Every year the middle schoolers at ASB go on a Week Without Walls trip. The 6th graders go together to one place and the 7th and 8th graders go to separate places. the 7th and 8th graders leave on Monday and come back Friday. The 6th graders don't leave until Tuesday so on Monday we had classes to prepare them for the trip to Matheran. I taught monkey safety - the irony of that will be evident later :) The kids were really excited to go to Matheran. The roads are too steep with hairpin turns for busses to go so we went in a convoy of minivans. Each van had a driver, a teacher or trailblazer (the outdoor education people that helped us with the trip) and 4 kids. We also had vans with luggage, supplies and security guards. It is about a 2 - 2 1/2 hour drive up to the car park. It is one of only two pedestrian hill stations in the world so no cars are allowed. We had to hike the kids up to the top - about a 45 minute walk.
I was in the car # 2 with two girls A and R and two boys M and J. A speaks Hindi and that was helpful to talk to the driver. R had a difficult time playing games in the car because she is hard of hearing and doesn't understand a lot unless she reads your lips. so R and A hung out int he bag texting other girls. J was playing his video games. M... well. M has some special challenges and let's just say everyone was happy I had M in MY car and not theirs! 19 minutes into the trip M asked if we were almost there! We could practially still see the school!! He asked every 2 -3 minutes after that - even though it was obvious we were still in the middle of Mumbai! He was very excite to see monkeys so he saw them everywhere. I could hear him saying constantly that he saw a monkey and J was back there saying. "No M, that was a dog (or piece of garbage or chipmunk or grass" or whatever!! they were so patient with him for the most part. At one point A said "M please stop asking Ms. Staley if we are almost there, she will tell you when we are - and no there are no rinoceruses in Matheran" ha!!! poor M!
About 2/3 of the way up the hike I started puking. We thought it was just car sickness, but then I puked all afternoon and the next day... and it was coming out of both ends... so must have gotten something weird from India! So I didn't get to go with my kids on the first day of activities. But the 2nd day i went with my advisory to go rock climbing, rapelling and do some nature stuff. They loved the adventure stuff and I was so proud of them!! My advisory did a lot of singing while we were hiking. :) It was like being a camp counselor again!! At the beginning of the year the advisorys had to pick a name and we were the Funky Chickens but this week they changed it to SS Ninjas. :) Staley and Sodhi are their advisors( sodhi has a baby and couldn't come on the trip) and I call them Ninjas all the time :)
The kids were bunked 4 to a room and teachers were interspersed throughout. The girls on my floor needed help with a lot of things - broken class, monkeys got in their room and they needed me to chase them out, hot water wouldn't turn off etc. so I have a scald mark on my arm from a hot water pipe :)
Every night we did activities together and awarded someone the best camper of the day with a golden bell :) then the kids would go to their advior's room and debrief the day. I have 4 girls and 8 boys in my advisory so that is not a quiet time :)
On thursday we took them to the town to go souvenier shopping and get snacks. Mr. Fast, the counselor who was paired with my advisory wanted to take the boys back while I stayed with the girls while they looked for jewelry. You should have seen the look on the security guard's face when he saw we were breaking up. You could see he was thinking about how to be in two places at one time!! In the end he stayed with us and I asked if it was because we were girls and he said yes. I wanted to remind him Mr. Fast had M and M needs more guarding than any other kid!!! ha!! In the evenings the kids had flex time and could swim or play cricket or read etc. The teachers would gather in the play space and watch them. they served us snacks every evening. So even though I was the monkey safety teacher and had shooed many a monkey away and reminded kids constantly of the dangers of monkeys I still thought it was ok to take my snack to the pool without putting it in my backpack. So I get a few feet from my room and a huge alpha male comes at me and hisses. One of my boys was right there and was terrified. I threw my fanta to distract him so we could get away. I turn the corner and there were four monkeys ready to pounce so I threw my oreos but they didn't leave! now there are like 9 monkeys all around, above me ready to attack. The Trail blazer people were out there and told me to stand still while the guards raced over, but before they could get there, one monkey jumped on me like I was a tree!! and clawed my arm...so now I am on the rabies shot series which is screwing up my vacation plans because I have to get shots on certain days.
It is really fun teaching international kids. One of my girls asked me where to plug in her phone charger - I told her to put it in a socket. she said she couldn't find one so I went in there and found one in half a second. later, an adorable British girl who sounded exactly like Hermoine said "In her defense Miss Staley, that socket did look quite abnormal" ha!! love it!! what houston 6th grader talks like that???
Friday we started our decent down and M was wanding into horses etc. Every 5 minutes the security guard would get my attention and say "madam, M" and point to whatever he was doing... augh!
We finally get in all the cars and start home. The roads are awful - full of pot holes etc. when we got tot he expressway the driver noticed we had a flat. so no I am on the side of the road with four kids and a driver that doesn't speak english. Another car stops to help and bring a jack. they start rocking my car - I guess to get it high enough for the jack. My kids are tumbling all over the car as they are rocking it!!! I ask if I can get them out and they said "it's ok madam" Vinesh, the Marshall shows up and tells me we are getting in another car. I get all my kids to look at me so I can tell them how serious it is that we are getting out onto a freeway. Had to grab M's face an make him look at me!! The guards get our stuff and try to get me in the car and I refused to do so until the kids were in. I thought we were going in a luggage car, nope. the school had a spare car with us in case one of the cars broke down. Each car had a tag with our car number and the inventory of people in it. I noticed the marshall had moved the tag to the new car. I felt like the president and this was the new Air Force One!! ha! doubt a rabies infested person is allowed to be leader of the free world!! ha!
