If you're a geek like me, be jealous

...because the Leonids Meteor Shower this year is going to be out-of-this-world! (See what I did there?) Anyway, on the night of November 17th to November 18th, Earth is supposed to pass through a bunch of meteor remnants causing a half-storm with expected 500 meteor particles per hour! BALLER. The peak of this meteor is at 9pm Greenwich Time, meaning around 2am India Standard Time! (And around 2:30pm Central Time, when you'll have absolutely no visibility of this awesomeness. Womp womp.) So, I will definitely be staying up and checkin' out the night sky next Tuesday night. Am excited!! :-D

Links:
Examiner
Space
Astronomical Tours - you could take one to visit :)

Nom Nom Nom

What I eat at Rishi Valley
Rice -- lots of rice. Plain boiled white rice. Steamed rice. Tomato friend rice. Onion fried rice. Other types of yummy fried rice. Rice every day.
Biryani -- we only have biryani on special occasions. We have egg biryani and paneer (see below) biryani. Usually, biryani is made with mutton or chicken and is equivalent to the Russian plov. It is rice fried with meat and veggies and has an orangish color and is absolutely delicious. My mom used to make bomb plov. The capital of Andhra Pradesh, our state, is Hyderabad, which is famous for it's amazing Hyderabadi biryani. I hope to have some before I leave India. :)
Dhal -- a thick soup-y type deal made of lentils. You mix it with your rice.
Sambar -- a vegetable stew-like concoction. It's is delicious. You also mix this with your rice. We have sambar every day. Nom nom nom.
Chapati -- an unleavened flatbread made from wheat flour on a skillet
Roti -- an unleavened flatbread made from some other type of flour. Thinner than chapatis.
Dosa -- a delicious thin pancake made of dough with buttermilk usually accompanied by sambar and coconut groundnut chutney. Nom nom nom. We have these for breakfast at least once a week.
Masala dosa -- the above accompanied with potatoes stewed with some vegetables. It's pretty awesome.
Idli -- little fat cakes (about two or three inches across and an inch in thickness) made of fermented unhusked black lentils and rice. They are white in color. They are also served with sambar and coconut chutney at breakfast.
Potatoes -- surprisingly for me, there are a lot of potatoes in Indian cuisine. Win!
Vegetables -- there is always a vegetable component at lunch and dinner. The veggies vary. They are usually fried or perhaps boiled/steamed. We often have cauliflower, green beans, okra (this is the first time in my life I've seen okra cooked any other way than southern deep-fried), potatoes, chickpeas, or beans. I think the cauliflower is my favorite with okra a close runner-up. :)
Paneer -- this is Indian cheese. It tastes nothing like mozarella. It comes in little cubes always in some sort of sauce. By American standards, it tastes closer to tofu than cheese (maybe some weird variety of goat cheese, but far less stinky). Paneer is probably the least stinky cheese I've ever had. (Stinky being good, the way cheese is supposed to be! Stinky = cheese flavor.)
Pickle -- this is the equivalent to Indian hot sauce. Usually, it's pickled mangoes (or another vegetable) smothered in a red spicy sauce. You mix this in with your food, usually the rice and sambar. Food at Rishi Valley isn't very spicy, so pickle is always passed around the table.
Soup -- soup is always available at lunch and dinner. It's usually a clear broth, well spiced. Somehow, Indian soup has somewhat of a sour taste, which is delicious if you're expecting it.
Fruit salad -- is served on Wednesday nights. It usually consists of bananas, apples, pineapples, grapes, and perhaps guava. It is the absolute BOMB and comes in a cream sauce.
Pasta -- pasta night is Wednesdays! Sometimes, we get noodles and sauce, but more often, it's pasta bakes, which are absolutely delicious. I always ask for seconds. Wednesday dinner is one meal where I don't consume rice.
Western food -- Western food night (think pizza, veggie burgers, etc.) is Saturday night. It's always funny to see what they'll come up with. It's also a nice way to spice up the week. :)
Eggs -- eggs are available three to four times a week for breakfast in various forms: hard boiled, scrambled, and as omelets. Eggs are available for dinner usually once a week, either in an egg biryani (very rarely) or in a brown delicious sauce.
Toast -- toast and jam are served for breakfast for most of the week. The jam, I'm sure, is natural and home made. It's not very sweet, which is just how I like it. Toast is usually available for breakfast at least 5 times a week, with the other two days offering dosas or idlis. Sometimes, there is butter to be had with toast. At other (quite inexplicable) times, toast will be available for dinner.


What I don't eat at Rishi Valley
Meat (Rishi Valley is strictly vegetarian and no meat is allowed on campus)
Tofu (there's no tofu available at Rishi Valley!)
Buttermilk -- which is a watered down version of regular buttermilk. Indians love to drink this after meals to aid with digestion
Curd -- yoghurt. This is sometimes mixed in with the rice.
Raitha -- a yoghurt based sauce mixed with spices, such as mint, corriander, cumin, cayenne pepper, etc. Often has onions in it, as well. This sauce can be put on anything, especially (you guessed it) your rice!


