Umilla Saves the Day

Monday is one of the busiest days of the week for both of us. After our day full of middle school students, we were reminded that we had a meeting with other teachers regarding the Christian programs in the middle school. By the time we completed all of these requirements, it was about 5:30 pm. During our walk up the hill to our house, we remembered that we had not asked our ayah, Umilla, to cook us anything for dinner tonight. We were very tired and not looking forward finding something to eat. Fortunately, when we got to the kitchen, we saw that there was a warm cheesy potato and onion tuna casserole in the oven.

Umilla had decided to cook us a nice dinner without even a request from us. Having an ayah is something we should be able to get used to.

Dave and Beth

Success in the Bazaar

After completing our first week at Woodstock, we decided to make another trip into the bazaar to get some more things for our house. Going shopping here is an all-day affair. One cannot simply pull into Wal-Mart and get all of the things that one needs. Instead, our strategy is designed to allow us to carry as little as possible for as short a distance as possible. We knew we needed to pick up our clothing from the tailor, but his shop is very close to our end of the bazaar. Instead, we walked halfway through and then worked our way back picking up things as we came. We started at the grocery store which is just below this clock tower.

We picked up a few essentials that we didn’t feel like calling in an order for. After our groceries, we stopped at the stationary store and bought some note cards. We also got a chess set to make our lives a little more interesting and intellectual. From there, we went to the fabric store. We already had bought fabric for our clothes, but wanted a new rug for our cold cement floors. Then it was on to the electronics shop. This is the same store where we bought our clothes dryer and our electric oven. We got a TV so that we have something to do with students when they come over to visit (thankfully, we didn’t need to carry this ourselves because they deliver). After our TV, it was on to the used bookstore. This shop is strategically placed halfway up the big hill at the end of the bazaar. It’s a nice break from the steady climb. Here we bought a Hindi-English dictionary and a board game called “Scotland Yard.” Below you can see Beth playing the next day with our friends, the Hatches.

One nice thing about this trip to the bazaar Saturday was the weather. It was a beautifully clear day, and we got a couple of nice pictures of the Mussoorie and the surrounding hills.

Later on Saturday night, we had a welcome back dinner and dance with the middle school students. This was a very fun time of fellowship with the teachers and the students together. The food was excellently catered by a local restaurant and the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. Below you can see Dave with our friend Jared who teaches science with us in the middle school. They made sure that all the students stayed in line. The next picture is of our middle school principal, Mrs. Mark.

As always, the monkeys made an appearance. The looked on ominously from the roof of the school building before dinner. Thankfully, there were only two of them and they were not going to jump on a group of 100+ larger primates.

In the end, the dinner and dance were a great success. The kids seemed to have a great deal of fun dancing. The even pulled both of us onto the dance floor a few times. The dancing was a little different than we are used to, but it was a really good time. Hopefully we will have enough energy for the week ahead.

We miss you all and look forward to hearing from you all soon.

Dave and Beth

First Days of School

As expected, our posts are coming a little less often now that the school year has started. The kids have all arrived at Woodstock, and we are now in full swing. We are in charge of an advisory group of ten sixth graders (you can see their picture below and get an understanding of how Dave towers over them). This is a big transition year for any student and especially for the students that are new to the school. One of our duties is to help get kids organized and to help them understand the procedures here. That has proven a little bit difficult since we barely no what's going on ourselves. Today, the big event was the selection of student clubs. Every Tuesday, the middle school students have the chance to participate in clubs after school. These range from a middle school newspaper, to a board game club, to a calligraphy club. Beth has decided to sponsor an art club this year, and Dave is running a global affairs club. Both of our offerings filled up fairly quickly.


As far as teaching goes, we are both having a lot of fun. Beth has been enjoying the new challenges that come with being an English teacher, and Dave is enjoying the new challenges that come with being a middle school teacher. Overall, though, things are going great and we are really enjoying getting to know our students. Just to give you an idea of the kind of discipline problems that we have to deal with here, we've included an example of the graffiti that Beth found on her art room table today. Not quite as profanity-laced as our classrooms in Chicago.


