Ambika
Thoreson
Thoreson
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Ambika's Blog
From
USA
USA
June 25, 2008
It's hard to believe that I've been in India for almost 3 weeks already, time passes so quickly here!
When I first left the airport in Kolkata I was greeted by Bishnu and 3 smiling French girls, Julie,
Andrea, and Claire. It was a great welcome to India after almost 24 hours of travel from New York.
After spending a night in Kolkata we took the train from Howrah to Bolpur and finally arrived at our
apartment in Santiniketan. Unfortunately I had been very sick the week before coming to India and it
only got worse on the airplane, but after a bit of rest I was feeling better and on Monday we drove to
the school for the first time and were greeted by lots of excited children screaming hello. The first
day was a bit crazy because we didn't really have a clue what we were doing but we quickly learned
how much English the Red, Yellow, and Blue groups already knew and how (and how not) to teach
them. The first day the children pretty much led me through the lesson, taking out posters of fruit and
animals that they had already memorized. Now I have a much better grasp of how to run the lessons
and what kinds of things to teach. There are so many things I want to teach them and they're so eager
to learn, but there's so little time! I recently discovered that all the children love to write and I think
they learn best when they're either reading or writing so I've been having them write with chalk on
slates. Claire, Julie and Andrea teach the red group (the youngest children) every day while I teach
the Yellow group alone and the Blue group with Andrea. Today I wanted to see how well the yellow
group could write from memory without copying what I wrote on the board, so I said familiar words
beginning with each letter of the alphabet and checked what each student wrote. In the Blue Group,
for some reason all of the girls were gone today so Andrea and I had a fun conversation with the
boys, making them describe the photos of Indian actors that Patu had brought with him. I'm really
impressed by everything the children have managed to learn in the past year, especially the older
students. Every day we read a short children's book in the Blue Group, with each student reading a
page out loud and they're really quite good. While the Red Group's lesson is going on I get to play
football (I don't think I can ever call it soccer again) with all the other children. Today's game was
really fun because it was hot and sunny and the field was finally dry so we could run around without
slipping. I think all the kids are better at the game than me but I do have the advantage of being twice
their size!
So we spend our afternoons teaching at the First Light school and in the mornings we generally go
out to Santiniketan on our bikes to go shopping or to use the internet. Yesterday we went out and
found a sari shop in town and I bought 3 saris. I don't know if I'll really have an occasion to wear them
but they were so gorgeous I couldn't resist. It's funny because I never had to ride a bike much before
now and I'm not very good at it, but I'm rapidly improving because bike riding is the best way to get
around here and if I don't want to die from being hit by a motorcycle or running into a cow I have to
learn fast! On the weekend we've been trying to travel, but we weren't able to get to the places we've
most wanted to go to (Darjeeling and the Sunderban Tiger reserve). Instead we went to Digha, a
beach town south of Kolkata one weekend and last weekend we went to Bishnupur to see the
beautiful terracotta and stone temples. This weekend we're planning a trip to Bodhgaya and I'm
extremely excited in spite of the 12 hour train ride I have to look forward to.
I think my favorite part of the day here is the ride home after school at sunset. The landscape is
phenomenally beautiful: electric green fields of rice, green ponds surrounded by palm trees,
thatched mud houses and lots of cows and goats and sheep and chickens (and tiny calves, lambs,
and kids), and tons of children shouting bye-bye. I'd like to walk to and from school one day so that I
can stop and photograph everything. Today was the most gorgeous day since I've been here; there
was even a big rainbow on the horizon as the day ended and the children were singing the Bengali
prayer.
July 5, 2008
Our trip to Bodghaya was very nice despite ridiculously long train rides. I spent more time getting
from Santiniketan to Bodhgaya than I spent flying from New York to Dubai. Sadly it rained most of the
time we were there, but the Mahabodhi temple was still stunning, as were all of the international
Buddhist temples and monastaries (we stayed in the Tibetan monastery). On Sunday I had to say
goodbye to Claire, Julie and Andrea after waiting an extra 3 hours for my train. It was really sad to
have to leave them but hopefully I'll be able to see them again sometime next year. Andrea will be
coming back to First Light after 3 weeks.
