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kayleygoestolondon · 6 years

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My Week In India

Without a doubt, the week I just spent in New Delhi was the most profound experience of my entire life. It was humbling, eye-opening, and completely life-changing. I’m so glad I decided to sign up for the Impact trip rather than use my half-term break for a personal holiday.

I would never have had the courage to go to India on my own or with a friend. This was a great opportunity for me to experience the country and the culture in a way that felt comfortable and safe. At the same time, I got to work with local teachers and make a genuine difference. For those that don’t know, Impact Teachers is the recruitment agency that I work for in the UK and they do several teacher training trips throughout the year. This year, they have been working with a variety of Indian schools and this was the third and final trip of the year. Their goal is to help teachers in developing countries to improve their practices by providing observational feedback and professional development seminars. Most of the teachers in the schools we visited were young women with very little professional experience or training. Here’s a breakdown of what my week looked like...

Day 1 (Saturday) - Arrival

I flew into New Delhi International Airport (8 hour flight... bleeeeeeh) with Alex and Mary, who both work for Impact. We arrived at 1 in the morning local time and it’s safe to say that I had the worst airport experience of my life. A mob of people were waiting to have their tourist visas checked, but there really weren’t visible queues, so everyone just pushed and shoved their way through. It was hot and insanely crowded. It took 3 hours for us to get to the counters to have our visas checked and fingerprints scanned. As per usual, my fingerprints didn’t scan - I blame this on my extremely dry lizard skin - so I had a moment of panic and assumed that I wouldn’t be allowed into the country. Eventually I got waved through and we hung around the airport for a bit to wait for Luke, another teacher who arrived shortly after us.

Our cab ride to the hotel was... eventful. Our cabbie drove like a bat out of hell and I had my first whiff of “Delhi smell”. Spoiler alert: Delhi smells like farts 90% of the time. We made it to the hotel around 6 AM. Grateful to just be alive at this point, I promptly passed out for a couple hours.

We had breakfast at the hotel and then went for a little walk around the neighbourhood. This was my introduction to Delhi traffic. The horns... the horns! Nobody signals so everyone just honks incessantly. The honking isn’t angry. It’s more of a “hey fellow drivers i am here just so u know” honking. Additionally, nobody drives in lanes so the flow of traffic is complete chaos. There are bikes and tuk-tuks everywhere. There also aren’t sidewalks, so you basically walk along the edge of the street and just hope you don’t get run down. Thankfully the drivers are pretty good about avoiding you or stopping when you try to cross the road.

The hotel we stayed at is in a part of Delhi where you wouldn’t find many foreigners. Because of this, our little group was a bit of a novelty. We were definitely the only white people I saw while we were walking around. People stared at us constantly. Men would call out at us and ask how much our dowry was. That was part of the trip I never got used to... whenever we went anywhere, people stared and it was really uncomfortable. My initial reaction is to assume something is wrong with my face.

Day Two (Sunday) - The Taj Mahal

By Sunday, more of our crew had arrived to the hotel and some of us set off in a cab to Agra, which is where you’d find the Taj Mahal. It was a solid 3 hour cab ride. I got a chance to see some more of the city on the way out. Delhi is a very contradictory place. Some of the buildings are new and very modern looking. Other areas are total slums where people sleep under tarps and there are massive garbage piles everywhere. The city is full of stray dogs and cows wandering around. Overall, I’d just say it’s entirely overwhelming and an assault on your senses.

Agra was (to put it bluntly) a shithole. I really only saw the area directly outside the Taj, but it was filthy and full of beggars/people aggressively trying to sell you souvenir trinkets. The Taj itself was smaller in person than I expected, but it was still a cool experience and something I’m glad I got to check off my bucket list. The grounds are stunning. The only problem is that there are 8 million tourists there all trying to get the perfect selfie and they WILL push you out of the way. I had random people come up to me and ask to take selfies with me (presumably because I am white). At first I said yes, but then a bunch of others flocked to me... so after the third one I panicked and had to run away.

The inside of the Taj is actually a major disappointment. There’s basically nothing in it aside from the king and queen’s tombs, but it is super dark and they just herd you through like cattle.

Unsurprisingly, I slept the entire way home in the cab :-) Once we were back to the hotel, we had dinner and a meeting to prepare for our first day in the schools

Day Three (Monday) - First Day in the Schools

My group’s first school was called JGM Primary. At this school, I worked with a teacher named Meenu. She’s probably the most inspiring teacher I have ever seen. She has been teaching for 7 years, so unlike a lot of the others, she has quite a bit of experience. She was super eager to receive feedback and learn how to improve her teaching. To be honest, she was already very good and I actually learned some things from watching her. She takes her job very seriously and it was obvious that she’s passionate about what she does. Her students absolutely adore her.

At every school I went to (and every single time), whenever I entered the room, all of the students would stand up and in unison they would say something like, “Good morning, teacher! Nice to see you today!” They would remain standing until I had taken my seat. It was totally adorable and really demonstrates the type of respect the kids in these schools have for teachers (or all adults, really).

Our second school, Swarn Bharti, was having a special celebration for older students so we weren’t able to observe any lessons. Instead we got to go to a few classrooms and see the cards that kids were making for their teachers. Absolutely stunning work. Whenever you complimented a child on their artwork, they beamed with pride. They are so incredibly modest about it.

