After my first day at Doon School volunteering... I Quit!
I Quit my worrying about scheduling.
I Quit my panic over planning.
I Quit running from place to place.
I Quit, well... I'd say I quit my job... but I already did that!
I LOVED my first day! Even with a cough and head cold and some very potent oral remedies (making me both dizzy and detatched in the afternoon) it was FANTASTIC. And I am not overexaggerating to sell issues of Lyndia's India either!
First - I had a nice breakfast at the Foote House table of C-form students (the younger grade). I was announced/introduced at the post-breakfast assembly and it was official. The students are all required to address the female teachers (now I am one too) as "ma'am" which feels very formal and I keep wanting to say "it's just Lyndia" but the rules are well established and well followed here so I won't ever say it outloud :)
Second - I went to the on-campus hospital for some medicine and can safely say from the vantage point of the next day that they were well worth it.
Met the enthusiastic, intelligent and supportive yoga teacher KPS and observed my first class, was introduced to the group (1 of 5) and then even got to teach for 5 minutes at the end. When will I teach again? Well... as of now (Friday) it's already done! The best-est part of all?? One of the students (a girl, one of very few - and only as she is a daughter of one of the teachers) beamed at the affirmative response to her question of "Will you be teaching us at our next class?" And then today (at said "next class") she came up to me and asked if I could meet with her some afternoon too! I. WOULD. LOVE. TO. (but now I am getting ahead of myself... I need to focus on why YESTERDAY was awesome, not today...)
Then I felt all my medicine kick in and compile side-effect on top of side-effect... I was exhausted, dizzy, and very unfocussed. So I did the only logical thing - after lunch I took a chai break, had a cookie and went to sleep. And MISSED my after-lunch scheduled Social Service class. ....luckily I was napping at the home OF the Social Service teacher so she knew exactly where to find me! :)
I woke up JUST IN TIME and she took me over to where the Doon boys were... teaching at the Bindal project - where the children and youth living in the dried river bed a few blocks from the school come for tutoring, classes and EVEN YOGA! Six Doon boys were teaching two yoga classes and I came to and came in just as they were starting. I got to supervise these great young men instructing the eight young women at the Under-the-Bridge school in yoga. I also was instructed to take photos (so: done and done!)
Then the best part of the class was when the yoga teacher said that the Doon boys would assist and translate while I got to teach some asanas to these girls! YEEEE-HAW! It was SO FUN! I've never had such a great 14 minutes of yoga teaching before! I had them dancing and laughing a bit too and a few times my poor translators could only say "just please watch ma'am." At least we all had fun and apparently I will be able to do this two or three times a week (again, just found out today).
That, all that... that was the cake. So the icing?
I missed my walking partner/roommate and was accompanied home by someone new (the librarian who lives in the main floor of the home I stay at)... someone who actually just took me back via SCOOTER (aka. Scootie).
SO AWESOME!
p.s. today I taught my first class in the yoga school and I will have about four per week.
I Quit my worrying about scheduling.
I Quit my panic over planning.
I Quit running from place to place.
I Quit, well... I'd say I quit my job... but I already did that!
I LOVED my first day! Even with a cough and head cold and some very potent oral remedies (making me both dizzy and detatched in the afternoon) it was FANTASTIC. And I am not overexaggerating to sell issues of Lyndia's India either!
First - I had a nice breakfast at the Foote House table of C-form students (the younger grade). I was announced/introduced at the post-breakfast assembly and it was official. The students are all required to address the female teachers (now I am one too) as "ma'am" which feels very formal and I keep wanting to say "it's just Lyndia" but the rules are well established and well followed here so I won't ever say it outloud :)
Second - I went to the on-campus hospital for some medicine and can safely say from the vantage point of the next day that they were well worth it.
Met the enthusiastic, intelligent and supportive yoga teacher KPS and observed my first class, was introduced to the group (1 of 5) and then even got to teach for 5 minutes at the end. When will I teach again? Well... as of now (Friday) it's already done! The best-est part of all?? One of the students (a girl, one of very few - and only as she is a daughter of one of the teachers) beamed at the affirmative response to her question of "Will you be teaching us at our next class?" And then today (at said "next class") she came up to me and asked if I could meet with her some afternoon too! I. WOULD. LOVE. TO. (but now I am getting ahead of myself... I need to focus on why YESTERDAY was awesome, not today...)
Then I felt all my medicine kick in and compile side-effect on top of side-effect... I was exhausted, dizzy, and very unfocussed. So I did the only logical thing - after lunch I took a chai break, had a cookie and went to sleep. And MISSED my after-lunch scheduled Social Service class. ....luckily I was napping at the home OF the Social Service teacher so she knew exactly where to find me! :)
I woke up JUST IN TIME and she took me over to where the Doon boys were... teaching at the Bindal project - where the children and youth living in the dried river bed a few blocks from the school come for tutoring, classes and EVEN YOGA! Six Doon boys were teaching two yoga classes and I came to and came in just as they were starting. I got to supervise these great young men instructing the eight young women at the Under-the-Bridge school in yoga. I also was instructed to take photos (so: done and done!)
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| Bindal Students I taught yoga to for 10 minutes ;) |
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| Girls at Sapera Basti (village) I was *supposed* to teach yoga to but they wanted to tour us around the village and show us their house and bedrooms and jewlery and posters of favourite Bollywood actresses. |
That, all that... that was the cake. So the icing?
I missed my walking partner/roommate and was accompanied home by someone new (the librarian who lives in the main floor of the home I stay at)... someone who actually just took me back via SCOOTER (aka. Scootie).
SO AWESOME!
p.s. today I taught my first class in the yoga school and I will have about four per week.
Wow.. it sounds like you are having a great experience! That's awesome you are getting to practice the yoga instructing skills you just learned.
ReplyDeleteNo kidding! Everything is working out SO WELL! I think one of the girls from the Bindal school (under-the-bridge) who was in the "older students" class skipped down to the "younger students" class where I was teaching. She is so sweet and all of them are so wonderful! It's a tragedy to think of all the opportunities that aren't afforded to them but at the same time so awesome to know they are getting some education and training to better their lives and those of their future families.
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