MUN

The last big school event for the month of March was the Woodstock Model United Nations conference. MUN is a chance for students to study and debate global issues as representatives of a different country. All of the students got dressed up in their most professional clothes so that they could make a great impression on their fellow delegates.

The eighth graders were all together in their own special committee where they discussed development aid for poorer countries and improving healthcare around the world.

They had been preparing for weeks by researching their countries and preparing position papers and country profiles. They also had to prepare two one-minute speeches for the topics and prepare for any questions or comments from the other delegates.

Their favorite times were when they were allowed to have unmoderated caucuses in order to develop resolutions and gain allies in order to solve problems.

Overall, the students did even better than Dave thought they would.

It was a successful learning experience for the students, and the current seventh graders are looking forward to doing it next year.

Dave and Beth

Friends from Afar

Arguably the best part of March has been the visits we've received from friends. The first such visit was from Harold and Howard. They both live in Germany where we lived and taught at Black Forest Academy. They were visiting Dehradun to conduct a conference for Christian teachers from villages around northern India. While there, they took a day trip up to Mussoorie to see Woodstock School and the surrounding hillside. It was a great chance to reconnect and share what has been going on in our lives. After going out for Tibetan food for lunch, we took them to one of our favorite Indian restaurants for dinner. Here they are with Beth sharing naan, dal, and paneer. Hopefully they'll come back and visit soon.


Dave and Beth

Retreat!!

During the second to last weekend of March, we had another great activity planned with our sixth grade students. Last semester, we accompanied the seventh and eighth grade students on a retreat and this semester it was the turn of the fifth and sixth graders. During our free time, Jared and Dave tought the kids to play hacky sack American style.

Emily and Beth also did some rope skipping with the kids. Beth really wowed everyone with her tricks.

We also had sessions where we discussed the talents that God has given to the students.

And the highlight of our first day at the retreat was definitely the barn dance. It was a little difficult getting kids this age to touch eachothers' hands, but it was a fun time.

The fellowship between adults was great, as well.

And we got a very nice group shot with funny faces and poses.

It was a great time to interact with our students outside of school and teach them about God's love at the same time.

Dave and Beth

Advising

This year, we have been able to serve as advisors for a group of 11 sixth grade students. It has been great to be able to see them grow and change even over the relatively short time that we've known them. Part of our duties is to have an "advisor night" every so often. On these nights we take them out of the dorms and play games,

have a home-cooked meal (it was spaghetti on this night),

and sometimes even roast marshmallows.

The kids had a great time being out of the dorms for a few hours, and we had fun opening our home to them.

Dave and Beth

Chicago Dogs

One of things that we enjoy about being here is the comical way that India often fails so completely to copy American culture. One example would be the "All-American Salad" that is often served at lunches. It consists of several different sliced sausages and lunchmeats covered in some sort of "dressing." We've never seen anything like that served in America before.

Another fine example of this phenomenon is the recent hot dog stand where saw "Chicago BBQ" hot dogs being sold. Now, of the standard list of condiments usually found on a Chicago dog (yellow mustard, chopped white onions, neon green relish, peppers, tomato, a dill pickle spear, and celery salt), the stand got one partially right.

We didn't have the heart to explain to the vendor that such a hot dog would never be served in Superdawg, Portillo's, Demon Dogs, or any other Chicago restaurant. He just gave us a funny look as we took a picture of his sign.

Dave and Beth

Colors of Holi

As we mentioned earlier in the blog, Holi was celebrated on Wednesday. This is also known as the "Festival of Color," for reasons that will be obvious as you read further. There are many different stories that relate the origins of Holi, but the rituals of celebration generally include a big bonfire at night and throwing bright colors at people during the day. Part of the reasoning for the colors is a welcoming of spring. Apparently, all the spring-blooming flowers were mashed up into colors. This is a picture from the 1800s showing Krishna playing with holi colors, so it has been going on for a while.

We had a holi celebration today with the middle school students down at our sports field. The festivities actually started with a water fight. The colors that we throw are powdered, so this makes them stick (and dye one's skin) more effectively.

After a few minutes of water fighting, we started handing out handfuls of colored powders to the students. It was fun to watch the different methods of dispersal that the students and staff used. Some threw the powder in big puffs of color while others got up close and smeared the color on wet faces.

Regardless of the methods, everyone got very well covered in bright colors.

As you look at the colors on Dave's shirt below, keep in mind that it was white when we walked down to the field.

Everyone had a great time celebrating this unique cultural event. There were even snacks and drinks available when we all got tired out. The snacks turned green from the colors on our hands, but it was a nice treat.

In this final picture, you can see the two of us after our holi experience. The group below us on the field was still fighting with water, but we had called it a day.

Now that we've experienced holi, we might take the day off next year. Even after a couple of showers, we're still finding pink streaks in our hair and green splotches in our ears.

Dave and Beth

Mehndi and Manicures

Every month or so, teachers, dorm parents, and all others who have a hard time saying "no" when asked to help out are enlisted to offer "Saturday clubs" to small groups of middle school kids. This past Saturday, our friend Emily and Beth held a "Mehndi and Manicure" club for any interested girly girls around campus.

