They are all in uniforms and the boys and girls sit separately. Anytime we'd enter a room, the students would all stand up and say "namaste" in unison. They'd stay standing until the teacher or Manu said "bassa". There was complete disciple in these classes that I will soon disrupt. I recognized one of the students from frisbee and when the teacher wasn't looking I slipped him a little candy. I always carry a couple sweets in my pocket because whenever I see Baba-G (the one legged man who runs the little shop here) he smiles his ear to ear, mostly-toothless smile and insists on giving me these tiny green candies. They're a great way to make friends.
Then I walked back to the hospital and found Biku to see some more patients. We only saw a few and the most interesting was an old man who was mostly blind and deaf who was having stomach problems. He thought I was the doctor and started shouting at me in Odia. I led him to the exam table and called Biku over to take a more complete history.
After a spicy breakfast, I ate a couple of chewable pepto bismols and went to see the high school. It's class 5-10. We did the same introduction thing and then sat in on an English class for grade 6 and then grade 10. It's amazing how fucused they are even with a distracting white man in their class. For class 6, the teacher wrote letters to the government on the board and had the students copy them down. The first one was about a stolen bicycle and the second I copied below:
***To: the C.D.M.O.
Cuttack
Subject: regarding dengue
Sir,
Most respectfully we the inhabitants of Panaga during your area would like to inform the following few lines for your kind consideration and favorable action.
That dengue is a serious disease which has spread in our locality. It has already claimed three life. There is only one hospital in our area and the only doctor is totally unable to treat the patient because more are hospitalized till now. Again there is also a shortage of medicine. If this trend continues, it will take serious turn. Therefore, we request your honor please be kind and send a team of doctors immediately with some medicine for which acts of your kindness we shall be obliged.
Yours faithfully,
Alec Bernard
Class-6
Juanga High School***
The 10 grade class was teaching grammar so complicated I would have been lost even if it was taught in English.
We talked with some of the teachers who spoke English and they promised to bring an Odia textbook for us tomorrow to help us learn the language. I asked if we could sit in on a drawing class (the only think I was pretty sure we'd be able to follow. The entire 45 minute period was the teacher drawing a landscape on the board and the students (including us) copying it. It might be one of the best drawings I've ever done.
While I ran back to the hospital to use the bathroom, one of the teachers fainted. It seems like I always miss the medical activities by a few minutes.
The dinner feast planned last night was turned into a lunch and we met at 2 at the primary school yard (class ends at 1:30). Our friends cooked for the next hour or so while some of us played cards. We played a game Connor and I had taught them yesterday but sometime soon I want to learn the 4 player game I see lots of people playing every day. We were super hungry by the time lunch was ready and we ate on leaves sitting along the school walkway. The food was the spiciest so far and had tons of little fish spines in it. I still haven't mastered the art of sitting on the floor but I'm working on it (and I'm getting used to being laughed at). Meals are served in a very particular fashion. The guests are always served first and often with the hands if you don't want more food, you have to refuse three times and if you do, you have to refuse at least once. Meals are also usually eaten in silence, which takes some getting used to. At the end of the meal, we just throw our leaves and leftovers into the bushes where the street dogs will eat it. There is trash pretty much everywhere you look because the use of trash cans hasn't caught on here yet. The hospital has a few that are used, but everywhere else, when you're done with a plastic wrapper or anything else, you just toss it to the side of the road with a careless nonchalance I haven't mastered.
When we were done with lunch, Connor went back to the hospital to catch up on writing and take a break from all the chaos.
We played another frisbee tournament and I was way too full to move well but my team still made the finals ( obviously.) we played until just before dark and then went back to the hospital. I talked a lot with one of my teammates, Depak, who is home for the festival but lives in Puri. His brother owns two of the camels we saw walking on the beach and he works with them catering to tourists for most of the year. He claims to have a Japanese girlfriend who visits every winter. He was planning to leave the next day but he had also said that yesterday so.. Doikeba (we will see). Some of the other people there worked as pharmacists or business men. Most of them will leave on Thursday to go home but will be back next week for Diwali.
We had planned to meet them all at 7 for a dance party in the street by the river but Biku didn't get in the shower until 7 because the power was out. He takes the longest showers of anyone I've ever met. By the time he was and we got to the spot, they had left. Biku called them and while we waited, we talked about unrequited (one-side) love.
They set off the loudest firecracker I've ever seen in the middle of a small tree on the side of the road. The fuse took forever and it sounded like a cannon and had a shockwave that spread out over the rice paddies in every direction. It also took a chunk out of the tree. They say that next week there will be tons of fireworks for Diwali.
After the firework, we put on some music and danced a little before learning the words to an Indian love song about the moon. Connor dances really well and they kept trying to get him to try Indian dance moves and teach them his. We also taught them some of the words to one of jake's and recorded a video for him. Jake will be the next big star of Juanga, Orissa, India.
They taught me a couple swears in Odia and I may have made up a bunch of American swear words for them.
We went back to the hospital for dinner around 11 and then showered and went to sleep. I usually wear some of the clothes I was wearing into the shower to clean them for the next day. Unfortunately, the water has a unique smell to it and I'm not sure if I'll be able to completely clean my clothes until I come home..
After my shower we talked a little more with Biku about his relationship history. Things move very fast it seems. He knew someone for 3 days and was in love and then asked her to marry him after a few weeks. But it wasn't meant to be. Biku also told us he loves us. Maybe one day he will visit us in America.
-AB
Being a student
I totally aced drawing
But don't know English
**this is the grocery store
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