Our third school was Adharshila Convent School. The headteacher invited us in and gave us juice and crisps. He had students dressed up in costumes to welcome us in ... they were soooo cute (although we weren’t sure what all of them were supposed to be). I observed a teacher named Deepika, whose students were probably around 7 years old.

The classroom shocked me. The walls were pretty much bare concrete and it had no interior light. The only light source was one window cut into the wall and a small reading light attached to the top of the blackboard. It’s shocking how little these schools have, but they make do with what they’ve got and they are unwaveringly hardworking and positive. It amazes me that the people who have so little are the ones who complain the least. It put my own life problems into perspective in a way I’ve never experienced before. I realized how lucky and privileged I am compared to the majority of these people... I really need to start being more grateful for that.

At our last school, City Modern, there were no lessons to observe as the teachers had the day off. The hotel delivered lunch to us at the school and we waited for teachers from our previous schools to arrive in the afternoon for the first seminar. We also met with the teachers we observed and provided them with our feedback.

All in all, the first day in the schools was amazing. I felt an overwhelming sense of purpose. I also felt really proud because I successfully peed in a squat toilet. You know... accomplishments.

Day Four (Tuesday) - Second Day in Schools

This day was much like the previous day, though I got to observe teachers at the other two schools as well. It was cool to see a variety of lessons with different student age groups. It also surprised me how much I could understand a lesson that was entirely in Hindi.

We found out we were going to have Wednesday off due to a public religious holiday, so we went out for drinks that night at a nearby bar. There was a Sikh birthday party happening there so we got to see some awesome dancing. We also had a ton of laughs. I was fortunate that I got to be with a really great group of people for the trip. We had quite a mix of people - Irish, Welsh, English, Kiwi, Aussie, Turkish ... I was the only Canadian so naturally I impressed everyone with my politeness and my explanations of Canadian slang, eh

Day Five (Wednesday) - Tourist Day

Because we had the day off, we got the chance to do some more tourist things. We went on a walking tour of Old Delhi in the morning, which took us down some extremely narrow and winding roads full of shops selling shoes, glasses, and food. The weather was perfect (26 and sunny) and our guide was very informative. We ended at a huge mosque right around the time they were doing a call to prayer. Sitting on the steps in the sunshine, watching the people and traffic go by, was a pretty incredible moment.

We did pass by a McDonald’s, which was advertising ice cream for only 19 rupees (probably like the equivalent of 5 cents). I was extremely disappointed that I did not get to take advantage of this because I definitely would have had 10 ice creams

At the end of the tour, we walked past the Red Fort which is quite famous. We decided not to go in because we were hot/tired and wanted to go back to the hotel for lunch.

That evening, we went to Akshardham Temple. It’s the biggest Hindu temple in the world and it is 100% more beautiful than the Taj Mahal. The grounds are massive and beautifully tended. The building is intricately carved marble. You have to remove your shoes before entering. Wandering the temple and reading about the history of their religion was an amazing experience. Afterwards, we went to the back of the grounds for a lights/water show. It was SO COOL. Hands down one of the best parts of the trip. Unfortunately, at Akshardham you cannot bring anything in with you... so I have no photos or videos (but you can Google it).

Day Six/Seven (Thursday/Friday) - Wrapping Up The Week

Thursday found us back into the schools to continue observations. It was amazing to see the teachers already implementing the suggestions we’d given them into their lessons. They take your feedback so seriously because they just want be better for their students.

On Thursday afternoon, I had to present a seminar on Scaffolding & Extensions, which I had worked on with Ellie and Can (two other teachers).

Thursday night we went to Dilli Haat, which is a huge market in southern Delhi. We got some henna done and then bought traditional Indian outfits to wear to the schools on Friday. They had so many beautiful things there to buy - pashmina scarves, gorgeous jewelry, shoes, tons of food. I would have liked to spend more time there.

Friday was an emotional day. It was our last day in the schools. Meenu’s class sang me a goodbye song, which was freaking adorable and almost had me in tears. At the Convent School, they gathered all of the students and teachers in the main hall and then sat us at head tables. They blessed us and gave us bindis (the red dot on the forehead) with rice as a sign of goodwill. Some students put on a dance performance for us. The dancing was so wonderful... and at the end of their songs, they pulled us all up to dance with them. I had so much fun doing it and I felt so welcomed into their culture on that day.

In the afternoon, we had a celebration! Because this was the third and final trip of the year, the teachers were officially “graduating” from the training program so we presented them with certificates. We played some games, sang songs, and had food. LOTS of selfies were taken and gifts exchanged. I was totally taken aback when some of my teachers gave me gifts. They have so little, yet they still wanted to give me something. It was so touching and very emotional.

That night, we had our “last supper” together at the hotel in the evening and got packed up. The majority of us were flying out that night so we headed to the airport together. It was nice to have company at the airport and on the way home.

Leaving was very bittersweet - I was looking forward to coming home to have a proper shower and sleep in my own bed, but I really feel like I could have stayed and done more within the schools. I unexpectedly fell in love with Delhi and Indian culture, and this experience has changed my heart forever. On the bright side, it has given me renewed motivation for my own job back in London so hopefully I am good to go for work tomorrow!

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