Okay, I know I titled this blog ‘A Day in the Life’, but don’t assume that this was every day for me. What I did in a day throughout the year changed, as I found new activities, changed host families and became more comfortable in Pune. Also what I did on a given day in a week changed as well. So I am just going good to describe one day, and I will mention whether things happened every day or once a week, etc.
7:45- Wake up and Breakfast
My favorite was poha or bhakri and honey.
8:20- Catch the bus to school
Catching the bus was an interesting experience in India. There was no bus schedule, the busses sometimes decided not to stop, and there was no capacity limit. So sometimes I had to run to get on to a bus where there were people almost hanging out the door.
8:45- Full school assembly
During this time the students stood in lines according to their grade outside the school and began the day together. Everyday students sang a prayer, the national anthem and celebrated fellow students birthdays. Also every week one grade was assigned to share one thing a day (motivational quote, trivia question, what they are studying, etc.)
9:00- 4:00- School
School involved so many different activities throughout the day and I will try to explain some here, but more will follow in another blog. Somethings I would do included assisting my mentor in whole class, eating lunch with my students and running small intervention classes with 3 or 4 students to help them catch up with the other students.
10:30 and 2:45- Chai
During the school day one of the helper didi’s would come bring a small cup of chai to all of the teachers as we were teaching throughout the school.
4:20- Head to the market
After school I would do many different things depending on the day, but I loved to just go roaming through different markets and stores.
6:30-8:30 Tabla Lesson
One thing I did to fill my time was to take tabla lessons. The instrument called the tabla actually refers to a pair of drums, the tabla (the small one) and the dugga (the big one). It is a classical Indian instrument that is an accompaniment to many songs. Throughout the yearI went through periods of taking the lessons in both a private and a group setting.
9:30- Dinner With My Host Family
Dinner was one of the few times in the day where I could count on seeing and connecting with my family. We both had pretty busy days that meant we were in the house at different times, but almost every night we sat down for a dinner of bhakri(millet tortilla) and subhji(vegetables) and sometimes we would also have rice and dal(lentils).
