Camp

We are here at Orchid International School in Nashik, India, a private boarding school for 250 children of India’s elite. Established only four years ago, Orchid is in the process of adopting the International Baccalaureate program so students and staff have been more than welcoming to not only our international bunch but the Des Moines IB teachers too. Although the school itself follows the strict schedule of the bells that push students out of bed and between classes, we are free to roam between the classrooms and sports fields.

Nestled between the mountains of Western India, Orchid is in a prime location. The views here are spectacular; no matter which way I look, there are undeveloped mountains; we have already been on two half-day “treks”. These hikes vary in difficulty; sometimes we merely climb up stone steps and sometimes we blaze our own trails.

The following is a typical daily schedule for the group here:

6:00 am – 7:00 am : Yoga. Led by a national swimming champion turned physical education instructor, we line up in three straight rows facing west. He begins with a brief lecture on the history of that particular day’s lesson. Accompanying the instructor is a model who demonstrates each position before we make our attempts. Always wearing white linen, he gracefully bends and twists into unimaginable shapes. Grunting and panting, we begin pulling and pushing our muscles into unfamiliar places. My personal favorite position is called “dead man”. I lay on my back with feet spread a foot apart and lay my arms at my sides with palms facing up. With eyes closed, my only task is to focus on breathing in and out, in and out. Most days I fall asleep until the flies come. Because there is no such thing as a window screen here in India, flies are welcome in most buildings and covered areas. Locals don’t seem to mind their buzzing and biting but I have approximately 36 dime sized itchy bumps covering my body at the moment.
7:00 am- 8:00 am : Breakfast. For some unknown reason, our group eats breakfast alone in the boy’s common room. (Dorms are separated by sex and two gangly and board eighteen-year-old-looking boys wearing brown uniforms and gold badges that read “security” prevent males from entering the female dormitory.) Meals vary but breakfast in India usually means a “veg” (vegetarian) omelet or hardboiled egg, white wonder like bread smothered with synthetically sweetened neon colored jam, and chai, black tea seeped in milk instead of water with two thick sugar cubes.
8:00 am- 9:00 am : Assembly. At this formal ceremony, the principal addresses the student body each morning. Older students present a topic of the day to younger students (such as picking up trash, Sir Isaac Newton, Dahl’s The Giving Tree) in the form of a skit or puppet show. Then, depending on the weather, we sing the National Anthem or recite the Indian Pledge. On nice days, assembly takes place outside overlooking the valley and nearby mountains. These days we stand and sing. However, by law, the Indian National Anthem may not be sung indoors, after sunset, or before sunrise. So, on rainy days when we are indoors, we recite the pledge.

9:00 am- 2:00 pm Depending on the day’s particular schedule and weather, we either trek during this time, attend classes with students, or meet with teachers who have open periods. Today, I led an 8th grade Environmental Science class with student Kate Walsh assisting me. We began the lesson by introducing ourselves and pulling out the atlas to pinpoint Iowa and then Des Moines on the map. After explaining Iowa’s grassland history and agriculture present we formulated a list of environmental impacts caused by our heavy farming and then listed solutions to these problems and how we personally contribute to these solutions. Turning to the students for their participation we brainstormed, as a group, a list of environmental problems here in India and specifically in Nashik. The list included air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, and deforestation. We then reviewed the concepts of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and asked students to compile a list of their personal actions that include reduction, reuse and recycling consumption. After five minutes of brainstorming and writing on their own we came back together as a class to compare lists. I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of their answers; especially those that dealt with water quality and consumption because there are few rivers and streams here that are not filled with rubbish and runoff chemicals. After our first comparison we went back and formulated a second list, this time asking the kids to write down actions they are not taking, but could, to protect the environment. Again after a five minute write time we came back together as a class to compare. Again, I was pleasantly surprised with the variety and complexity of some answers including composting! The last ten minutes I left for Q&A. They usually consist of questions such as: “Are you allowed to date in America?” , “Have you ever been to Los Angeles?!” and “Do you know Hannah Montana!?”

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm : We eat lunch in the dining hall after the regular student rush. Just like in an American school, we line up one by one and walk through a line where I nod at the edible dishes that are plopped into a compartmentalized section of my beige plastic tray. Choices usually include various curries, green salad (sliced carrots, tomatoes, and cucumber), and chapatti (a tortilla or naan like bread). We eat together at long tables, drinking water out of stainless steel cups, and using only our right hands to handle food (It is extremely rude to use the left).

3:00 pm – 6:00 pm : Rest and Program. After lunch we usually rest a while, as it is either the very hottest part of the day, or the very wettest, depending on the monsoons. Then official program starts. The Global Youth Institute definition of “program” varies from year to year. In India, it usually means informally discussing and processing happy, sad, fun, and difficult experiences as well as this year’s theme: Generation, Tradition, Innovation, Globalization. Perhaps we might attend a cultural event put on by the school, attend a traditional dance lesson, music lesson, or play basketball with the Orchid students.

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm : Snack. Instead of eating dinner at six o’clock we eat a “snack”. This is usually a small bowl of fried rice, somosa, or noodle dish with chai. Today I had an “ok” veg burger for snack but because I am craving Iowa beef (the cow is holy here, thus roams the streets uneaten) I scared it down just because of the familiar hamburger bun.

7:00 pm – 9:00 pm : Program. This part of the day is reserved for country reports or a school project. Country reports are a GYI tradition when each separate country contingent stands up together in front of the rest of the group to present their homeland. The Tiawanese country report is always the best while the Americans are notorious for being the worst. Reports always begin with the prospective national anthem but range from powerpoints to homemade videos, to songs describing different political systems. Yesterday, Orchid students surprised us with an art project that I must confess has been the highlight of the week. What I would call sand paintings, mandalas are religious drawings made by the strategic placement of colorful grains of sand. Although the Orchid students had already created many masterpieces, they invited us to create our own. I can’t describe their beauty with my limited vocabulary so I have posted a photo so you can see :D.

9:00 pm – 10: 00 pm: Dinner and Bed. Finally we get dinner, which is a meal very similar to lunch; a few curry choices, chapatti, green salad and water. We are usually exhausted by this time, so after checking on the students and turning their lights out, I collapse onto my bed to awake at 5:30 the next morning by the alarm that rings through the halls calling us to yoga.