Day 7: First day of school!!!

Plan: Attend our first day of classes!

We woke up much earlier than usual and quickly wondered how we’ll manage to do this 6 days a week... One day at a time. Hoping for a quick breakfast, we stopped by our usual place across the street but the guy who speaks English wasn’t there. The little boy sweeping the floor handed me a menu but when I pointed out the usual, a single and a double omelette, he said something I couldn’t understand... So much for breakfast here! We hopped into a rickshaw and made our way to school. At our arrival, we noticed the canteen there and thankfully, I was able to have breakfast there! With the help of a couple of students who spoke very well in English, I ordered two egg omelettes and soon the place filled up with students. A few big bites later, we walked to our first classroom.

And by a few big bites, he means after eating his, and half of my omelette...it’s our new routine it seems.

A girl/woman (it was hard to pinpoint her age and she was facing away from us) was writing on the board. A few other students were already there and others trickled in but to our surprise, 10 minutes after class was scheduled to start, she just kept on writing and the class was not very full. Finally, at 9:05am, 20 minutes after the scheduled start, most students had made their way in and we expected the girl to start teaching (we were surprised how young she was), but just then the professor finally walked in, escorted by another man. Most students rose and waited until the professor sat down before regaining their seats. Now here's the really interesting part: our professor is blind! The girl who had been writing on the board got up at that point and started presenting her subject, the United Nations Commission for International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). As she spoke for the next 20 minutes and we scrambled to understand and takes notes as best we could, we realized that between the echo in the room, the open doors and windows that let in all the sounds from outside (barking dog and kids playing), and the Indian accent, we would really really have to sit closer from now on! Meanwhile, almost no one else took notes. One girl in front of us read a novel and listened to music while another filled out a sodoku. A couple of others slept the entire time. Not sure how much of this behaviour is explained by our professor’s blindness but it’s gotta be a factor! When the girl finished presenting, the professor gave a little speech about respect and the fact some were talking. He then proceeded with his lecture. We had a hard time understanding him as he spoke quickly and not very loudly. He had notes in Braille and read them as he went. It was really cool! At around 9:50am the professor’s escort came back and he stopped his lecture. The escort rattled down the list of students (we all have a roll number, ours are C-112 and C-113) and you have to quickly say “present” before he calls out the next one. We chatted up one of the other students and got some answers as to how school works, what the schedules are like, how attendance works, etc. But as we found out the next day, the rules are different for us so I won’t bother with these details.

We walked to our next class and talked to a few students there as well. We were surprised by how rowdy the students were, laughing and yelling. They applauded as the professor walked in. Unfortunately, the students had informed us that while we were in the right hall and it was the same professor as indicated by our timetable, it was not Environmental Law but Administrative Law (no way we’re taking that again!). We quickly asked the professor about this mistake and she just referred us to Ms. Sakalkar, the coordinator we first met at ILS. So much for our second class of the day! We walked to Ms. Sakalkar’s office but the woman there told us Ms. Sakalkar was in class and would be back later. We sat there waiting for a little over an hour playing on the ipod touch and updating this journal until the admin teacher we had seen earlier came by and told us Ms. Sakalkar wasn’t there today. We tried another office next where we were directed from one person, to another, to a third who finally referred us back to Sakalkar. Ahhhh India! We next went to the library to get our ID card, were directed to another office but no luck there either, it seems are cards were not ready yet...

Next we walked back par t of the way to our hotel, rickshawed the rest of the way, relaxed a bit and then walked around the neighbourhood. Close by we have nicer apartments for what I assume is the upper-middle class. But even here there are small shacks like those in the slums, randomly located here and there on the side of the road, possibly for servants. Further out we found our first grocery store and were pretty excited about it. We also walked down a few streets where all the signage was written in Marathi (the language in Maharashtra) and none of it in English. People were clearly not used to seeing white people around and we got a lot of looks here :)

Back from our walk, we ate at the veggie restaurant again and called it a night!