How I eat at Rishi Valley
At every meal, I eat with my hands. The ritual is as follows: there are a number (about 14?) of sinks lining the wall of the dining hall. I wash my hands with soap provided (oooh, also, Indian soap dispensers are AWESOME), and then enter the dining hall. Last semester, junior meals were served exclusively on banana leaves (palm tree leaves). I think senior breakfast and lunch was also on banana leaves, but I can't be sure. You'd sit down at an already laid out banana leaf and pass around the little metal buckets of rice, sambar, dhal, vegetable, and the bowl of pickle. You take as much as you want and put it on your leaf and then dig in with your hands. When you were done, you'd excuse yourself, put any remaining scraps in a big plastic tub (for compost) and throw away the leaf in another tub (also later re-used for compost and other uses). For senior dinner (and perhaps other senior meals -- I don't know, because I never went to them), there would be tables set up in a cafeteria-style setting and you'd come up, grab a metal plate and little metal cups (for your dhal and sambar and soup to prevent them from mixing) and take your share. Then, you could sit and eat with your hands and socialize. A water jug is always present at every tables and cups are set out for everyone. There are 8 people to a table. There are about 4-6 staff/faculty tables in the middle of the cafeteria. After you're done, you wash your hands using the outside sinks and soap.

Important note: you only only only use your right hand when you eat. You never use the left. (Well, okay, you can use the left to pour yourself some water, so you don't get the jug dirty. But your left hand never makes contact with the food.) This is because toilet paper is not widely used in India, and the left hand is used for doing "dirty" things, like washing yourself after using the toilet, taking off shoes, etc. This is actually a huge challenge for me, because when you have to tear the roti or chapati, it's really hard to do using only one hand! But I'm learning and getting better at it... You're also not supposed to use the left hand to wave or pass things to other people, but this is a challenge for me, too. It's not something I consciously think about, so sometimes, when I catch myself waving with my left hand I feel awkward, because I was trying to be nice and friendly but ended up being disrespectful. Womp womp.

Now, during the main school break, we've stopped using the banana leaves for some reason. And we have to wash our own dishes when we're through at the washing sinks inside the cafeteria. (I think due to the water shortage we were experiencing when I first arrived, the water to these sinks was disconnected. Now, after the first rainy season and with the second rainy season coming in full swing, I think they're letting everyone was their own dishes again.)


When I eat at Rishi Valley
7:00am-7:30 - junior breakfast
8:00am-8:30 - senior breakfast -- you all know my love to sleep in, so I obviously go to senior breakfast

12:10pm-12:40 - junior lunch -- I go to junior lunch, because it corresponds with REC lunch break
1:00pm - 1:30 - senior lunch

6:45pm-7:20 - junior dinner
7:45pm-8:20 - senior dinner
I usually go to junior dinner, but if I'm working late in the computer lab, I will sometimes go to senior dinner. Also, when there is a guest speaker or a movie (every Saturday night), I'll go to senior dinner, because those events usually start around 8:20, and it makes no sense to bike all the way back to REC and then all the way back to main campus within an hour (and there's not much to do on main campus after dinner).

Just FYI: juniors are grades 4-8 and seniors are grades 9-12. The seniors are significantly louder than their younger counterparts. :)

Locks of Love should operate in India

One of the cleaning ladies here at REC came back today and she had a buzz cut. Like...almost bald, but buzzed instead of shaved. Her hair was down below her waist when I left for traveling, and her braid was so thick, she didn't have to use any hair bands or pins or anything to keep it from unraveling (maybe only some coconut oil...). This lady is super awesome. She speaks no English, but repeats every word I say with a distinctly Tatiana impression. And she also does little dances when I do. She also sweeps my room and takes out my trash, even though I insist she doesn't need to do that for me. I share my cookies with her. I think she pantomimed that she went on a pilgrimage and part of the experience required all her hair to be shaved off. This happens pretty regularly in India, which makes me think that Locks of Love could make all their wigs just from devout Hindis in India. They should consider it.

Oh, India

India is generally a lot of ups and downs. You can be having the time of your life and then be infuriated the next moments. There's really no way to explain this than experience it (I read other people's blogs about this phenomenon and had no idea what they were talking about until I actually got here and lived it). This is such a large part of living in India, though, that I think I'll try to illustrate it anecdotally. Maybe that'll work?

Today, I got an amazing massage. I felt relaxed and relieved and happy. It was a very calming, meditative experience.
Then, I got in an auto-rickshaw where the driver tried to rip me off and had absolutely no clue where he was going. We stopped four times to ask for directions. I almost fell out of the rickshaw due to his awesome driving skillz. He then asked me for more money.

In Pondi, I biked with some friends to the beach. The Bay of Bengal in front of us was a rich blue, the sands looked a clean golden color, and the waves looked amazing. It was hot, so I couldn't wait to get in the water.
When I looked to my right, I saw four people shitting on the beach.

The MGML methodology RIVER has created has the capacity to change the world and greatly increase the quality of primary education.
Today, I saw a girl of about 5 or 7 doing cartwheels in the middle of traffic and begging for money (the cartwheels were part of the act). She is not an exception.

The Hawa Mahal is an amazing piece of architecture with beautiful pink walls, elaborate honeycomb windows, and beautiful archways.
People piss on it daily, because there are no public toilets around.


It's fascinating (among other things) to be constantly bombarded with extreme perspectives of a situation. I can't say I like it, but it does dazzle the mind.

Today has been a good day

From Jaipur in Rajasthan, India.

Today has been a good day for me!

