#sevalaya

The view from the top of our accommodation

Some of my adorable LKG kids who I don't know how I'd manage without

Dear Reader,

Happy Diwali! It was a crazy few days leading up to Saturday's celebrations but all of the disrupted classes and overexcited students were worth it for the absolute madness that ensued. It all started on Friday night. After a seemingly particularly long day of teaching children who couldn't stay in their seats out of anticipation for the weekend's events, we spent the evening watching the incredible pre-Diwali fireworks display with the hostel kids. In the UK people would never dream of giving a 7 year old an explosive, but even the youngest children were running around setting off fire-crackers and waving what can only be described strings of flames (I will post pictures of these). The numerous types of fireworks were unlike anything I'd even seen. The girls refer to them as "potas" which I'm assuming is the Tamil name for fire-crackers and shrieks filled the air every time one was lit. There were some that shot up from the ground and then rained down like fountains of burning lights. My favourites were the spiral fireworks, they looked like scattered stars on the ground, swirling at high speed, explosive solar systems of embers. The most unusual of the displays were the "snakes," as the girls call them. They're little brown disks that, when set alight, produce streams of thick ash that grow and twist like serpents. Even just the sparklers here are more spectacular than the type you get in the UK, they shone brighter than anything I'd ever seen as mesmerising streams of glittering sparks cascaded from their tips. Although everything was absolutely breathtaking, aspects of the experience were terrifying as well. Some of the explosions were louder than bombs, the lack of organisation made me anxious and I couldn't help but worry that someone was going to get seriously injured in all the chaos. Luckily, the evening passed without disaster and we went to bed looking forward to what Saturday had in store. 

By the time we got to the girls' hostel at 6am, the girls were already up and running about in their brand new Diwali churidars. Diwali is essentially the Hindu equivalent of Christmas so you can only imagine the excitement that filled the air. Groups of girls bounded up to us as soon as we walked through the hostel gates, showing off their clothes, faces decorated with festive make up and bejewelled bindis which are saved only for special occasions. They immediately shook our hands saying "Happy Deepavali!" and, once spotting our phones, began begging us for photos. I must have taken at least 300 photos throughout the day, on a normal day the girls love having their photo taken but on Diwali when they're all dressed up and full of energy we couldn't go longer than 5 minutes without having someone ask us for a picture. At 7 we went to the main hall for a group prayer. All of the old age residents, hostel kids and staff members sat together and prayed whilst some of the girls sang. It was really lovely to be included in their traditions and seeing all of the children's smiling faces as they were handed "choco pies" when leaving the hall was heartwarming. Immediately after the group prayer we went back into the schoolyard for more fireworks. I still don't quite understand setting off fireworks in the morning but the kids had a great time. It seems as though a lot of the children aren't even that interested in watching the fireworks and prefer to just light them and run off. You can get little match sized sparklers here which the kids use to set off the bigger fireworks and they were all running around, lighting matches and then just chucking them away before they'd even burnt out. One of the highlights of my day was watching Snakes (her real name is Divya, she's 8 and hilarious) lighting match after match and just throwing them at a wall, not stopping for a second to actually watch the flames sparkle before moving onto the next match. It doesn't really sound funny when I write it but Ruby and I could not stop laughing. After the morning fireworks display it was back to the hostel for a few hours for more running around and photo taking. Later we went for a walk through Kasuva to wish the people in the village a Happy Diwali and then returned to our room for a rest before visiting our friend, PVSM, in the old age home. PVSM is 81 years old and speaks almost fluent English. He knows information about absolutely everything, ranging from politics to philosophy to music to religion. The last time we had visited him he mentioned how lonely he always feels on Diwali as he has no family and people forget about him in all of the excitement. He seemed genuinely touched that we had taken time out of our day to visit him and he was really appreciative of the cards that we wrote. 

Finally it was time for the final fireworks of the day. As the last fireworks were set off, I felt a similar kind of disappointment to the feeling I usually get as Christmas comes to an end, just slightly more intense. The day had been so special and memorable and it was sad to think that it could potentially be the last time that I'd ever celebrate Diwali in India. By the time we went for dinner, everyone was exhausted. As you looked around the dining hall you could see that the girls were shattered, even many of the older girls had been asleep on the floor moments before being dragged to supper, their eyes half closed with disheveled hair covering their faces. Although I was sad that Diwali was over, I was just happy to have experienced it at all. 

Dear Reader,

It has now been a month and a half since I arrived in India and I realise that I have been entirely useless at for filling my promise of writing a blog about my time here. Since we’ve arrived it’s been pretty relentless: numerous surprise school holidays, crippling homesickness, an accommodation nightmare, class changes and illness. As well as all of this, a dodgy wifi situation has made it difficult to write regular blog posts, which is a shame because so many interesting, mad and wonderful things have happened since we have arrived. To make up for this lost time I have accumulated some pictures, journal entries and letters home to give you a brief depiction of my life at Sevalaya since I arrived. 

Eventually, after an extremely tumultuous start, I feel like I am now properly settled into my new life. We have given our room a deep clean and decorated it with fairy lights and messages and photos from home. We have gotten used to the food and figured out good local places to visit where we can get nice street food, snacks and chai. We’ve met lots of interesting local people, gotten to know the staff and become particularly fond of the girls who live at the hostel. I’v secured a regular teaching timetable and am enjoying teaching my classes. I teach one LKG (Lower Kinder Garden) class, one class of 6-7 year olds, two classes of 7-8 year olds and one class of ten 12-13 year old slow learner students. We help out in the girls’ hostel in the morning and evening, and visit an old man called PVSM at the old age home in the afternoon, which we love doing. What makes everything easier is that my partner Aleisha and i have been getting on so well: we cheer each other up with funny stories from our classes, help each other out with lesson planning, and during our free time watch and discuss our favourite music, films, and books. 

In between all of this we have been getting autos into Thiruninravur, the nearest town, and have travelled to Chennai, Pondicherry, Yelagiri and Kerala.