6:45am - The daily morning wake up call from Padma Aunty banging rapidly on our door shouting 'M'AM, LAPTOP ROOM KEYS?', coming to collect the keys for the computer lab which we, as usual, failed to bring back down to the office from the night before.
7:30am - The calm and gentle lull of Katrina & The Waves' 'Walking on Sunshine' fills the room. El and I are shivering under our thin blankets from where we thought it would be a good idea to sleep with the fan on all night.
8:15am - Finally decide to emerge out of bed after hitting the snooze button a good six times. The early morning sunshine creeps through the cracks of where we've covered the gaping hole in our window with cardboard and tape. I sleepily boil the kettle for a bucket wash and open a new door of the Maltesers advent calendar my mother very kindly sent me in the post. Of course, I could brave an actual shower, but as it is now officially a freezing cold winter in Hyderabad (a good 25 degrees on a cold day), I'd much rather have a nice hot kettle bucket of water and a jug over psyching my self up for the freezing cold shower. It's actually really refreshing!
8:40am - El heads downstairs for breakfast. As I have a strict 'no rice before 12pm' rule, I stay in the room getting ready, which involves choosing which one of my many pairs of jazzy trousers to wear, deck my self from head to toe in all of my new Indian jewelry, and recently, clean my newly pierced nose with coconut oil. My breakfast usually consists of fruit or biscuits El has smuggled up from downstairs after she's finished eating khichdi *shudders*. Very occasionally, the school has idly and nice bread for breakfast, which means I may just wake up on time and venture downstairs.
9:40am - Assembly. El and I usually fall into a post breakfast nap and are abruptly woken up by the assembly bell, and often find ourselves running downstairs with toothpaste still around our mouths just in time for the morning prayer. Assemblies are lead by a different group of students each morning, and starts with a roll call, morning prayer, and then the singing of the Telangana state anthem, which we are trying our hardest to learn. We join in with it every morning and manage to pick up a new bit each time. After the students have sung (which most mornings feels like a good ten minutes of singing), Lily M'am, the principle of the school, makes the announcements and shares news. Often there are certificates and prizes to be handed out from functions the day before, or students will take this opportunity to sing a song or recite a poem. I then make my way over to the LKG line where I'm greeted with an enthusiastic 'Good morning Teacher!', and help Anna M'am, the LKG teacher, get the little ones up the two flights of stairs to their class room. As there are so many of them and most are visually impaired, if not completely blind, this can be quite the task as children at this point are running here there and everywhere trying to get to their class on time. Before our LKG lesson, Elena and I often visit the printing room the help the teachers out with the printing of Braille text books. This often involves correcting all the mistakes from where the books have been scanned in and helping to scan new text books in.
11:30am - Elena and mine's joint LKG lesson. LKG get their snacks, water and a toilet break at 11:20am, so Elena and I arrive to their classroom just at the end of this (and, thanks to the very kind Lavenya Auntie, are allowed to help ourselves to snacks as well.) If Anna M'am teacher is absent, we usually take cover for her and have already, at this point, taught LKG for an hour and a half. If not, we are greeted again with an angelic chorus of 'Good morning Teacher!' However, as soon as Anna M'am and Lavenya Auntie leave, the chaos starts. The novelty of two English teachers have not worn off on this lot yet, and when the door closes, we are attacked with shouts of 'LOTTIE M'AM TEACHER, BOMBALOO' (toys). The LKG lesson usually consists of singing songs, playing with toys, and helping the children who need it to work on their mobility movement through completing activities such as putting beads on strings and puzzles. Easy job, right? Wrong! The class have got so much energy and are literally bouncing off the walls, but Elena and I love them none the less, and LKG have become one of our favourite classes to take. When we're in a good mood we'll take the plastic slide and sea saws out into the hallway, with balls and hulla hoops, and take them for one big all dancing, all singing PE lesson. By the end of it we're absolutely pooped, but we love it.
