The First Week of School

It's Friday night. Widi is out at a TGIF happy hour, John is babysitting for the two kids pictured in the first post, and I'm here enjoying a couple cold Kingfishers and just chillin'.

Well, as it turns out, I'm part of the elementary administrative team, only teaching 90 minutes a day, and managing the ESL department...coordinating new student testing, making schedules, and holding meetings. I'm excited to meet my fourth grade absolute beginners on Monday morning. Widi's loving his advanced-level high school students and his low beginners; he's taking over the ESL computer lab and helping everyone, everywhere, as usual.

It's been a week of harrowing rides with a maniac auto-rickshaw driver. The fumes you won't get from the video clip, but the bumping, two-wheel turns, and constant horn-honking will give you a little of what it's like. Notice John in the rear view mirror. Today, however, we got our 2007 Tata Safari Decor, a 7-seat SUV. The rule of the road here is bigger is better. It will be a nice travel vehicle with room for friends and any guests who come to visit. What a difference it was to have John, our wonderful non-deathwish driver, and air-conditioned quiet on our ride home today.

It reaches 100-103 degrees Fahrenheit every day and is quite humid. Someone made the comment recently, "What till it gets hot." Evidently, May and June is the real hot season when temperatures really soar. I can't imagine it any hotter than it already is. So we'll be high-tailing it out of here as soon as school is out in early June! It appears that Pat is close to getting a lease signed by three undergraduate boys who will be out of our house at the end of May...

John has had a great week. The global recession has hit some of the multinationals and enrollment is down at the middle and high school, so there are only 8 students in his English/Social Studies classes and 12 in Algebra/Science. He loves his teachers and has made several friends. He's a happy boy. Couldn't convince him to go out for swim team, however, but he is interested in playing volleyball. He was so excited go out babysitting tonight; of course, it didn't hurt that Widi said if he charged 100 rupees/hour, the equivalent of $2/hour, he'd match it. He was very excited to see the little 4 and 6 year olds. He's hoping for gigs with the two-year-olds, and I bet those parents are too.

Here's a picture of Latchmi and Sonia the two lovely front-office receptionists at school.

Here's Suresh with dinner, all covered because we came home late after shopping (with the maniac) for a printer and John's school supplies. The Commute clip is not uploading very easily; I'll try adding it again later...