Dave and Beth

Final Preparations

Tomorrow is the big day. We've been doing the final preparations on our rooms and getting things ready for the first day of classes. We thought we'd share a few photographs of our classrooms as we head into school tomorrow. First is Beth's room on the south side of the school. In the first picture, you can see the wonderful bulletin boards that she has in place. The one on the far right is for the Olympic reading competition that she and the other English teacher have devised. The second picture shows the rest of Beth's room. Hanging in the center of the room is a brand new projector that Beth will have access to for Power Point presentations and the like.

Dave's classroom is shown below. In the first picture, you can see the desk where all of Dave's magical lesson planning will happen. The globe in the left of the picture is a new one that the previous social studies teacher ordered before she left. Perhaps the best part about it is that it lights up at the flick of a switch. This will be very handy for getting into some in-depth geographical questions with the students. The photo to the right shows the rest of Dave's classroom. As you can see, his bulletin boards are not nearly as creative as Beth's. He has simply placed maps all over the walls. It is also important to note the rack for a projector sticking out of Dave's ceiling. If you look closely, you will see that there is not projector there. Dave's was not one of the chosen rooms to get a projector this year. Hopefully, Beth will be generous in sharing her room with the social studies classes.

After a long day of preparation, we came home to a nice warm pizza that was freshly baked by Umilla, our ayah. Someone along the way taught her a number of western recipes. So far, she has made us lasagna, quiche, and pizza and they have all been excellent. We're now hoping that we'll be able to get to bed early so that we'll have plenty of energy for our middle schoolers tomorrow.

Dave and Beth

Real Live Students

Our original purpose in moving to India was, of course, to teach students. We've been here for a little over two weeks, and we finally got some students. Now we have seen some students wandering around campus, because their parents work here. Today, though, was the beginning of the new student orientation. The morning began with refreshments in the cafeteria at school. Beth was very diligent in seeking out any middle school students. Dave was feeling a little claustrophobic with so many people around so he mingled with people that came to him. The program continued with an address by the principal and then a special middle school introduction. Afterwards, we went with our new advisor group students up to Dave's room. The two of us are sharing responsibility for a group of 10 sixth grade students. Four of them are new to the school so we got to be their first introduction to things. It was a lot of pressure and we had to think on our feet to make the parents feel like we knew what we were doing. In the end, the greatest compliment came from a parent that said we sounded like we'd been at the school for years.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) is our last day to prepare for the final arrival of the rest of our students. We'll be working hard in our classrooms to get things cleaned up. Today seemed to be extra rainy and misty. If it is like this tomorrow, too, we'll have a good excuse to keep our noses to the grindstone.


Dave and Beth

Frequently Asked Questions (1)

Now that we've had some time to settle into our life here, we thought we'd answer some of the specific questions that we've been asked since we got to India. These came from a lot of different people and are in no particular order. Some of the questions may have been answered somewhere before, but it might be possible that you haven't read everything we've written. Interspersed with the text, we've put a few pictures from today to make things a bit more interesting. So...here we go:
Is the monsoon season over with or coming?
When we arrived on campus, the heavens were pouring rain down on us. The monsoons last from early July until the middle of September when they start to clear up. We're told that by the middle of October we will have stunning views of the valley below and the snow-capped Himalayas to the north. In the meantime, we get short glimpses of these views when the fog and mist temporarily roll out of our way.


What are the average daily temperature factors you are facing?
When most people think of India, they think of the hot and humid plain in the middle of the country. When we arrived in Delhi, the temperature was pretty stifling. Thankfully, we were shuttled off to an air conditioned hotel pretty quickly. Up here in the mountains, it is very comfortable. In the winter, it will get pretty cold and it will feel colder because most of the buildings have no central heating.


Are you close to the border with Pakistan?
The name of the town that we're living in is Mussoorie. If you were to look on a map of India, it is north of Delhi in the state of Uttarakhand. Just to make things more difficult, the state was known as Uttaranchal before 2006. Before 2000, it was part of the larger state of Uttar Pradesh. Before that, of course, it was part of the British Empire. Pakistan is quite a ways to the northwest of us. The school has been around for more than 150 years and there has never been any ethnic or religious strife to speak of in Mussoorie.


