In the News

July 24, 2018

While we were visiting the G.H.S. School for girls in Wandoor, Kerala, India, we were in the newspaper three times and on the local news channel once. The newspaper is printed in the local language, Malayalam. The link to the TV clip from Media One is found on the Wandoor Media Facebook page: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1012838192217770&id=847682145400043

Team TGC India

July 23, 2018

Today we traveled home from India. We arrived at the Delhi airport close to midnight for our 2:45 a.m. flight to Frankfurt. My connecting flight took me to O'Hare in Chicago, where I went through customs and then onto my third and final flight to Kansas City. After about 30 hours of travel, I made it home. It was wonderful to see my family and my cats. I will miss the TGC India Team, our in-country consultants, and the people of India!

The Taj Mahal

July 21, 2018

We left the hotel at 5:00 a.m. to see the sunrise at the Taj Mahal. While there was a good amount of cloud cover, it was still beautiful!

Travel Time

July 19 and 20, 2018

Team Kerala made the journey from Calicut to Mumbai to Delhi despite three hours in flight delays due to monsoon weather conditions. After rebooking our second flight due to a missed connection, we made it to our hotel in Delhi around 1 a.m. on July 20. We joined the rest of the India TGC Fellows and ventured on to Agra on a four hour bus ride after a morning debrief session. Our in-country hosts joined us for the trip to Agra and showed us the Sadar Bazar. Tomorrow we will go to the Taj Mahal for sunrise!

Our Last Day at G.H.S. School

July 19, 2018

When I was growing up, my father was a member of the local Lions Club. I remember him going to meetings each month and participating in the town's annual Fourth of July celebration which the Lions Club helped sponsor. I also remember them collecting used eyeglasses to donate to families in need.

On our last day in Wandoor, the local Lions Club of presented 15 English newspapers a day for a year to the library at G.H.S. School. The original plan was to donate five newspapers a day, but after the session with the students, they decided to increase the donation to 15. These newspapers will enable the students to further refine their English skills as they work to become fluent in reading, writing, listening, and speaking English.

Before lunch, we also visited every classroom in the school, greeting all 3000 students. Many of the students had not yet had the chance to interact with Michelle, Mary and I, and greeted us with the biggest smiles as we stopped by each room. For lunch, we had another chance to experience local cuisine when we sampled around 50 dishes that the students had made at home and brought to school. During this time, the local news station recorded video footage of us sampling the food and talked with us about our food experiences in the state of Kerala.

After lunch, we answered questions about gender equality with about 200 tenth grade girls. The topics ranged from LGBTQ, infanticide, the sexualization of women in the media, to topics regarding the safety of women walking at night, choosing a partner for marriage versus arranged marriages, and the gender pay gap.

We then inaugurated the English Club and celebrated with music performances and dancing. Since school had been canceled yesterday, the students who had prepared lunch for us served us an amazing afternoon tea prior to our departure. We were presented with cards and an art piece where a local student had drawn our faces based on our photographs. We wrapped up our day with dinner at our host teacher's house. We met and enjoyed visiting with his lovely family!

Visiting Kerala has been both exhilarating and humbling. The people truly honor religious harmony and the Indian mantra of "guest is god". We will always treasure our time in Wandoor and look forward to staying in touch with the amazing people of the communit!

A "Monsoon" Day and Visit to the Arabian Sea

July 18, 2018

Today we were scheduled to visit Yasir's school, a college, and venture to the Arabian Sea. Due to monsoon weather conditions, local schools were canceled. However, several hundred students at Yasir's school still showed up to meet us! We inaugurated their new English Club and made plans to stay connected with them via Skype or FaceTime to provide practice speaking with native English speakers. We also visited with faculty members in a round table discussion of the culture and education in the United States.

After this amazing experience, we drove to Calicut to see the Arabian Sea. After watching the waves roll in, we dined at a local restaurant with Riyas and his family, Ruxana and her son, and Geetha and her children.

Adventure Across Three States

July 14, 2018

At 7:30 a.m., we left for our three state adventure across Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. We visited the Amarambalam Wildlife Sanctuary, the town of Ooty, and the Doddabetta Tea Factory at the top of Mount Ooty. As one who has only seen animals native to Asia in a zoo, it was an incredible experience to see several of them in their natural habitats in the wildlife sanctuary. We saw Asian elephants, peacocks, wild boar, deer, and monkeys.

We stopped alongside the road and visited with a worker collecting leaves to make tea for the TanTea factory. She demonstrated the process used to collect the leaves. Only the fresh, young leaves are used. Later in the day, we toured the Doddabetta Tea Factory at the top of Mount Ooty. Along the route, we saw fresh produce for sale, based on the elevation of the mountain: carrots, cabbage, bananas, mangoes, and jackfruit.

On our three hour journey back to the hotel in Nilambur, we encountered a blocked road. A large tree had fallen and the locals were working diligently to get it cleared. After a delay of an hour and forty-five minutes, we continued our adventure. After stopping for some dinner, we arrived back at the hotel close to midnight.

Videos of Doddabetta Tea Factory

Teak Museum and Ruxana's House for Tea

July 15, 2018

The world's only Teak Museum is located in Nilambur, Kerala, India. Today we visited and learned about different types of teak, how teak grows, and viewed furniture items made from teak. Behind the museum, there are lovely, peaceful gardens that visitors can stroll through and learn about native plants.

At the end of the day, we went to Ruxana's house for tea. Ruxana teaches English at the school in Wandoor. We had the chance to meet and visit with her beautiful family. Her mother was a well-known gynecologist in India who shared a harrowing tale of being on a boat that capsized. In the first picture, Ruxana is standing below a photograph and certificate that her mother received from the President of India for her service to the country.

Sharing the Culture and Education System of the United States

July 16, 2018

This was our second day to visit the school where our host teacher Riyas works. We were able to share information about United States culture with 200 girls in the school's library. The power was out when we started, so we improvised with a Pico portable projector that TGC Fellow Michelle had brought along "just in case". For lunch, a class of students had prepared local food dishes at home and brought them to school for us to try. After lunch, Michelle, Mary Pat, and I each taught a lesson in a classroom at the school. I presented a lesson on creative thinking with a class of about 50 ninth grade girls. After school, we shared information about the U.S. education system with about 60 staff members at the school. At the end of our session, we were honored with the reading of the poem "Hope", written by one of the teachers at the school. She wrote it in the local language, Malayalam, and translated it into English for us.

The poem "Hope" read by the author, Nazeema Salim, in English and in Malayalam.

In the evening, we visited one of Riyas's cousins for "tea". She also teaches English at the G.H.S. School for Girls. She family and neighbors were there to greet us. We had some incredibly tasty treats to go along with our tea!