Happy Pongal! - 01/07/2013

The boys during the flag ceremony

BEN - We woke up nice and early at 6:00 AM to head to the morning church service.  The service starts with the singing/shouting of loud kid songs with movements to wake everyone up.  This is either followed by a skit or song by the kids and a message for the day.  Today's message was given by a local minister who started strong, but droned on for way too long.  He was also talking about how 'heathen India' was 'saved' by Christianity; not really the way I believe things went.   The one thing he said that I did like was "I see too many temples here, and no shelter."  Anyway, after a long service we headed to breakfast and got ready for school.  From what I can tell, they treat this week at school as a fun, get-no-work-done week, as we roam around classes doing various activities with the kids.  We all loaded onto the school bus, kids on laps and standing in aisles, and took the short ride to Carmel Matriculation School.

For the second time in two days, we were greeted with fanfare, as lines of children threw rose petals over us as we walked through the gates.  We were showed to our seats where we were each presented with a flower, and then witnessed the flag ceremony. This consisted of synchronized solutes, song, and movement.  It was impressive to see 1,000 kids in complete unison, 6 year olds included.

After the ceremony the kids headed to class and our job was to try and visit/entertain as many classes as we could get to.  Gabby and I went with Glen and Trish, two of the younger members of the team, to host dance parties.  We went from classroom to classroom, blasted some music, and danced around crazily with the kids.  This was certainly not the most educational thing we could do, but the kids loved it.  After the dancing, I asked Glen if he'd ever played hangman with the children.  He hadn't and was excited by the idea, so we went to an older classroom and taught the game.  The kids enjoyed it, and we had a great time trying to stump them.  After a few rounds of hangman, I decided to head out to gym class.  Here I first learned to play carem, and got absolutely crushed by the kids.  I then decided to show some basketball dribbling, and wowed the kids with simple tricks.  It was fun and a couple of the boys wanted to learn, so I took them aside and started teaching the basics. I was nice and sweaty by the time the bus came to pick us up for lunch.  A few of us decided to walk back because we had the time, and Gabby and I wanted to see the small town of Semmandukuppam.  The village was a small, ramshackle village with lots of cows, goats, and poverty.

Pongal dancers and unhappy pink cow

After lunch the female teachers had a special celebration planned for us.  Next week in Pongal, a Tamil festival that celebrates a good harvest season.  The ladies fixed up a plethora of treats for us to sample.  The food was mostly fried, tasty pastries; some sweet, some savory.  One particularly interesting ball had a fried egg inside of it.  The Pongal celebration continued with a traditional Tamil dance by the older girls, and the presentation of a very unhappy cow that had been covered in pink paint.  The end of the celebration was a game of pinata (I'm still trying to figure out that cross culture juxtaposition).  The kids loved watching us all swing and miss at the elusive thing, until Gabby became the hero and cracked the pot wide open.

The final thing on the agenda for the night was the Sing Song.  We all went into the chapel for an evening of singing and recited Bible verses by the children.   The kids have obviously had to prepare for this week of festivities and were very proud to show off their hard work.  It is truly amazing how much they have already done for us in just two short days.  After the Sing Song we had a delicious dinner of paneer makhani or butter paneer, before heading to our room for another bucket shower and bed.