Gratitude and Goodbyes at BJV

July 16, 2025

It’s hard to believe that our last day in Kolkata has already arrived.

To conclude our time at BJV, we arrived early enough to attend the morning assembly. The girls formed three lines down the middle of the main corridor. They sang a song and listened to a few reminders from Ms. Sharmila before being sent to class—all in ten minutes. As a few latecomers trickled in, Ms. Sharmila intercepted them to ask why they were late and encouraged them to arrive on time.

Kim, Olivia, and I were then split up to teach classes for the day. Each of us was responsible for four 40-minute blocks with students from grades 5–6, 7–8, 9–10, and 11–12.

In my classes, we warmed up with a beach ball name game and then practiced English listening and speaking skills through two activities: Back-to-Back Drawing and Heads Up!. The forty minutes flew by, despite the exceptional humidity and the feeling that I was swimming in sweat. The grade 7–8 class with over 45 students was particularly lively. I had a great time working with all of them. My respect also continues to deepen for these students and teachers, who show up and give it their all, despite these difficult temperatures. (I'm reminded of our earlier visit to S.S. Khalsa, where, when asked what could improve teaching and learning in India, one teacher simply replied, "air conditioning.").

A couple of cultural details from my morning teaching: students don’t simply walk into a room—they ask if they are invited in. This kept catching me off guard, as it’s so different from the school where I teach. Students also stand when a teacher enters or when they themselves are speaking, and they don’t sit until invited to do so. On more than one occasion, I unintentionally left girls standing because I forgot they were waiting for my permission.

After classes, we retreated to sit under the fan in Ms. Sharmila’s office while the girls had their tiffin break. We had lunch and tea while waiting for the girls to invite us upstairs for the afternoon program, which included a send-off for us (as you can see, invitations are quite important).