The easy part of "Mehndi and Manicures" definitely has to be the manicure portion. Painting fingernails and toenails is pretty much an innate talent for girls. Mehndi, on the other hand, is an acquired art. Our best mehndi maker was Aparajita, an eighth grader who has turned mehndi into a hobby! The rest of our girls had a great time practicing their designs too.

By the end of the morning, Emily and Beth had arms filled with butterflies, hearts, and declarations of love for their husbands. The girls really went to town! The good news is, it's still cold enough to wear long sleeve shirts and to only bare our beautiful arms when absolutely necessary. (Did we mention that the mehndi designs last around 2 weeks?)

Dave and Beth

Holy Holi!

Those that keep up with the major cultural events in India will realize that today is the festival of Holi. You may all be wondering why we didn't put any pictures of this colorful festival on our blog. To be perfectly honest, we were a bit too busy to make it into the bazaar today and a bit scared of what might happen if we did. Apparently, foreigners like ourselves are prime targets for molestation and aggressive coloring. Luckily, the school has organized a tamer version of the festival on campus Saturday morning. We're planning on going to that and we look forward to lots of pictures when we're done.

Dave and Beth

Beth the Nurse

On both of the school trips that we've taken (activity week and Lucknow), Beth was put in charge of the first aid kit. This past weekend, our room became the de facto health center as kids approached Beth feeling pukish or having a headache.

If you ever need an ibuprofen, Beth is the person to see.

Dave and Beth

Luckwow!

This past weekend, we had the opportunity to see a new part of India. The grade six students at school took a three day fieldtrip to Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh. The students were reading a book in English class about the first Indian War of Independence in 1857, so they were there to learn more about the history first-hand.

The first step in our journey was getting there. Lucknow is about 10 hours away, so we took an overnight train that left Wednesday evening after school. The kids enjoyed jumping around from bunk to bunk before we finally made them got to bed. It wasn't the most restful night of sleep, but when we woke up we were only a short distance from Lucknow.

Once in the city, we were off to see the sights. First on the list was the Imambara, a complex built by the old nawabs of Lucknow in the 18th century.

The favorite part of the students was the maze inside designed to keep the Muslim women from finding their ways out of the building and mixing with the men. The kids also enjoyed making it up to the top of the building and taking in the views of Lucknow.

After the Imambara we visited the Lucknow cantonment church. In the time of the British rule, most cities were divided into civil and military areas. This church was built for the garrison and was very similar to the church that figures in the opening of the book that the students were reading for English class. We took the opportunity to get a good group shot of the whole class together.

After a restful night's sleep at the hotel we visited the La Martiniere school. This boys school was established in the mid-19th century (only a few years before Woodstock) and the students of the school volunteered to assist in the defense of Lucknow during the siege of the Residency in 1957. We got our advisor group together for a nice group shot.

Though we did see a lot of historical sights on our tour of Lucknow, we also made some time for modern conveniences. We visited two malls over the course of the weekend to avail ourselves of the air conditioning and enjoy KFC, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut. The students also had a chance to do some shopping for little things that they thought their parents and siblings might like.

After spending a couple hours at the Sahara mall above, we made our way to the Residency. This is where the British Resident lived during colonial times (he was the official government representative in Lucknow). The Residency was the center of the Rebellion of 1857 (as it was called by the British) when it was surrounded and seiged by the Indian forces that mutineed against their officers. The kids looked around and took notes before we played some games in the field waiting for the sound and light show to begin after dark.

The next morning was our final day in Lucknow. We wanted to take the sixth graders to visit a haveli. This was one of the large estates owned by the wealthy in the colonial times and they also figure in the book that the students were reading. We had a connection from school that brought us to the house of one of the descendents of the Nawab of Lucknow. He opened his home to us and gave us a tour of the old estate.

After all the sightseeing, the kids were ready for another break. To kill the time between our haveli tour and the train ride home, we visited the home of one of our students. His family is a little on the wealthy side and they told us that we could use their movie theater. Even though the movie was in Hindi without subtitles, it was still an enjoyable experience. The plush leather seats and massaging footrests were an especially nice touch.

After our taste of luxury, some of the students were rudely greeted with our train home. Due to booking problems, we were in a slightly lower class for the trip back to Dehradun. It was dank and dirty, but the kids still seemed to have fun socializing.

It was a great trip, but it was really tiring. We left on Saturday night to take the overnight train and didn't make it to our home in Mussoorie until about 3:00 in the afternoon yesterday. After a quick nap, we brushed our teeth and went to bed. This left little time for lesson planning so we were, essentially, flying by the proverbial seats of our pants today at school. All went fairly well and we're feeling pretty confident about the rest of the week.

Dave and Beth

Security

One more post about monkeys...

We received an e-mail from the administration this week announcing that we finally had a proposed solution to the monkey problem on campus. Rather than trapping and removing the rhesus monkeys that plague us on the way to school, we have hired attack langurs to show them who's boss. We haven't seen any of the pesky brown monkey since these guys have moved into the neighborhood.

(thanks to Mr Plonka for the second picture)

Hopefully it will stay that way.

Dave and Beth