What subjects will you teach?
Dave will be teaching all three levels of middle school social studies. Beth will be teaching 6th and 7th grade English and art.

When does school start?
The school year starts on 6 August and goes until 16 June. Thankfully, we have a very long break in the winter from about 20December until the beginning of February.


Are you in the winter season now?
Mussoorie is at about 30°N latitude. In fact, all of India is north of the equator. As such, we'll have the same general seasons that occur in North America.


Do many people speak English where you are living?
India has a very rich linguistic history. India's constitution recognizes Hindi and English as the official languages of the central government. In the north of India, most locals speak Hindi as their first language, but a surprising number of people know a good deal of English. If you're not sure what Hindi looks like, here's an example: भारत की भाषाएँ. We're hoping to learn as much Hindi as possible, but India has 22 other official languages used at the state level. I'm not sure we'll get to all of them.


What is the time difference between here and there?
Indian Standard Time is five and a half hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time. Right now, that puts it nine and half hours ahead of the eastern US and ten and half hours ahead of central time in the states. That extra half hour really throws people, but we think it has to do with the fact that all of India is on one time zone and they needed to average out the difference between the two halves of the country. Interestingly, we don't observe daylight savings time, so the differences between here and North America will change.

That should be enough questions for one day. We'll leave you with a picture of Dave eating one of the donuts that the bread man delivered to our door today. They are not quite Krispy Kreme, but they were very good.


Dave and Beth

Dampness That You Can't Escape

Even though today was Friday, we were free from all school related obligations. Woodstock gave us today off so that we could continue to settle in here in Mussoorie. Just the same, Beth woke up bright and early to get some work in at school. She was rewarded with some remarkably clear views of the valley from our porch. The first one shows more ranges of hills than we knew existed because the constant fog and mist and rain have clouded them. The second one shows the city of Dehradun off in the distance. This is very similar to the night view that we showed in our previous post. All of these views are generally to the south of the hill where we live. We've heard that a short hike of a couple miles will bring us to views of the snow-capped Himalayas to the north. Those won't be visible until the monsoons end in October, but we're definitely looking forward to them.

Dave finally got out of bed and walked down the hill to get some work done, as well. After we did that, we had lunch in the dining hall. As usual there was rice and dall with some veggies and bananas. After eating, we went into the bazaar with Jared and Emily Hatch. They are another young married couple who have been at Woodstock for a year. They've got most of the basics figured out, and agreed to show us how to do some of things that we haven't gotten to yet. First on our list was clothing.

Indian independence day is fast approaching (15 August for those that haven't started planning their BBQs yet). One thing that is assumed of all staff is that they will wear some formal Indian dress on that day. First we stopped at the fabric store that Jared and Emily like. Dave picked out a nice fabric for his new dress kurta and some pants. He also got some material for a couple of more casual kurtas. Beth got some nice prints for short kurtas, as well. We then took that material to one of the tailors in the bazaar. He measured us up and hopefully, we'll have our new clothes in plenty of time for the holiday. Beth also has a formal saree in at the tailors which should look very nice when completed.

The major purchase of the day was our new tumble dryer. We are very excited about this because Mussoorie is very damp in the monsoon season. There have been a couple days where it has rained nonstop. It is very difficult to get things to dry in that sort of condition. There is simply a constant, damp mustiness that permeates everything. It will be nice to throw our towels in so we don't have to dry off with wet ones after our showers in the morning. It also works well because our neighbors have a washing machine that our ayah uses for our clothes. Now she can wash all our clothes over there and dry them all over here. We paid for the dryer down in the bazaar and a man carried it up to our house using a strap around his head.

On our way out of the bazaar, we caught this wonderful view of campus. The round building near the center of the photo is the middle school girls' dormitory. Just to the left of that is the middle school boys' dorm. The building farthest to the left is the high school girls' place.

And finally, to keep everyone happy, we've added a little video of a langur monkey that was sitting just outside our house. There was a whole family feasting on our trees, and Beth got a nice, up close and personal video of a few.

We're sorry that this post was a little wordy. We'll try to include even more pictures next time. We love you and miss you.

Dave and Beth