Adventures in International Education

We traveled inland to the western Ghat mountains on Wednesday. The country at these upper elevations (about 2500 meters) resembles Stowe, Vermont, with tall peaks, misty vistas, and green green green all around. The monkeys, nationalist demonstrations, and tuk-tuks (auto-rickshaws) are unique to India and many parts of Asia.

The auto-rickshaws provide cheap and accessible transportation. Most in India run on compressed gas to minimize pollution.

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Visiting the Vidyalaya in Wyanad

We visited the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya in Wyanad, a slightly larger sister school to Mahe’s, with 475 residential students. We interrupted the students’ lunch and talked with them in the mess hall. Then, we enjoyed a traditional Malayalam vegetarian meal, modeled on the extensive festival offerings of Kerala Sadya. The meal is served on a plantain (banana) leaf and usually eaten with the fingers, although our hosts made concessions for my American ineptitude and included a spoon at my place setting. This celebratory meal has a long history and tradition in Kerala state culture, with its Malayalam influence.

Each portion occupies a specific place on the plantain leaf and the diner can begin eating when the rice and sambar have been served. “A full-course Sadya, which consists of rice with about twenty different accompaniments and desserts is the ceremonial meal of Kerala eaten usually on celebratory occasions including marriages, Onam and Vishu. It is served on a plantain leaf” (Wikipedia).

On our two-hour drive, we learned that coconuts, bananas, and betel nut grow plentifully in Kerala state. Most dishes contain coconut and banana in some form. Because of the region’s location on the Arabian Sea, as well as many rivers, fish occupy a central portion of the menu. Rice and tapioca comprise the main starch in the Kerala diet.

The region produces prodigious amounts of spices, as we saw when we visited a spice market in the afternoon. Black pepper, cardamom, clove, ginger, and cinnamon play central roles in the cuisine—and we found that fresh cinnamon bark is both sweet and HOT!

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Peter Boller, the in-country coordinator for IREX, joined us for the trip to the school.

My English Lesson

Gerald and I spent the afternoon teaching. I reprised my lesson about idioms from the previous day, but with a little more preparation. It turned out that this class was a study hall. They laughed when I said they could do homework instead of listening to me. So, I began by asking a few questions:

What is an idiom? Can we break it down? An idiom is more than the words it contains. I then wrote an individual idiom on the chalkboard

Note: Mr. McQuinn would be happy with Indian classrooms: Not a white board or SmartBoard in sight! Everything goes on a chalkboard. I’m glad Marc taught me how to use chalk! But I do miss the technology of a document camera.

• Don’t cut any corners.
• Break a leg!
• Actions speak louder than words.
• When chickens have teeth … (from the French)

Thanks to Rathnakaran’s help in finding an online copy of Emily Dickinson’s poem “Nobody,” I spent the rest of the period deconstructing a poem.

I gave the students some pencils for their correct answers and they gave me drawings thanking me for visiting their school. Selfies were the order of the day as well as plants and cuttings from local trees.

Afternoon Activities

The day concluded with a drive to Pookode Lake and buying spices and tea at a local shop. We drove by the Wyanad Overlook and saw the monkeys.