For the past three years, students at Waterloo Junior High School have been corresponding with students at the Bethany School in India.

Last week, they had the opportunity to meet the headmistress of the Bethany School and her husband as they visited the area.

Evangeline Ma’am and Commander John Ranjan of Visakhapatnam, India, were in Waterloo for less than two days, but had the opportunity to speak with local students and attend a Waterloo City Council meeting, along with seeing several sights and attractions across the river in St. Louis.

When they arrived on May 19, they met Waterloo Mayor Tom Smith at the council meeting and presented him with a special plate from India as a gift.

Their next day began early, as they met with WJHS principal Nick Schwartz and teacher Bill Theobald’s GeoTravels class. Theobald is the reason communication began with the Bethany School in the first place, and he also helped bring the Ranjans to Waterloo from up north in Naperville, where they were visiting their daughter.

“It was quite an interesting visit,” Theobald said. “They really liked that our students had questions of quality to ask.”

Theobald’s class had conducted some research prior to the visit so they could prepare appropriately for their guests.

The Bethany School is an unaided co-educational English day school catering to students from preschool to high school. The Bethany School has won three National Awards for “Global Education” since beginning correspondence with WJHS.

Though WJHS is not the only school Bethany students and teachers communicate with, Theobald said he likes to think WJHS played a part in the Bethany School receiving those awards.

After their visit to WJHS, Theobald and the Ranjans went over to Ss. Peter & Paul Catholic School to talk briefly with students there.

Next year, Theobald will teach a class similar to his WJHS GeoTravels class at SPPCS.

He said the students at both schools asked excellent questions and were able to talk about topics like school day length and class size.

“With a population of 1.2 billion people, India has class sizes of 45 to 60 students, depending on whether it’s a private or public school,” Theobald said.

Mrs. Ranjan stressed to each of the classes she spoke to about how long students in India go to school.

“They attend class from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., then they do three hours of homework and have time they spend with a tutor in the evening as well,” Theobald said. “It would be interesting to see how our students would react to a situation like that.”

Theobald said the one thing he took away from the Ranjans visit is just how wonderful they were to be around.

“They were just so kind and giving,” he said. “Their communication skills are wonderful, and they were so appreciative of everything we did.”