Living and Working in India
Dorothy West and Harold Mondol – India
Living in India is a new experience for me. It is not for Harold. Many years ago he, himself, attended this school from which he graduated in 1950. The reconnections for Harold stimulated many memories, some of which had to do with missing his family as a young school boy in a boarding school and being on his own at a very young age. His memories have encouraged him to be very caring for students, who he knows must have the same thoughts of loneliness for their far away families.
Dorothy West and Harold Mondol – India
Living in India is a new experience for me. It is not for Harold. Many years ago he, himself, attended this school from which he graduated in 1950. The reconnections for Harold stimulated many memories, some of which had to do with missing his family as a young school boy in a boarding school and being on his own at a very young age. His memories have encouraged him to be very caring for students, who he knows must have the same thoughts of loneliness for their far away families.
Learning to wash clothes in a bucket, and expecting power outages every now and then are a few of the rather minor inconveniences. The power just went out as I’m writing! Otherwise, life on this hilltop station is amazingly peaceful. This is an International High School and 500 children live in a boarding school environment. They come from many lands to live and study together, all from kindergarten through Grade 12. The staff is as international as the students. Students are given the opportunity to learn about Christian values and teachings, although only about half of the students are Christian. The predominant religions in the community are Hinduism and Moslem. Christianity represents 4-5 percent of the population in India.
My role at Kodiakanal School has been to help with the food technology program in the middle school, substitute teacher, and primarily write curriculum for the food technology area. The school is revising the curriculum to meet the standards of the Middle Years Program, as designed by International Program Planners primarily from Cardiff, Wales. The program is intended to feed into the International Baccalaureate Degree for High School.
The current food technology teacher is not trained in teacher education. My role is to assist with revising the curriculum to meet the new standards of the MYP (Middle Years Program). I find it a challenge as I was not familiar with the organizing structure of the curriculum until I studied all the documents that the school has shared with me. In addition, I quiet actively participate in the Social Experience Program, which requires high school students to complete 20 hours of community service per year. I chaperone students going to several different orphanages with children from Tribal families who otherwise marry off their daughters at puberty, and many Tsunami victim orphans. I have also helped in a special aging and indigent care center. Getting to know the students and other faculty and building trust, takes time. Listening to students and faculty who come to KIS is most important; then, learning how to help comes second. There is a network of workers who give of their time to help the students have a positive learning environment, as well as a good living environment for growing and developing kids into kind and caring citizens of the world.
Harold has been working diligently to provide video training to students in middle school classes and also through a video club for those not taking the course. He is working on helping to build a better video website for the school, as well as creating a video yearbook. There are lots of activities at this boarding school to record. The 6th and 7th graders we work with seem so young, yet they are fun and loving students. Being an away from home parent is helpful as we learn more about individual strengths and their goals. Most of all, we can support and encourage the faculty who have been here for years, giving new energies and resources to their work. We hope we shed some strength to the work of this international school as we meet with visiting alumni from all parts of the world. We interact with young students coping with their days away from home, and faculty doing the best they can with recognizable limited resources. (There is only one set of textbooks available for the food classes. The book is dated 1983). We want to express our appreciation at the opportunity to serve, in loving faith, the work at this school. Maybe these students can guide the world toward a reign of peace.
Dottie and Harold
Dorothy West and Harold Mondol serve as volunteers with the Kodaikanal International School in Tamil Nadu, India. Dorothy is a teacher of health and nutrition education, and helps prepare for writing grants, as well as house parenting. Harold is a teacher of video projection in the technology program at the school, as well as house parenting.