Pretty Normal Times

Well, since I have been back, very little has happened.

So - today was a pretty typical day in India, so I will tell you about it.

7:00 - Wake up. I am sleeping on the roof now, so I went down stairs to make coffee for Adis and tea for me. I also made breakfast in bed, but I've never done that before. I then get ready for school.

8:05 - Rush out of the house and catch the bus. It would comfortably fit 60, but we cram on about 150.

8:30 - Arrive at school and have assembly.

9:15 - Have my first individual reading student after second standard gets settled. I read one on one with all the kids. It usually takes 15-20 minutes per kid.

10:00 - English with my seniors who have reading problems. Today I taught them about sentence structure, but often we read and sometimes play games. I also get coffee at this time.

10:45 - Fifteen minute break in which I play with second standard, read, play with the older kids or get ready for later classes.

11:00 - Half an hour of playing games and teaching phonics with the Upper Kindergarten. Today we played red-light green-light. Sometimes we have markets, color pictures, read stories or play Quack-Diddly-Oh-So.

11:30 - Try to fit in another second standard reader.

12:00 - Planning period/ 45 minutes of freedom. I usually read, grade papers or prepare for art.

12:45 - Lunch. Rice with one or two different curries. Fantastic. Sometimes a game with the younger kids.

1:25 - Fifth standard reading group. We read stories, play games and just work on spoken English.

2:10 - Break, but no coffee this time. I played with second standard.

2:25 - Art with third standard until the end of the day. We made flowers out of tissue paper and pipe cleaners and believe me, it took an hour!

3:30 - Bus ride home. It doesn't usually leave for half an hour.

4:30 - Arrive home. Adis made coffee while I checked face book and email. Then we switched.

6:00 - Went for walk and met Bravani, our washing woman, and her two sons, Nanda and Vasanth. That's a tragic story I will tell another time. Went out and found a place to buy corn and print pictures.

6:30 - Came home and played with Nanda and Vasanth for an hour.

7:30 - Had a shower and read for a bit. Began to organize packing.

8:15 - Got on the internet. Checked email and facebook and then settled into this blog.

So that's my day. I will now go and organize dinner. Then at around 9:00 which is 15 minutes. Adis and I are planning to watch a movie tonight which puts bed time on the roof at around 12:00.

And that's my life.