One Week Check In

Holy Cow (lol), have I been in India for a week already?!  That's pretty crazy, because I feel like it has been a lot longer in some ways.  So, I believe that I last posted on Sunday, which is perfect because I have been going to work at my organization for three days now.  Why not four?  Well, today, everyone in GSE has been working from home because their is a national strike by the opposition parties to protest the sudden increase in petrol prices.  Lots of shops were going to be closed, and the public transportation systems were supposed to be running, but with double security, so I think an executive decision was made that for safety reasons, we wouldn't be traveling to our work sites.  It is actually surprisingly quiet on the streets today (yes we did venture out to buy snacks, I'm actually quite fond of Indian snack food, perhaps a little bit too much, and we were fine).  Normally, you have to be super vigilant walking along because you could either fall into a hole on the sidewalk (not ideal, they're quite deep), or get run over by a motor vehicle (also not fun), but today I could walk and cross the street with ease because I saw almost no cars, which is HUGE in India.  I usually walk around with my face covered by a scarf to mitigate some of the adverse effects of inhaling car and bus fumes.

Anyway, on Monday, Navee, Parisa and I got on the G4 bus to J P Nagar and made it to Premavidya 15 minutes early!!!  I was also happy to note that on our way to work, we passed by a lady who was mending shoes.  On Saturday, someone stepped on the back of my sandal as I was exiting the bus, and pulled the strap out of the sole (sad times), so I was happy to see that I wouldn't have to go out of my way to get my shoe fixed!  So, Premavidya does not have a project for us to do yet, I believe they would rather give us an orientation week so we could know all and see all things Premavidya.  We were shown two videos about the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (the umbrella organization of Premavidya), and one video on Premavidya.  Then we watched the same two movies over again, this time with live commentary by an HR representative who was late into work because his motorcycle got a flat tire.  Midway through we were served tea (win!), and then we were escorted upstairs to sit in on a lecture by the field coordinator Murali about Project 1947, which is a project through Premavidya which produces academic videos to schools for children in 8th, 9th, and 10th standard so they can pass their SSLC exams and get a certificate.  We were listening to this lecture with a bunch of graduate students from Mysore.  We ate lunch with them (delicious South Indian food, with our hands of course!), and then we went on a site visit to two different government high schools where these Project 1947 videos were being used.  At one site, we saw the SaATh model (Student Advancement Through Teacher Help), also known as the iSSS (technology student support services).  Children sat in groups together on the floor and used portable DVD players to view the videos.  The classroom had a facilitator that monitored the classroom and distributed self evaluation cards so the students can track their own progress and confidence levels for each subject area.  The second model was the SSS, which was a classroom with a single projector that the teacher used to play for the whole class.  These videos used a question/pause/answer format where the teacher could allow for class participation.  If any students had questions in either class, they could write down their questions on "Doubt slips" and give them to the teacher.  This is designed to boost confidence, and to get the children to ask clarifying questions so they don't fall behind in their studies.

Fun Fact:  In India, when you have questions, you have "doubts."  Instead of asking "does anyone have any questions?"  a lecturer will ask "does anybody have any doubts?"  Parisa, Navee and I had a lot of doubts during the presentations, and Murali spent a lot of time clarifying doubts for us.  It was good though, he appreciated how many doubts we had, it showed that we were thinking.

Parisa (left) and Maddy hard at work!

Navee and I working on our video.

The past two days Parisa, Navee, Maddy (who finally joined us!!!!!!), and I have been working on developing our own videos!  The folks at Premavidya wanted us to be familiar with the production process of these videos, so their having each team create a video (on WHATEVER we want) as practice.  There's actually a lot of work involved in making these 20 minute long videos.  You need content experts, who are well versed in the curriculum content and area studies.  These are usually teachers or people who've spent a lot of time working in the education sector.  Then they go to subject matter experts (SME), who put the content into a spreadsheet and PowerPoint presentation.  The quality team checks the SME's work, and changes are made if necessary.  Then the PowerPoints are sent to Techies who synch the PowerPoints with voice overs that are recorded from people in the film industry.  Those finished videos are sent back to Quality again, where they are fixed if needed, and then they are sent to schools for testing.  After the student and teacher feedback, they go through another round of editing where they are finally ready to be distributed to schools.  It's a very intense process.  Navee and I spent the greater part of the first day creating our PowerPoint about tourism in Vermont.  I wanted to do something on Malaysia, since Navee is from Malaysia, but she said no, and Navee is very persuasive.  Parisa and Maddy were doing their video on different types of humor (hey, we were told it could be on anything we wanted).  Yesterday, we recorded the voice overs for our videos.  It was super fun and exciting!  I got to sit in the recording studio and read my script, which I and written the day before.  They told me I had a good "bold" voice, and if I was going to be here for longer they could use me in some of the videos.  I feel that if any of my future career plans fail now, I can always do voice overs for academic videos.  Professor Moledina was on site visiting that day, and he had quite a good time, I think.  He was all smiley, and even did some of the voice over work for Parisa and Maddy's movie.  Now, all we have to do is finish up synching the voice over and the slides, something that Navee and I have been working on today.

