Mumbai Planning Meeting

This post is by Rich

Greetings from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It's 8:53pm local time and I've just returned from going out to dinner at a very nice Asian Fusion restaurant in the Phoenix Mall called Pa Pa Ya, about a 15-minute cab ride from the YMCA International Guest House, where we are staying. The Guest House is a terrific. It's a hotel, really, with nice rooms and a good restaurant. It's not fancy but it fits our needs perfectly. I stayed here back in 2015 when we were here for the first ABL Mumbai Conference.  Now we're back, for the South Asia Peace Literacy Conference. In Karachi we called in Arts Without Boundaries, because publicly labeling it a Peace Conference might have attracted unwanted attention.  However, it's really all part of the Andover Bread Loaf International Peace Literacy Network. Our goal is to create a more peaceful world, using the power of literacy, in all its forms, to build communicates and connect teachers and students across boundaries, and to critically examine what it means to internationally communicate across difference. And so, we're now in Mumbai.

Today was our planning session, at the Diamond Jubilee School:

Our host is Lee Krishnan, who attended the ABL Teacher Workshop alongside Mohsin Tejani from Karachi, me, Mary Guerrero, and others, back in 1997. The four of us have worked closely every since, in the US, India, and in Karachi. This is my third trip to Mumbai. I came in 2007, along with my sister, Eileen, and spent a week teaching with Lee. In 2015, Lee and her school hosted an ABL conference, and it was such at hit that by the end of the event the school principal, Nutan Iyer, was asking when we would return. Well, 2018 is the answer. Yesterday, August 4th, Brendan, Julia, Alan and I flew in from Karachi, and are joined by Ingrid Hess, a U-Mass Lowell professor, artist, and children's book author.

The flight from Karachi to Mumbai used to take a little under two hours, flying direct. However, the animosity between the two governments is so strong now that you literally can not fly direct. Instead, I flew from Karachi to Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates - a two hour flight across the Arabian Sea. After a three-hour layover, I flew from Dubai to Mumbai - two hours and forty-five minutes. In all, it took eight hours to travel what should take two. It's absurd. It's like flying from Boston to New York but having to go through Houston because Boston and New York don't get along.

But we made it. Mohsin his colleague Basil Andrews are still back in Mumbai, dealing with visa issues. An American can get a visa to go to India in one day, on line. For a Pakistani, it takes two months, invitation letters, etc.  It's complicated. We are hopeful that Mohsin and Basil will be able to join us.

Our host institution is the Diamond Jubilee High School (DJHS), which is part of the Aga Khan Education Services (AKES). We've partnered with AKES since the mid-1990s, and they have connected ABL with a long list of wonderful teachers and schools. AKES schools are intended to serve the Ismeli Muslim community in some of the poorest areas in the world. DJHS serves students in Grade 1-10, and you don't have to be Muslim to go to school there, or to work there. It's a terrific place that I have come to know well. We will also work with the Diamond Jubilee Girl's School, located a short distance away, that serves exclusively Muslim girls, in a neighborhood where girls do not always go to school. I remember that place well from my last visit - it was truly inspirational.

Brendan, Alan and I all participated in the 2015 conference and today it was great to see and reconnect with many friendly faces, including the principal, Nutan Iyer, and teachers, including Shabnum, Jamila, Fatima, Arjuman, Taskin, and more. They remembered us well and even reminded us of workshops we did back then that I couldn't remember! Apparently some of the students remember us as well, and are excited about out visit, and working with us further. We are excited as well.

This week, we will spend Monday and Tuesday team-teaching with DJHS teachers at Diamond Jubilee, then Wednesday we will team-teach at the Girl's School. On Wednesday evening we will host a family literacy night at DJHS. On Thursday we will run a one-day student workshop for about 100 kids, hosted at DJHS. On Friday we will run a one-day teacher workshop, also at DJHS. There are 75 teachers from 17 different schools signed up. It will be a full and busy and rewarding week.

One possible kink in the plan is that a political group might stage a protest - that has nothing to do with us, mind you - on Thursday. They did protest last Wednesday, demanding higher wages and more jobs for their community, and some schools shut down out of fear of violence. It is rumored that the group will protest again this Thursday, and if that rumor is confirmed, we might cancel the student workshop on that day, possibly rescheduling it for Saturday.

But the planning must begin. Today (Sunday) we gathered at DJHS to meet with and co-plan with our  co-teachers. ABL International has evolved a model of co-teaching, so we intentionally work side by side with local teachers. We've been in touch on-line over the last several weeks, but nothing beats meeting in person.

Alan, Julia, Brendan and I are each paired with several DJHS teachers to plan and execute lessons. My schedule is typical of us four: on Monday I co-teach a 7th grade creative writing class with Parishma at 8:20am, a 7th-grade English class with Mehnaaz at 9:30, a 10th-grade writing class with Grace at 10:05, an 8th-grade class with Krishna at 10:40, a 6th-grade creative writing class with Shabnam at 11:40, and a 6th-grade chemistry (!) class with Glenn at 12:50. On Tuesday I teach a 6th-grade English class with Mehnaaz at 8:20, an 8th-grade narrative writing class with Parishma at 9:30, a 10th-grade Commerce Studies class with Saira at 10:05, a 6th-grade writing class with Fatima at 10:40, a 6th-grade geography class with Mubaraka at 11:40 and a different 6th-grade geography class with Mehnaaz at 12:50. On Wednesday, I will co-teach an English class and a creative writing class to 8th graders in the morning, and two classes with 1st graders in the afternoon. Lee made up our schedules, and she does not mess around.

Brendan was not on the same flights from Karachi to Dubai as I was - he flew late in the day on Saturday, while I left in the morning. This gave him the time to visit the Dream Foundation Model School in Karachi. This school serves some of the poorer students in the city. It charges no fees. They sent us about half of the participants in our Karachi workshop, and also a wonderful, wonderful teacher, Junaid Ahmed, who helped bring the kids and worked with us all week. He is really something special. Brendan told wonderful stories about his visit. The school trains 9th and 10th graders to work as assistant teachers in the younger classrooms, and intentionally develops students as leaders. Brendan was especially impressed with Aziz, a student who participated in our workshop and whom I consider the coolest man in the universe. He is an assistant teacher with younger students and is magical with them. I am jealous that Brendan had the chance to spend time there.

Here is the kicker - the Dream School is funded in part by Madonna, the pop singer from Michigan. Crazy world we live in.

Thanks for reading,
Rich