Fiona Campbell Teaching in India

Arriving at Bombay airport to the amazing bustle, noise, colours and crowds that are unique to India, I felt a little bit nervous and was wondering what my next four weeks of teaching English in an Indian school, away from my friends and family, would bring me. I was slightly worried about my 42 hour train journey down to Madurai that day, especially as I had pictures in my mind of chickens running loose up and down the train and carriages so full you could barely find space to stand. However, I was very pleased to find the train was spacious and clean and everyone was very friendly, helping me to find my seat and showing me how my bed worked. I even made my first Indian friend as one boy taught me to play his favourite card games with him! I was very relieved to find my Teaching Abroad representative waiting for me with a big welcome sign at the train station at 4am, despite the fact that we'd been delayed by four hours.

I spent a refreshing night at the Sivikasi office and then had the five hour drive to the town of Ranni in Kerala to meet my new hosts and be shown around the school. As there seem to be no traffic rules in India, driving around is an experience that cannot be obtained anywhere else and every drive is very exciting! I had no idea what to expect of my host family and was looking forward to meeting them but apprehensive about what the people who I would be living with for four weeks would be like. I needn't have worried. They were very outgoing and wanted to help me ease in and feel at home as quickly as possible. My hosts were also the headmaster and mistress of the school I would be teaching at so they gave me a run-through of what to expect at the school and some ideas for lesson plans.

The other volunteer, Harriet, and I were in Kerala in April, which is the holidays for the students, so we were essentially running a holiday English course which anyone could attend. I was very surprised to find out that I had two classes of 50 pupils - one aged 4-9 and one aged 9-22! I was worried that I wouldn't be able to control such a large number but the older class were extremely well behaved and I could always go to the headmistress with any discipline problems I had. The younger class were slightly naughtier, as you would expect, but they were incredibly sweet, loved Harriet and I, and you just had to sing one of their favourite action songs or take a break to play skipping with them and their attention would be regained. I was only teaching for four weeks and by the end I was wishing that I could continue for another four as it was brilliant to see how the pupils had progressed and I had made many friends amongst them.

I only had to teach two 1 ½ hour lessons each morning and I then had the afternoons off to sleep, use the internet, plan lessons, do some marking or go shopping in the town. Being the only white people in Ranni, Harriet and I attracted a lot of attention, with children grabbing us in the street and literally every shop assistant coming to help us when we entered a shop. They wouldn't even let us carry anything ourselves and were very interested in why we were there and where we came from. We seemed to know everyone in the town by the time we left and were often invited to people's homes. Everyone was so welcoming and one evening we visited four houses and at each one they insisted on giving us dinner - I've never been so full in my life!

The experience of teaching gave me so much confidence and taught me new skills but I also found that learning about the Indian culture and customs was just as an important and valuable part of my trip. We would wear churidas, the traditional dress for Indian girls, eat curry for breakfast, eat with only our right hand and go to Indian religious services and I loved the chance to become so enveloped in the culture of a country so different to my own.

I have taken away from my trip many fantastic memories, brilliant new friends, new skills and confidence and an excellent feeling and understanding of what the incredibly varied country of India is really like.

Fiona Campbell

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Children in the younger class

My older class

The younger class

With our host mother