Today was very interesting.
I had to teach 200 high school boys (this wasn’t an all boys school but people are afraid of co education 😖).
Before I went, I was dying of fear: how am I, a short not so loud girl who speaks broken Hindi, going to teach a bunch of rowdy boys how to do CPR? India is mostly not sexist, but this is rural Bihar, so I had no idea what to expect. Would they even take me seriously?
As I sat there in the principal’s office, adrenaline from fear was rushing through me. I was worrying so much that I didn’t know how I would even be able to get up in front of so many people. But then I stopped for a second and remembered one quote I heard from someone that inspired me: “fake it till you make it.”
That’s when I realized that there was no way for these students or these teachers to gauge my anxiety if I kept it all inside. So I sat up straight, put on a take no prisoners face and told myself (as I do before every presentation) that no one else in that room would ever be able to go to a foreign country and teach life saving techniques in a language they barely knew.
And so it went. Surprisingly, the boys payed attention (probably because there’s never been a girl at that school) and I very loudly and confidently explained to them who I was and taught them well, despite my ever imperfect Hindi.
In all these schools, miraculously I’ve managed to develop a sense of camaraderie with the students, because although I am not as young as they are, I am not as old as a teacher. By the end, they want to listen cause I’ve become like big sister/friend to them. And that makes me happier than anything else.
Gold Award: Spreading the CPR 