from Auroville. There was much more of a “see you later” and uplifted quality. As I stood in our room, sadly saying goodbye to it, Vanitha pulled my hand, “It will be here when you come back,” she told me.  “See you next year!” everyone shouted at us as the taxi drove off.  “See you when your married,” Vanitha shouted! Next year we are getting married, but I have already cleared it with Galen that I may run off to India directly afterwards! And so we took one last long drive to Chennai through the busy cow crowded streets and said goodbye to India…until next year.

Out for Pizza!!!

More pizza!!!!!!

Goodbye India!

Yesterday was my third full workshop, which I focused on “Art, Creativity, and Observation.” I used the teacher’s role when the children are working on creative art projects to delve a little more deeply into observation. I also planned 10 different art activities- thanks to some help from a book, Deborah, and Ramalingum the art teacher. However, the set up and organization of this workshop was tough. It took me 2 hours to prepare and set everything up. This means that I arrived at the school at 7 am. Shankar came in his dhoti, shirtless, to give me the key, and then went back home. Part of the reason it took me so long was that it took me a while to figure out how to make the paint the right consistency, (the paint that you can get here is quite different then the paint that we get in the US- more watery) and also because when I set up art projects I like to really have prepared carefully how materials should be set out. Over the week I had typed out descriptions of each activity.  The activities were: line dropping collages, painting with straws and string, butterfly mirror image painting, print painting, water colors and tape, torn paper/cutting collages, making animal masks, drawing to music, constructing houses out of popsicle sticks., and creating name tags for the classroom. Some of them I tied to literacy by showing how you could read a book and then create the art project around it.

Teachers work with paints and create mirror images on butterfly wings

I gave the teachers the choice of which activity to begin with, but as they were very eager, most of them ended up trying all of them.  I had a real mix of teachers in the group from 4 different schools! 7 teachers from Aikiyam (not including myself), 3 from the Kindergarten (a school in Auroville called “Kindergarten”),  2 from Nandenum, and 2 from Deepam (a school for children with Special Needs).  To get to know each other we played some name games and one of the teacher from Nandenum lead some breathing and grounding exercises.

Mask making!!

Some of the art work made by the teachers!!!

Teachers sharing their art work!

More sharing!

Working on the art projects lasted well into tea/snack time. Afterwards everyone came back and shared what they had worked on. One teacher from Nandenum described how when I had explained one of the art projects she immediately was excited about doing it. Vijaya on the other hand shared about how she was frustrated by the same activity, and Usha described how she used a different technique to create her project. This was wonderful as we got to discuss how different children react differently to an activity and how one type of material might really speak to one child, but not to another. Sathiyavani (who teaches special needs to the children through 5^th grade) told me that she was very happy as she had been searching for activities like these and she was learning a lot. A teacher from the kindergarten described how her class had been studying butterflies and how when they had children draw butterflies the children didn’t understand that butterfly wings have the same pattern on both sides of their wings. She was very excited about the mirror image butterfly painting project as she saw that through this she could help the children to understand the concept. After everyone shared, we moved to the block room where I had set up a slide show. However I began by focusing on just one drawing that a child in UKG had made during Free Play. I explained to the teachers that we were going to take some time to just look simply at this one drawing and describe what we saw such as colors, shapes, pencils marks, figures etc. without giving and judgments or ideas about what we thought the picture was about or what was in the picture. I explained that by doing this it would help us to look more closely at the piece of art work which would then help us observe all children and their art work more closely. We did a round of simply decribing and then another round during which I opened it up to more interpretive impressions and comments. Here is what the teachers saw in the drawing:

Very bright yellow in the center

Many shapes- such as triangles and square’s

There are 2 figures of the same size

There is a figure in the corner

Green circles

Bunch of purple- might be grapes

Same colors are reflected in the figure that may be a tree

There are groups of 2 different colors- purple and green

There are half circles on the top of the house figure

There are small rectangular shapes

A yellow circle

2 different things hanging from a tree

There is symmetry in the wings of the plane figure

It appears that he used pencil to outline his drawing first

He created a base of green on the bottom of the page

The trees, fruit and grass look very close to reality but the person and the airplane look like they came from his imagination.

He created the drawing on white paper and left spaces of white.

He put the sun on top of the clouds.

He wrote his name.

There are oval shapes at the top of the page, are they clouds or the sky?

He likes grapes- always draws grapes.

The figure may be his sister, Abirami, whom he loves

He has a lot of patience as there are many details in the drawing

First he drew the lines and then colored it in

He used natural colors

He used many small lines

Abishek's drawing that we described in the workshop!

Odile, a very experienced teacher from the kindergarten- in fact she was Praveena (now teacher in  upper kindergarten at Aikiyam)’s kindergarten teacher- commented to me at the end of the workshop that she really enjoyed this activity and that she wanted to take it back and use it at staff meetings. This idea is not my own, of course, but comes from the Prospect School and is something I learned both in graduate school at Sarah Lawrence and at Prospect conferences. But I was very happy that even a very very experienced teacher was able to take something away that she may be able to use! I also got many ideas from her, as we were able to talk and she shared many things with me- I am getting very excited about the coming year and implementing some of these things into my own classroom!!!

After we did our descriptive review of the drawing, I showed some pictures of the children working on art projects both at Aikiyam and at Isai Amballam. Then I had put some time aside for the teachers to share different curriculum pieces from some of the schools that were represented. Odile talked about block building at the kindergarten and creativity in block building. The teachers from Aikiyam shared about Free Play and Anandi from Nandenum shared about a poetry/art collaboration that she had worked on when there was only one school in Auroville. By that time it was 12:10 and I didn’t want to hold the teachers up any longer- but best of all, it felt by that point that we had come together as a group and that the teachers had gotten to know each other and that there was a lot of interest and excitement in what each other’s schools were working on. I was also very grateful to all the Aikiyam teachers who helped me clean up and to Nava who brought me idly’s to eat!

Afterwards Vijaya asked me if she could bring me to a sari shop that was on the way to Pondi. I agreed and we hopped on her bike. I had admired one of her very casual sari’s saying that I needed more sari’s that were just for every day use (most of mine I feel like a royal princess when I wear them), so we went and she purchased as a gift for me (of course she wouldn’t let me pay) a nice light, synthetic sari which I am very excited to wear! Then we went into Pondicherry to visit her (sister, cousin- I missed how she was related with the wind and the noise on the ECR) friend and her husband who has cancer and has been doing poorly. We brought him some nice Auroville bread and kombucha and of course I got stuffed full of onion and potato baji, orange juice and sweets while we watched a comedy/horror Tamil movie.

Saturday night was movie night with the kids- Geetha and I re-watched the Princess Diaries 2 and stuffed ourselves with peanutts while the boys watched batman.

Sunday morning, Galen was off again to another exchange program and Vanitha, Manjula and I had a girls morning in Pondi shopping for gifts for my friends and some new earrings for me.  In the afternoon I took the boys to the pool and then we made pizzas! The kids have been begging me to make pizzas with them since that is one of the things that we did last year together. The only problem is that the small toaster oven that we had used last year to bake the pizzas in had been thrown out (I am very glad about that as I electrocuted myself on it several times last year) so I had to figure out a way to make pizzas on the stove top. I decided trying to make pizza crust on the stove top was a night mare- although I found a recipe on line to do it, and I decided that we could use parattas as a base. So on Sunday afternoon, Parasu, Nirmalraj and Iypa served as my prep chefs- chopping veggies, Dhina and Geetha helped make the sauce and I sent the kids off to buy as many parratas as they could for 100 rupees. Turns out you can get at least 25! We made a delicious tomato sauce that exploded all over me when I went to blend it- fortunately all that happened as a result was that Geetha got a good laugh and my pride was wounded, the initial shock of having hot tomato sauce spatter all over my forearms was just shock and not actual real burns, and then we sautéed zuchinis and onions and grated LOTS of cheese and all the kids got to assemble the pizzas themselves while I worked as the chef putting them on the dosa pan under a hot flame with another heavy pan over it for a lid until the cheese and veggies had cooked. I hear that they were delicious (not eating cheese myself I actually did not partake in the pizza eating- just the cooking) and there was general happy chaos with the children making as many pizzas as possible and everyone from Tixon to Auro eating them! Good fun!

Dhina and Iypa being very serious about their pizza making!

Having fun!

Stove-top-parrata pizza!!

Now it is Monday and Galen and I both have the Monday blues- him quite a bit worse as two days out in the sun in rural villages dehydrated him and he came down with a fever this morning. I am just trying to pick myself back up after such a busy weekend and figure out what I need to do for this last workshop and what I need to do in general to wrap up my time here in Auroville.

This morning when I woke up the temple music was blaring- and as religion trumps all in India, sports have been canceled for the kids so everyone can celebrate in the village. In Roy’s boarding house however, we will eat sambar and do homework, and talk and probably have a quiet evening., which is just what I need tonight…

After beach coconuts!

Samarpan (in creche class) hot, sweaty, and happy on an outing with the classes on Monday!

The tinniest girl, Akshia, in a big canyon!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Today was my second day in a row wearing a sari! Yesterday I wore a green, shimmery sari with peacocks embroidered on it. It is the only sari I have ever purchased for myself, and I bought it because I simply loved it. Yesterday Galen kissed me goodbye and told me I was beautiful. Today I wore my “barbie” sari. The bright pink sari that was a gift from some of the girls in the 6th grade class for my 27th birthday. Galen laughed at me this morning and said I was wearing it to torture him…however, EVERY Tamil woman today told me that my sari was soooo beautiful- American taste and Indian taste don’t really match up- I fortunately appreciate both.

I wore my pink sari today because I went to hold a mini-workshop at Isai Amballam. It was a “rush, rush” day. Galen and I did not linger over our tea this morning chatting about politics and big life questions. I had to get 6th std by 8:30 to teach my Roald Dahl book clubs, and from there to Lower kindergarten for storytime and songs. Then I filled in for Vijaya who had to leave the school urgently and from there went to 4th std English and from there ate a hasty lunch and then climbed on my moped (pink sari and all) and headed off for the wilderness of Auroville. Driving over the bumpy, red dirt roads is a good time for being reflective and I enjoyed my drive until the road that I had driven on last week ended short in a pile of gravel. Confused I circled around and then finally followed a path through a field where I saw one lone motor-biker driving. Magically I arrived directly at the door to Isai Amballam!

I arrived at the kindergarten classrooms to be greated by Vanti who was setting the children up in a circle with drawing paper. Each child was given 2 colored pencils and directed to draw freely from their imagination about the story that they had heard that morning. The children- 4 and 5 year olds happily and busily drew flowers, suns, people, circles, and lots of lines and scribbles with their two colored pencils. One child held one in each hand. The children sat and lay on their stomach and frequently called out, “teacher teacher!” to either Vanti or I proudly holding up his/her drawing. One little boy lay on his stomach and sang to himself while he drew. The children were all totally engrossed in their work. After that the teacher gathered up the drawings and the children took turns telling stories that they had been told. Some children sleepily lounged about, others wriggled away from the circle. My energy was also waning and I was anxious about how I was going to pull it together to do a workshop.

Luckily, after the children were dismissed to the playground (where they play on their own- unattended for a half an hour) and the teachers and I gathered on the floor with my materials and books, my teacher instinct took over and I was able to move forward easily. We discussed creativity, I described that I had just observed happy, proud and engaged children who were working creatively. We did two activities, both of which I learned from Deborah, that helped me to illustrate points about the importance of creativity. We discussed cognitive flexibility- that children should develop the ability to respond creatively to new situations, we discussed specific activities and how they could be tailored for older and young children, we discussed how to “assess” creative work. And of course we laughed a lot, and of course the teachers created some fantastic art work. It left me feeling invigorated and inspired, and so I drove all over the rusty red roads of Auroville, taking in the huts, the greenery, the strange animal noises, the wind whipping by me with enjoyment.

Kavitha shares her drawing with the group!

A drawing by one of the teacher's. This one, the teacher began drawing with her eyes closed while listening to music.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

This is my short 45 minute break over a day that began at 8:30 and will be ending around 6 (I hope). Thursdays are busy but enjoyable days as I spend the morning doing Free Play with the creche – 1st std classes, and the afternoon doing Choice Time with the 2nd and 3rd std classes. In between today I displayed the art work that the children produced in Free Play and taught 4th std English (we read and discussed “Tikki- Tikki- Tembo”). Between Free Play and Choice Time this means that at least once a week, ALL of the children from age 3 to age 9 have access to a time when they can choose between art projects, block building, working with legos and puzzles, and other activities that the teachers have planned. This morning I was in charge of tearing and pasting (a collage project). I set up my materials on one side of the room and Jhoti (a 1st std teacher) set up drawing materials on the other side. We had many children come through the room during the 1 hour and 15 minute time period they were given. I loved watching the creche children sit down at the table and quietly experiment with the glue (favricole they call it here) and tearing the paper into small pieces. Many of them were so serious and worked for 10 or 15 minutes on their art work. This contrasted with the 1st std children who burst into the room with their own ideas and worked socially for most of the time. One child made a kite and then many other children also made kites. Many of the older children were focused on making a more realistic piece of art work and wanted to use pencils to draw on their pictures as well, where as the younger children were simply enjoying the tearing of the paper and the feel of the glue on their fingers. The time passed very quickly as I worked with them.

Kamally works very diligently on her collage!

Torn paper collages

I really love this collage that was made!

In block building with 3rd std I only had 5 children. They are able to speak quite good English and after laying down some basic rules (no throwing blocks, clean up when I say so…) they got right to work and created trains and an office. The children were very focused until one child at the end couldn’t resist knocking someone elses building over during clean up time and then didn’t want to clean up. But this was minor and the period ended very happily with Aravind stating, “I love blocks and legos and puzzles,” as he stayed to the very end to make sure everything was organized properly on the shelves. This comment which I shared with Selvaraj has inspired him to have the children share what they are working on in choice time and write it down so that we can hang up their quotes around the classroom. Selvaraj is such a lovely and thoughtful teacher. As he said to me at tea time this morning, “teaching is about giving, not gaining anything for ourselves. No matter what problems there are in life, when we are with the children, they all go away.” And you can see this love and care for what he does in the way in which he teaches and the way in which the children love and respect him in return.

Friday August 5, 2011

My visit to New Colors last night proved to be extremely fulfilling and inspirational- although I got home after 7! New Colors is an after school, school run by a couple, an Israeli woman and a Tamil man who live in a room off of the school with their gorgeous daughter, Lalli, who is 2.5 years old. They have started a program for the children in the village of Edeyan Chavedy. The children come at 5 and quietly walk up the stairs to the roof of the building where they sit down and extremely quietly work on their homework. Kumar  works with the children on their homework as he speaks both English and Tamil fluently and is also a teacher at Transition school in Auroville. After the children are finished with their homework they get to do different activities, games and art projects. 50 children come each night to their school!! They are interested in beginning a creche at some point which is why they invited me to come and see what they are doing and what their plans for the future are. I was extremely touched at the dreams and goals of this couple, who simply want to live to help these children to have better lives. I spent a good half an hour working with a little girl named Anandi on her English and science homework. She had been asked to memorize some ridiculously long names and words and she had me quizzing her on them. She worked fast, learned quickly and made sure to check off that she had done her homework in a neatly organized planner. I want to go back to this school. It made me wonder why I don’t drop my life in NYC and just come and work and teach in these villages permanently. I’m not saying that I’m going to do this…I’m just saying, that is how inspired I felt by this little school.

Children at New Colors playing after they have finished their homework!

Anandi, a 5th grader whom I helped with her homework.

Now it is Friday afternoon. This morning while doing yoga on the terrace, the sky was a brilliant blue with perfect white clouds drifting by in rippling patterns. However the air has been heavy all day and everyone has been commenting on how sleepy it is making them feel. Galen is nappy now and I am also drifting off though I am working hard to make sure everything is prepared for my third workshop which is happening tomorrow morning. I hope to go out to dinner tonight with Selvaraj and his wife and be able to relax for a little while before getting up tomorrow and leading some activities on art and creativity and on and on…

Galen and Vanitha playing ball on an Sunday morning after idly for breakfast

I spent Monday morning walking through the village with Shankar and Amy and taking pics for a fundraiser in the UK for AIkiyam. Here is a little bit of what I wrote to my parents afterwards and some pics:

Yesterday I took photos of the village where most of the children that
go to Aikiyam School live for a fundraiser that is happening in the
UK. These children come from the poorest families in the village, it
is one of the pre-requisit for being accepted in the school. I just
wanted to send off some of these pics as it reminds me of how
important Aikiyam is to these children. School is a paradise, so clean
and beautiful and full of adults who take an active interest in them.
What a difference you can feel to walk from one side of the tar road,
where the village is and the children live, under the banyan trees to
where the school is.

The water source

A typical scene

Galen and I had a wonderful dinner with Amy, the new (new since the winter) administrator at Aikiyam and her friend Jason who lives at Sadhanna forrest. They have both been living in Auroville for 7 years and both came here by chance while backpacking around India- and somehow ended up staying. It was very interesting to talk with Americans who live here permanently and they are both fun, outgoing people.

A lot of my Thursday and Friday was taken up with trying to figure out why Geetha has been so sick. I took her to the health clinic on both days, checked up on her through out the day, and bought her some healthy food such as yogurt and kombucha. Finally on Friday afternoon the doctor told me that she needed to be taken to the hospital to see a specialist. So I called Tixon. I went even though I was not needed simply because Geetha really wanted me to go- so I served as the emotional support for her. Tixon and Janaki also came. PIMS- which is the hospital we went to is a teaching college also, so it is on a large campus, and the buildings are quite large and impressive from the outside. We went to the ER and were immediately shuttled through the doors into a room with only 4 beds with patients lieing on them. Geetha answered some questions by the nurse and then was told to sit on one of the empty beds while we waited for the doctor. There are no chairs and no waiting area so we all stood around (I finally sat on the bed with Geetha as I was too tired to stand) for about an hour waiting. While we were waiting an old woman was rushed in and immediately put on an IV and hooked up to a heart monitor. There is very little space between the beds so you can pretty much see whats going on everywhere even though they have very flimsy plastic curtains trying to separate them. After about an hour the doctor seemed to be coming to us when a man was brought in screaming- Tixon told me that he had been bitten by a poisinous wasp. The doctor rushed to help him. After getting that under control she turned to Geetha. She took a very detailed account of Geetha’s symptoms and told Tixon to leave and then tried to examine Geetha. Geetha did not like this so Janaki and I coached her through it and through having her blood drawn and other procedures- it turned out I was useful to some extent as Geetha definitely needed someone to be calm and hold her hand and tell her everything was normal. After all the tests had been done we were told to wait for the results. As the bed had been given away to someone else we went out side the ER and sat on a wall. Apparently this is quite normal as frequently doctors would come to the door and call someone’s name out and then that person would jump up and go inside. So apparently there is a waiting room- its just the wall outside. We ate peannuts and biscuits and drank coffee and sang songs and Tixon told me about the trip he and Vanitha went on that year for about 2 hours waiting before they told us that nothing had shown up, to go home and bring her back in the a.m. for a catskan. It turned out the next day that Geetha has kidney stones. I am quite happy that they figured it out finally- and the trip to the ER was just another experience in India.

This Thursday, JUly 28, was a momentous day for Galen and I for 2 reasons. The first being that in one year (July 28, 2012) we will be getting married. The other is that it marked the half way point for me on the trip. I have been trying not to let it send me into panic mode as I think of all I have to do at the school, and all I want to do before I leave, and wondering if I have enough time to spend with all the people here that I love, and when will I come back? On the other hand- I AM excited for arriving back in the US. It feels better I think knowing what to expect, my friends, my job – which I do love- our families- and we have quite a few exciting things that will be happening when we arrive back. Sarah, Uri and their kids will be there. Going to visit my parents in the beautiful Vermont summer weather, Haywood and Diana’s dinner party to celebrate their marriage…But esepcially with how fast the last week went by, I know that I have to just take each day and each moment for what it is.

Book club with 6th graders- happening on Tuesday mornings!

Working with math materials in the second workshop!

Blog Post

So it is Saturday afternoon and Galen and I are waiting for the boys to finish with their chores to go to the swimming pool. I completed my second full week of work and my second workshop this morning! The week was quite interesting. I went to visit Isai Amballam, another school in Auroville for village children. The previous week 5 of their teachers had attended the workshop and invited me to come. The schools is quite small- 100 children and housed in a building that is L shaped.  I loved seeing the classrooms as they have small shelves and tables separating the rooms into three or 4 areas where the children can play with different manipulatives while the teacher works with a small group of children. The teachers were very excited to show me a word curriculum that they teach using flash cards. They want me to come back this week and give them feedback and suggestions. My thought of course is to have them move away from flashcards into teaching words through songs and stories and contexts that give meaning to the words. I will have to think this week of how to convey this idea while still honoring a method of teaching that they are clearly proud of. Mostly what I loved was seeing the children engaged in play, and the enthusiasm with which the teachers invited me into their rooms and showed me around. The friendship and open hospitality which is almost always extended to me here in southern India by the Tamils is one of the reasons I love being and working here.

A teacher at Isai Amballam works with a small group while the other children play with puzzles and building materials.

In Aikiyam I began a special English project with the 6^th std who was my old class when I was here 14 months ago. As I became very close with the children in this class I am very eager to spend time with them and they asked me if I would come back and teach them. Not wanting to encroach on the teachers starting their curriculums with the class I hesitantly approached Sathiya- their home room teacher (so to speak) and English teacher. Sathiya used to live in the boarding house before she was married this year- so I know her quite well. She eagerly invited me to come and take the class for one English period each week while I am here. I tried to think of an activity that would be fun, different and manageable in just 5 or 6 classes. While browsing through the library I came on groups of Roald Dahl books that I actually helped the school purchase in Chennai a year and a half ago when Aikiyam had gotten a grant to restock their library. Our intent had been to have multiple copies of some books in order to do book clubs with the older children. I immediately decided to try this idea out and spent a night reading through some of the easier books to pick 4 or 5 with which I could form book clubs. My first class with them the children chose which book they wanted to read and we talked about Roald Dahl and who he was. The children then looked at the covers of their books and wrote what they thought the book would be about based on the cover and title. So we will see how that goes next week…

2^nd and 3^rdstandard had their first combined choice time ,which I assisted with and was really an introduction for both the children and the teachers. Having 43 or 44 children working on different projects takes a lot of organization but there will be 4 teachers (Shanthi, Mala, Selvaraj and a volunteer) each week to help. The children will get to work with blocks, legos, stitching, craft work, drawing, writing, reading, puzzles, and toys.

Choice Time Sign up board- we will add pictures next time so that it is easier for the children to read the activity choices!

Selvaraj explains "Choice Time" to 2nd and 3rd grades

In the kindergartens and crèche classes I documented the children’s block work for the workshop on blocks. I also have been collaborating with the teachers to do storytimes each morning in UKG and LKG with songs in English and read alouds to the children. In the afternoons we are continuing to discuss activities and what children learn by doing them. Sathiyavani, the special needs teacher for the younger grades, came and shared what she does to help the children with body awareness. I am documenting our discussions and working on compiling a book for the teachers of all the activities that we have brainstormed and discussed together.

A child in UKG tried to balance these two blocks together!

This week I called my workshop “Meaningful Math,” and centered it around activities that teach math skills but are meaningful to the children, such as making a weather graph, or  measuring objects in the classroom with string, or working with blocks, legos and puzzles. I first invited the teachers to try out the activities planned. The teachers were very hesitant at first and I had to really encourage them to create with legos, pattern blocks or try to make survey. After 10 minutes of surveying the choices they did get to work and created some very interesting things. Of course I felt very good when Manju (a teacher from the crèche) said to me, “Meghan we need a copy of all the activities so we can do them in the classroom!” She and Usha and I had already discussed how to implement some ideas into the classroom on a level that we be appropriate for 3 year-olds. They are using pictures of the children to create an attendence  chart!

Teachers working on puzzles together

Nava constructs a building from legos

After the activities we all came together and everyone drew pictures of what they think of when they think of math. Some very interesting ideas came up. “You can’t do anything without math. It is the basics,” Aruna (UKG said). USha (crèche) folded her paper up as if she was doing origami, then she unfolded it and showed us the triangles, squares and the geometry in it. “All the world is math,” Manju (crèche) added. After this we discussed how to make math meaningful- in other words, how to do activities that teach math skills but are also exciting for the children and connect to the world that they know.  I explained some of what was displayed and the teachers shared what they had worked on.

Set up for math workshop!

The teachers gather together to discuss their ideas on the topic "what is math?" and to share about the activities they worked on.

Graphing the names of all the teachers!

Then we moved to the block room! In the block room the teachers divided into pairs and they took turns building and observing each other. Afterwards each pair shared their observations of their partner and what they felt like as they were working on their building. We discussed the math behind block building and I gave everyone a photograph from the wonderful block book (thanks Nomi for lending it to me!!) that is a curriculum map of all the skills learned through block building. Then it was tea time! The teachers had been requesting more time to discuss activities together as it can be hard to fit these conversations into the busy school days. So after tea I had them split into groups according to their interest to do this. We had a “body awareness group” a “science group” and a “math in art group.” The teachers discussed activities (and in the body awareness group they actually did the activities) and wrote them on large papers. We then shared back to the whole group and I collected them to go towards our documentation and book. Lastly I had prepared a slide show of the children’s block buildings that week which gave us a progressive view of the developmental growth of children using building with blocks. It also highlighted some moments such as a boy in Upper Kindergarten trying to balance a block on an angle (physics and mathematics!) and how he solved the problem and what the building eventually looked like as he continued to work on it.

Working with blocks!

More block building and observation practice!

There were many interesting ideas in block building- this one was made by Vanitha!

Teachers sharing body awareness activities together

Well- by the time I finished writing all of that it is now Sunday morning. Galen and I drove to Pondi yesterday, than took the boys swimming in the pool. Afterwards Nirmalraj and I rode around to buy some vegetables, which I made a huge salad to go along with the fish stew that was for dinner. The children seem to be much more excited about salads these days then they used to be and nothing gives me so much satisfaction as seeing them wolf down fresh vegetables! Even little Auro was eating his veggies and practicing with a fork! Tixon and Vanitha went out for the night so Galen and I watched Lord of the Rings with the kids. They were pretty much glued to the movie! Tixon and Vanitha came home around 10 with a bag of guavas (or Goas as they call then here) and I ate 3…yes, I did. Galen’s and mine. The fruit here is just sooooo tasty.  And now it is Sunday morning and I am looking forward to a day of resting…some what. Probably will take the kids to the beach in the afternoon and we will definitely eat some idly and tomato chutney this morning! Just another day in India.

July 17, 2011
I had a wonderful day yesterday, although busy. After  my first
workshop which went smoothly and the teachers all seemed excited
about, I went to Kofi bar and drank cold coffee with ice cream to
celebrate. I took the kids swimming in the pool. Geetha and I spent
two hours driving through the villages to visit Parimala, who used to
live at the boarding house and now lives with her sisters, and Satish,
a student from  my school who is now in highschool and whom Deborah
and Galen have both helped financially as he lives with his mother who
is very poor. Driving and walking through the streets of the villages
are always intense as what is normal in them is so vastly different
from my normal. Families living in one room together. Dirt floors.
trash and mud everywhere. When I ride my mo-ped its like riding
through an obstacle course there are ditches in the middle of the road
and piles of gravel and rocks, not to mention stray dogs and small
half naked children. A woman sat in the edge of the road selling fish
and squid. But everyone always smiles at me, and I know so many of the
children who live there so I frequently have to stop as different
children run into the street saying, “Meghan!” When I stop and ask how
they are they all beam and answer. “Yes, I am fine. How are you?”

After our afternoon of visits. Geetha and I returned home for dinner.
(I begged out of tomato rice tonight, my stomach was acting up a little after the ice cream)And then I retreated to my room for some much needed relaxation time during which I chatted with Deborah on skype,
did an hour long yoga practice and read Twilight. After this I sank
into sleep leaving my computer on as usual just in case Galen decided
to call me in the middle of the night. My only thoughts were about
going to the beach and getting a salad the next day.

At some point in the middle of the night I was pulled out of sleep by
a Beattles song. I groggily stumbled to the desk thinking that
something on my computer must have been going off- maybe Galen was
calling? But why would the ring tone be “In My life?” I was very
confused as I realized that the music wasn’t coming from in my
computer or in my room. I pulled the curtain back and looked ut the
window- Galen was standing on the terrace!!!!!

I was in absolute shock. As some of you may know already, due to
budget cuts at UNFPA they would not approve Galen’s new contract. It
was quite a surprise for us to hear this information as everyone had
assured Galen that it wouldn’t be a problem. Galen found out on
Monday. Tuesday morning he woke up and booked a ticket to India. He
had to return to NYC from Canada first to get his visa, return his car
and pack up, and then Friday morning he left for India. He didn’t tell
anyone except for his parents, my parents and his friends that he was
in Canada with.

It is now late morning in India. Galen and I have spent the last two
hours at the boarding house. The kids were in just as much shock as I
was seeing him, but they ALL threw themselves at him, hugging him with
huge grins spreading across their faces. We ate iddlys and dosas and
drank tea. We watched the kids get soaked draining out the fish pond.
The sun is hot and bright. They are burning brush behind our house and
smoke is wafting across the yard. There was a lot of laughter, joking
and hugging. It was a perfect sunday morning in India. It amazes me
how everything works out. Although it was of course a blow for Galen
to lose his job, it has been a very stressful situation and he has
often wished that he could find a new one. Now he will be forced to
and he already has some opportunities on the horizon. I could say that
I wished he had known and been able to come with me in the beginning,
but honestly, I think it was good for me to go through the time (and
struggle) of being alone. I had really found a way to be independent
and at peace with being here on my own. Also, Galen needed to go to
Canada with his friends I think, and realize that it wasn’t really
where he wanted to be. Now he can finish his practicum (a project or
internship) for his course through SIT while we are in India. So there
is a purpose for him being here also. Things feel complete. I feel
blissful. It is so normal and right feeling to be here at Roy’s with
the kids and Vanitha and the sun and the spicy food. There is so much
joy. Galen has taken Partiban (one of the kids) to go buy chicken or
fish for lunch. This is the one meal during the week that they have
meat during the week. We will probably take some time away this
afternoon to go in search of a salad, and then we will take the kids
swimming at the beach in the afternoon.

Dhinagar sculpts Parasu into a strange sand creature!

I need to start planning my week and my next workshop, but at the
moment I am happy to sit and just feel the joy.

Wednesday, July 6th arrived at 1:00 am

Dear Family, I’m here!!! 31 hours of traveling later I am in our old
room in Auroville and completely flooded with emotions. I know that I
am exhausted and need sleep but I also need a little time to look
around with amazement and process that I am really back in India. The
strangest thing may be how normal it all feels. Getting off in the
Chennai airport I looked around and just the smell of the air
triggered a million memories from last year of Galen and I in big
Indian cities. I found my taxi driver easily- he looked vaguely
familiar (might have been one of my drivers last year from Yoga
Travel) spoke little English but was very sweet and his driving was
only mildy crazy. By the way I noticed a sign while we kwere driving
tonight that made me laugh- it said, “Don’t Over Speed.” I just
thought to myself- so its ok to speed but don’t “over” speed! Tixon
was here to greet me as soon as I arrived with a huge hug and
everything looks so familiar and lovely. The christmas decorations we
hung up a year and a half ago are still decorating our door way. The
clothesline that we hung up in monsoon season is still strung across
the room. There are a few differences- a gate on our stair case (which
I am quite happy about as it means no stray dogs lounging on the
patio) new mirrors and a shelf (wow!) in the bathroom…but other than
that the room, the muggy warm heat, the buzz of the animals in the
trees is all so familiar and homey. (Huge flying ants even began
attacking me as soon as I went to the bathroom- always a bug problem
here!) My only worry right now is that this was such a special place
for Galen and I that I wonder if I was right to return without him? It
just feels so odd to not have him experiencing this return with me. My
need and desire to come back over rode his not being able to come with
me and ultimately I hope that this is ok. I hope that we will come
back again, together, or he will come alone at some point, because
being here, I already remember why we loved it so much.

Well it is about 1 am in India right now and I should probably try
and start acclimating myself to the time here by going to bed. I have
some kids to see in the morning.

Thursday July 6, 2011 First day back in Auroville complete!

I am sitting in the boarding house helping Nirmal (the now 11 year old!) write numbers in
expanded form. The fan is wirling overhead, the frogs are croaking and
Auro who is now 2.5 is chattering away in the background with his
Papa, Ramalingum. Auro knows how to say three words in English “Hi”
“Meghan” and “Galen” which he says whenever he sees me (I think he is
well trained- those are really the most important words to learn after
all!) Hopefully I will be able to teach him a little more in the next
few weeks! This has been an intense day. INTENSE. I woke up at 6 am
totally confused about the time and after getting dressed wandered
outside where I found Manjula. She immediately invited me in for tea
and I sipped tea quietly with her Janaki and looked around the room
noticing the subtle changes that have occurred in the last year. Soon
Vanitha came out and Nirmal and Parasu appeared. The children were shy
around me- much to my dismay! They read their comic books quietly
while Vanitha and I chatted animatedly. Vanitha was just as warm and
friendly and excited to have me around as when I left! She and I have
always had a lot to discuss as we are both women in our late 20′s,
teachers, in serious relationships…it often seems as if the
difference of growing up on opposite sides of the world and in
distinctly different cultures doesn’t matter- we seem to have so much
in common- things that we feel just by being women. Vanitha is
recently married (to Tixon) and so we talked a lot about weddings,
marriage and relationships of course! Then Tixon came in and Vanitha
left for work. Tixon and I animatedly chatted for an even longer time
as he caught me up on all the news about the house and the kids, and
pulled out his two large wedding albums to display all the photos.
After this I headed off to the school. I was greeted immediately with
lots of enthusiasm by Shankar who jumped right into telling me all the
triumphs and tribulations of Aikiyam at the present. The rest of the
morning was filled with seeing the teachers and the students. My old
class did run up to me mob style and wouldn’t let me go at snack time,
and many of the teachers gave me such large warm hugs! Nava was
practically in tears.

Everyone remembered me as I continued to get my Indian life in order-
from Parvati at the bike shop where I rented my moped, to the woman
who sold me an avacado at the fruit stand! I talkd a lot and
everyone’s first words were “where is Galen?” or “how is your
husband?” or “how is the Galen?” (this coming from some kids, making
Galen seem like strange exotic bird, or a character from a dr. Seuss
book). The second question was “how is your mother?” or “And Deborah?”
or they went to an endless stream of praise for Deborah’s work here
last year. My heart both overflowed with love for this place and the
people, and at the same time seemed to contract in fear a little from
all the things that I feel are daunting to me. These things are: how
am I going to do what I said I would do and live up to the
expectations of Shankar and the staff in only 6 weeks? How am I going
to regain my sense of belonging and comfort here in such a short time?
Am I going to be lonely? I talked very briefly with Deborah this
morning and she has reassured me that once I settle into a routine and
accept this as a new experience, life will get easier. I am placing my
faith on that and just trying to take one step at a time- actually I
am very happy with the several steps that I took today: registered at
Auroville and received my guest card. Rented a moped. Drove to the
ICICICIC…bank. Paid for my taxi from last night. Purchased an
avacado and my favorite Auroville made snack – ladus (or “balls” as
Galen refers to them.)

OK- had to stop writing for a tasty dinner of sambar, rice, hard
boiled egg and cabbage salad. Now I am too tired to keep writing. I
was nodding off while Geetha read Physics to me, so I think its time
to shut down for the night.

The boys at Roy's climbing the palm trees to shake down some coconuts!

Parasu and Nirmalraj on the beach on Sunday!

Monday July 10, 2011

Hi beloved friends and family,
Just got home after a very full day at the school. I had a
wonderful day though- reading, singing and observing with the
kindergarten classes, teaching 4th grade English, having curriculum
meetings with 2nd, 3rd and 4th grade teachers, preparing for my first
workshop…but most of all I got to talk and laugh and be very joyful
and honest with all the teachers and kids here. The sun was bright, I
wore my pink “Barbie” sari which some children from my class gave to
me last time as a birthday gift, and I had jasmine flowers in my hair.
I feel like I am really settling in and I feel comfortable and a part
of everything again. I cannot believe how open to me all the teachers
are- perhaps even more so then the last time I was here. They ask me
questions, for advice, and helped me wrap my sari!

Children from my 4th std English class!

I am tired of course, but doing well and planning on going to
pilates class this evening before hanging out with the kids at the
boarding house, eating (more) rice and sambar and then curling up in
my room to read Twighlight and think of all of you that I love and are
far away. You are all in my thoughts constantly and you are here with
me on this journey, especially Galen and Deborah whom everyone asks
about and loves and misses almost as much as I miss them. Today one of
the ammas (the cooks at the school) stopped my friend Selvaraj to ask
him to translate for her to me that she thought I looked perfect in my
sari and she wants to know when I will be married. Selva laughed and
told her that we will be married soon, and then he added, “to Galen
who is a great man. Meghan is very lucky.” I had to agree.

Tuesday July 12, 2011

I do feel like I am settling in here. In fact, in a way I have felt
settled from the beginning as everything felt so familiar. However I
am settling into being here without you, without Janina, and without a
community of volunteers. That has been the biggest difference I
think…on the other hand I feel that I will become much more
connected with the Tamil teachers. I eat snack and lunch with them
every day. I met Mala for pilates on Monday and swimming on Tuesday.
The creche and kindergarten teachers seem really happy to have me
here. In some ways it is eery how the plan that I set for for the FWE
grant is falling into place. It almost feels as if they were just
waiting to have me here to do all the things that I said I would do
with them. The creche and kindergarten teachers asked to have a
meeting with me to brainstorm all the activities that they do. Selva
and Shanti asked me to meet with them and when I did they immediately
expressed their interest in combining to have a choice time together.
Of course, I do doubt if I am actually doing that much here, I think
in many ways I am simply a documenter and a facilitator, writing down
all the ideas that the teachers have and asking questions- they seem
to already know what to do and have the answers inside of them. As
well the children make me incredibly happy. Yesterday morning I was
feeling grumpy and tired and emotionally drained. I spent the morning
however with the creche children for whom this is the first week in
school. Usha’s assistant (Manju- married to Ramkumar) was out so I
went to help her as managing 21 2-3 year olds is an immense task.
They made me so happy! One little girl who would not stop crying
latched onto me and would only smile when I showed her pictures on the
cell phone. She started following me everywhere. Another little girl
named “Camally” chattered away with me in Tamil, showing how she could
fill up a bucket with sand and carry it around. It certainly
brightened my day to work with them.