Navee and I inspecting our PowerPoint

For a video on Humor, they sure look serious!

I want to talk about public transportation in India, because it's very interesting.  In the morning, I take the G4 bus to work.  It costs 11 rupees.  Most of the time I have to stand because public transportation, especially the non-air conditioned buses, are crowded with people trying to get to work in the morning.  Riding on the bus is fun because it forces me to really wake up.  I have to be alert so I don't go flying through the windshield as the bus bumps and flies down the road.  Anyway, you think that if I take the G4 bus in the morning, I can take it back right?  Apparently, not.  On Monday, we tried taking the G4 bus back to Shanti Nagar, but the conductor got mad at us because apparently Shanti Nagar is not on their route.  So, we got off the bus up the road (free ride, we didn't buy a ticket) and got on a 365 bus to Shanti Nagar, only this Shanti Nagar wasn't the same stop we got on at in the morning.  It was a huge bus station with lots of people and buses, and everything was completely crazy!  So, we got off and took a rickshaw back to Mathyoo Suites, where we are staying.  One of the problems with the rickshaws we've found out is that none of the drivers know where Mathyoo is, nor do they all know the same landmarks around Mathyoo.  It's always a challenge figuring out what to say to them.  We did make an important discovery though on Monday.  Navee speaks Tamil, and we discovered that many people in Bangalore (including rickshaw drivers, and the Uncle who serves us tea at Premavidya) all speak Tamil, so we have a secret weapon.  Navee has been hugely helpful in translating and clarifying our directions to many rickshaw wallahs.  It's been great.  However, taking a rickshaw is much more expensive than taking the bus, so if we could find a direct bus route back from J P Nagar, that would be great.  Okay, so the next day we ask around at the bus stop in the morning to try to find out how these people get home in the evening.  We discovered something important.  The stop we get on at in the morning is called Tollgate.  That would have been helpful to know a few days ago.  Here in Bangalore, none of the stops are labeled, so you have to ask around a lot to be sure you are at the correct place.  We're also told the 365 bus would take us to Tollgate.  That evening we find the bus doesn't go to Tollgate, but it can, take us to Richmond Circle, which is better than the Shanti Nagar bus station, but still about a 15-20 minute walk back to Mathyoo along very busy roads.

Next try: we asked a passing G4 bus if it went to Tollgate.  We got a nod from the driver and attempted to board.  I say attempted, even though we all manage to get "on" I wouldn't consider myself actually "on" the bus as most of my body was hanging out the door as the bus rolled down the street, cars and motorists breezing past me.  The the conductor asks for my bus fare.  Sorry sir, not happening yet, I don't feel like dying right now.  The bus stops then, and of course there's someone in the middle of the bus who wants to get out.  So I have to leave the bus, and get back on, but not without battling my way passed the 10 women trying to squeeze in the front.  I got up a few stairs, which was much better than last time, but still not great.  I had to take my backpack off and put it next to the driver to free up space in the aisle.  More squeezing.  Lost sight of my backpack as the traffic flow pushed me down the bus.  Perfect.  On the plus side, there was no way I was getting pick pocketed since there was no way anyone was moving anything anywhere.  It's also readily apparent in situations like these that I'm a lot bigger than a lot of Indian people.  I often find I'm several inches taller than even the men, and in situations like these, I'm sure they just loved the fact that this white chick was taking up twice as much space on the bus as any one of them.  I'd shrink if I could, but I don't think I can actually pull that off.  Anyway, my backpack comes into view again (courtesy of my height, tiptoes does wonders sometimes), everything was ok.  I was still packed like a sardine onto that bus, and it's only now as I write this that I really appreciate the "women only" section on the bus.  I think this situation may have been about 20 times more awkward if I had been jammed in the bus amongst a bunch of men.  By the time I get of the bus, I'm absolutely soaked with sweat, but the bus took us to the CORRECT bus stop!  So, in the end, that journey was actually a raging success, and I got to have another interesting adventure in India.  You never have fun stories like this if you just drive your car everywhere!