Exciting news, everybody! I'm going to Kalimpong where I'll be teaching English and Art in Good Start Montessori School! I'm placed with another volunteer, whose name I won't say because we are yet to become Facebook friends) however there will probably be a few more volunteers in the town itself.


Kalimpong is a delightful little town in West Bengal with a population of approximately 70 000people and about 3hrs drive from any major town, that is Darjeeling and Siliguri. It's located in the Himalayan foothills (yes, my view is going to be super duper awesome) and is at an altitude of 1250m. Here's a picture I found in Google Images:

Oddly urbanised for a hill-y location but absolutely beautiful. Look at those snow-capped mountains in the background! Sunrises and sunsets are going to be amazing. And to all those people who said that I'm going to return so dark, I'll be their new Indian friend: It has a moderate climate ranging from between 15°C to 25°C in Summer and 7°C to 15°C in Winter, so if anything, you'll be darker than me.


Good Start Montessori School is a small co-educational Montessori school (according to Wikipedia, Montessori education is characterised by an emphasis on independence, freedom within limits, and respect for a child’s natural psychological development, as well as technological advancements in society. Yeah...I still don't really understand it.) and the majority of pupils are boys. Pupils range from nursery to class five (two and a half to twelve years old) and there are about fifty children, all boarders, and currently six teachers. We will be living on campus and dining with Manju and Andrew who own the school, who also live on campus.


As I was scouring the Internet for any information on Kalimpong and Good Start Montessori School I could get my hands on, I came upon a blog owned by none other then a Lattitude volunteer herself who was situated there at the beginning of this year! Here is a small extract of one of her posts:

The owners of the school, Manju and Andrew, are so very welcoming and kind. We eat with them in their house which is on the school premises and the food is so nice! This morning our breakfast was brought up to our room for us so we enjoyed toast, scrambled eggs, cereal, banana and tea on the porch in the fresh Kalimpong air. So much for roughing it in India! This is luxurious. We have stocked the kitchen with the essentials – chocolate, hot chocolate powder, nutella, tea. We have a gas burner so we can brew our own Darjeeling tea and cook food if we want to. Heaven!

Brilliant. Absolutely wonderful. There goes my worries about the infamous Delhi Belly, which I assume is going to happen nonetheless, but knowing that I will have access to food that I am familiar with brings me loads of comfort and relief. Her blog also had several photos, and I hope she doesn't mind me sharing them with you now.

Classroom

This is an average classroom where we will be teaching in very small numbers. We will have almost no resources for our classes and will have to prepare our own lessons following a very vague curriculum outline which is “as long as the children are learning you can do what you like”. 

Main School Building

Bedroom

The general quality of the placement is, honestly, a lot nicer than expected. I'm somewhat relieved to know that I won't be teaching in a classroom with no table and chairs and that I will be sleeping in a bed that looks and hopefully feels the same as the one I have in my own bedroom now. However, the cold hard truth is that many schools cannot afford tables, chairs, or even chalk for their chalkboard. Honestly, there is a teeny weeny incy bincy little piece of me that feels somewhat guilty and ashamed for being placed here. If I was going to be placed anywhere, shouldn't I be in the places who need me most because they can't afford teachers, tables, resources, uniform? I know I have no reason to feel this way and maybe it's because all this information did not meet my expectations at all. But I know I'll love it in Good Start and that I'll definitely make the most of my time there. 
Because making a difference doesn't start in any particular place but anyplace where you happen to find yourself in. And I guess that's Kalimpong for me. (: