Settling in

First of all, sorry for the long wait since out first blog. While the sisters do have the internet, only one computer can be connected at a time so we have to make sure it’s free, then it doesn’t always work, plus the electricity goes off for 2 hours every weekday and sometimes at other times too. So finding time on the computer can be a challenge!



When we last left you, we’d just arrived and been welcomed and fed. A lot has happened since then! Firstly, let me tell you about the school. The sisters run both a primary and secondary school, which have almost 1000 students between them (both boys and girls). The youngest children are ‘pre-kindergarden’ and are only 2 years old – they are gorgeous! The oldest are around 17. About 350 of the girls live a long way out into the countryside so board at the school. I’ll begin with these.



After we had been fed and had a little sleep, the sisters invited us to go and meet the boarders, who have recreation (free time) for about half an hour in the evenings. I wasn’t quite prepared for the reaction we got! The girls have decided to call us Aunty and Uncle – they know we aren’t sisters (nuns) or brothers (monks), so have chosen other family names for us that they know in English. As soon as we stepped outside we were mobbed by children asking our names, trying to tell us their names, and asking us to sing and dance for them. I was amazed by the number who just wanted to touch my skin and check that it was the same as theirs (which is very dark). I should also say that it was almost pitch-black outside, as the sun sets quite early here are there are no big floodlights outdoors as we would have in UK playgrounds. We tried to explain to them that we are here for a whole year so they will have plenty of time with us, but they didn’t seem to understand, or were maybe just too excited!



For the next couple of days the sisters encouraged us to rest, eat, and spend short periods of time getting to know the children. India is 4 ½ hours ahead of the UK, so our bodies were quite confused as to what times we should be eating and sleeping, and we were very tired at first. It’s also very hot here, so we have had to get into the habit of drinking several litres of water a day. We went to look around the schools, but only succeeded in disrupting the lessons as all the children wanted to come out and see us and take us into their classes. The classrooms here are very basic – the children have small desks and benches, and there is a blackboard at the front. No whiteboard, one or two small posters, and no extra resources like reading books or stationery. The children are provided with the textbooks they need for each lesson, but have to bring their own pens, pencils and a notebook to write in. This may not sound like much, but we have quickly learnt that not all of the families can afford these and that some of the notebooks are made from scraps of paper that the children have found or borrowed from their friends.



On the first Friday we were here, it was Teacher’s Day. This is a day where teachers all over India are celebrated and given a performance by the children, so there were no lessons that day. The children sat us up on the stage with the teachers, who were all dressed in beautiful bright-coloured saris for the occasion, and put on a fantastic performance including dancing, singing and comedy for the whole afternoon. Unfortunately for us, everything was in Tamil (the local language), but we enjoyed it all the same. They also put a string of jasmine flowers in my hair, which this area is very famous for.



The next day was Saturday, and we were surprised to learn that the children go to school for half a day, so have lessons until 1pm. In the afternoon, the boarders do chores like washing their clothes (by hand!) and hair, and sweeping the campus to keep it clean. They also do other jobs like cutting the grass and weeding the vegetable garden.



Sunday was a very special day for the boarders – visiting day! Their parents and families come to visit for one day each month, and basically settle in for the day with a picnic. The children all wanted us to come and meet their parents and to eat with them. Sadly, we’d had a big lunch, but next visiting day we’ll be sure not to eat beforehand! We met mums, dads, grannies and granddads, as well as brothers and sisters. One girl has a beautiful little one-year-old sister, but she cried every time she saw us because she’d never seen anyone with white skin before and was afraid! The women and girls here love jewellery and all wanted to see my wedding ring. They explained to me that here, a woman wears a thin rope around her neck to signify marriage instead of a ring.



On Monday, we began teaching. We both have one class in the primary school, and one in the secondary school who we will teach English this year. There are over 40 children in the primary classes, and they can be a bit of a handful! Classes here are very different from those at St Teresa’s: when I ask a question, half of the class shout out their answer instead of putting their hands up. Everyone wants to read out to the class, so instead of letting one person read at the front, they all read along very loudly and at different times. It’s quite difficult to get them to listen to one another! Some are very good at English, whereas others still come up to me and try to ask questions in Tamil. Hopefully after a few weeks they will begin to understand more of what I’m saying and behave better. My secondary class are much better at listening, and are also very good at English. They don’t always understand what I say, but if I explain it another way they can usually understand.