12:45pm - 1:45pm - LUNCH! Elena and I always eat second batch with the older children as first batch is always chaotic and busy with the little ones. This gives us time to chill out after LKG for twenty minutes or so. Lunch usually consists of traditional veggie south Indian curries and rice (surprise, surprise), and though I had my struggles with the food at first, I've grown to absolutely adore the food they serve here at Devnar, finishing every portion and often asking for seconds. It may not seem like much, but anyone who knows me well will know how fussy I was with food this time last year. If I went to an Indian restaurant I wouldn't venture further than lamb tikka with cheese naan bread, but now I've been introduced to a whole new world of delicious spicy potato curries, weird unknown vegetables that taste heavenly, and biriyani rice, there's no going back. Often, when it's a donor's birthday or there's a special occasion, lunch will be donated, and will often include yummy bread, crisps and sweet for pudding.
1:45pm - 3:45pm - Afternoon lessons. Elena and I usually take one or two lessons each in the afternoon. I know I'm not supposed to have favourites, but I really enjoy teaching my older 8th class. It's a complete change to the chaos of LKG in the morning, and I get to teach them biology (I say 'teach', I dictate from a text book while they take notes in braille. But I'm learning too!). It's fun to pretend I'm an actual biology teacher and have an actual syllabus to work from even though I still have no idea how the cloning process works. For my other classes I read them stories from a book El's parents sent her about the history of the Kings and Queens of England, followed by questions at the end. When they've been good I finish a lesson with a game of Simon Says, which they absolutely love. When we don't have a lesson we'll go back to the printing room or computer room to see if our help is needed anywhere.
3:45pm - 7:00pm - After school time varies each day. Some days, El and I take this opportunity to take an auto to Secunderabad market to score some bargains and stock up on bulk boxes of sweets, or visit the British Council library on Necklace Road which I've recently become a member of. If not, we usually meet up after our lessons and swap notes in the computer lab while catching up on social medias and having a chill out. There's always a snack bell sometime between 4 and 5pm, which can be anything from a packet of biscuits, to birthday cake that's been donated, to samosas, burgers, fruits and mango juice. Most evenings now at 5pm we take dance rehearsals for the Christmas nativity. At the moment, we are teaching the children a dance to 'Let it Go' from Frozen that they will perform in the play. Initially it was difficult to get the choreography across to a group of blind students, but they've worked so hard and are really picking up on the dance. It's really easy to get cross during rehearsals when they're chatting and not listening, but when they've learnt new steps and are still practicing by themselves later that evening, it makes it all worth it. When they've been really good we finish off the hour of dancing by dancing about to the song 'Happy' and generally muck about. El and I then flop down in our room, completely exhausted but usually happy with our days work. This is followed by heading downstairs with our books to sit outside and read, though this is always interrupted by children wanting to play with us, not that we mind! We muck about with the kids or sit with Padma and her son Sai in the office with Sai Sethwick, one of our LKG students who is actual comedy gold, and chat and laugh and muck about.
7:30pm - 8:30pm (ish) - DINNER! Again, Elena and I eat second batch, which is even more quiet in the evenings due to the students that go home for dinner. It's really nice to sit and eat dinner with the aunties and the older boys when it's quiet and you can have a proper conversation. Again we are treated to delicious south Indian curries, and again if there are donations in the evening, we may have chicken curry (twice a month) or egg curry (a few times a month), followed by birthday cake or sweet if it's a donor's birthday. Evenings are usually my favourite time at Devnar - it's really chilled out and it's so nice to be surrounded by your students and the staff even when school's over.
8:30pm onwards - Again, our after dinner time varies each evening. Sometime's Elena and I 'roam' (walk with our arms around each other across the courtyard like the students do), sit and chat with the older boys and Sai, go upstairs to the dormitories and sit and chat with the older girls, or muck about with the little ones until we tire them out and then help put them to bed. On numerous occasions, students have come up to us as late as 9 or 10pm and ask to dictate their homework for them, ready for the next day. This can be infuriating, but then we remember that that's what we came here to do, and it actually ends up being rather enjoyable. El and I often make an 'after dinner plan', which usually involves us doing our own thing and doing our washing, working out or doing lesson plans for the next day. I try and work out every evening to keep the effects of the numerous curries I'm consuming at bay, and El joins in most evenings to motivate me, which is fab. We then head to the computer lab at about 9:30/10pm, where we watch a movie or the Graham Norton show on Youtube, often accompanied by a packet of biscuits of chocolate from the corner shop (another reason I force my self to work out as often as possible.)
