Our KV School in Bangalore!

The Girls wanted to share some highlights after their first 2 weeks at the “Kendriya Vidyalaya” (‘Central School’)…

Eliza says:
I am getting less and less shy! My best friend here in India is Deeksheeta, but everyone calls her “Sweetie.” She lives right next to the school, because she is the Principal’s daughter. She was my first really good friend here, and she even visited our house a few days ago. When I visit her house, her mom usually makes me a snack that’s a little spicy, but it’s still delicious!

A few days ago, I stood up on the stage in front of 2400 people and spoke a little bit of Hindi. I practiced a lot and was really nervous, but it turned to be pretty easy! I said, “Namaskar! Mey Eliza aaj aapke samne hey. Subh vichar prasthut karne jah vahey hu. Hindi hamare rashstra bhasha hey! Danyabhad!” It means something like “Hello I’m Eliza and I’m speaking Hindi which is India’s national language…”

My teacher’s name is Usha Kumari Ma’am. Everyone has to call their teachers Ma’am or Sir. Whenever a teacher walks in, everyone stands up and says at the same time “good morning Sir,” or “Good afternoon Ma’am.” You can’t sit down until they say “good morning” back to you.

Every morning and afternoon we go to and from school in an auto-rickshaw. Here they just call it “auto!” I really like them, but they don’t have any doors or windows, so in the cool mornings I wish I had a sweater. Sometimes we see cows walking down the middle of the street, but everyone just drives around them. The Hindu people think if you crush a cow it’s VERY bad, because cows are sacred to them. Once on our way to school, our rickshaw came around a corner, and a motorcycle crashed into us! My dad pulled my foot over, but if it was hanging
outside, it might have gotten hit! No one got hurt really, cuz he was driving pretty slow.

After school I usually come home with at least 5 pieces of candy, because everyone wants to give some to me and Sylvie! Usually girl teachers and kids give us candies, and sometimes just random people we meet give us candy. Every day there’s at least a few kids at the school whose birthday it is. When it is your birthday here you’re supposed to bring a lot of candy, and go from room to room to give a piece to each teacher. You don’t give it to the kids, because if you did then you would need to give more than 2,000 pieces! Birthday kids also get to wear whatever they want, instead of their uniform. That’s cool because you can always tell whose birthday it is and say “Janum din Mubarak” to them!

The uniform is not so comfortable, but just OK. It is fine wearing it every day, but some mornings I can’t find the white socks. Now we know that every Friday you have to wear all white, even a white skirt and white hair ribbons and white shoes! We now have all the white stuff, but still need to buy some white ribbons. (parent’s note… try keeping these things white on our tree-climbing bug-catching kids in India! Very thankful there is only ONE white day per week!)

Here are some Hindi words I have learned: Bear = Bhaaloo, Apple = Saeb, Boy = larka, Girl = larkee, Elephant = haathi, Tiger = sheer, Cow = gaaie, Peacock = moor. I noticed that most of the animals from the Jungle Book, are named after Hindi words like Baloo the Bear, Sheer Khan the Tiger, and Colonel Hatti the Elephant!

I miss you all sooooo much, but I do feel like I really want to come back to India some day! It would be fun to bring all of my friends to India so I could show you all of these things!

Sylvie says:
I’m feeling better about school. I’m still pretty nervous. Here I am in 2nd Grade, which is pretty hard for me, because I am supposed to be in 1st grade. But the 1st graders don’t speak so much English, so we thought it was better to put me in second grade. My two best friends here are named Shushmeeta and Tania. I wish my El Portal friends were here, but they aren’t, so I just have to make the best out of it.

Here everyone is doing cursive already, except for me. I’ve only been in 1st grade for one week in El Portal, then I’m all of a sudden in 2nd grade in India! So I really don’t know too much cursive yet! I’m trying to learn cursive, but it’s a little bit hard for me because it’s so swirly and squiggly! I like India because there’s a lot of mangos, but the mango season is done now. So now there’s so many papayas, and a lot of mornings we eat it with spoons and squeeze limes on it.

At lunch time at school, I almost always have rice and vegetables. I have a box called a “tiffen box,” and it looks kind of like a metal box. It is kind of tall and round, and has two boxes that fit together just right. There is the metal clamp parts that hold it closed in your backpack. And I really like it! I think I’ll use it in El Portal, because I love it! It’s a little smaller than the real lunch boxes that you guys usually have. So I can’t fit so much food in it. Mommy cooks the rice every day, and I get to eat it with my hands! First I wash my hands with a water bottle or at a sink,

The one bad thing is there is barely any recess. There is only the lunchtime for a half an hour, but it seems really short. Sometimes I don’t get any play recess, and I just eat and then go back in my classroom. The bell is SO loud cuz there are so many kids.

My costume, I mean my “uniform,” is white and dark blue, and my socks are white. I have black shoes, and wear braids and red ribbons and a “Kendriya Vidyalaya” belt cuz that’s our school name. On Fridays I wear a white skirt, and white everything. Last Friday we didn’t know, so I wore red ribbons. I thought I’d get super dirty because it’s so white, but I didn’t get too dirty. I’m OK with that….

Before and after school I LOVE the rickshaw rides, because every time I see animals. I see horses, bulls, water buffaloes, which are so cool cuz they’re so big and cool! Sometimes horses are in the “bump things” in the middle of the road, just out there eating grass in the middle of the road! One time we even saw a dog eating a chicken foot, and this morning at the school I saw a crow eating a dead rat. Poor rat…. But it looked so funny and it was fun to watch.

When Dadddy tells the rickshaw man where to go, he says “8th Main, 15th Cross” and when we get closer he says “right side right side” and when we get home he says “Aachaa.” That means “OK!” You can also say thank you which means “Dhanyabahd.”

Lupin adds:
I have a new school and it’s really fun. There is a sand box with toys that you can play with! I have fun at my preschool. Sometimes my Mommy leaves, and I really like to go there, and mommy doesn’t go there for the whole time.

There are special things that you wear, but my uniform is not ready yet. Mama really wants it, so after we went to the store first we got some little yogurts. My school has bunnies for sure in true life! You can’t hold them or do anything to them, you can just look at them. They run around, and when it’s time to go they put them in their cages because they would eat all the grass and that’s bad. They would dig and dig and make a hole in the lawn and live there.

Sometimes I know the kids names, but I forget them when I try to say the names. They are different kinds of names.

I really like my house in India. My toys I just have 2 toys to play with, cuz my monkey is lost and my green baby! Everytime I go to school it rains, but not all the times. I also want someday to walk with my own rainbow umbrella. I like India here!