My Indian family
It is wonderful to feel so welcome by everyone here. Everyone in town knows us by name and the students at the college greet us at every opportunity. But it is something else entirely to be able to share holidays with a family, do puja, play with the grandkids, and just hang out. Dr. Raut and his family have made us feel so welcome. His three grandchildren have each picked a favorite (before Kelly arrived, that is): Denny is Krishna’s friend, Beth is Janu’s friend, and I am Sakshi’s friend. Today we celebrated Maha Laxhmi (a month after we celebrated it last … I still haven’t figured that out yet), 120 people showed up, and we ate an amazing dinner on their roof by the light of the full moon.The red man is Gaju, our friend who works in the canteen and cooks lunch and dinner for the boys in the hostel. He brings us tea, plays cards with us, and sleeps in the hall outside our upstairs kitchen. He is learning English, albeit slowly, but we manage to communicate very well regardless. During the big, crazy festivals like Pola and Ganpati, he will somehow show up wherever we are and keep us from getting trampled by the drunken horde.The third photo is of a few of my photography students, Nitin and Dinesh. I have only just started the class, but I have high hopes … anything would be better than most of the photos I have seen in Umarkhed. It is really fun to take my past two years of classes and turn it around, be the teacher myself.I’m also teaching English literature, which is something I would never have imagined myself doing, but it is also a very good experience. I feel like I am making a difference. I enjoy encouraging my students, watching them improve. And I even enjoy giving them tests. I teach in a concrete room with no lights, no outlets, no projector. Just me and the students. It’s very different from the college I’m used to. I took this photo of my students taking one of my tests with one of the point and shoots I’m using in my photo class, in case it looks a little crappy.