Midnight - El is a night owl so I tend to leave her in the computer lab to do her own thing and head for bed, completely pooped from our day. I always leave the light on for her and the door on the latch, then snuggle down and read or listen to music, before going to sleep and getting up the next day and doing it all over again.
Of course, each new day at Devnar varies completely to the one before, which is why I love it here so much. We could be woken up at 7am and told to put our sari's on and find ourselves in a bus twenty minutes later on our way to a school trip. Our most recent one consisted of us being driven to the Sai Junior College, the equivalent of Sixth Form College to Devnar School, and accompanying the older students to a 5* hotel near Hyderabad airport, where a program was being held in their honour. We spent the day dancing, singing, eating yummy food and stealing all the free water bottles, and we're treated so well by the incredible staff at the hotel. After we were bundled back onto the bus with bags of food to take home, El and I straightened our sari's and looked at each other as if to say 'Is this really our job?' Of course not all days are as luxurious as those and the ones that are are considered a real treat. Some days we wake up to find there are no lessons at all with no warning the night before due to a festival or national holiday or exam season, which can leave us feeling a bit useless, but are most appreciated if it's followed by four days straight of lessons and science projects. I think my favourite part of my life here is the uncertainty of each day - I wake up in the morning not knowing what's going to happen and knowing that anything could happen. It's truly magical.
I hope you enjoyed this insight into a day in the life of Lottie M'am Teacher! To finish it off, here are some photos from the past month to update you on what I've been up to.
Stay happy,
L x
7:30am - The calm and gentle lull of Katrina & The Waves' 'Walking on Sunshine' fills the room. El and I are shivering under our thin blankets from where we thought it would be a good idea to sleep with the fan on all night.
8:15am - Finally decide to emerge out of bed after hitting the snooze button a good six times. The early morning sunshine creeps through the cracks of where we've covered the gaping hole in our window with cardboard and tape. I sleepily boil the kettle for a bucket wash and open a new door of the Maltesers advent calendar my mother very kindly sent me in the post. Of course, I could brave an actual shower, but as it is now officially a freezing cold winter in Hyderabad (a good 25 degrees on a cold day), I'd much rather have a nice hot kettle bucket of water and a jug over psyching my self up for the freezing cold shower. It's actually really refreshing!
8:40am - El heads downstairs for breakfast. As I have a strict 'no rice before 12pm' rule, I stay in the room getting ready, which involves choosing which one of my many pairs of jazzy trousers to wear, deck my self from head to toe in all of my new Indian jewelry, and recently, clean my newly pierced nose with coconut oil. My breakfast usually consists of fruit or biscuits El has smuggled up from downstairs after she's finished eating khichdi *shudders*. Very occasionally, the school has idly and nice bread for breakfast, which means I may just wake up on time and venture downstairs.
9:40am - Assembly. El and I usually fall into a post breakfast nap and are abruptly woken up by the assembly bell, and often find ourselves running downstairs with toothpaste still around our mouths just in time for the morning prayer. Assemblies are lead by a different group of students each morning, and starts with a roll call, morning prayer, and then the singing of the Telangana state anthem, which we are trying our hardest to learn. We join in with it every morning and manage to pick up a new bit each time. After the students have sung (which most mornings feels like a good ten minutes of singing), Lily M'am, the principle of the school, makes the announcements and shares news. Often there are certificates and prizes to be handed out from functions the day before, or students will take this opportunity to sing a song or recite a poem. I then make my way over to the LKG line where I'm greeted with an enthusiastic 'Good morning Teacher!', and help Anna M'am, the LKG teacher, get the little ones up the two flights of stairs to their class room. As there are so many of them and most are visually impaired, if not completely blind, this can be quite the task as children at this point are running here there and everywhere trying to get to their class on time. Before our LKG lesson, Elena and I often visit the printing room the help the teachers out with the printing of Braille text books. This often involves correcting all the mistakes from where the books have been scanned in and helping to scan new text books in.
