Teacher and Student

Last Thursday I taught a lesson in Andy's classroom about story dramatization.  The kids went NUTS.  They loved acting out the stories together and individually figuring out how to best represent the characters.  I loved it myself.  It felt good to put my toe back in the teaching pond. I felt comfortable and natural and yet it reaffirmed that the classroom is not the place for me at the moment; being a full-time momma is exactly what I should be doing.  I gladly handed the class back to Andy so I could walk home and put Oliver to bed.

I think a part of me liked being a teacher because I was in control of so much: our schedule, the implementation of lessons, how conflicts were handled....  I liked knowing how each day looked before the kids came in (at least on paper) and what I needed to do to help everyone succeed.

Then there's me the student. The part that shows up and not knowing what *exactly* is going to happen each day.  It's both wonderful and incredibly frustrating to not have control over what my days look like.  I often don't understand the language spoken around me, or the customs of my adopted country and there is nothing I can do about it.  Knowing this calms me because what can I do to change the situation at that moment?  I am learning so much everyday about this amazing, frustrating, beautiful, dirty, surprising and humble country.
A few tidbits I have learned the past two weeks:

• 90% of Indian homes do not have hand towels in the bathroom.  They do however, have towel racks that stare back at me saying "use your pants." I do not understand this but am starting to bring Kleenex with me for this and...
• Public bathrooms, more often than not, have no toilet paper.  Which is awesome for us girls.
• If you stare a Rhesus monkey in the eye, it may attack you.  This advice has been given over and over to us and we are taking it quite seriously.  We have been told to wait inside twice now because the Rhesus were fighting outside.
• I learned that if I go into the bazaar with just Oliver, men come out of the wood work to either stare at us or help us find anything I need. "Garlic!  I know where you can get Garlic!" 
• I also learned that if I return to the bazaar with Andy then the men pay no attention to me but the women look quite relieved to know I have a man in my life.
• I learned that if you take your fair-skinned blue-eyed baby out to a restaurant, people will take pictures of him.
• If you and 12 other white ladies walk into a bar, the entertainment will stop singing Hindi songs and start singing whatever American songs they know.  On Friday this meant covers of Bob Dylan and John Denver.
• There are no boundaries when it comes to babies.  I have had people yank Oliver's arms out of the Ergo (carrier) and shake them, take his hands from his mouth while he is eating, lift him out of the highchair (again, while eating), put their fingers in his mouth and also (true story) blow their nose with their fingers and then touch his face.  Andy says I need to be cool but I have been known to say "Ok, stop touching the baby now!" Seriously, with no toilet paper or towels in the bathrooms...stop touching my kid.
• I have learned that Indians look very disappointed when you tell them to stop touching your kid.
• I have learned that no where else on Earth (that we have traveled at least) are the people more helpful, inviting, hospitable and eager to please.  We have been invited to countless homes for dinners and shared many fun nights with our new neighbors and friends.  This has aided our transition and made us feel like we made the right decision to come here.

More to come!

xo