This week, all of the children have quarterly exams. The school year here runs from June to April, with four terms and exams at the end of each. We have been trying to help the students with their English revision, and to understand what they have read rather than just learning it. A lifetime of learning parrot-fashion makes this quite difficult for many of them though and we have had to go back to basics (even with some of the older classes) and teach them how to sound out new words.



Right, that’s all I have time for now, but I’ll try to update you again soon!

Love from Mrs Ball

Safe and well

Well where to begin? We’ve got so much to tell you!




So we left my brother’s house in London at 5.30am on Monday morning to get to Heathrow airport on time. We checked in and said our last goodbyes to British food with a quick breakfast. Then boarded our first flight to Mumbai at 9.45am. The flight was quite bumpy and ended up an hour late for landing due to traffic at the airport in Mumbai, but we didn’t mind. On arrival we searched for where we had to go and couldn’t find any signs or English speaking people to help us. In the end we just wandered about until we stumbled upon the place where we had to pick up our bags and then needed to take them to a new check in desk. After another session of wandering around we found what looked like the domestic flight terminal. We got a little bit worried when we couldn’t see anywhere at all to get something to eat or even a drink (we had a 10 hour wait to contend with), Hazel, being the brave one, went to ask if we were in the right place and as it turned out we weren’t. We were told to board a coach and make our way over to a different terminal. This we did and after a 20 minute journey (several times during which I thought we had actually left the airport) we arrived at a new terminal. Yet again we could find no signs to direct us and ended up following a French lady to the smallest lift you can imagine. We had to rearrange our luggage on the trolley just to get through the door. Thankfully though, after all the struggling, we found where we needed to check in for flight number two. At this point it was 12.15am Indian time (7.45pm UK time) and our flight wasn’t due to leave until 9.40am. So our long wait began…



We settled on to some rather uncomfortable chairs and tried to get some sleep (without much success!). There was a small café though so at least we weren’t hungry. Several boring hours later, we started to hear lots of beeping cars and tuk-tuks (which are tiny taxis, a bit like a motorbike with a roof on) as people started to arrive for the early morning flights. Again, there didn’t seem to be any signs for our flight so we asked someone who told us to join the queue for a different flight… thankfully they were able to check us in! The plane arrived late, so we had to wait on the plane for an hour and a half before taking off. It’s monsoon season in Mumbai, and the rain was incredible, we were a bit worried that the pilot wouldn’t be able to see properly! We eventually set off without any problems though. The plane stopped at Chennai, another city in Tamilnadu, before continuing on to Madurai where we finally arrived at 2:15pm local time (9:45am in the UK). We collected our bags (which had got very wet!) and left the airport to meet the two sisters who had come to collect us (Sr Theresa and Sr Selim).



The journey from the airport took us through lots of little townships, with shacks and huts lining the roads, and on to country roads covered in orange soil and palm trees. The roads were a little chaotic with motorcycles trying to overtake battered cars, who in turn were trying to overtake brightly painted lorries of all colours.



We turned off the road after about 30 minutes and began our way down a dirt track towards a large concrete building. Sr Theresa told us that it was the Sister’s school and that the children were dying to meet us. Just then we turned a corner and drive through a gate to see hundreds of little Indian faces all dressed in a blue school uniform. The sea of faces seemed to go on forever and when they saw the car, they began to cheer and clap. It was an overwhelming experience and brought a tear to both our eyes and a beaming smile on our faces. We had finally arrived in Madurai Auxilium school!!!



The children lead us from the car still cheering and up a set of steps so everyone could see us. The Sisters from the house all came out and told the children our names, which they all repeated (Apparently Hazel is much easier to say than my name). The children then presented us with a necklace each that they had made and wrapped us in beautiful silk sarees. Finally they painted a bindi on our foreheads. The children had prepared a song in English and a dance to welcome us. So we were treated to several hundred children all singing and dancing for us. They were so excited to see us and had the most beautiful smiles.



The sisters took us into the house for a ‘little food’, which turned into a feast of Indian treats for us to eat. Then showed us to our room. It is in the same building as where some of the girls stay put we have our own space to rest and to call our own.



We are both so happy to be here and can’t wait to begin working with the children very soon!!!



We’ll be in touch again very soon! Enjoy your first week back in school and behave yourselves. You are all very lucky to have a school like St Teresa’s and should take care of it and each other.



Bye bye for now

Mr Ball and Hazel