Aside from the amazing opportunities IAPA provided me with, my summer in India also allowed me to reconnect with family members.

Not only did I get to Bangalore (about 6 hours away from Chennai by train) and see both my mother and father’s parents, but I also had the chance to meet with two of my Mom’s cousins and their families as well as some of my father’s family in Chennai itself!

Seeing my grandparents is always fun for me. I get pampered, fed, and get showered with plenty of attention. What’s not to like? This time I got to show off some new Tamil-speaking skills, which I must admit, were greatly improved from attempts from years prior. Both sets are doing very well and I’m really glad that I was able to visit them while I was in India. It wouldn’t have felt right if I hadn’t done so!

My mom’s cousin, Mohan along with his wife, Sudha, were absolutely awesome! Mohan Uncle checked in on me every now and then, just to make sure I was doing okay, and the time that I did spend with them was not only fun, but was natural! They really took care of me this summer!

My mother’s other cousin, Jayashree I didn’t get a chance to actually see until about 2 weeks before I left. But she is awesome! She actually used to work at the Ramachandra Medical College that I taught at the last day! Jayashree Aunty also has two kids, Rajeev and Ashvin, who are hilarious. It took them a while to warm up to me, but once they did we had a lot of fun. They kicked my butt at Uno.

I also got to meet some of my Dad’s extended family in Chennai. All of them were really sweet and one aunty in particular, Asha aunty offered to take me to an HIV clinic just to check it out and see how it was run!

We ended teaching in India with the start of the Universe….you know, a big bang! (Laugh! That’s was funny!) Anyway, IAPA was given the opportunity to teach at a well respected medical school, Ramachandra Medical College.

Now initially I was pretty weary of this event mostly because I was sure that the students we would be teaching would know more about the biology and the transmission of HIV than I did. (And, with little to no internet access, I didn’t have good ol’ wikipedia to fall back on for teaching prep!) Nevertheless I brushed up as well as I could on the curriculum and planned to spend a lot of time talking about both the history of HIV/AIDS and the unfortunate role of stigma in the hospital setting.

So, I woke the next morning feeling pretty prepared, but still nervous that I was going to end up with a smart-ass class who would find it hilarious to grill our group about facts we had no clue about. The events that defined that morning did nothing to make me feel better:

1. We had to wake up reeeeally early.

…waking up is bad enough, but doing it early is torture!

2. I was having an off hair day.

Don’t judge, my hair has a significant role in my confidence.

3. We temporarily lost my teaching partner, Neil.

Halfway to the bus stop, we realize Neil was not with us. We found him back at the hostel. As to what he was doing there and how he managed to stay behind after both his roomates had left (one of which is Scott, my other teaching partner) still beats me.

Despite all this, everyone managed to get on the bus and to the college on time! We ended up teaching groups of nursing students and hospital technicians—and the teaching actually went fantastically. At first our class was shy and probably unsure as to why kids their age and younger had the authority to teach them anything. But, the sparkling personalities of group 2, along with our good looks, eventually won our class over and they actually became quite participatory and entertained by our 2 hours lesson.

The feedback we received was encouraging. Because they were so far into their schooling, a lot of the concepts that we covered, such as the central dogma, immune responses and virology, had been pushed into the back of their minds. They told us that the way we taught made these subjects both easy to comprehend and interesting. I ended up playing a lot of the games that I usually played with my kids, mostly because I’m a big fan of embarrassing people. It brings them all together and makes them comfortable with us—knowing that we enjoy what we teach and want our audience to feel the same way.

The only surprise that I recall was when we taught the fluids and the doors and a few of the students believed that the mouth was a door—an opening into the body that, if it should come in contact with an HIV positive fluid—could transmit the HIV virus. This misconception is one of many incorrect beliefs about HIV tranmission and adds to the stigma that surrounds the malady by allowing people to believe that HIV can be spread much more easily that it actually can.

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but this led to a damn good talk on stigma prevention that we closed our lesson with. Okay, I’ll toot my horn a little bit…toot, toot!

You know you’re doing something great when the actual “work” part of your organization is ridiculously fun. So as the last day of teaching loomed over our heads, I got nostalgic about all the prior teachings.

This is what teaching has given me:

1. Confidence

I think the greatest part of teaching is that instills a confidence in you that you never really knew was there before. When you walk down the rows of these kids and they’re hanging on to your every word (or at least pretending to) you feel like you’re actually doing something in you life. Most of my summers were wasted away with lazy days—days taken up by hulu, facebook and television. But this summer, I woke up with some purpose in my pocket and it made each day in Chennai significant.

2. Flexibility

Each day of teaching was trial and error. While there was a certain plan that we stuck to while teaching, there was no real rigidity in it. We tried new ways of teaching each day and through that we filtered what worked and what didn’t. But I loved that every teaching was unique—nothing became too standard or too routine that I started resenting the experience for being boring.

3. An understanding of the importance of Teamwork

Again with the cliches, but teamwork was so vital this summer! Not only between my teaching partners and myself but also between all of the teaching groups. We learned to teach together, shared techniques and strategies, and all of us bonded over being thrown into this whirlwind experience. I love all of them for it, and especially Scott and Neil who carried me through all my tough days. And another shout out to Neil who always carried the posters!

4. An appreciation of the spirit of Indian kids

I feel like we treat high school as this mundane experience that exists solely as a stepping stone to college, the “real” education experience. But the kids in Chennai, at least during our lesson, appear to truly enjoy learning. They like the games we played with them and most of them seemed to actually pick up the message we were trying to instill. There are always the shy classes, but once you warm them up—they’re just as boisterous as a class that was rowdy from the start. And that’s what made teaching so fun—the fact that kids were actually appreciating what you were teaching them.

