Hello everyone, we have finished our first week of classes at both the Government High School at Vijaynagar Colony co-ed school in Hyderabad and the A.P. Residential Boy’s school in Nalgonda. In both classes, the students are moving along at an impressive pace. We find ourselves having to incorporate more in each lesson plan than originally planned as the students are able to handle much.

This past week, we spent some time on introductions and getting to know the students. The boys were especially fond of a fun game Mona remembered from camp – the “wah” game, where the students make a circle and pass an imaginative “wah” across to each other, the goal to see how fast you can pass the “wah” without making a mistake. Once the boys got the hang of the game, there was much laughing, high-spirited calls of “WAH!” and a little more physical contact than was planned The boys are very close to each other and in our two classes at the Nalgonda school we have seen how they come together to help one another. They have already extended Mona and I their care, as the past two classes some of the boys have followed us out to the street to our auto-rickshaw making sure the driver doesn’t rip us off. They say, “10 rupees…nothing more…or call the police!” and then run after us waving as we drive away.

At the co-ed school in Hyderabad we are encountering more reserved and shy students, who are reluctant to speak their minds and express their personal opinions. When we asked the students “What would you change?” there was a long silence, followed by a lot of curious eyes glancing at classmate’s notebooks, followed by many identical answers, right down to identical sketches when we encouraged them to also illustrate their ideas.  We know that some of the delay is caused by a language barrier, as the school at Vijaynagar Colony is Telugu Medium and the students are as a result not as exposed to English as at the Nalgonda school. However, the lack of confidence in personal expression is probably also due to a lack of practice. After some prodding, however, we heard some strong and well informed views on how the hospitals and environment of both the Andhra Pradesh region and the world in general need improvement. I remember one response was “I want to become a doctor, so that I can make a lot of money, so that I can then help the poor people”.  With future projects for this class in mind, we are hoping that some of the students will initiate civic engagement projects based on some of their essays, and then document these projects on video.  One group of girls in our class is already thinking about getting their classmates to plant trees in order to promote a healthy environment.

We have been able to do some work with OLPC’s XO laptop in our classes. The laptop gets many excited “what is that??!!” responses every time it’s pulled out. We have started a word document on the laptop for culture sharing, wherein the students will write to Mona and I about their Indian culture and Mona and I will respond in kind about the United States. Right now, it is serving as a way to immerse the kids in new technology, which they are very able and eager to handle, but in the future we hope to incorporate some of the music and recording programs, possibly as a means to get the students from our two different classrooms to communicate with each other.

We are happy to anounce that we have a local High School student, Prithvi Kunappereddi, very willing and able to help us in our teaching here. Prithvi will join us to some of our classes at the Vijaynagar Colony school, where he will assist in teaching the students as well as help us to get a handle on the Telugu language. Prithvi is very bright, and as a Junior in High School already has a handle on 4 languages and has designs on attending Berkley in California some day. We hope to learn much and do much with this inspiring youth!

After two weeks living in Hyderabad we are more accustomed to life in India. Initially, I think we felt a little like aliens from another planet, when we would first walk the streets outside our apartment and meet many intent and deeply curious stares. Now, I think we feel more like Americans in South India, a less dramatic shift than it may at first seem! The people and ways of life here are drastically different from what we have encountered in the United States. We are finding that many people here, even at a young age, know 3 – 4 languages, a range that you see much less of in the United States. We are also seeing the resiliency and the adaptability of the people here and have heard some say “the people here can deal with anything”. This idea makes much sense when you can see, in one turn of the head, an Imax theater, an autorickshaw, a street-side vendor and a man lying on the street. We look forward to another week with the students and the beginning of our first video projects!