Sisters grad performs teaching stint in her native India

Kerani Mitchell and her students. photo provided Kerani Mitchell had always wanted to travel to India, the land of her birth.

This summer, after graduating from Sisters High School, the 18-year-old Sisters woman fulfilled that wish, spending four weeks teaching English in a government (public) school in the town of Rajgarh, in the state of Himachal Pradesh in the north-central highlands.

"I taught English in the primary school -- first- through fifth-graders, Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.," Mitchell said.

The regular schedule was followed by tutoring sessions.

"It got tiring," Mitchell admitted. "I had to take naps."

Classes ranged in size from 24 to 35 students. On her first day, Mitchell was confronted with 58 first- and second-graders in one room. The results were pretty much what might be expected in any classroom in the world --from Sisters to Rajgarh.

"It was awful," she said.

"I would try to use my Hindu versions of 'Sit down, stop talking, stop hitting each other' -- and they would make fun of me," Mitchell recalled with a rueful smile.

Mitchell got some help from the older students in the school, who were able to crack down on rambunctious younger students where the young American teacher couldn't get through. Things settled down and Mitchell got down to the business of teaching the young people English.

Mitchell's teaching stint was arranged through Cross-Cultural solutions, based in New Rochelle, New York. It is a non-governmental organization that arranges such volunteer teaching programs throughout the world.

While the trip was for work -- and most of her time was devoted to her task -- Mitchell did get time to explore and learn about the culture and the natural environment of the region.

"I hiked around a lot because we were in the foothills of the Himalayas," she said. The town was surrounded by "tall, green, steep hills -- and they were endless."

The elevation was about the same as at Santiam pass, and the vegetation was similar to the Sisters area, though a bit more lush and green. The forests were home to parrots and leopards.

Outside the local area, she traveled to the state capital of Shimla and visited the Taj Mahal in Agra.

Rajgarh is a small town with paved roads, surrounded by outlying orchards and farms and residential villages, all served by dirt roads.

Mitchell said she believes Western media depictions of India that focus on poverty are accurate, yet deceptive.

"It's an equal balance of desperate-ness and beauty that gets overlooked, I think," she said.

She found the people of Rajgarh to be resilient and culturally and temperamentally disposed to be accepting of their fate or destiny, even though that meant accepting what many Westerners would consider a high degree of material deprivation.

"It was beautiful to see how they could take what they were given and be happy with it," Mitchell said. "I don't know if happy is the right word -- but satisfied."

Mitchell struggles with the notion that her trip to India is somehow expected to be a life-changing experience.

She said that in many ways, the trip reaffirmed her views -- including her conviction that we don't need as much materially as we think we do.

By the same token, the experience reaffirmed Mitchell's gratitude for the unrestricted life she enjoys as an American -- a member of a profoundly wealthy society.

Mitchell plans a return trip in which she will visit Calcutta, where she was born before being adopted at a young age and brought to the U.S.

She expects that trip to reaffirm another belief that has been reinforced by her travels and studies;

"I realized that the essence of humanity doesn't change where you are on the planet," she said.

Mitchell, a talented musician, will attend Seattle University on a full scholarship.