My first week teaching alone at the school started out rough. It was my first time teaching the Red
Group since my first day here and now I understand why all three of the other volunteers had been
teaching that group together. The youngest group is huge and varies widely in age and ability, so
some of the children can write the whole alphabet in 2 minutes while others don't know how to hold a
pencil. The more advanced students also have a tendency to cheat and do the work for the ones who
don't know how to write, which is nice but not very helpful. I've quickly discovered that the Red
Group has to be taught totally differently from the other two groups. Teaching the Yellow and Blue
Groups on my own has been going fine. I spent a couple of days with the Yellow Group having them
write question and answer sentences about themselves, like "How many brothers and sisters do you
have?" Thankfully Taron learns fast and was able to help me get the other students to understand the
sentences and also correct them ("You have 2 sisters, not 2 brothers!"). With the Blue Group I've
been working on the past tense. It was funny, they were surprised when I told them that the past
tense didn't only apply to yesterday but to any time before the present! This week was also a bit
difficult because there was a fair one day and a wedding another day so many of the students didn't
show up, or were distracted if they were there. I had the day off on Friday because it was Rathyatra,
the chariot festival. I went into town with Shampa to see the festival, which is more like a small but
exciting parade than the enormous procession with 3 massive carts that happens every year in New
York. I was most surprised by the group of musicians with giant feathered decorations that looked to
me like monkey arms. One really cute thing was all the small groups of children who had made their
own miniature chariots with cardboard and tissue paper and were dragging them through the streets.
Today, Bishnu took me to see his friend , a film director, who was shooting a film nearby in
Santiniketan. It was fun to meet the actors and watch them film the same shots over and over again to
blaring music with a crowd of curious children and villagers looking on. It was funny seeing the
actress in her pink dress and silver shoes have to frolic through the rice paddies!
July 25, 2008
So I have been here in Santiniketan for seven weeks now, it's kind of hard to believe. The past few
weeks have been very peaceful with school every day during the week and then just resting on the
weekends, I never got around to doing any traveling on my own. Andrea should be coming back this
weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing her again and I know all the children are as well. At the
school I've been managing a bit better than I initially was with the Red Group. I made cards with each
letter of the alphabet and like to start most lessons by giving the cards out to the students and
having them bring up the cards letter by letter, I think it's a good way for them to recognize the letters
without just memorizing the sounds of the letters in order. I've also been having them count from
1-100 using the giant # chart, it's a bit monotonous but they get really excited when they reach 100
and most can't count past 20 on their own, so it's good practice. With the yellow group I've been
teaching ways to use "to be" and "have," including negatives, in the present tense. I discovered that
they really love when I write sentence fragments on the board and they get to come up one at a time
and connect the parts to make correct whole sentences. I also brought in a teddy bear a few times
and had them pass it around and practice saying "I have/ He has, " etc. The teddy bear is a huge
favorite. Yesterday I wanted them to practice saying "Can I please have....?" and "Thank You,"
because whenever they want something they usually just point and say "Yes!" We'll have to practice
that some more. I've been working on the past tense a lot with the Blue Group. I realized that they had
only learned the progressive of the past and present, which is easier but sounds kind of strange if
it's used exclusively, so I started teaching the regular form of the past tense but I don't think they like
that there is more than one way to talk about the past. Yesterday I decided to give them a break from
that and instead taught them adjectives for describing people. I was surprised they hadn't learned
words like nice, friendly, mean, serious, and funny, but it was fun trying to explain what these words
meant and give examples. Suma kept snapping at her brothers because she was hungry and in a bad
mood and that gave me to perfect opportunity to teach the word "grumpy" which everyone thought
was funny. I also tried to teach the Blue Group the words to "Row , row, row your boat" and when I
tried to explain the meaning of "dream" they at first thought I was describing talking in your sleep, but
I think they understand it now.
August 15, 2008
Today is my last day at First Light before I catch my flight back to New York tomorrow. I've been
traveling for the past 2 weeks around Darjeeling and Sikkim but before that I had one last fantastic
week at the school. Teaching was easier with Andrea there to help with the Red Group and to play
with the children who weren't in class. On our second to last day we got up early and visited the
village in the morning before class. It was great to be able to spend time with the children in their
home and see how they live and they were all so excited to have us there. On our last day, we
changed things around a bit and taught all three classes at once and gave out cookies before saying
goodbye. We had been planning on visiting the school again today, to see everyone one last time
before leaving, but it was closed due to today being Indian Independence day. It was nice however to
be able to meet Sophie, the newest volunteer, and talk to her about how things have been going at
the school since we left. I'm sad that I didn't get to visit the school one last time but maybe I will be
able to come back and teach here again one day. It was such a rewarding experience to be able to
work with the children at First Light, I already miss teaching every day.
