Beautiful Bangalore

We have realized that Bangalore would be a beautiful city if the air and streets were just slightly cleaner. There are dozens of beautiful gardens and hundreds of old trees sifting the dust and winter sunlight. On the other hand, the transportation frustrations are beginning to get to us. I am beginning to develop my own sense of road rage, especially when I see the way drivers will not stop to let anyone, even a 9-year-old, cross the street. The lack of crosswalks and chaotic traffic structure mean that just crossing the street turns into a show of bravado and machismo.

I spent my first afternoon as an official volunteer at the school for the deaf. I am beginning to warm up to the kids, who were quite well-behaved when their teacher was there (with her ruler!). I led one discussion about "news" (things like "I am wearing new shoes" and "I brought a banana") and then observed their science and language classes. It was a bit frustrating to see the lack of sign language in the classroom, but the teaching methods seem very effective all in all. The cultural differences begin to become more obvious to me in this environment as well. At one point a teacher asked me to help a boy copy a paragraph from the blackboard; the boy has cerebral palsy and has trouble with motor skills. So I sat with him and watched him write the whole paragraph, only stopping him when a word was unintelligible - though he had difficulty writing I thought he was doing fine. But apparently "helping" was a bit more involved - the teacher came over to his desk, erased everything he had written, and then held his hand and essentially wrote the paragraph herself. I felt bad for the boy, who signed to me "it was wrong" as she was erasing all his work, but he seems to be pretty happy about just about everything.

Our furniture is arriving tomorrow, so we are looking forward to having a more livable apartment. Saturday we are going to a wedding party, so we have to find some clothes to wear - I may go for my first sari!