I also picked up the role of 2nd grade gym co-teacher. The kindergarten and first grade basically have recess during this time everyday and then the one gym teacher is given 2-5 all at once. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade practice their marching drills for Sports Day (which is a one day event at the end of the winter semester that I'll get in to later) and this was just too much for the 2nd grade in the middle of the afternoon. So we played kick ball, and tag games, and camp games for an hour each day. As it got closer to sports day we started training for our events. I was in charge of the girls cart wheel race. Let me tell you, 11 seven year old girls trying very hard to do cart wheels and instead falling on their faces is very cute.
Sports day arrived in the last week before the school closed for vacation. We had a half day of classes and then everyone went back to their dorms to rest and get into house colors. The four houses were made up of 1/4 of every grade. Each grade had at least two events and all the events scored the same (3 points for 1st place, 2 points for 2nd, 1 point for 3rd). This meant that the kindergarten "Button the Shirt" race was worth just as much as the high school basket ball tournament.
The event began with an opening ceremony, team presentation, marching drills, and the team captains relaying a torch around the field and finally lighting the big torch together.
Because there are no other schools for Shanti Bhavan to compete against, sports day is taken pretty seriously as the only chance the students get to compete physically and be honored for their skills. As far as all of the ceremony - I think it is more looked as more on the level of family tradition - it's important because we do it every year and we do it every year because it's important. A few of the teachers were given a mic to commentate through out the afternoon and took every chance to poke a little fun at the ceremony of it all. Events ranged from "lemon on a spoon races" and "sack races" to proper track and field events to cycling races.
My cart wheel pupils were INCREDIBLE! I was very very proud.
The final event (and the only event to last beyond that evening) was a 4 day basket ball tournament. Two houses played each morning before breakfast. Each quarter had new players (middle school boys, middle school girls, high school boys, high school girls). The points would continue to build with each new set of players - again making the high school boy captain very invested in even the middle school girls team. The whole event is very well thought out and lots of fun.
Also in my last week at Shanti Bhavan we celebrated Christmas. (Over all a very very exciting week). The 11th grade took on the task of the Christmas party. It was amazing. As the children walked in - the school choir was singing carols. The decorations were beautiful and almost all hand made (you can't really run to Target for this sort of thing here). After a few songs with the choir - the lights cut out mid song - a drum started beating at one end of the cafeteria - and as every looked for the drum a red light turned on in the kitchen (behind the crowd), everyone turned around to see Santa climbing down a latter (next to the chimney). The choir - started singing again and 100 - ish children all under the age of 10 began cheering and screaming with amazing excitement. I mean - I help dress Auntie Annie up in the Santa costume before hand - but it was all very convincing. This was followed by a "Yule Ball". For a high school - they don't get to have many dances - so the 11th grade took the opportunity and ran with it. They put every member of the staff teachers and students names in hats and pulled one boy and one girl to come up and dance in front of the school to half a song before adding another couple. The principal got called, the dreamy-est boy in the high school danced with a 1st grader.
Then there were games, then Christmas dinner - and this is when Santa came around with a gift (3 candy bars wrapped up neatly - but in newspaper) for every student.
Finally the little kids went to bed and the middle school and high school got to stay up and dance for hours later than normal curfew. (Resulting in the next morning's basket ball game to be postponed to the afternoon.)
This unbelievable last week ended on a very serious note. Every semester, on the day before holiday the students are talked to about sexual harassment. Most of the students will go home to some sort of either physical or sexual abuse - not always by their families - neighbors seem to be a bigger concern. When parents go to work for the day - their is no one around to help keep the children safe.
After classes, and sports day, and Christmas, and these students being so much fun, so intelligent, so hard working, and so normal - it was easy for me to occasionally forget what everyone was going home to. And - of course, I had these talks in school too - what to do if you are sexually harassed -how to get out of a bad situation. And I always listened, paid attention, took it seriously - but in the back of my head I knew there as a good chance I would never have to use it.
So, this post ended up being much longer then I intended. Again, the school NEEDS volunteers for the new year. If you can't come keep and ear out for anyone looking to do volunteer work. Even if it can't be until later in the spring. A handful of you showed interest in going. I can't express how easy it is to be able to have this incredible experience.
Merry Christmas. I hope you are all well.