5. A big ego

…so many compliments from these kids. I loves it!

LAST CLASS

The last class I taught was 11th grade and was an all boys class. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to close teaching. They were loud, bratty, funny, flirtatious and extremely intelligent. They gave us a run for our money—asked intelligent questions, were upfront about the things they didn’t understand, and above all they had a damn good time with us. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

Though we all went and saw our side-projects after I first made mention of them, the last time we saw all of them was particularly memorable. The three side projects that dealt primarily with children affected HIV with or orphaned by parents who have died from opportunistic infections, that is SHELTER, PACT House, and Peace Trust met in one venue. Here, not only did we get to interact with the kids, but the kids were also given the opportunity to interact with each other.

The event was a lot of fun. The kids performed for us with skits, dances, poem recitings and singing! In turn, team IAPA performed for the kids as well. Kavya, Neha, Abhishek and Sanjay performed an amazing dance, Tulika played the Veena, and all of us graced the stage and sang a song that Louis had taught to us on the village trip. We were also treated to a special dance performance by Louis’s son Bosco. He was awesome—totally flirted with the audience and pulled select individuals up to the stage. I was one of them!

The side projects are some of the more amazing facets of the jewel that is IAPA. While teaching is central to IAPA’s mission, nothing quite tops the relationships we’ve made with the staff and children of SHELTER, PACT and Peace Trust. We each visit, we are exposed to the unbridled joy and quiet innocence of individuals whose lives have been filled with nothing poverty, neglect, and tragedy. Yet they greet us each time with smiles on their faces and a willingness to learn from us and a desire to teach us about themselves. Sappy as it may be, these people have not only graced me with a much-needed humility, but they have inspired in me a desire to stay connected to my experiences in India—to continue to stay in touch with and help out in whatever way I can for as long as possible. I want to thank them for letting me into their homes and showing me, that despite any odds, just how easy happiness is to find.

So right up to Kerala, teachings intensified.  We refined our teaching techniques, became more and more confident in ourselves, and as such were watched much less by the staff! We had a couple days where we double taught (went to two schools in the same day) and a few teachings that lasted up to 5 hours. So, by the time mid-July rolled around, team IAPA was more than excited for a quick break to paradise.

And let me tell you, that is exactly what Kerala is. Kerala is located in southwestern India and it is about a 10-hour overnight train-ride from Chennai. It is famous for its beaches, its back waters, a native dance known as kathakali and for its spices. Also for its incorporation of coconut and plantains into the native diet!

The first day we arrived in a place known as Allepy. From here we were bussed to two houseboats where we would be staying on for the night. Really quickly, let me tell you about our bus. For whatever reason, it decided to have both a Mercedes logo on it as well as a Toyota symbol on all the wheels. Not to mention there were a couple places inside that randomly decided to leak, so if you fell asleep and forgot to avoid the leaky spots, you woke up with a soaked back. Regardless, it was charming. Now I thought the houseboats were going to be pretty commonplace—nothing too fancy, just the bare minimum to tour the backwaters of Kerala and get a decent nights sleep. Not the case at all. Our houseboats were AMAZING. Both were two stories (I have no idea if the use of “story” is appropriate boat terminology) and had speaker system, couches, a dance floor area, a viewing deck, sweet little bedrooms with individual bathrooms. Ah, it was gorgeous!

There’s really not too much to say about this day…we all vegged out—stared out at the backwaters, hung out with each other, played hearts, danced, ate, hung out some more. A couple people were brave enough to swim from boat to boat. I would have loved to, but I heard that there were snakes in the water and that about killed any sort of fun I could have had swimming! There was also a point that we got caught in a legitimate storm for about four hours! It was awesome! None of this wimply Arizona rain and dust storms that we are used to. No way, it was legit!

The next day we left for Trivandrum—about four hours away from Allepy. When we finally arrived at our resort (we managed to get lost a few times) all of us were hungry and exhausted. But as soon as we saw where we were staying, we all kind of forgot about our condition. Our resort, Manaltheeram, was RIGHT on the beach. And it was absolutely gorgeous. Words can’t fully explain how amazing our view was, so I’m going to go ahead and post a ton of pictures.

We also went on a brief sight-seeing tour that consisted of a palace, a temple, and a zoo. The temple architecture was beautiful and I, surprising, liked the zoo a lot! I’m not the biggest fan of animals, not because I hate them, but because they scare me, and I actually really really loved this zoo. We saw hippos, giraffes, tigers, lions, rhinos, jaugar! It was pretty damn cool.

Overall Kerala taugh me a few things:

1. Hammocks are amazing.

About ten hours of my trip was spent just in a hammock. They’re great for having one-on-one’s with people, reading, thinking, people watching, and staring our at the ocean, which coincidentally the hotel lights for you until around 9pm. This abrupt switching off of lights brings about remarks such as the following “Hey! They turned the ocean off!” -James

2. The Kerala Beach might have been trying to kill us.

Day 1: The beach washed up dead fish.

Day 2: The beach washed up jelly fish.

Day 3: The beach washed up a pufferfish.

James very shrewdly pointed out that each day the beach became a little bit more dangerous. We concluded, the beach was trying to kill us.

3. Don’t climb on moss-covered rocks in flip-flops.

I guess that’s general knowlege, but I’m just sharing what I learned first-hand. Wish we had video…

4. IAPA has me whipped.

One morning on the beach, a group of us drew out how we teach immunology in the sand.

5. I wouldn’t mind waking up to the sound of the ocean for the rest of my life.

For me, waking up is the absolute worst part of the day. It’s always, always traumatic. But hey, waking up with the ocean in your ear is kind of relaxing! I prefer it. Kerala, maybe I’ll see you in a couple decades! Or you know, California, because it’s closer and more practical.