A Week at Eachome

As I come to the end of a physically tiring yet psychologically enervating week where I found myself as an adhoc substitute teacher (English, IT, Maths, Music!), I just wanted to share a few highlights of the week that was at Sarvodaya, Eachome:

1. The open-hearted welcome I received from the Jesuit community, the Head and staff, and the students here. One of the bright moments each day is when a student (or group of students) walks by and asks in a typically musical Wayanad accent, “Brotherea, sukhamalle?” (“Brother, are you comfortable?” - equivalent to “How are you?”)
2. Learning more about Wayanad culture and society, particularly about the adivasis (“original dwellers”: indigenous peoples or tribals). It is inspiring to see the work that Fr. Baby Chalil SJ and other Jesuits before him have done to develop the Jesuit-run TUDI (Tribal Unity for Development Initiatives) centre on Tribal folklore and culture here. (Tudi is also the tribal word for a small drum that accompanies most tribal music).
3. Teaching Maths. Trying to teach Maths to a class where the students are familiar only with the Malayalam terms and I am not was challenging (but not too much – it is Maths after all!), but I enjoyed the experience of trying to lead a mixed-ability class. I also enjoyed the actual experience of setting problems for them to solve.
4. Collaborating with other consecrated. There are three FCC and two CMC sisters on the staff here along with the two Jesuits (three if you include the Manager). This lends a distinctly Christian character to the educational philosophy of the school. It's also an experience of charisms complementing each other to futher the mission of the Church in the world.
5. Music lessons. Actually, it should be 'choir practice' with moi as the makeshift choir director. The songs were fairly simple (“Do Re Mi”, “Oh! Susanna!”, “She'll be Coming Round the Mountain”), but the kids are trying really hard even though it's in a foreign language that most are barely familiar with.

Of course, there have been challenging moments too. High-school students can sometimes take it upon themselves to test the limits of authority and it's a new challenge for me to negotiate the line between lenience (I don't want to be disliked, after all!) and discipline. The language can also be challenging – while I can speak Malayalam reasonably, most of the kids are more literate in it than I am (the reverse is true for English).
Sarvodaya operates under extremely challenging circumstances. Easily the vast majority of students come from farmer/labourer backgrounds (a good third, at least, are tribals). As an aided school, while the Government pays the salaries and some operating expenses (hopelessly inadequate, as a community member points out, to meet even a month's actual expenses), it contributes nothing towards infrastructure/capital expenditure as well as co-curricular activities etc. It is beyond the means of the students' families to make up the shortfall. Fundraising from private sources (particularly by the community members) and support from the Province has helped to keep the school afloat. Please keep them in your prayers.