the wonderful world of veena.

14 January 2015

first work trip coming up!

I have been employed for two weeks and officially on the job for one week in Bangalore, and I am already preparing to head off for my first work trip!

When Zaya hired me at the beginning of November, they were projected to be working in 10 schools in Bangalore by the time I arrived in January. Ten schools meant they would need two SIMs, hence my hiring, but due to some setbacks those schools never materialized. So as of my arrival last week, there is only one school that is currently implementing a full blended learning curriculum, with two more set to come on board with remedial content "soon".

In the meantime, six schools have come on board for the expansion into Hyderabad, and there is a lot of work to be done. Teachers need to be trained on the technology and how to implement it; students need to be trained on the technology; meetings need to be held with teachers and school leaders on the importance of the data and how to read it. In short, there is a lot to do and only one SIM to do it all.

On Monday morning I received an email from Meg, my supervisor in Bombay: would I be willing to go to Hyderabad for 2 months to help get everything set up and launched there and then come back to Bangalore after? To which I responded with a hearty "yes". It will be good for me to see our work in more schools, and it will better prepare me for the next academic year in Bangalore when we will have more schools on board here.

I have never before been to Hyderabad, so I know nothing of the layout of the city or the local language, but I am not one to say no to a challenge like this. Plus going to Hyderabad means lots and lots of Hyderabadi Biryani, so sign me up for that. And it also means that I get to go ahead and check off my goal of visiting a new place in India in the first month of the year.

The only drawback is that I miss out on the nice house I had found in Koramangala, but that just means Shonali and Prakash have to find me an even better one before I return in March.

[you had better believe i'll be spending some time out here, too. image via]
So Hyderabad, here I come!
xx

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