This post was written on January 21.
As early as October, Omana Teacher told me that when her daughter, Ann, came to Kerala from Mumbai, where she works as a nurse, I would come to her house for the weekend. Having already spent time at a few other teacher’s houses, and having really enjoyed getting to know their children and families, I looked forward to another such opportunity. And last weekend, it finally happened!
Omana Teacher’s son, Anoop, is about 19, I believe, and Ann is just a few months older than me. I never anticipated how fun it would be to just ‘hang out’ with members of my own peer group. Living without tv and accustomed to spending my day with girls considerably younger than me (lets be real—some of my best friends are in 5th grade), it was nice to be around people my own age and even just watch music videos (mostly Malayalam, but there WERE a few English ones in there! Never expected to see Justin Beiber’s face in India, that’s for sure). We attended Kottayam’s Flower Exhibition, and I felt truly welcome in their home.
The main purpose of my visit was to help Ann study for the IELTS exam. I’m not sure what that stands for, exactly, but it’s an exam for people who learn English as a second language. If one wants to go work in an English-speaking country, one must score in a certain range. Ann hopes to work as a nurse in Canada, and her IELTS exam is toward the end of this month. She’s been taking a prep class for the past few weeks, and I helped her with the areas with which she’s been having trouble. Being that in my classes at Buchanan, we can’t go too far beyond topics like how to conjugate verbs in the past tense, and what a synonym is, I really enjoyed discussing higher-level English topics for once. We definitely made a lot of progress, and I’m really hoping she does well—I think she will!
One thing I’ve neglected to mention about Omana Teacher’s household is that they have an adorable puppy, Snowy, who is similar in color to a yellow lab, but perhaps a bit lighter. At one point, Omana Teacher was giving Snowy a bath and I pitched in to help. After Snowy’s bar-soap bath, he was doused in some strange purple liquid, and promptly put under a wicker basket held down by a rock to dry. Curious about the unknown purple substance, I inspected the container from which it came. The bottle read: “fabric whitener.”
Apparently, it’s important that Snowy lives up to his name.
"The most affectionate creature in the world is a wet dog." -Ambrose Bierce
I can't help but think that a "fabric" whitener shouldn't be put on a dog. Makes me slightly perturbed, actually. What was your take on it?
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