Here are all the reasons why:
* I got an amazing massage for about $10. Baller. The place took credit cards.
* I finally got cash. (AIF is completely failing at paying me my stipend for which they blame ICICI bank and other misfortunes. Either way, I had about $4 to my name this morning and a debit card that did not work. But, now, I have cash! Yay!)
* I got to see the Pink City -- which is old [original] Jaipur. It is BEAUTIFUL.
** Funfact about Jaipur: it is reputedly the second planned city in the world, after Paris. City planning is kind of exciting for me, so I'm a big fan.
** Another fun fact: the city is pink for two reasons -- 1) the founder decided that he wanted to look as awesome as Delhi and Agra, but the materials locally available weren't red, so he tried to pink it up and 2) to welcome the Prince of Wales, the ruler of the city painted all of the city surfaces pink, the color of "welcome" -- it is now a law in the Old City (the part of the now larger Jaipur) to have every storefront and house and such painted pink, violation will cost about Rs5000
* I went to a really geeky astrology/astronomy museum thing and it was AWESOME. I even bought a book. I miss my dad.
* I had Pizza Hut for lunch. MCWORLD! I miss Nandan's company.
* I met a really awesome Indian rando who talked to me about traveling, life, culture, and India for about half an hour on the street. Awesome.
* I found presents for Karin.
* I found some amazing deals on some very colorful and awesome trinkets. I didn't buy anything due to lack of funds, but I will for sure before I leave this country.
* I get to see Jenny and peeps I know tomorrow!
* CAMELS TOMORROW.
* Some Frenchmen talked to me in our hostel -- one was wearing inappropriately short shorts.
* I found postcards!! (But only bought a little bit, due to lack of funds. Hopefully, more tomorrow! Also: why are postcards so fugly in the developing world? India is BEAUTIFUL, why can no one produce a postcard that shows this? Same in Ghana...)
* Did I mention the massage? Oh, man, life is good.

Traveling plans solidified!

On Thursday, I am catching the bus to Chennai to meet up with Elyse and Nicole! (Arriving in Chennai laaaate Thursday night.)

On Friday morning, I will be heading to Pondicherry to meet up with Nicky and his work friends for an awesome Pondi Diwali weekend. Huzzah! Elyse and Nicole will meet us after work. We are staying at what the Rough Guides India calls "the most characterful lodge" of Pondi. It's close to the beach, overlooks Government Place (which sounds bureaucratic, but actually houses a bunch of gardens), and reportedly has a great bar with dollar beers. Exciting!! We'll be in Pondi all through Diwali weekend until Sunday evening, when I will catch a bus with the Bangalore folks back to Bangaluru, because...

...on Monday morning, I fly out to Chhattisgarh! I will meet a group from work, and our plane will take off at 11:50am to arrive in Chhattisgarh at 5:50pm (there's a layover in Delhi). We're spending the week in Chhattisgarh evaluating their adaptation of our methodology. I am excited that Raju-sir is leading the trip (I have to start using -sir and -akka, because when I say "Mr." and "Mrs." instead it just sounds awkward and not at all respectful/formal), because he has the best sense of humor. Awesome.

The following Monday (the 26th), I will fly with the team back to Mumbai, from where I will catch another flight to Jaipur in Rajasthan. I get into Jaipur at 4pm, and I'm very weary that I will not make the bus to Pushkar that night, so I'm hoping to find some cheap rooms there for the night. (This is proving to be somewhat difficult...) On Tuesday morning, I'll head out to Pushkar to the Camel Fair and Pushkar Festival, which should be hella exciting! There, I will be meeting Jenny, and awesome fellow Fellow and a group of her friends. Yayyyy!

On the 1st, I will have to head back to Jaipur from Pushkar to make it to my 6am flight to Bangalore via Hydrabad to get back to Rishi Valley. I wonder if it will feel like coming home.

Pretty exciting stuff! That's a lot of traveling and a lot more logistics to be figured out, but I'm really excited about it! Yay! I'm working all throughout the travels (save Puducherry Diwali weekend, because there will be dollar beers and intoxicating non-vegetarian food options), so this should keep things exciting and reduce any chance of boredom. I have a lot of work to do! :) Also, I need to write three more Personal Statements/Letters of Intent for grad school applications, so I don't see myself ever having nothing to do, which is the way I prefer it.

Sorry if I don't update much between now and the first days of November -- not sure what my internet situation is going to look like during traveling. Come November, there will be updates a plenty, hopefully including some pretty awesome camel pictures!



**I changed up all the old/new city names just to mess with yous guys.

Work It

I've noticed that I've written about the days that I have off, but I have yet to write about the days I have ON and what I do then. This post should remedy this. I will attempt to explain what exactly it is I'm doing here at RIVER -- the Rishi Valley Institute for Educational Resources (Indians get tricky with their acronyms and re-arrange the letters to make clever words). Get ready for a lot of acronyms!

RIVER is a part of the larger Rishi Valley School Complex, where I live. The school is located about 9 miles from the nearest city, Madanapalle, a tiny town of only 200000 (remember: it's all relative). The "valley" part in the name comes from the fact that we are indeed located in a valley, surrounded by many rocky hills on all sides, making life absolutely beautiful. I hiked some of these hills last weekend, and it was absolutely blissful. Rishi Valley School hosts a bunch of different initiatives, including main campus (where I eat), the Rural Education Center (REC - where RIVER is housed and also where I am housed), a Rural Health Center, a nursery (of the plant kind, not the children kind), a dairy, and a bunch of land with various crops planted on them. Pretty awesome stuff.

REC is a bit away from campus (about 5 minutes on bike from the main gate and 8 minutes on bike from the dining hall), so we have our own space. Here, we have some offices, a computer lab, a cafeteria for rural children, a rural school, dorms for rural children, a bunch of guest houses (we hold trainings in our methodology and we can currently house up to 50 guests), director's offices, and some seminar rooms. We also have a lot of space to walk around, some gardens, a football pitch, and a volleyball court (where we sometimes play badminton). The staff here isn't very large. I mostly interact with the directors (couple who invented the methodology), another couple who is pretty high in the hierarchy (India is ALL about hierarchy), a resource manager person in charge of curriculum development and training, a nice lady who lived in Denton County in Texas (small world!) who teacher computer classes, and three people working on the English curriculum (whom I <3 dearly).