11:30am - Elena and mine's joint LKG lesson. LKG get their snacks, water and a toilet break at 11:20am, so Elena and I arrive to their classroom just at the end of this (and, thanks to the very kind Lavenya Auntie, are allowed to help ourselves to snacks as well.) If Anna M'am teacher is absent, we usually take cover for her and have already, at this point, taught LKG for an hour and a half. If not, we are greeted again with an angelic chorus of 'Good morning Teacher!' However, as soon as Anna M'am and Lavenya Auntie leave, the chaos starts. The novelty of two English teachers have not worn off on this lot yet, and when the door closes, we are attacked with shouts of 'LOTTIE M'AM TEACHER, BOMBALOO' (toys). The LKG lesson usually consists of singing songs, playing with toys, and helping the children who need it to work on their mobility movement through completing activities such as putting beads on strings and puzzles. Easy job, right? Wrong! The class have got so much energy and are literally bouncing off the walls, but Elena and I love them none the less, and LKG have become one of our favourite classes to take. When we're in a good mood we'll take the plastic slide and sea saws out into the hallway, with balls and hulla hoops, and take them for one big all dancing, all singing PE lesson. By the end of it we're absolutely pooped, but we love it.
12:45pm - 1:45pm - LUNCH! Elena and I always eat second batch with the older children as first batch is always chaotic and busy with the little ones. This gives us time to chill out after LKG for twenty minutes or so. Lunch usually consists of traditional veggie south Indian curries and rice (surprise, surprise), and though I had my struggles with the food at first, I've grown to absolutely adore the food they serve here at Devnar, finishing every portion and often asking for seconds. It may not seem like much, but anyone who knows me well will know how fussy I was with food this time last year. If I went to an Indian restaurant I wouldn't venture further than lamb tikka with cheese naan bread, but now I've been introduced to a whole new world of delicious spicy potato curries, weird unknown vegetables that taste heavenly, and biriyani rice, there's no going back. Often, when it's a donor's birthday or there's a special occasion, lunch will be donated, and will often include yummy bread, crisps and sweet for pudding.
1:45pm - 3:45pm - Afternoon lessons. Elena and I usually take one or two lessons each in the afternoon. I know I'm not supposed to have favourites, but I really enjoy teaching my older 8th class. It's a complete change to the chaos of LKG in the morning, and I get to teach them biology (I say 'teach', I dictate from a text book while they take notes in braille. But I'm learning too!). It's fun to pretend I'm an actual biology teacher and have an actual syllabus to work from even though I still have no idea how the cloning process works. For my other classes I read them stories from a book El's parents sent her about the history of the Kings and Queens of England, followed by questions at the end. When they've been good I finish a lesson with a game of Simon Says, which they absolutely love. When we don't have a lesson we'll go back to the printing room or computer room to see if our help is needed anywhere.
3:45pm - 7:00pm - After school time varies each day. Some days, El and I take this opportunity to take an auto to Secunderabad market to score some bargains and stock up on bulk boxes of sweets, or visit the British Council library on Necklace Road which I've recently become a member of. If not, we usually meet up after our lessons and swap notes in the computer lab while catching up on social medias and having a chill out. There's always a snack bell sometime between 4 and 5pm, which can be anything from a packet of biscuits, to birthday cake that's been donated, to samosas, burgers, fruits and mango juice. Most evenings now at 5pm we take dance rehearsals for the Christmas nativity. At the moment, we are teaching the children a dance to 'Let it Go' from Frozen that they will perform in the play. Initially it was difficult to get the choreography across to a group of blind students, but they've worked so hard and are really picking up on the dance. It's really easy to get cross during rehearsals when they're chatting and not listening, but when they've learnt new steps and are still practicing by themselves later that evening, it makes it all worth it. When they've been really good we finish off the hour of dancing by dancing about to the song 'Happy' and generally muck about. El and I then flop down in our room, completely exhausted but usually happy with our days work. This is followed by heading downstairs with our books to sit outside and read, though this is always interrupted by children wanting to play with us, not that we mind! We muck about with the kids or sit with Padma and her son Sai in the office with Sai Sethwick, one of our LKG students who is actual comedy gold, and chat and laugh and muck about.
