Black Thunder! (and separate but equal…)

Yesterday I went on my second field trip while I was here, to a water park with the 10-12 grade students.  Black Thunder was a fun place, up to American standards in quality, but probably lacking in quantity of slides, pools, etc.  I enjoyed it thoroughly.  I was fascinated, though, by the amount of segregation by sexes.  As you’ve read throughout my blog, the social acceptability of things that we Americans find “normal,” really interests me here.  So, as you read this, please know that I am writing not in a judging way, but that I’m just really intrigued.  This lack of mixing isn’t bad…just different!

Above:  The chaperons enjoy a breakfast prepared by some of the staff members.  Everyone (actually only the women) bring something and share with everyone.  I contributed humor and good conversation (that’s worth something, right?)…and really I don’t cook for breakfast.  Does anybody back home?

Above:  The park did have some “Six Flags” like attractions that were a bit hokey at 29 years old, but I enjoyed watching the kids get spooked by this place and then thrilled by a projection screen/mechanical chairs roller coaster ride.

Above:  A math/physics project in the making: potential energy (climbing the stairs to the top) meets kinetic energy, and the conservation of energy pinciple.  Why does someone my size get shot into the air as the first dip comes back up?  MORE MASS!  I won every race!!!  Ha!

Above:  Children of the chaperons came along.  They had a small lake for boating around.

Above:  The “Splash Monster” (me) takes a ride down a slide.

Above:  Brijesh (Biology teacher) wipes out.  Click here to see a picture of Brijesh with Ellen.

Above:  Where’s Matt?  Look for the shiny, bald, white head.  And if you look closely on the right of the shot in the center of the pool, you can make out a rope going from right to left.  This is the demarcation line for boys and girls.  Boys in the foreground and girls in the background.  That’s right, no mixing in the wave pool (or any other pool).  Some tried, but the staff will whistle you out of the opposite gender zone…and fast.  Signs at every attraction let you know if it is for “Gents” or “Ladies and Children.”  Nary the two shall mix!  Actually they can mix on the bigger slides and lazy river.  There were a couple of low-key pools I would have gone in if I were permitted.

Above:  The “Rain Dance.”  A huge shower where everyone can dance to music.  What you’ll probably notice first though is that there are no swimming suits.  Unacceptable to show such skin.  Another teacher told me that even in movies, when actresses does such things (Indian movies), the actresses are talked about in the media for weeks.  Things are just more conservative here…and really that’s set up to keep the arranged marriages in tact.  Boys and girls must be unattached and without former relationships for that to work.  The staff even worked to usher the girls from one ride to the next and the boys to other rides.  Still though, it wasn’t a distraction from having fun.  We all did!

Above:  The “rain dance” apparatus.  Notice the fence in the middle…boys on one side, girls on the other. 

As fascinated as I am by the social safeguarding that goes on, there are some benefits: teenage pregnancy is almost nil, teenage relationships NEVER distract from my teaching here, and as I’ve mentioned before, you do notice a much tighter bond between groups of boys and groups of girls.  On that note, one of our boys cut his nose during the trip and on the bus ride back another boy held his head in his lap the entire trip to watch over him.  And it’s really cool that there is nothing weird about that here.  It’s just caring.