India's Got Talent

The big event this past weekend was the annual staff talent show. Last year, we had the show in the fall, but this year it was moved to the spring. Rather than jumping right into the talent this year, we started with a fashion show. We decided to sit this part out because we're just not that fashionable. There were some great examples of Indian, African, Tibetan, and other clothes from our wonderful colleagues.

The actual talent section of the program was full of the usual songs, skits, and dances. There are definitely some talented folks on the staff here.

There are also some ridiculous members of staff. Dave and three other male co-workers decided to do a dance to the song Maniac from the movie Flashdance. They were all decked out in tights, leg-warmers, and cut-off sweatshirts. The dance even included the iconic scene of water being dumped on stretching dancers. It was great fun, even if the students ended up having nightmares that night.

The final event of the show was an all-staff Bollywood dance number. Dave had changed out of his tights by then and we wowed the crowd with our great dance moves.

The night was fun and a bit embarrassing. Thankfully, Dave won't be able to do an encore performance of his dance next year.

Dave and Beth

T-Shirts

We are occasionally astounded by the messages we see on t-shirts here in India. It seems that clothing companies like to take random English words that they think sound cool and place them in a random order on the shirt. Yesterday, we caught a glimpse of one of our advisees wearing what looked like an interesting one.

On close examination, his shirt proved to be completely incomprehensible.

Yet another thing to be missed when we leave India in the next few weeks.

Dave and Beth

More Monkey Business

Yesterday afternoon, we came home from church and were pleasantly surprised to see a family of langur monkeys just below our terrace. As usual, these monkeys were a delight to watch.

We also saw that they had a baby monkey that was smaller than any we'd seen. It was hard to get a good picture of him because he was still pretty unsteady on his feet.

His family also got him up in the trees to help him get his legs there.

We'll be a bit sad that these guys won't be swinging from the trees in Chicago.

Dave and Beth

Flag Hill Afternoon

Beth went on a little walk to Flag Hill this afternoon. She wanted to get one good hike in before the baby got too big to carry up the hill.

We thought it might be nice to share some of the flora and fauna that she saw on her walk.

The rhodedendrons were blooming beautifully all along the hillside and Beth even got to see some Indian life occuring as this woman carried some fire wood home.

It turned out to be a very successful trip up the hill.

Dave and Beth

Retreat Number 4

Every year, Woodstock has a retreat for all its students. In the middle school, we have one retreat for grades 7 and 8 and one for grades 5 and 6. This past weekend, we did our last Woodstock retreat. We were down at the Torchbearers conference center in Dehradun. It was a great chance for both students and staff to get away for a bit. There were, of course, a few sessions of learning for the students. The focus this weekend was the life of Joseph.

The students also enjoyed some chances for non-school food.

A lot of our free time was spent playing games and Dave took the opportunity to hone is cricket skills with the boys.

It was a great restful weekend for the kids and they learned a little bit about God in the process.

Dave and Beth

Science is Real

The big news in middle school here yesterday was the science fair. Every year, the sixth and seventh grade students at Woodstock practice the scientific method and try their best to test hypotheses to reach a conclusion. This was Beth's first year teaching the process here, but you should be able to see by the quality of these presentations how great she did.

The Woodstock community also did a great job of supporting the students by coming out and asking the students questions about their work. A lot of time was put into these posters, so it was nice for the other teachers to come and show some interest.

As with any good science fair, one group had an exciting analysis of mold. The big test of the day was to see if anyone could stand putting their nose in the bags below.

Beth's colleagues from the science department came through and judged the use of the scientific method in all the experiments and chose winners in several different categories.

The fair was a great success and Beth did a fantastic job.

Dave and Beth