And of course there are the kids at Roy’s Boarding House where I live when I am in India.                                                                              As my father said, I think my daily interactions with them are less important that the fact that
I came back for them. And that each night I am consistently there
asking how their days went, talking, reading etc with them. Geetha has
warmed up to me again and we re-established our girl bond which I
love. Dhinagar in some ways needs my attention more than the rest of
the boys, although Parasu and Nirmal eat up any attention I can give
them. (PArasu started rattling off facts at me last night when it was
just the two of us sitting at the table, “Do you know the name of the
smallest tree in the world Meghan?”) Vanitha is very loving and
almost protective of me- always checking in. And Tixon of course
continues to be the most friendly, generous man. Tixon and I have had a
lot of time to talk and laugh. With him, Vanitha and
Slevaraj  I feel that I have a good group of friends that I can ask
favors of and will help me if I ever need anything.

Michal and the kids on the last day of school!

Lasts are difficult because you try to hold onto the moment, remember the feel the smell the way your heart beat in that moment because you know you will miss if in the future. There are so many goodbyes and lasts in our last week in Auroville that at some point Galen and I change our goodbyes into “see you laters,” and decide that these could not possibly be our last moments or experiences with Auroville. We suddenly know with clarity that this is a place we will return to, that our hearts won’t let us stay away. And I hold this idea tightly so that the goodbyes or see you laters don’t hurt so much.

Still it is a difficult week. After Aikiyam ends, the children at Roy’s are free for a week (except for Parimala who is still in school and Partiban who is on a class trip in Delhi) and in anticipation of us leaving they cling to Galen, Janina and I all through it. After breakfast they come over to just hang out doing whatever I am doing. Geetha accompanies me on my errands to pour tous, the tailors, to buy Janina’s birthday present. When I return from lunch one day, I drive into our parking area and all 5 children scream my name and drop out of the tree next to our house where they have been waiting for me to get home to watch a movie with them. Another day I tell them that I need two hours to myself and 45 minutes later I hear Geetha crying loudly. I run over to the house to find out that Geetha has been hit with a bamboo stick accidently and Nirmal and Iypa are calling each other names. After that I give in and teach Dhina, Parasu and Nirmal yoga, and then bake cookies with Geetha. After all- I will have plenty of time to myself in the future weeks and months, but these are my last few moments with my favorite Tamil kids.

Hanging out at the boarding house- our last few days!

When the day actually arrives for us to leave my emotions are so mixed that I can barely process it. What I do process is Geetha’s laughter and delight as she rides a wave into the beach and chases the boys around. It is so rare to see her so free and happy. Maliga’s tears and when she says goodbye to me as I drop Nirmalraj at her house. The solemn faces of the children who stubbornly refuse to say goodbye to us at Roy’s and insist on accompanying us to the bus station. Iypa who has so much bravado, who often walks around with his chest puffed out and loves teasing and being teased (his most common phrase is, “your lying!”) begins crying in the kitchen and goes outside to hide amongst the motor cycles.  As we drive to the bus station I look out the window at all the familiar places silently bidding them goodbye. Goodbye to Aikiyam school with its pod like buildings. Goodbye to Kumar’s where Galen first rode his mo-ped and it feels like everything began. Goodbye to the fruit stand and the temple next to New Creation. Goodbye to the shoe repairman, Richy Riches where we eat ice-cream, the tailor’s, the Bakery, Farm Fresh, Kofi Bar, Swadistha, Pour tous, the Beach Café, the Dolphin restaurant, and finally we leave Auroville and swing out onto the ECR heading to Pondi. Goodbye to the police station where Galen and Jacopo were arrested! Thanks to Tixon we now have bus tickets on a sleeper bus. The kids and Vanitha all climb onto the bus to survey the sleeper bunks- and possibly try to come with us. Nirmalraj had told me earlier that week, “Meghan I have a secret.” “What’s that Nirmal?” I asked him. “I dreampt that I was on an airplane with you and Galen flying to America.” He told me with shining eyes. Later on that day, he and Parasu decided to try climbing into our backpacks while I was packing just to see if they would fit! Finally Tixon manages to round everyone up and climb off the bus and then too soon, its time to go. And then we are all crying and hugging and kissing and soon we are on the bus and Tixon is waving to us through the window. On the way we had stopped on the ECR where Maliga was waiting with a big full of jasmine garlands for me that she strung together herself. As we ride out of Pondicherry and I let the rocking of the bus lull me, I gently fall asleep to the smell of crushed jasmine petals.

Our family in India!

May 10, 2010
For Parimala, Dhinagar, Partiban, Geetha, Iyyapan, Parasuraman, and
Nirmalraj. You have made India home for us.
Love Meghan and Galen

India is You

Last year
India
was just a place on a map
That I had looked at occasionally.
When we stepped off the airplane in September
India was a mix of honking
and Tamil music,
bright colors, cows and goats,
unfamiliar smells and warm soothing air.
Now India is home
India is the jingle of Geetha’s anklets
as she walks up the stairs
India is Dhinagar riding a wave to land at my feet
in a swirl of frothy sea water and sparkling sun.
India is Nirmal’s soft voice as we read together in the evenings
discussing fairys, gladiators, vikings and dinnosaurs.
India is Iypa’s laughter as he teaches me card games
below 10 and 21.
India is Parasu eating 9 idly for dinner
and then spending 15 minutes telling me about a movie.
India is Partiban calling out, “good night honey”
as we walk home through the dark and the red earth
squishes between my toes.
India is Pari’s sweet hugs when I step into the house at night
and the smells of spicy sambar and warm sticky rice
pervade the air.
India is riding to school in the morning
and waving to the children in their stiff green uniforms.
“Meghan!” they shout as I ride by.
India is Sundays at the beach, swimming in the bay of Bengal
with the sun bouncing off the waves, Nirmal and Parasu covered in sand
and coconut water to cool us down.
India is riding home at night
under a full moon and stars and seeing the light from our door shining
out into the dark and thinking , “we are home.”
India is you.
And when I am far far away
and I have to look at a map again to see India
you will stay printed on my heart and in my head.
You will be the pictures of India
that I will take
and hold forever.