Rob back in Tiru

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Hey all again

A fair amount's happened since my last update. Leaving Manali was quite disappointing, as it was really the last place on our travelling schedule, and there was a feeling that it was over. The 19 hour bus was comfortable enough, we had one double bed and one seat. Colin still felt a bit ill so me + Katherine took it in turns to use the bed whilst he got it for the whole journey, not that it would have made much difference, it was still bumpy and there were loads of people snoring very loudly. We didn't get much sleep.

In Delhi Pirates of the Caribbean was sold out so we had to find ways of burning time. The evening was a bit depressing for me truth be told. For our last meal together after being around each other for 5 months, Colin was too tired to come out despite sleeping all afternoon. The meatball spaghetti was nothing special either.

The 35 hour train was fine though. We were exhausted when we got on so we both slept through the night. The day on the train flew by because Luke + John had kindly given me a sensational book called Shantaram, and I'm still only a third of the way through so I'll be happy to have too much time in my hands for a couple of weeks. The next night I slept really well aswell. Admittedly the train was very dirty and when we arrived in Chennai we felt filthy, and we had to put up with that on the bus all the way to Tiru, although as we got closer I started to feel like I was returning home a bit. Once there we went straight to the police station to discover we could only collect our leaving documents today at 4pm, which meant we have a lot of time to burn today. After we collect them we'll head straight to Mamallapuram, which means we'll arrive late tonight. There I have to finish off buying presents but I'll mainly relax before flying home in only 4 days!

Yesterday I went back to Kanji and had an excellent day. I'd failed to contact Maria despite many efforts, so I took everyone by surprise but they were as welcoming as ever. I was a bit confused by who had passed and such like. All the pupils from my old classes were still there, and they told me they'd passed the year. Yet they hadn't had their exam results back, they were all asking me for their marks and I didn't know. They're yet to start the course, they don't even have text books yet. There are no time tables, teachers just turn up and take lessons as they like for the next couple of weeks. After 5 months this country still has the ability to amaze me with how shambolic it can be. It meant I was able to take all my old classes for fun spoken English lessons if I got there first. I played a few games with my old 9th standard class, now 10th. However after saying hi to the Principle and Maria I was taken to that lesson with only 10 minutes left. I planned to take them again in the afternoon.

Then I read more of my wonderful book before in the afternoon I took my old 7th class, now 8th of course. I got them to do a debate in groups. With a class so big and boisterous controlling it was difficult but I was amazed how good they were at listening to each other, it went really well. There were 3 new members too, one of the girls seemed really smart, I couldn't remember their names. Then there was a powercut, meaning to bell, and I had no watch. I ran over a little bit, clearly another teacher saw me there and went off, so I was stuck in there for another 40 minutes, only this time had no plan. I ended up teaching them about the differences between England and India, trying to get them to give their impressions of England too. I guess it got them listening to English and speaking it, which is always a good thing and as there's no course it didn't appear like they were missing out on anything.

Then after break I took my old 8th class, now 9th and did similar debating and games which was very fun. The genius kid Srinivasan wasn't there which upset me, when I was checking the register I saw his note to the school asking for leave because of fever in word perfect English, and I was quite disappointed by that, especially as I did used to from time to time let him translate tasks to the class in Tamil when they struggled to understand, and that would have come in handy when trying to explain the Yes or No game where you have to make other answers. They didn't catch on even after I demonstrated.

Then I had a disappointing end to the school day. I was really looking forward to 40 minutes with my old 9th class at the end as they always were my favourite, but the Tamil teacher got in there first. I was not too happy. Then I said goodbyes again, and walked to the hostel. I decided it would be nice to walk through Kanji again, forgetting that it takes an hour and walking from 4-5 in the Indian heat is quite tiring. I said hi to the kids at the hostel. Maria is yet to find anywhere for the boys to stay, so the ones over 10 had been sent home to their few remaining relatives which is sad, and the younger ones were still there. It's a shame about the law, but she'd kept them there illegally for a long time, she didn't really have a choice but to send them away and she's still searching for somewhere to keep them. It was good to see the kids again, and then I got the bus back to Tiru. I got the feeling, just as I did when I left the first time, that I could have easily spent longer there and I do envy Rose and Kim for starting all the way back in October.

Anyway, plenty to time to burn. It's not the tourist season any more so everything around here is shut up but I'll find things to do with myself. Keep well.

Rob.

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