Christmas in India...

Airiin comes back after having been gone for 45 minutes. “It didn’t work again,” she says with a tired voice and throws her small bag on her bed, which is right next to mine. I express my sympathy, because I know how annoying it is to go in vain to the internet place, as we call the only place that has one computer with internet connection in the whole of Bali. Of course the system is dial-up and it only works half the time. If we are lucky and get connected, it takes a good portion of patience from our side to wait for the mail inbox to be opened. Yes, that is one of the reasons why I have not been able to update my blog frequently, but now I trying to make it up! (I just hope the connection will work when I paste it. Obviously, it did eventually since you are now reading it on the net, hehe).
The past month has focused mainly on schoolwork. No exiting camel safaris in this month, but that’s alright, after all teaching is why we are here. All the classes had half-yearly exams in the middle of November. ALL classes from nursery class, where the students are three years old and barely able to speak hindi, till class ten have exams twice a year in all their subjects. These exams are not just easy check-up tests, but real exams and if a student fail a certain percentage, it is right back to the same class next year, no elevation to the next class. It gave me, Sanna and Airiin the chance to understand how bored the IB teachers must have been during our exams in May while observing us writing exams. We only had to give the teachers 15 mins leave twice a day during the exams, but that was enough. Most of the time I tried preventing the students from cheating, which they did at any given opportunity. Handsigns, winks, and even speech was used when they tried to communicate with each other in the class rooms. I was shocked to see how much they cheated, or tried to, but in a way it was maybe understandable, because many of the exams were way too difficult in my opinion.
During the exam time, we were faced with another problem: The man, who hosts the children at the hostel we visit every evening, that is the man who owns the house they live in, had called the principal-ma’am (that is what we all address the female principal as) and told her that we were banned during the exams. In his opinion we did not study probably with the children, while being in the hostel, because the children we all “shouting and running around.” To say that we don’t study with them is really not according to the truth, but it is true that they become excited by our presence, laugh and raise their voices more than usually. It is just an example of the complete difference in the perception of what is good for the children. We think that a combination of fun, laughter and studies is the best, but this man clearly has an imagine of effective studying being absolute focus on the books in complete silence. It would have been futile to try and discuss it with him, so we simply just didn’t show up during the exams and instead I helt some tuitions with my students from the hostel at our home.
We started visiting many of the students homes and it is always a very pleasant and learning experience. I get continuously impressed by the Indians admireable hospitality and friendly nature. When they see strangers like us, they get curious, but in the good way and will do anything to make us feel home and comfortable. It is nothing like in Europe, where peoples first thought is suspicion when they see a stranger with a different skin colour. The other day, when I sent a Christmas parcel to my family, the men in the post office asked me if I missed my family. I admitted that I did, since it was Christmas, but he said that I should not worry, because they would be my family instead! “You have family here also,” he said with a friendly smile, and it is true. It goes with the story that we visit the post office very regularly, because letters now became the main source of contact for us. Welcome to the old days, hehe.
Talking about Christmas, yes, it has also reached little Bali in India, at least for Sanna, Airiin and I. We are trying as much as possible to create a Christmas atmosphere for each other. We have bought advent candles, are planning on performing Lucia for the hostel kids, and we have three socks hanging in our bedroom curtain. Every morning, there is a small gift from Santa Claus, or at least his Indian helper (it varies who of us gets the honour of passing on the gifts, hehe). Additionally, we started doing Christmas decorations with the students in Art and Craft classes (yes, I actually have an Art and Craft class!) and I finally started my choir, which I am now teaching Christmas songs! Lastly, we started organizing a Christmas play about the birth of Jesus, which will be set up the last day of school, which is, to the regret of all three of us, the 24th December (one thing is that we have to go to school on a Saturday, but Christmas Eve!!). It has surprised me a lot, how well informed about Christmas and the story behind it, the students and teachers are. Not because I had expected them to be ignorant generally, but simply because the vast majority of both students and teachers (expect religion teachers perhaps) in Denmark at least, have very little knowledge about Hinduism, let alone Diwali and the story behind this festival, which is equally important for Hindus as Christmas is for Christians. But everyone knows about Jesus and his birth, Santa Claus and Christmas trees although they do not celebrate any of it themselves. They still decorate the school though and do other Christmas things similar to what we do in Europe. I cannot imagine any school in Denmark decorating their classrooms with the elephant god Ganesh around Diwali time and light oil lamps and fire crackers, simply because they do that in India. The only reason I can come up with is the massive influence of Western culture in Asia generally, which is not mutual and therefore the exchange of traditions is only one-way. Anyhow, it is very nice for the three of us to be able to do some Christmas things, because it is true that it is hard to be away from home in this month and I have missed my family more than usual.
There has been a bit of chaos at the school lately, because some teachers have left without notice and the timetable has been changed. But not it seems as if things are settling again and we all just need some time to get back in the rhythm. I discovered the monthly salary of the average teacher at the school: 4000 rupees (500 Dkr or 40€)! Even in India, that is not a high salary. But most of the teachers are women and if their men are also working, it is enough to get by relatively well.
I am thinking a lot about home, friends and family now it is Christmas and I hope you are all enjoying yourselves. India is still treating me very well, although I would probably wish for a Harry Potter wand to transport me to Denmark for a few hours on Christmas Eve and my birthday the 26th.
Merry Christmas to all of you!