It's hard to believe that I've been in India for almost 3 weeks already, time passes so quickly here!
When I first left the airport in Kolkata I was greeted by Bishnu and 3 smiling French girls, Julie,
Andrea, and Claire. It was a great welcome to India after almost 24 hours of travel from New York.
After spending a night in Kolkata we took the train from Howrah to Bolpur and finally arrived at our
apartment in Santiniketan. Unfortunately I had been very sick the week before coming to India and it
only got worse on the airplane, but after a bit of rest I was feeling better and on Monday we drove to
the school for the first time and were greeted by lots of excited children screaming hello. The first
day was a bit crazy because we didn't really have a clue what we were doing but we quickly learned
how much English the Red, Yellow, and Blue groups already knew and how (and how not) to teach
them. The first day the children pretty much led me through the lesson, taking out posters of fruit and
animals that they had already memorized. Now I have a much better grasp of how to run the lessons
and what kinds of things to teach. There are so many things I want to teach them and they're so eager
to learn, but there's so little time! I recently discovered that all the children love to write and I think
they learn best when they're either reading or writing so I've been having them write with chalk on
slates. Claire, Julie and Andrea teach the red group (the youngest children) every day while I teach
the Yellow group alone and the Blue group with Andrea. Today I wanted to see how well the yellow
group could write from memory without copying what I wrote on the board, so I said familiar words
beginning with each letter of the alphabet and checked what each student wrote. In the Blue Group,
for some reason all of the girls were gone today so Andrea and I had a fun conversation with the
boys, making them describe the photos of Indian actors that Patu had brought with him. I'm really
impressed by everything the children have managed to learn in the past year, especially the older
students. Every day we read a short children's book in the Blue Group, with each student reading a
page out loud and they're really quite good. While the Red Group's lesson is going on I get to play
football (I don't think I can ever call it soccer again) with all the other children. Today's game was
really fun because it was hot and sunny and the field was finally dry so we could run around without
slipping. I think all the kids are better at the game than me but I do have the advantage of being twice
their size!
So we spend our afternoons teaching at the First Light school and in the mornings we generally go
out to Santiniketan on our bikes to go shopping or to use the internet. Yesterday we went out and
found a sari shop in town and I bought 3 saris. I don't know if I'll really have an occasion to wear them
but they were so gorgeous I couldn't resist. It's funny because I never had to ride a bike much before
now and I'm not very good at it, but I'm rapidly improving because bike riding is the best way to get
around here and if I don't want to die from being hit by a motorcycle or running into a cow I have to
learn fast! On the weekend we've been trying to travel, but we weren't able to get to the places we've
most wanted to go to (Darjeeling and the Sunderban Tiger reserve). Instead we went to Digha, a
beach town south of Kolkata one weekend and last weekend we went to Bishnupur to see the
beautiful terracotta and stone temples. This weekend we're planning a trip to Bodhgaya and I'm
extremely excited in spite of the 12 hour train ride I have to look forward to.
I think my favorite part of the day here is the ride home after school at sunset. The landscape is
phenomenally beautiful: electric green fields of rice, green ponds surrounded by palm trees,
thatched mud houses and lots of cows and goats and sheep and chickens (and tiny calves, lambs,
and kids), and tons of children shouting bye-bye. I'd like to walk to and from school one day so that I
can stop and photograph everything. Today was the most gorgeous day since I've been here; there
was even a big rainbow on the horizon as the day ended and the children were singing the Bengali
prayer.
July 5, 2008
Our trip to Bodghaya was very nice despite ridiculously long train rides. I spent more time getting
from Santiniketan to Bodhgaya than I spent flying from New York to Dubai. Sadly it rained most of the
time we were there, but the Mahabodhi temple was still stunning, as were all of the international
Buddhist temples and monastaries (we stayed in the Tibetan monastery). On Sunday I had to say
goodbye to Claire, Julie and Andrea after waiting an extra 3 hours for my train. It was really sad to
have to leave them but hopefully I'll be able to see them again sometime next year. Andrea will be
coming back to First Light after 3 weeks.