I keep saying "our methodology," which is vague, but is actually at the core of RIVER. It's the whole reason we exist and work and such. The methodology is child-centered multi-grade multi-level curriculum (MGML). I will say right off the bat that it is AWESOME. The directors saw a need to address the reality in India (especially rural India) that teachers were faced with multi-grade multi-level classrooms. This means that the students in one particular classroom were usually in different grade levels or at least on different levels within a grade, but still all in the same classroom under one teacher. (This was mostly due to teacher absenteeism, when one teacher had to cover for two or three classes at a time. The multi-level thing happens EVERYWHERE: it is nearly impossible to design an effective lesson plan for fourth grade math, for example, because you will only reach about four kids, the rest will either not have enough knowledge to understand fully the activity or already know the concept and be bored.) So, they decided that it would be best if we address this problem by creating environments where multi-grade multi-level teaching and learning was encouraged and enhanced.

They designed, for each grade, a "ladder". (When you imagine this ladder, think Chutes and Ladders and not vertical climbing ladders.) Every step in the ladder represented an assignment or an activity. A collection of steps in the ladder equaled a "milestone". The directors also sought to reduce lecturing and intimidation in the classroom. They wanted the children to be free with their teachers and to emphasize the joy in learning. They wanted everyone to be engaged and love school. Impossible? Not so. They created child-friendly (student-centered) activities that students can do with minimal teacher supervision. The classroom was divided into four groups: fully teacher supported, partly teacher supported, peer supported, and self supported. Every step in the ladder is labeled by a logo (like a tiger or peacock, for example) and a number. A child sees the logo and number corresponding to their step on the ladder, picks up the card with the matching logo and number, selects the group they are in, and works on the activity. (The logos always match to one of the groups, for example a cat is always peer-supported and a bear is always teacher-supported.) So, the child matches the logo with the picture at one of the four group tables and sits there to do her work. The teacher moves about the classroom helping kids out with their activities, focusing mostly on the teacher-supported groups. The teacher needs to only spend 3-5 minutes with each child to get them started on their activities and then leaves them to do the work independently. It's pretty great. The peer-supported group works together on games and other group activities to enhance learning. New concepts in math are introduced outside in a group setting. New concepts (like addition, subtraction, concept of zero, multiplication, etc.) are acted out by the older students using funny characters and animal masks. The younger children watch and participate in discussion, with the target child (the student needing the learn the new concept) sitting in the front in a drawn circle. The kids also participate in songs, arts and crafts, and host tremendously elaborate puppet shows. Very impressive stuff. I posted some of the pictures of our schools (we have 11 satellite schools within a 10 kilometer radius, all serving villages in which there are no government schools within 45 minutes walk) earlier, and you can see some of the other features: independent chalkboards at the child's level, art work hanging from the ceiling, example of the cards, etc.

I have to admit, when I first read about MGML, I didn't think it could be possible. Thirty children? Five grades? One teacher? Can't work. But, miraculously, it does. And not on accident, either. This is high quality stuff! Another aspect of RIVER which I absolutely LOVE is their emphasis on international collaboration. The methodology has worked for our schools, and we are happy to share it and provide training for anyone who wants to adapt it to their environment. As part of the training, educators are taught to create their own ladders with their own milestones, using local culture and tradition for themes and activities. Everything is made to be directly relevant to the child's environment. RIVER also emphasizes taking care of the Earth: reducing waste, planting trees, herbs, and flowers, and learning about different natural processes (water cycle, best farming practices, dangers of pesticides, etc.). Training is offered on our campus. It starts with a three day immersion for top policy-makers to introduce them to the methodology. Then, we host an intensive three-week training for teachers, where they become MGML experts and design at least one milestone in their own language/context. We also offer on-site evaluation three months after the program has been adopted, and later evaluations, as requested. (Coming up next week is a trip to Chhattisgarh, where I will participate in evaluating their program, adopted two and a half years ago. Also, there will be a three week intensive training for teachers from West Bengal, the Kolkata area. I am super excited about this, as I have not seen one yet, and am very interested in how RIVER communicates not only the theory behind its methodology, but also its powerful vision. Can't wait.)

So, how do I fit into this awesome MGML stuff? Well, I am designing all of the curriculum (ladders, milestones, activities, etc.) for the new English program for grades 3-5. There is already a team of three people working on developing the curriculum for grades one and two, and I am in charge of creating all of the necessary materials for grades three through five. The English curriculum is divided into two stages: one being first and second grade and stage two being grades three through five. Each grade within a stage has the same themes and group activities, but the learning outcomes for each grade differ, so the independent work varies slightly. The need for English comes from the reality that higher paying and better jobs are only available to those who speak English in India. We want to open those doors for our children. Also, I might be helping out with an English immersion camp that we want to host on our campus sometime next year. Since none of our kids have had any English instruction, they are currently on the same level -- we want to give background knowledge to second and third grade kids in order to get them caught up. We are also considering an intensive English training for our teachers, as most of them have very limited English abilities. I might also help plan/execute this training. Hopefully, it'll be a lot of fun!