15 minutes later the student teacher texts me and says she also has a flat!! We finally get to the school. I get my rabies shot and we head home. Now I am trying to pack for my vacation!
Sorry this is full of typos. and uncapitalizated words. I wanted to get it done before my next trip :)
I was in the car # 2 with two girls A and R and two boys M and J. A speaks Hindi and that was helpful to talk to the driver. R had a difficult time playing games in the car because she is hard of hearing and doesn't understand a lot unless she reads your lips. so R and A hung out int he bag texting other girls. J was playing his video games. M... well. M has some special challenges and let's just say everyone was happy I had M in MY car and not theirs! 19 minutes into the trip M asked if we were almost there! We could practially still see the school!! He asked every 2 -3 minutes after that - even though it was obvious we were still in the middle of Mumbai! He was very excite to see monkeys so he saw them everywhere. I could hear him saying constantly that he saw a monkey and J was back there saying. "No M, that was a dog (or piece of garbage or chipmunk or grass" or whatever!! they were so patient with him for the most part. At one point A said "M please stop asking Ms. Staley if we are almost there, she will tell you when we are - and no there are no rinoceruses in Matheran" ha!!! poor M!
About 2/3 of the way up the hike I started puking. We thought it was just car sickness, but then I puked all afternoon and the next day... and it was coming out of both ends... so must have gotten something weird from India! So I didn't get to go with my kids on the first day of activities. But the 2nd day i went with my advisory to go rock climbing, rapelling and do some nature stuff. They loved the adventure stuff and I was so proud of them!! My advisory did a lot of singing while we were hiking. :) It was like being a camp counselor again!! At the beginning of the year the advisorys had to pick a name and we were the Funky Chickens but this week they changed it to SS Ninjas. :) Staley and Sodhi are their advisors( sodhi has a baby and couldn't come on the trip) and I call them Ninjas all the time :)
The kids were bunked 4 to a room and teachers were interspersed throughout. The girls on my floor needed help with a lot of things - broken class, monkeys got in their room and they needed me to chase them out, hot water wouldn't turn off etc. so I have a scald mark on my arm from a hot water pipe :)
Every night we did activities together and awarded someone the best camper of the day with a golden bell :) then the kids would go to their advior's room and debrief the day. I have 4 girls and 8 boys in my advisory so that is not a quiet time :)
On thursday we took them to the town to go souvenier shopping and get snacks. Mr. Fast, the counselor who was paired with my advisory wanted to take the boys back while I stayed with the girls while they looked for jewelry. You should have seen the look on the security guard's face when he saw we were breaking up. You could see he was thinking about how to be in two places at one time!! In the end he stayed with us and I asked if it was because we were girls and he said yes. I wanted to remind him Mr. Fast had M and M needs more guarding than any other kid!!! ha!! In the evenings the kids had flex time and could swim or play cricket or read etc. The teachers would gather in the play space and watch them. they served us snacks every evening. So even though I was the monkey safety teacher and had shooed many a monkey away and reminded kids constantly of the dangers of monkeys I still thought it was ok to take my snack to the pool without putting it in my backpack. So I get a few feet from my room and a huge alpha male comes at me and hisses. One of my boys was right there and was terrified. I threw my fanta to distract him so we could get away. I turn the corner and there were four monkeys ready to pounce so I threw my oreos but they didn't leave! now there are like 9 monkeys all around, above me ready to attack. The Trail blazer people were out there and told me to stand still while the guards raced over, but before they could get there, one monkey jumped on me like I was a tree!! and clawed my arm...so now I am on the rabies shot series which is screwing up my vacation plans because I have to get shots on certain days.
It is really fun teaching international kids. One of my girls asked me where to plug in her phone charger - I told her to put it in a socket. she said she couldn't find one so I went in there and found one in half a second. later, an adorable British girl who sounded exactly like Hermoine said "In her defense Miss Staley, that socket did look quite abnormal" ha!! love it!! what houston 6th grader talks like that???
Friday we started our decent down and M was wanding into horses etc. Every 5 minutes the security guard would get my attention and say "madam, M" and point to whatever he was doing... augh!
We finally get in all the cars and start home. The roads are awful - full of pot holes etc. when we got tot he expressway the driver noticed we had a flat. so no I am on the side of the road with four kids and a driver that doesn't speak english. Another car stops to help and bring a jack. they start rocking my car - I guess to get it high enough for the jack. My kids are tumbling all over the car as they are rocking it!!! I ask if I can get them out and they said "it's ok madam" Vinesh, the Marshall shows up and tells me we are getting in another car. I get all my kids to look at me so I can tell them how serious it is that we are getting out onto a freeway. Had to grab M's face an make him look at me!! The guards get our stuff and try to get me in the car and I refused to do so until the kids were in. I thought we were going in a luggage car, nope. the school had a spare car with us in case one of the cars broke down. Each car had a tag with our car number and the inventory of people in it. I noticed the marshall had moved the tag to the new car. I felt like the president and this was the new Air Force One!! ha! doubt a rabies infested person is allowed to be leader of the free world!! ha!
15 minutes later the student teacher texts me and says she also has a flat!! We finally get to the school. I get my rabies shot and we head home. Now I am trying to pack for my vacation!
Sorry this is full of typos. and uncapitalizated words. I wanted to get it done before my next trip :)
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