The people of India were courteous and friendly. The children in our class - they were magical and curious as are children everywhere.
I mistakenly assumed the children in Jaipur would know as much or more English than the children we worked with in Vietnam. I wish I had taken a little more time during the first day to assess this and adjust our presentation. With the help of our coordinator who was on hand to translate, I think (hope) we accomplished something. The children seemed to enjoy it. Had I known beforehand that we would be teaching geography and measurement, I would gladly have brought along an inflatable globe, hobby scale, etc. to help. This leads me to a suggestion. In Vietnam, Globe Aware provided a portable library to the class where we taught - a big hit with the kids. For even less money, I wonder if Globe Aware might be able to provide a small teaching kit including a globe, yardsticks, etc. - whatever the local coordinator thinks might be useful. I think most volunteers would be happy to help support this financially and it might make them more effective. But I'm not a professional at this - just a thought. - Joseph Hiller, March 2015