One of the biggest challenges thus far has been the English language itself. Seriously. English is cray cray. It makes NO SENSE. There are five vowels, which make more than 20 vowel sounds. C and G are inconsistent. Capital and lower case letters sometimes look nothing like each other. (Telugu does not differentiate between capital and lower case letters -- it's the same symbol only bigger or smaller.) Another issue has been that India formally uses "British English," while our employees speak Indian English and I have an American English background. The word "spoon" (especially the oo sound) sound very different in all three of these dialects, making it extremely difficult to ensure that we stay consistent in teaching letters and sounds. I am so happy that I took linguistics in college, as all of that knowledge is coming into use now! I only wish I minored or perhaps majored in linguistics, because that would've been a HUGE help. Special shout outs go to Profs Dickey, Rajka, and Elliott!!

Another project I will be working on is the international collaboration part. First, I will help to create better monitoring process of programs implemented far from our campus. We are also hoping to create some digital material for training or refresher courses for teachers in our methodology. Additionally, I hope to help connect this methodology to a wider global audience. Someone from Ghana has already inquired about bringing the methodology there, and hopefully my contacts can help make that happen! (If I get to go to Ghana this year, words would not be able to describe the intense level of my happiness...) Perhaps using some of the other fellows' international contacts could spread the word or help establish deeper connections with interested parties. RIVER also really wants to go to Mexico and Sri Lanka, both of which would be fantastic places to explore for me. I am really especially excited about this international collaboration business, because I've been preaching "globally sharing best practices" for four years now, and to finally be a part of it is absolutely exhilarating.

I could go on and on and on about how amazing RIVER is and how lucky I am to have this job. Honestly, I am completely surprised at how close my job description is to the job description of my dream job. I am livin' the life, y'all. :)

If you want to learn more about REC and RIVER, please check out the following links:
www.rishivalley.org/rural_education/overview.htm
www.river-rv.org/
river-rv.blogspot.com/

Sweet Home Chicago

I've always struggled with the concept of "home" in my life (or the lack of one, for that matter). But I have to say, I feel so great when I see images of Chicago around here. Every Saturday night is movie night on the Rishi Valley main school campus. Two Saturdays ago, we watched Just Visiting, which was a pretty silly and not very great movie, but it all took place on Michigan Avenue, Lincoln Park, and the Art Institute. It felt so nostalgic and fantastic to see my old home! There was a scene shot from the Hancock Observatory, and they were facing north, and I could see right where Northwestern is! I miss NU. A lot.

Tonight, the movie was Dark Knight. Besides it being an absolutely amazing movie (and Christian Bale being such eye candy), Gotham City is based out of Chicago, and this makes me so happy. The funeral scene is near the Quincy stop, right by Chicago Public Schools. Out of Christian Bale's office, you can see the Yankee Hotel Foxtrot buildings, my absolute favorites! Views of the river bring back memories of St. Patrick's Day and all the random weekends when we walked those streets. The Sears Tower reminds me of when we used to go to the Mega Bus stop to pick up Karin on her Chicagoan visits! I miss Chicago.

I have to admit I feel most at home in my old semi-tattered Northwestern shirt. Go 'Cats. <3.

The Stars Are Projectors, Yeah

Projecting our lives onto this planet Earth

I think in America, with our fancy 24/7 access to electricity, we often forgo really seeing the night sky. Maybe when hiking through the Rockies or in the middle-of-nowhere-Texas, you can still get a glimpse at the beauty of the night sky, but in most places in America, this rarely happens. Which is too bad, really. The night sky is absolutely phenomenal, and here in Rishi Valley, especially when the moon is less than half-full, you can see literally thousands of stars. I sometimes stand in the soccer pitch and try to take them all in. It's an absolutely glorious sight. It only makes me wish my father would've taught me some of the constellations he knew this summer (we planned to do that in Wyoming, but it was overcast the whole week). I saw two falling stars the other night. What a fantastic view. Reminds you of how huge the world really is.

And when the moon is full and the stars aren't visible, you get cloaked in moonlight. Moonlight is amazing and definitely forgotten in America. Here, I can walk around without a flash light during the week around the full moon. I see my world in different colors when it's illuminated by the moon. And Indian festivals are structured around the moon to take full advantage of the light it provides. I love the night sky.

Rows of lights to illuminate lines
Why don't they turn them off and let us see night?

Calendar

Sorry I haven't been updating for a week. Not too much has happened -- I did more work with the English group, but then I got sick for a day (Friday -- fever and stomach pains = boo), so that threw off my momentum, which was too bad, really. I spent the entire 2 day weekend cooped up in the computer lab working on grad school apps. They are due this and next week, so it's really crunch time! I will be so excited to be done with them.

But! More importantly, today, I found out my off-days at work, so I can start planning some travels (if I ever get my guidebook from B&N, whom I now hate with a fiery passion of a thousand suns).

The following days, I have off:
Oct. 16-17
Dec. 25
Dec. 28
Jan. 1
Feb. 12-13
Mar. 27
Apr. 3


School is out on the following days (this *might* mean that I can work remotely on these days, since everyone else will be out of town anyway):
Oct. 19-Nov. 2
Jan. 12-17
May 1-29

Writing English curriculum on a beach or in a forest bungalow would be divine. Keeping my fingers crossed for that!


The following are workshops we have planned at the Centre:
Oct. 12-14 -- a group from Nepal is coming to hang out!
Nov. 11-25 -- two weeks of training for some government entity! Exciting stuff! It'll be awesome to experience my first two-week comprehensive training. It's boot camp for MGML (multi-grade multi-level methodology), where teachers and policy-makers get schooled in its awesomeness and learn to develop their own materials and lesson plans! Awesome. Can't wait.

School shots

I did a bunch of school visits, and I have some awesome videos to post from those, but I can't get them to upload anywhere yet. :( I will, however, put up some still pictures from the visit!


