Kem Cho!

Welcome to Nanubhai Education Foundation’s blog! My name is Milly, and I am one of two interns who are working here in India this summer. Five weeks since arriving in Bajipura, I have become accustomed to life in the village, but every day is still a new and exciting experience. It is my first time in this country, and coming here was one of the biggest decisions I have ever made in my not-so-long life, but my time here so far has been incredible!

My focus has been on before and after school Spoken English classes at the R.V. Patel Gujarati Medium High School—in the mornings I teach 9^th, 10^th and 12^th standard girls, and in the afternoons I teach 9^th and 10^th standard boys. For several weeks I taught 6^th and 7^th standard students at the partner English medium school as well. Pictured above are some boys from my afternoon class and the yellow smiley face ball that they have come to call the "Milly ball," which we sometimes use to review vocabulary in the past and future tenses.

Living and teaching in rural India has been challenging but rewarding. As I walked into school on the first day of classes, I could feel every child’s eyes hooked on the three new American teachers— some students would shout out “Good morning teacher!” (even in the afternoon) while the shy ones would chuckle and hide. Before arriving in India, I was worried about the classes I will teach: Will they understand what I am saying? Can I control a classroom full of kids without knowing Gujarati? How can I be effective with limited resources? But within the first few days my worries melted away as I got to know the students and they got to know me.

During the first several lessons, the Spoken English students learned different ways to answer the question “How are you?” other than the standard “I am fine” response. At first the students had trouble using the other responses; however, after several rounds of Simon Says (in Spoken English Class style), the students had a better sense of what the different phrases meant. Now when I see them out of class and ask them how they are, they might say "I am so-so" or give me a thumbs up and say "Teacher, I am doing great!"

Despite the language barrier, I have begun forming great relationships with some of the local teachers and students, one step at a time. I am currently working on mastering the Gujarati alphabet, which is far more difficult than I imagined, but I will keep trying!

Namaste and thank you for reading,

Milly