Tea, monkeys and fag breaks

Neil and I (Olivia) have, I'm afraid to admit, been living a rather luxurious life since our arrival in India. As we were the only two people moving down to Kerala the High Comissioner and Lady Stagg kindly let us stay in their beautiful house for the night before we caught another flight down south. Leks, the house keeper, made sure every second of our stay was enjoyable, from high tea and brownies upon our arrival to a large spread of breakfast in the morning. Baroda, the golden retriever, became our new best friend along with the monkeys on a lead that were on a walk around the grounds.

After the British Council meeting, kindly hosted by Neil's latest heartthrob, Anubha, we had to part with the rest of the group. Tears shed by all.

Three hours and one very bumpy flight later we were met by the sizzling Simi at Kochi airport. Simi is the director of the Amadeus School of Music founded in 1998, the first Western classical music school in Kochi. We were shown to our enormous flat and given lots of tea and biscuits whilst chatting into the early hours of the morning.

Teaching began at 9:30am and we were thrown in at the deep end helping squirt after sprog with their piano pieces. Neil took the school's first ever vocal training classes in the hope to form a choir at the school. The Lion King, a bit of High School Musical and Abba (for the older ladies!) were used to help bring the students out of their shell in a style rather atypical compared to most Indian teachers. Anthony, the piano teacher at the school, and I taught around twelve students in just three hours with a VERY relaxed rotation system moving the children between electronic keyboards (WITHOUT headphones in the same room!) and two upright pianos (in separate "booths"). Neil and I were both AMAZED by the children's obedience. When we told them to go and learn a particular passages they actually would(!) and when we were told to take a five minute break they sat diligently and learnt their lyrics as opposed to what might happen in England, e.g. trying to sneak off for a fag.

Olivia