A girl working quietly.


A math class held outside. Older kids act out the concepts of addition, subtraction, division, multiplication, and the concept of zero for the younger kids to learn.



Children putting on a puppet show about cows and tigers. Awesome. (This is the backstage perspective.)


A typical RIVER village school. Notice all the awesome children's art work hanging from the ceiling.


Although there is a central chalkboard in the classroom, each kid has their own chalkboard space at eye-level.

View Outside My Window (it changes)

Here are just a couple of examples of the awesome view out of my bedroom window!
Other things I have seen include: a family of monkeys, a bunch of bats, dogs, a grey kitty. Some things that I see INSIDE my bedroom are: some spiders (I like to keep a few spiders around to get rid of the flies) and a boatload of lizards.

Vanya asked me yesterday if I live in a zoo. Teehee.

First Week at Rishi Valley

My first week at Rishi Valley has come and gone, and I haven’t been blogging as enthusiastically as I expected. I’ve been reading a lot, though, so I guess that’s my excuse, along with settling into my new home.

I arrived at Rishi Valley on Thursday of last week, and was quite impressed with the surroundings: gorgeous, rocky hills all around, lush green campus, intelligent children running about, friendly faculty to talk to at meals. (Note: the food here isn’t spicy, which is a bit of a let down. It is, however, much easier on my stomach and I have had no tummy issues whatsoever here. Huzzah!) Here’s a break-down of what I’ve done so far.

Thursday – Saturday: the Rishi Valley School Olympics
The entire campus (our Rural Education Center included) participated in these “Olympics”, which were a series of sporting competitions among the kids. The campus has at least two soccer pitches (“fields” in “American”), a hockey pitch, tennis courts, two basketball courts, badminton courts (indoor and out), volleyball courts, etc. I live in a fancy place! The Olympics also included the three steps for winners and the two runners-up, all Olympic style. There was also a large ceremony, where someone ran down the aforementioned hill with a burning torch and lit an even larger torch to signify opening. Kids + fire = awesome.

During the Olympics, I noticed that some stuff they do in India is much closer to Russia than it is to America (for example, giving kids lit torches). The dances and performances by each class were much more elaborate than they would be in America, and you could see the teachers worked extremely hard to put everything together (American teachers work super hard as well, it just seems that it’s a difference in style). Also, there was an event called a “cock-fight”, in which the kids grab one leg with the opposite arm and the other arm, they have to place on their shoulder (opposite of the said arm). Then they jump around on one foot and smash into each other, trying to get the others to fall. Pretty fantastic spectacle, which would definitely be deemed far too unsafe in America. Also, they had high jump and long jump, which was really intense: some kids jumped more than twice their height!

The Olympics were fun to watch, but also made me a bit restless, because I had no idea who my co-workers were or what I was supposed to do. Since I came here for the foremost purpose of working/learning, it made me feel anxious that I was doing none of that, and instead watching some kids run around. But no matter. I caught up on some sleep and started reading some Voinovich (irrelevant note: I should really be reading him in Russian – it seems that if I translate what I read in my head back into Russian, it’s funnier).

Sunday: Off-day
There’s no work on Sundays, as far as I can tell (unless we have visitors for training), so I bummed around, slept in for the first time in India (every day I have to be up at 6:20 or 7:20 to make it to breakfast on time – the difference is whether I eat with the juniors [earlier, but more pleasant/quiet/roomy] or seniors [the only perk being that it gets me an extra hour of sleep], so I don’t get to sleep in, except on Sundays, where I skip breakfast altogether). I also went into town, Madanapalle, by auto-rickshaw and bus with Kala, a co-worker to pick up some essentials: a clock for the room, plug adapters to be able to recharge all my electronics, and some Indian outfits. This was a pretty fun outing, and Kala is really cool. She’s around my age and has been working on developing the English curriculum. Yay for making Indian friends!

Monday: Chittoor to register with immigration
On Monday, I had junior breakfast and right after got into a car to go to Chittoor. Chittoor is the district capital, and I have to get some paperwork to ensure that my stay in India is legal. It’s about two and a half hours each way driving. India is all about paperwork (which always includes a color photo requirement, which is a bit weird to me), and the process of registering was quite long, convoluted, and included a lot of raised voiced. I wasn’t sure what was going on, because a man from the school came with me and pretty much took care of everything. What he didn’t take care of was the last piece of paperwork that I needed to be able to buy a phone, and when I failed at getting one on the way back from Chittoor, I got pretty upset. Bah-humbug. I also had Indian food in a restaurant that was a) spicy and b) had mushrooms in it. And we got naan. Win!

Tuesday: My first day of work
Tuesday was supposed to be my first day of work, which made me very excited. When I showed up at the office (the Rural Education Center (REC) office this time, and not the main school one), I was led over to a closet near my room and given about 500 pages to read about the multi-grade multi-level (MGML) methodology. I was told that I should read it all today, because tomorrow there would be a site visit and lots of work! I mostly spent the day reading. I did get the last document needed to obtain a phone and went into town to procure said phone (success! I also read in the car a lot, so I was only “not working” for a little bit). Lots of reading and lots of insight.