7:30pm - 8:30pm (ish) - DINNER! Again, Elena and I eat second batch, which is even more quiet in the evenings due to the students that go home for dinner. It's really nice to sit and eat dinner with the aunties and the older boys when it's quiet and you can have a proper conversation. Again we are treated to delicious south Indian curries, and again if there are donations in the evening, we may have chicken curry (twice a month) or egg curry (a few times a month), followed by birthday cake or sweet if it's a donor's birthday. Evenings are usually my favourite time at Devnar - it's really chilled out and it's so nice to be surrounded by your students and the staff even when school's over.
8:30pm onwards - Again, our after dinner time varies each evening. Sometime's Elena and I 'roam' (walk with our arms around each other across the courtyard like the students do), sit and chat with the older boys and Sai, go upstairs to the dormitories and sit and chat with the older girls, or muck about with the little ones until we tire them out and then help put them to bed. On numerous occasions, students have come up to us as late as 9 or 10pm and ask to dictate their homework for them, ready for the next day. This can be infuriating, but then we remember that that's what we came here to do, and it actually ends up being rather enjoyable. El and I often make an 'after dinner plan', which usually involves us doing our own thing and doing our washing, working out or doing lesson plans for the next day. I try and work out every evening to keep the effects of the numerous curries I'm consuming at bay, and El joins in most evenings to motivate me, which is fab. We then head to the computer lab at about 9:30/10pm, where we watch a movie or the Graham Norton show on Youtube, often accompanied by a packet of biscuits of chocolate from the corner shop (another reason I force my self to work out as often as possible.)
Midnight - El is a night owl so I tend to leave her in the computer lab to do her own thing and head for bed, completely pooped from our day. I always leave the light on for her and the door on the latch, then snuggle down and read or listen to music, before going to sleep and getting up the next day and doing it all over again.
Of course, each new day at Devnar varies completely to the one before, which is why I love it here so much. We could be woken up at 7am and told to put our sari's on and find ourselves in a bus twenty minutes later on our way to a school trip. Our most recent one consisted of us being driven to the Sai Junior College, the equivalent of Sixth Form College to Devnar School, and accompanying the older students to a 5* hotel near Hyderabad airport, where a program was being held in their honour. We spent the day dancing, singing, eating yummy food and stealing all the free water bottles, and we're treated so well by the incredible staff at the hotel. After we were bundled back onto the bus with bags of food to take home, El and I straightened our sari's and looked at each other as if to say 'Is this really our job?' Of course not all days are as luxurious as those and the ones that are are considered a real treat. Some days we wake up to find there are no lessons at all with no warning the night before due to a festival or national holiday or exam season, which can leave us feeling a bit useless, but are most appreciated if it's followed by four days straight of lessons and science projects. I think my favourite part of my life here is the uncertainty of each day - I wake up in the morning not knowing what's going to happen and knowing that anything could happen. It's truly magical.
I hope you enjoyed this insight into a day in the life of Lottie M'am Teacher! To finish it off, here are some photos from the past month to update you on what I've been up to.
Stay happy,
L x
Pav Bahji, aka the best thing I think I've eaten in India so far. Fried bread rolls with a delicious veggie masala and coriander sauce - SO. EFFING. GOOD.
I know she will be reading this, so here's a shout out to our lovely friend Divya. She took us to get our nose and ears pierced (for a price so cheap I'm too embarrassed to admit I paid so little for a piercing), and then introduced us to a whole new world of gorgeous Indian street food I've never tried before. It was heavenly, and we're so greatful to Divya and her family for making us feel so happy and welcome in Hyderabad!
El and I outside the BEST Indian food stand we've eaten at so far.
We came downstairs one evening to find Padma, our host, had dressed Sai Sethwich in traditional Indian dress. She was crying from laughter and there was no explanation whatsoever - everyone just thought it was really funny.
With a student from The Special School for the Death on International Day for Persons with Disabilities.
I love this photo of my favourite group of male students - they're so cheeky!
Found a dog. Got happy.
Lottie M'am the banana and Vindakesh, who has memorized my mobile number after using it once to call the customer care team, and now likes to recite it every time he sees me.
Nagamani comes to visit me often and calls me her 'akka' (big sister) and I call her my 'chille' (small sister). She's an absolute peach and always cheers me up and makes me laugh.
Coming soon...
