It’s been a week since my return from Coll so I felt it was
time to write about my training week- partially to document another amazing
week in the Hebrides but also to use as a means justification for my
uselessness in the few days after I got home. (I apologise in advance- this
post will probably be quite long.)
So, as I live pretty far away from Scotland and am still
embarrassing new to using trains on my own, I decided to make my way up to Oban
over two days rather than one. This meant getting the train from Cheltenham up
to Berwick-upon-Tweed where I spent Saturday evening and Sunday morning with my
lovely Auntie Pat and Uncle Richard. Having a little stay in Eyemouth before continuing
my travels makes living so far away worth it as, while other volunteers’
Sundays entailed getting up at 6am and trains all day, I was able to not only
have an lie-in but also a stroll around town AND have Sunday Roast. (Thank you,
Pat!)
My travels continued on Sunday to Edinburgh and then
Glasgow. Almost as soon as I got off my train the search for other teenagers
with massively over-sized bags who might be volunteers began and it was moments
before I noticed someone who had been on my Selection course last year. Our little group snowballed in numbers so by
the time we were on the train there were a fair few of us sat together, no
doubt being a annoying everyone else on the carriage with our chatter. Despite
it being late and having a busy day ahead of us tomorrow, a few of us wandered
into town to get chips by the sea. As someone who doesn’t live by the sea, it
felt like such a treat to have such a beautiful view of the harbour just after
the sun had gone down.
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| An evening in Oban |
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| Chips by the water |
Monday felt hectic. As the ferry left at 7.30 am we were up
around 6 to make sure we collected our tickets in time which is far earlier
than I like. Entertainment on the ferry took the form of a game of ‘Cards
Against Humanity’ and it wasn’t too long before we had arrived on Coll. As soon
as we got to the Hebridean Centre we were thrown into talks about Media,
Insurance and the ‘One Award’ booklet (the paperwork side of the Level 3
qualification we do while overseas). What with the travel the day before and
early start this exhausting and a complete shock to the system. To top this, Monday
was the day when I first properly met my partner; Lottie. To my relief we get
on brilliantly and I couldn’t have picked anyone better if I had tried. I know next
year will be really tough at some points but having someone as bubbly and lovely
as Lottie means those rough bits will be far outnumbered by great ones.
To remedy this overload of information, Monday evening was
taken up by a trip to the beach for games of Rounders and Ultimate Frisbee
(both of which, it transpired, are taken very seriously by Project Trust
staff). While I would have appalled my old PE teachers with my complete lack of
ability to hit a rounders ball, I did get quite into the Frisbee and am proud
to say that team ‘Global Citizenship’ placed a respectable second. That evening, completely shattered, we curled
up under duvets and watched the Lion King. It was this point when I started to
get all cheesy and sentimental about my new ‘India family’. It’s amazing how
quickly I felt I had built friendships with the other volunteers, though I
guess inevitable considering we must all be fairly similar to be embarking on
our years overseas. |
| Walking to the beach |
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| The beach |
To be honest, the sessions over the next couple of days
became a bit of a blur and, without looking at my timetable, I wouldn’t be able
to say what came when. I can, however, tell you that they included several
TESOL sessions, the Rights of the Child, how to deal with a disclosure, sorting
Visas, classroom management, safety and security, one on Global Citizenship, Health, Travel and
several country specific information and problem solving sessions. By far the
most helpful and inspirational was Lorcan’s TESOL lesson in which we received an
hour long crash course on basic Thai taught without him using a single English
word. By the end of the 60 minutes we were able to introduce ourselves to our
partners, ask them how they were, come up with the correct response (altered according
to whether we were talking to a male or female) and name a few random foods. This
was massively encouraging as it proved that the language barriers I will be
facing between myself and my students could easily be overcome, however, at the
same time it did fill me with some dread. Visual aids, the use of the white
board, gestures and facial expressions had made up a massive part of Lorcan’s
lesson yet Lottie and I won’t be able to rely on those while teaching visually
impaired students. The added challenge of teaching children with disabilities
became even more apparent when we were planning mini 10 and 20 minute long
lessons to be taught to small groups of other volunteers. Lottie and I both
decided to have our classes be blindfolded for the duration of our lessons in
an attempt to recreate our teaching conditions and this presented more
difficulties than we had anticipated. Simply working out how we would let a
student know we were addressing only them rather than the whole class took an
awful long time. Luckily both our lessons proved very successful with the help
of songs in mine and Lottie’s use of extensive props for students to smell,
touch and taste in order to learn simple English words. I think what we learnt
from this was that teaching takes an awful awful lot of planning and preparation
and we will have to learn loads of TESOL songs between now and departure.
Wednesday evening saw another trip to the beach and this
time I braved the Scottish sea and went for a swim. This was up there on my
bucket list for training as I hadn’t been able to last year at Selection, and
even though I couldn’t feel my toes and had to retire to the Hebridean Centre earlier
than I would have liked, I’m glad I went for it. Much like Monday evening, Wednesday meant more
duvets and movies, though this time it was Dirty Dancing followed by Star Wars
(and I can’t say I was a fan of the latter).
Unfortunately, on Thursday evening, I became unwell. Someone
from my room had been ill earlier in the week having picked up a bug earlier in
Oban and I had caught it. This meant that I missed the final meal and only
managed to pull myself out of my bed for a few photos, toasts and the half of
the first dance of the ceilidh- something I was actually pretty sad about
having looked forward to it all week. Luckily for me, I had some lovely friends
who braved the (by this point) quarantined room in order to keep me company
while everyone was dancing and being merry. I was very grateful for that. While
being ill wasn’t ideal by any means, I guess it did remind me how awful it
feels to be ill away from home where I could be looked after and, by extension,
showed me how sorry for myself I will feel when overseas. Despite this, looking
back on my training week, being ill simply feels like a rubbish blip on an
otherwise fantastic week and I don’t remember it being anywhere near as bad as
it felt at the time. I hope that this time next year I will be looking back on
my year in India feeling the same thing; that the rough and ill points were
only blips that I don’t remember nearly as well as all of the beautiful good
bits.
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| My 'India family' (minus one or two who appear to have wandered off) |
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| Hyderabad Girls |
It was bitter sweet to say goodbye to everyone on the
Friday. Obviously, having an amazing week with new friends then having to step
back into reality felt pretty gutting, but at the same time there was a massive
sense of excitement in knowing that the next time I will see my ‘India family’
we will be gathering at the airport ready to fly off to our new home.
Elena x