Wednesday: My first day of work
I thought that on this day, I would finally get my hands dirty. After having breakfast, I met Venu and Raju in the office (REC) and they presented a Powerpoint about MGML to me and a guest from Chennai named Moses. After the presentation, we got in a car and went to visit a village school (one of the 11 satellite schools that the REC runs), where we were further briefed on the methodology and got to observe the classroom. The MGML is highly impressive in practice! (I’ll make sure to write about curriculum details a bit later.) When we came back, it was almost time for lunch, and while Moses had a meeting with Rao (the head cheese), I was told to go to lunch and that I had the rest of the day to myself. So…not really working – just seeing more stuff. I did get to see a fun Indian fact in practice, though: India is all about hierarchy, and you have to go through a lot of people to get to the head cheese. I do have to say the highlight of my day was when Raju was going over the presentation and he said, “We like to partner more with other countries. For example, I think we’re going to work with Ghana on taking the MGML curriculum there.” To which I replied, “Oh, I actually have a handful of contacts in Ghana.” And here’s the best part: Raju says, “I know. That’s one of the reasons we hired you.” Um…BALLER. I frickin’ LOVE Ghana, and if I get to go there with the team, I will be more than ecstatic. Happiness all around.

Thursday: My first day of work, I really hope this time
But no, not really. Thursday, I came into the REC office and was told that I could have some time to sit on the internet in the computer lab (we have a really fancy computer lab with pretty new computers (all flat screen monitors) with high-speed internet and Linux (edubuntu) installed on all of them – baller), while Venu figured out what was there for me to do (the hierarchy goes, from top to bottom: Rao  Raju  Venu). He also told me to go watch a YouTube video about how the state of Tamil Nadu (just to the south of us) adopted the MGML methodology for all of its government schools, 37500 in total! After I was done with the video, I was supposed to report back for discussion, except when that happened, there was no one to report to, because Venu had gone to a meeting somewhere. Um…fail? Since I’m finishing up grad school applications, I wasn’t too upset and just worked on those, instead. At 2pm, I got to go to another village school to check out an environmental science lesson (the previous observation was for Telugu language class), which was quite insightful, but only occupied half an hour of my time.

On Thursday, I also played with a bunch of the village kids in the afternoon. We have a village school here on our REC campus, and once school was out, I got schooled in soccer by two little boys, and then played volleyball (which I totally rocked, btw) with a group of people. It was pretty awesome. There was a definite language barrier, but I think everyone involved had a lot of fun. It also gave me a breath of fresh air and reminded me of why I’m here and how much I love hangin’ out with kids. Kids are so awesome. Win.

Friday: My first day of work, seriously
On Friday, a group from Nepal came to RIVER (another name for the Rural Education Center – Rishi Valley institute for Educational Resources – sometimes Indian acronyms don’t really follow standard procedure) along with three guys from Hyderabad (the capital of our state, Andhra Pradesh). Oh, fun irrelevant aside: in Indian languages, they usually stress the first syllable, so when in doubt for pronunciation, stress the first vowel! Anyway, on Friday, we really did have a full itinerary of things to do: presentations, movies, school visits, and an afternoon trip to Horsely Hills, a British summer resort. It was exciting to actually do work! Kind of! I mean, it was still a lot of observing and not at all doing anything, but it still felt like work (in the way that this was essential for me to do before I start doing stuff). We also got to see a math class (which rounded out my observations: village schools teach Telugu, math, and environmental science, and I’ve already seen all three! Huzzah!), which was really nice – they used some innovative strategies, and I was, once again, impressed. I’m really liking this MGML curriculum more and more each day and feel like every school should get on board! Wee!

Saturday: My second day of work!
Saturday was quite long – we watched a movie, then had long discussions with the Raos (they’re a power couple!) about the methodology, its challenges, implementation strategies, etc. Really awesome, insightful stuff. I also got a meeting with the Raos on Tuesday to go over all the questions I need to ask them (for example: costs of the program, how much it costs to maintain a single school, as well as, what will I be doing here for the next 10 months, and how much does my rent cost, along with some others). I am excited for this meeting. And talking with the Nepal group and the Andhra Pradesh guys was insightful and gave me some new contacts and new insights (I knew very little about Nepal/education in Nepal, and now I know more!). Most people in the group (both Nepali and Indian) worked for World Education, so that’s another organization I learned about, which was also interesting. (Oh, and I got some feedback on working with UNICEF, since I might potentially work with them one day, and working with Room to Read, since John Wood is a Northwestern alum. Good things to know!) Good day! And I feel like I might be an actual benefit to the REC team sometime soon, which is encouraging and exciting!

For Sunday, I have plans to catch up on sleep (still not used at getting up so early in the morning!) and finishing all of the grad school applications due next month! Monday, I should be briefed about the English curriculum development initiative, and perhaps start sitting in on/contributing to those meetings. Tuesday, I at least have the meetings with the Raos (and I think after I figure out what’s going on with the English curriculum, I will participate in that daily, as I see that group working every day right next door to me). So…yay! A good first week! (Especially the last bit, where I got to do some work! Win.)

Orientation

Orientation was a long 10 days (minus one for arrival, one for departure to our sites, and one off-day, making it a full week, really) of being briefed on issues of Indian development. We discussed issues in rural versus urban development, migration issues, slums, education, public health, sanitation, livelihoods, child runaways, and others. This week was really insightful, however it was quite a blur. First and foremost, it didn’t feel like we were in New Delhi – we could’ve been anywhere on earth, since everything was held in a spacious air conditioned seminar room where we spent 8-12 hours of our days. However, as I spend more and more time in India, I think I’ll philosophize on the various aforementioned issues, and then post those thoughts here. This way, instead of regurgitating the knowledge learned during orientation, I’ll hopefully have some personal experience on the ground to tie to the larger issue.

