Hi Neil,
On the 5th September 2016 our party of 4 from Ipswich started our journey to Kerala, India. The plan for the next 3 months was to teach english and communication skills at the local colleges, Stella Maris and Henry Baker. Henry Baker college is named after a famous missionary in South India who set up schools in poor and uneducated areas of Kerala.
He came from England and lived in Kirby-le-Soken, in the house Alex Phillips, a teacher from school, now lives. Because of the huge impact Henry Baker had Alex now sends several pupils a year to Kerala to help teach english in local schools. I expected India to be a very poor country with not much education and with lots of people working in fields and living in slums. I was therefore very pleasantly surprised when we drove through the district to our new home to see lots of happy students running around and playing like normal children should.
The town we were staying in was called Ramamangalam and the house was surrounded by very beautiful green countryside. It was strange to be in such a peaceful place but also concerning that we seemed literally in the middle of nowhere. When we arrived we met Shibu, our host, and he proudly showed us his home and the astonishing views.
After dumping our bags he kindly took us on a walking tour around the town. Because of the large hills and areas of forest everywhere it was easy to imagine that it was a small town with only a few inhabitants and no shops. Luckily after a few windy roads we found the main town and the college. The college was only opened 2 years ago and is still in its very early days with building work and upgrades still going on.
The headmaster at Stella Maris was a kind man called Abraham Daniels. The day after we arrived was an important festival called Onam, which is similar to our harvest festival. It was perfect to give us time to get to know the teaching staff and also the students we would be teaching. We spent the day playing traditional Indian games and being lucky enough to get an insight into their culture through floral decorations and dance.
We settled quite quickly into routine at the college with lessons in the morning with 1st years and in the afternoon with 3rd years. After school on most days we would walk into the town, where we had quickly become famous, and then sit and talk with Shibu over dinner about the differences between our two great countries. It was important to adjust in these first few weeks to how different India was.
This ranged from simple things like currency and eating with your hands to more vital things like how to cross the hectic roads. A few weeks in we had our first opportunity to see the other boys again and we did this at a 6 hour church service. We attended to be polite and to see a different side of things but we did not really anticipate what it would be like to sit for 6 hours in a small church listening to lectures in a language we didn’t know! The silver lining came at the end of the service when the opportunity arrived to go with the bishop and visit a local and ‘his mountain’. The views here were unbelievably astonishing and it was nice to sit with some locals while the sun went down.
Our first holiday came a few weeks in and Abraham had organised for us to take the bus ride to Thekkady, a local town, to visit some elephants. The bus ride was more like the India I had expected! There was incredible views but also sheer drops and some of the worst driving I’ve experienced. Couple this with the poor safety standards and I was both figuratively and literally on the edge of my seat. The elephant sanctuary was ran by locals and we spent the morning feeding and washing the elephants. On our way back to Ramamangalam we stayed at Alappuzha for a day at the beach. Like many tropical countries the beach was similar to that in magazines and really took our breath away. It was also, however, covered in rubbish and stray dogs. It was nice to return to Ramamangalam and some familiar faces and a delight to see the students were pleased to see us. Over the next week we spent lots of time with them both in the classroom and also in local fields playing sports. We had a few issues with some of our lesson plans because we didn’t consider that for most of them they would never leave the state, so we had to cancel the lessons on holidays and plans for the future. It was however very humbling to discuss with them about their priorities and their future, which for most of them was focused around staying local and supporting their families. It made me realise that although we are ahead of them in many ways they are actually getting it right where it counts.
The students showed a real interest in learning and it was great that they were interested in trips at the weekend too. Sadly it got dark in the evenings really quickly and being rural India when it got dark it was pitch black so by 6pm we were confined to the house. Shibu was a great host and he kept us busy in the evenings helping around the house and entertaining some of his local friends. He loved shakespeare and could spend all night talking about what a genius he was and how proud we must be to be of the same nationality. He loved being able to talk to us and many nights we just chatted and taught each other card games.
The students were kind enough to take us to some nearby waterfalls and even tried (in vain) to teach us Malyalam, their local language. One of the most eye opening trips was to the city of Madurai in another district. Madurai was cramped, hot and dirty and yet also held ancient temples. The contrast was startling: One minute we’d be walking past wild pigs at a stinking rubbish dump or wild cows laying in the middle of a busy junction and the next we’d be staring up at the temples in awe.
In our remaining weeks we spent a lot of time at the college where Shibu worked, St Peters, Kolenchery, and did some large question and answer sessions with students. It was great to see how proud Shibu was to give them such an experience and also how keen they were to interact with us. The moment that particularly stood out for me was when one student asked; “Is sexism still present in England? Here in Kerala, woman are still treated as inferior. Would this change if I lived in England?”.
It really seemed like a different world. It was a nice coincidence to have my birthday when I was out there and it was great to have it celebrated differently, even if this did mean being hand-fed cake by each staff member! The experience will stay with me forever and I’ll forever be grateful to the trustees of the Bulkeley-Evans HMC Scholarship Fund for helping me to experience India and its friendly, kind people.