My first week teaching alone at the school started out rough. It was my first time teaching the Red
Group since my first day here and now I understand why all three of the other volunteers had been
teaching that group together. The youngest group is huge and varies widely in age and ability, so
some of the children can write the whole alphabet in 2 minutes while others don't know how to hold a
pencil. The more advanced students also have a tendency to cheat and do the work for the ones who
don't know how to write, which is nice but not very helpful. I've quickly discovered that the Red
Group has to be taught totally differently from the other two groups. Teaching the Yellow and Blue
Groups on my own has been going fine. I spent a couple of days with the Yellow Group having them
write question and answer sentences about themselves, like "How many brothers and sisters do you
have?" Thankfully Taron learns fast and was able to help me get the other students to understand the
sentences and also correct them ("You have 2 sisters, not 2 brothers!"). With the Blue Group I've
been working on the past tense. It was funny, they were surprised when I told them that the past
tense didn't only apply to yesterday but to any time before the present! This week was also a bit
difficult because there was a fair one day and a wedding another day so many of the students didn't
show up, or were distracted if they were there. I had the day off on Friday because it was Rathyatra,
the chariot festival. I went into town with Shampa to see the festival, which is more like a small but
exciting parade than the enormous procession with 3 massive carts that happens every year in New
York. I was most surprised by the group of musicians with giant feathered decorations that looked to
me like monkey arms. One really cute thing was all the small groups of children who had made their
own miniature chariots with cardboard and tissue paper and were dragging them through the streets.
Today, Bishnu took me to see his friend , a film director, who was shooting a film nearby in
Santiniketan. It was fun to meet the actors and watch them film the same shots over and over again to
blaring music with a crowd of curious children and villagers looking on. It was funny seeing the
actress in her pink dress and silver shoes have to frolic through the rice paddies!
July 25, 2008
So I have been here in Santiniketan for seven weeks now, it's kind of hard to believe. The past few
weeks have been very peaceful with school every day during the week and then just resting on the
weekends, I never got around to doing any traveling on my own. Andrea should be coming back this
weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing her again and I know all the children are as well. At the
school I've been managing a bit better than I initially was with the Red Group. I made cards with each
letter of the alphabet and like to start most lessons by giving the cards out to the students and
having them bring up the cards letter by letter, I think it's a good way for them to recognize the letters
without just memorizing the sounds of the letters in order. I've also been having them count from
1-100 using the giant # chart, it's a bit monotonous but they get really excited when they reach 100
and most can't count past 20 on their own, so it's good practice. With the yellow group I've been
teaching ways to use "to be" and "have," including negatives, in the present tense. I discovered that
they really love when I write sentence fragments on the board and they get to come up one at a time
and connect the parts to make correct whole sentences. I also brought in a teddy bear a few times
and had them pass it around and practice saying "I have/ He has, " etc. The teddy bear is a huge
favorite. Yesterday I wanted them to practice saying "Can I please have....?" and "Thank You,"
because whenever they want something they usually just point and say "Yes!" We'll have to practice
that some more. I've been working on the past tense a lot with the Blue Group. I realized that they had
only learned the progressive of the past and present, which is easier but sounds kind of strange if
it's used exclusively, so I started teaching the regular form of the past tense but I don't think they like
that there is more than one way to talk about the past. Yesterday I decided to give them a break from
that and instead taught them adjectives for describing people. I was surprised they hadn't learned
words like nice, friendly, mean, serious, and funny, but it was fun trying to explain what these words
meant and give examples. Suma kept snapping at her brothers because she was hungry and in a bad
mood and that gave me to perfect opportunity to teach the word "grumpy" which everyone thought
was funny. I also tried to teach the Blue Group the words to "Row , row, row your boat" and when I
tried to explain the meaning of "dream" they at first thought I was describing talking in your sleep, but
I think they understand it now.
August 15, 2008
Today is my last day at First Light before I catch my flight back to New York tomorrow. I've been
traveling for the past 2 weeks around Darjeeling and Sikkim but before that I had one last fantastic
week at the school. Teaching was easier with Andrea there to help with the Red Group and to play
with the children who weren't in class. On our second to last day we got up early and visited the
village in the morning before class. It was great to be able to spend time with the children in their
home and see how they live and they were all so excited to have us there. On our last day, we
changed things around a bit and taught all three classes at once and gave out cookies before saying
goodbye. We had been planning on visiting the school again today, to see everyone one last time
before leaving, but it was closed due to today being Indian Independence day. It was nice however to
be able to meet Sophie, the newest volunteer, and talk to her about how things have been going at
the school since we left. I'm sad that I didn't get to visit the school one last time but maybe I will be
able to come back and teach here again one day. It was such a rewarding experience to be able to
work with the children at First Light, I already miss teaching every day.