Contact info

I have finally arrived at the Rishi Valley School and put together my contact information. As promised, I am passing it on! Any and all mail will be greatly appreciated and promptly answered! :) Postcards, notes, and ruminations on the state of being will all be received with great happiness! If you want to send a care package, I’ll love you forever, but don’t send nice things. Apparently, they will get stolen by someone. I’m not sure what the limits are, but don’t send me anything nice! Snail mail will arrive regularly, so do drop me a line! Oh, also, pictures will also be greatly appreciated, as I don’t have very many in my room and I miss everyone!

Anyway, the address:
Tatiana Rostovtseva
Rural Education Centre
Rishi Valley School
Rishi Valley, 517352
Madanapalle, Chittoor District
Andhra Pradesh, India


I don’t know why it’s so ridiculously long.

Also my phone number, if you want to randomly call me (you can also call from Skype to mobile!) is: 9160981069


And I still have my e-mail address: Tatiana-r@u.northwestern.edu

Comments on the blog will also make me feel warm and fuzzy inside. Speaking of which, please send me your address! You can leave it as a comment on this post or e-mail it to me (if you feel unsafe or whatever), so I can send you postcards from India! Postcards are my favorite, so do it. I love sending them!

Home Sweet Home

I finally moved into my home for the next 10 months, and it is undeniably sweet! I doubt that the other AIF fellows will have accommodations this nice. I have a separate room in a compound of the Ananda House on the Rural Education Centre campus. The double-doors open to a large bedroom with two beds (one has a mattress on it and the other is a bare wooden frame), a big wardrobe, nightstand, table, and shelves. I have already unpacked my suitcases (which fit nicely under my bed), and fit all of my clothes into the big wardrobe in the bedroom. The room has large windows on either side and gets lots of light and air. There is a large five speed fan above the beds. The ceiling is really high, which makes the room seem even bigger and airier, which I greatly enjoy. There are four lights, two fluorescent and two regular (I only keep one on at a time – it is more than enough to light the room!). The table is set up with an electric kettle, two mugs, and two cups. On the shelf above it, I have a flashlight, and mosquito repellant: coils and plug ins. There are also candles in case the electricity goes out. I have also put up some pictures that I have and made one shelf to hold my books and art supplies (crayons spice up your life, so I brought them).



I have brought sheets, and they add a lot of color to the room: the walls, curtains, and furniture is all very white, so it is nice to have some blue and purple to brighten it up. Also, my sarongs always add some color to wherever I’m at. I brought my African batik, which I bought from Joseph Njie at Aburi Market some long time ago – I am hoping to get some tape or tacks to put it up on the wall. Things are starting to feel home-y.



Connected to the bedroom is a large bathroom, which I absolutely adore. It has a flushing toilet (the flusher is just like the one at my grandmother’s house), a shower (cold water), and sink. There are three more faucets: one by the toilet (cold) and two directly below the shower, one of which is connected to a water heater, allowing me to have hot water for laundry or bucket showers (yes, please). It gets quite cool at night, so I think I’ll be taking more hot bucket showers than cold regular ones, taking advantage of the water heater. There’s also another heater (a spool you plug in and place inside a bucket to boil water) for use as well. Pretty neat! The bathroom also has a huge shelf on it, which conveniently holds the 10-month supply of toiletries I bought before leaving Texas. This is awesome. Everything is really well organized. What I especially love are the large mirrors – full length and standard over the sink in the bathroom and a large mirror for your upper body in the bedroom. I don’t remember us having a mirror in Ghana, and it was something that I missed. Also, after living in the Blue Whale, I had grown accustomed to having mirrors around. Makes it feel more like home.

Outside, to the left of my door is the kitchen, stocked with a sink, dishsoap, sponge, water filter (very important!), and gas stove. The stove looks like a modern camping stove with two burners and a big gas tank attached to it. It’s really nice. So far, I’ve been eating in the cafeteria, so I’m not sure when I’ll ever use this space, but it’s nice to know that it’s there. (Maybe if I get really sick, I can make toast and broth there? We’ll see…)



Outside my door is a little courtyard with an open roof, which is quite delightful. The whole compound is painted a sweet orange color, of which I am a fan. Also, I have been issued a bicycle to ride to and from the main campus, which has a dainty basket on the front and a proper backseat (something American bicycles lack, or so I’ve noticed). I have yet to pimp my ride, but it looks pretty spectacular already, so no need.



I’m growing quite fond of the place. If you’re in India – come visit! :)

Arrived in India!

I'm in India safe and sound and have been through some intense briefing on development issues in the Indian context, which has been fascinating. Lots of stories to share, but no internet to do it on, so I'll write up first impressions and debrief on social issues in the next week! Meanwhile, write me e-mails about life back across the world!

Making lists

Since I've last written, I have done the following to prepare for my departure:

• Received confirmation of my airfare to India
• Booked my tickets to New York
• Unsubscribed from a bunch of useless listservs
• Read some books
• Watched a documentary on India
• Made copies of all my important paperwork
• Began applications for Masters programs in Europe for 2010-2011
• Bought some awesome hiking sandals
• Moved out of Bryan fo'evah
• Tried to learn Telugu (failed miserably)

10 days to New York.
14 days to India.
I am PSYCHED!

Departure set: August 31st!

On August 31st at approximately 5pm, I will depart for New Delhi, India from New York's JFK airport. I am getting super excited. I have been placed in the Rishi Valley (near Madanapalle) in the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern-ish India. In the meantime, I am preparing by trying to learn Telugu (emphasis on trying), reading lots of books, buying stuff that will be necessary during my travels, and psyching myself out! :) Very exciting stuff!

You can learn more about the program that has set this up, by going here.