nilima en el mundo

(This was supposed to have been posted before the one on basket ball )This entry is not very interesting in terms of colorful descriptions, it’s a day-to-day explanation of what I’m doing here. I am studying at the Institute of Sathya Sai Education, Thailand (there are other such institutes around the world, in Zambia, India, England etc). It is located about two hours outside of Bangkok in Lamnarai – the area is very rural and the school campus sits on a beautiful river, complete with trees, gardens and mountains in the distance. The School is completely free for kids kindergarten through 12th grade – they follow the Thai curriculum but also integrate the five human values – Truth, Love, Peace, Non-Violence and Right Action into their studies. While the first period of every day is dedicated exclusively to studying these values, they are incorporated into the other classes and the general fabric of the school—this will make more sense when I explain the daily activities. My course is 2.5 months and my class consists of 16 students from around the world. We come from: The US, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, New Zealand and China. The group has Christians, Muslims, Hindus and a Jew (guess who?). There are life-long followers of Sathya Sai Baba (whose teaching form the inspiration for the school) and those who have barely heard of him, but have somehow heard of the educational methods. I haven’t learned much Thai but practice my Spanish and am studying Hindi. My friend Yamini, whom I met in India six years ago, is studying here with me, and we share a room with Prema from New Zealand. Every morning we get up at 5:00, take a cold shower and walk in the dark 1 km to the main campus, where the whole school starts the day with prayers. Buddhist chants and songs are recited. We learned how to sit in the Buddhist style, when to clasp our hands and to bow with certain recitations. The children also recite the Gayathri mantra – an ancient and very sacred Vedic chant. (Most of the students are Buddhists, though a few Muslims do their prayers alongside the rest). This is followed by a didactic story by the “CEO” of the school, Dr. Jumsai, (He’s a former Astrophysicist and Senator who has moved into education and is the unofficial international poster “child” of values-based education, traveling from Saudi Arabia to Oregon to give trainings) or Lorraine Burrows (who has written many books on EHV and wrote the song “Love is My Form”). Today’s story, for example was a true story about studies done in Brooklyn NY on the influence a positive teacher can have on the students, regardless of their family situations (Today is Teachers Day). The story is followed by some sort of national prayer (Thais are VERY loyal to their king – everyone wears yellow on Mondays to signify their loyalty and he constantly comes up as an example of pure living and exemplary leadership. This allegiance to a political figure, in a country that is otherwise so Western and modern, seems very counterintuitive, I’d like to find out more about him and this remarkable patriotism). So, then the teachers stand up and the children file by, hands clasped in front of them. If the teachers stay seated, the children must crawl past them on their knees, so we try to stand up. Then it’s time for breakfast, delicious – and exactly like the other two meals. Whit rice and about 3 vegetable dishes or soups. Cilantro, coconut, ginger, lemongrass, chewy mushrooms and lightly sautéed greens, clear broths with tofu and hot pepper flecks, or sweet peanut sauce over broccoli and sprouts. All manner of soy protein accompanies the vegetables, most of which are quite good, with the exception of a pink hot-dog look alike that I just can’t stomach. After breakfast is the flag-raising ceremony, then the aforementioned Education in Human Values Class. The campus itself is more like a college, with the boy’s hostel near ours, then a number of girls’ hostels close to the main campus, teacher’s houses and prayer hall. A short walk by a wending river leads to the canteen – big open air building where meals are taken, a gymnasium, English building, music building and main academic building). In the mornings we are free to observe and help out with classes. Since most of them are in Thai, we usually work with Lorraine’s ESL classes, grading papers, leading discussions. Eventually we will commit to certain classes and also go a area schools whose access to English teachers is more limited. In the afternoons we have a lecture or workshop, either by Lorraine or Dr. Jumsai. Lectures are on the EHV methodology and techniques, research that’s been done on it etc while the workshops are helping to prepare us for hand on activities – so far we’ve had music and poetry workshops – yesterday my group wrote a song about protecting mother earth, and one to the tune of “if you’re happy and you know it” but with the values: If you’re truthful and you know it and you really want to show it. . . speak your heart. If you’re loving and you know it. . . give a hug” Today we wrote poems, ours was about finding a quiet spot to reflect, and then we wrote the bordering on inappropriate quote: “Always remember that when other scream and yell, you anc smile and be calm, and not ell them to go to hell.” Okay, so I’ll give more detailed descriptions of our lessons in separate entries. So, right now we have these classes every day for about 4 hours, but soon they will be less frequent so we’ll have more time to develop our own projects, clubs with the kids etc. I’m excited to do yoga and play basketball with the students. I’ve been shying away from taking on too much responsibility but am still constantly busy. I’ve also been filming, which I guess is my extra project, though sometimes I fell it’s rather passive – I film what others are doing rather than doing myself, for this reason I’ve consciously avoided filming before I’ve experienced a given situation, or been involved. For example the kids start all their classes with a silent-guided imagery exercise to focus their minds by picturing a candle flame moving through their bodies – this is very beautiful, but I waited to film until I had watched it and even led it once when the teacher was gone. Okay so then we have a bit of time and then dinner is at 5:30, the kids get their food and go sit down but get this – no one touches the hot, fragrant food until two prayers have been said, which can be 10-15 minutes after they’ve arrived. They all stand and say a Buddhist prayer, the English Translation “We thank our parents who give us life . . . our teachers . . . knowledge . . . nature . . . food . . .” and the Sanskrit prayer to purify the food. Then they eat, I usually with the first graders, who have become quite attached, more on that later. The boys and girls sit separately, though this, like most of the rules are not strictly enforced, the kids generally follow the rules, older ones looking after the youngers etc, with seemingly very little guidance from teachers. After dinner we walk back to the hostel (actually I’ve normally walked back at least twice already, there is usually time in the morning, as the class attendance is optional, or else after lunch, since we sit a lot and think a lot, walking by the trees next to the river, past grazing herds of brahma bulls, is one of my favorite activities. So, by this time it’s 6:30 and twice a week we sing Bhajans (devotional songs) with the students. The other nights there are optional speakers, or activities led by people in our group (One woman from Brazil taught us and indigenous circle dance, I showed two movies I’d made, etc). Okay, for a tangent Yamini and I were trying to define Indigenous for a paper she has to write, and found the term actually vague – try it – thinking about everyone from the Incas (who conquered their precursors relatively recently, to the “Tribals” in India who have lived next to the Hindus for thousands of years. Even on weekends there are prayers at 5:45. This Saturday we have an all day workshop and last weekend we went to look at temples in a town an hour away and also spent a claustrophobic afternoon in a mega-mall. I cherish my free time and hope to get to waterfall famed to be nearby. I’ve found a bit of time to read, study hindi and write in my journal, but not much. We’re exhausted by 9:00, so go to bed.

Tags: Travel

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