Happy Diwali!

Namaste!

As at any other point in my life, I have yet again taken up one too many activities. But although these days I have much less time for myself, I am loving every minute of my busyness. For one thing, I decided to make more exciting activities and more memorable projects with my fourth graders. We have decorated our classroom with drawings and paper made candles to celebrate the Indian festival of Diwali (I'll explain more about it later). We made a mural for Columbus Day and we have started making pumpkins and skeletons for Halloween. We have also done some science projects, like seeing how onion roots grow inside of a jar, since they recently learned about roots, stems and plants. We did an experiment on the potential force of an object using small planks of wood that we hang from the desks and then let fall onto a still object on the floor. Seeing how much the still object moves determines the force of the falling object; the kids were fascinated and they understood the concepts really well. By the way, I didn't know about these until I read the "teacher book"; I'm certainly learning along with them.

Another fun activity I've taken up is choreographing a dance for all the teachers that we will all present on Children's Day, November 14th. The dance is hysterical and the kids will love it, which is the entire purpose. The best part of it all has been hanging out with teachers in a relaxed setting where we have gotten to know each other much more. They truly are amazing and they have awesome personalities; they are certainly a bit wacky, but good wacky, nonetheless.

Also, I have been helping the 7th graders with a presentation on South America. I have taught them things about Latin American culture and they seem to be enjoying it. They also wanted to do something special for their presentation "because we have to beat the 8th grade North America presentation". They asked me to teach them a form of South American dance so that they can surprise the school with it. I taught them some TANGO! They are so wonderful at it too. Not that I am an expert but I can tango a step or two and luckily I have managed to choreograph a one minute dance for them to present in spite of my limited knowledge =).

Finally, for Halloween, I am teaching my fourth and fifth graders THRILLER =)! I downloaded it at the Internet cafe a few weeks ago and re-learned it to teach it to them. They are so good at it and are loving the fact that get to be mummies in front of the whole school. One kid, Ajay said something really funny the other day as they were practicing: "Miss Blue Jay, I'm awfully sorry but your dance is not scaring me one bit!" he said this apologetically but also with a confused expression. I laughed and said "Ajay, Mr. you are not supposed to be scared from being a mummy in the dance, the point is for you to scare other people." "Oooohhhh". Haha, it was the cutest thing ever.

This weekend is the last of my long weekends while I'm here in India. It is the Hindu festival of Diwali also known as the festival of lights. It is held in the period October to November, to celebrate the new season at the end of the monsoon. It is particularly associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity, and marks the beginning of the fiscal year in India.

We have Monday and Tuesday off and we traveled south, to Mysore from Friday to Monday and will head back to Shanti Bhavan in a few hours to celebrate the actual day of Diwali with the children. I will write all about my experience in Mysore perhaps tonight. It is a beautiful place, much cleaner than any other city I've visited, and the Mysore palace, which is the palace of the Maharaja, is astonishing. We also went to an elephant camp and then to a Tibetan village that houses hundreds of Tibetan monks of all ages; sadly they are all refugees. Nonetheless, they all seem to be at peace and maintain serene and loving expressions as they devotedly practice their faith.

Anyways, I will try to upload the post and some cool pics tomorrow since we will be going to Hosur for a few hours to get supplies for a "Halloween fair" the volunteers will put together for the children =).

I hope you are all doing wonderful. As my time to leave India approaches, I have often felt overwhelmed with feelings of guilt and sadness for leaving these children, but knowing that I will see many of you soon makes me feel much better. I miss you.