Snack That (Up on that India)

Yes, let's stuff 50 adolescents with sugar and release them in a park!

Lakshmi Devi Academy, where Marielle and I are teaching, is the focal point of several distinct communities on the outskirts of Dehra Dun: to the immediate north, there is a colony for persons living with mental illness; to the immediate south, a colony for families touched by leprosy; to the west, a settlement of Muslim refugees from Pakistan and Bangladesh; and to the east, forest and smatterings of hill people. This means that the academy not only provides an education to a diverse set of students, but also serves a crucial role in bring the communities together in the name of their children.

To get to and from the school, Marielle and I have to take a vikram, or (theoretically) six-person bus, from our neighborhood to Gandhi Park, near the center of town. We then walk for about fifteen minutes before we find an auto-rikshaw, or three-wheeled taxi of sorts, which takes us to the bridge leading to the old slums. We then walk the next ten or so minutes to the school. This trip costs us fifteen rupees (thirty cents) each (unless we can convince a male such as Lalbahaddr our gardener or another LDA teacher to accompany us, in which case the ride is often free...for the lovely ladies).

Our entire Saturday was devoted to a field trip with the middle schoolers to a Sikh temple. On the bus rides there and back, Marielle and I learned a lot of Hindi vocabulary and tried just about every kind of Indian child's junk food under the sun. Tum tely ho, doom tum sunder ho (you appear drunk, but you are very beautiful). We were also introduced to the most popular singers in Dehra Dun: Shakira, Hannah Montana, and Justin Bieber. My favorite song, however, was a rendition of Akon's "Smack That":

Snack that

Upon the floor

Snack that

Gimme some more

Snack that

I need some more

Whooah

Fun fact: Akon is from Saint-Louis, Senegal, where I spent the past two months!

Marielle and I are both a bit (platonically) smitten with Dev, the fifteen year-old son of Devaky the cook. He humors us by coming along on long and apparently destination-less promenades, instigates balancing-things-on-head competitions with us multiple times per day, and five nights ago, instead of just telling us that dinner was ready, he came out wearing an apron, slammed his oven-mitted hands together, and declared "I AM GOD." India and Senegal have spoiled me for American senses of humor.

Some Wonderful Things:

-Although some of the teachers initially tried to split up our students so that only the boys would learn tae kwon do with Marielle and the girls dance with me, our amaji helped us to convince everyone of the importance of all the students learning everything. Very few things bring me as much joy these days as watching fifty young girls and boys punch and scream (or growl, à la Marielle's instruction) in unison.

-As of Friday afternoon, the garden just underneath our bedroom window is the favorite hangout spot of no less than one dozen baby monkeys.

-We taught the elementary school-aged kids how to play my favorite game, Pauvre Petit Chat Malade. The basic idea of the game is to not laugh as someone pretends to be a deathly ill kitten with attachment issues. Don't hate, appreciate. Anyways, the LDA teachers have all come to me with complaints of unprecedented meowing amongst the students. Oops.

Meow meow mrrrrraaaaooooow (until next time).