Big Update! 22nd July - 28th July

Right, so a mixture of being lazy, busy and tired has resulted in no update for over a week now - so here is a quick update!

Thursday 22nd July

I had quite a few difficulties on Thursday with the 2nd and 3rd class boys and girls (the boys in particular) - I tried to continue with the school discussions with them but did not get very far. They were all talking, fighting, laying about etc. This was not the first time it had happened and it got me thinking why they were so disinterested. The initial thought was that I was just rubbish at my job - but hopefully that is not the only reason! I think part of the reason must be that what I have been trying to do with them has been too hard, and because they do not understand they get very bored easily - after all some of these children are only 7/8 years old. I have also not used as many visual aids as I did before so I am thinking of maybe using more of these to see if it works! I think for the young ones it is important to set the bar a little lower and just make sure that they enjoy the lessons and have fun while speaking English - maybe more focus on building vocab would be a better plan with them rather than worrying too much about exactly how they structure the sentences - this can be corrected once they know more vocab. At the moment, trying to get them to structure what they say perfectly does not help them as they do not know what the words mean. Only when they understand what the words are will they realise how to structure and be able to remember and apply to other scenarios.

Friday 23rd July

Was not feeling too great on Friday, but it was 4th and 5th class so I did not want to miss their classes - they are so much fun to be around and very easy to teach as they are all so well behaved and really love learning English. It was a good day with all 4 classes (boys in the morning, girls in the afternoon) and I feel that we made some good progress on the school topic - we consolidated everything we had done in the week and most seemed to remember it rather well. Despite not feeling great and my shoulder hurting, we still went out drinking and dancing. When we arrived we had just missed happy hour so the people there had bought the drinks already - there were 12 bottles there for Geoffroy and I - so much for a chilled night over a couple of beers.


Rahul Mishra (4th class)



My room mate Geoffroy

Saturday 24th July

Was feeling the effects of Friday night, as was Geoffroy, so we just chilled at the house for most of the day. Although, I had a very nice afternoon sat in a rather western looking coffee shop with Sam Stamp for 3 hours - felt a bit strange meeting a Uni friend for a coffee in Delhi though! The western coffee shops are a bit weird here - the AC is on so high that it is actually cold inside, there are about 3 staff for every table (slight exaggeration), and there is a guard at the door to let you in and out!

Sunday 25th July

Laziness/tiredness got the better of us again so the word for the weekend was definitely rest! We did venture out in the afternoon for a street food experience, which was very nice, a touch spicy but have not got ill from it so I think it can be seen as a success. We also went for coffee, which I owed Rani and Shamika for losing miserably at a card game that we had a bet on - the coffee was a much nicer experience than the game itself, despite the fact that I was paying!
The evening was supposed to be spent watching Inception (Di Caprio), which I hear is amazing, and is probably the reason why it was sold out, so we had to watch Salt (Jolie) instead - quite funny really, such a ridiculous film.

The cinema was in a large mall, which looked very out of place when we arrived. We were then searched(!) before entering the shopping centre and it felt even stranger when we were inside. If you took the people out of the centre, it could have been anywhere in England - the shops were the same, the layout was the same - mixing with the Indian middle class felt quite unnerving given that I spend most of my time in a small slum village...

Monday 26th July

Not much to say for Monday really, just another day at the centre - had fun playing games with the children (English speaking related of course) - have also been trying to think of new ideas of how to teach the children and make it interactive for all of them. Was thinking of maybe getting them to help me make a huge Snakes and Ladders board and then make the kids draw a question out of a hat and if they get it right they can then roll dice etc - will have to use my very limited creative side!
I think it is really important to realise the limitations of the teaching that I am doing - I think my frustrations recently have stemmed from the fact that I feel I am unable to teach them what I want to teach them. I am starting to realise that what is really important is to just give them the foundation and the confidence to speak and make mistakes and learn from these mistakes. For the remaining weeks I just want to try to help the children have fun while learning.

Tuesday 27th July

Not well - went to the doctors and stayed home all day - some kind of viral thing but nothing serious (within 36 hours felt fine again). I was lucky that the family here have a really good doctor that they trust and he knows what he is doing, which you cannot exactly assume with many doctors in India, especially in poorer areas.

When poor people go to the doctors they expect medicines and injections to make them better, without any knowledge of what is actually wrong with them. If the doctor merely says to rest and to drink plenty of water and rehydration fluids (often what is best for diarrhoea, which is common due to the water situation) the people feel that he is a bad doctor and they go elsewhere. The only way for these doctors to get people coming back to the practice is to prescribe many medicines. This just opens the door for more and more bad quality doctors that are willing to prescribe many low quality medicines when they are not needed. What actually occurs is the medicine given is very ineffective and they just allow the immune system to sort it out, but the people believe it is the medicines that are doing the trick and they continue to visit the 'fake' doctors, many of which do not have the degrees required to practice. It is therefore no surprise that there are so many of these unqualified doctors compared to the good doctors that do not prescribe when medicine is not needed.

The only other thing to say is that I have now gone from Lambu Dada (Tall big brother) to Baccha (baby) because I was unwell. Brilliant.

Wednesday 28th July

Standard day at the centre - more games again with 2nd and 3rd class. Started a new topic today talking about the daily routine. It was hard but plenty of room for improvement this week!

It was quite funny when I arrived at the centre the 4th and 5th classes ran into my class saying that 2nd class should go upstairs, because 4th and 5th missed out on Tuesday because I was ill. I had to explain that we had to go by the rota, which meant 4th and 5th had to wait another day so they got very sulky with me - but I took it as a compliment!

July 21st

Today was great fun at the centre. The 4 French volunteers are leaving on Saturday to travel around Rajasthan so threw two parties - one at the Okhla centre and the other at the Women Centre.

There were biscuits, soft drinks, games, a lot of music and a lot of dancing going on! I have taken some really good photos and videos from the day, but again I forgot my cable so I will have to wait a while before I put them up on here or facebook but keep an eye out for them. Although I took a lot of pictures, I was not allowed to stand at the side observing the whole time, the children made sure that I would join them in the dancing! They even got me attempting Bhangra style dancing, and my poor attempts and lack of rhythm clearly amused them - at least they had a laugh! It was great to see them all having fun and expressing themselves, and there are some really good little dancers in the project. I did make the mistake of lifting one of the girls to the ceiling and then of course all of them wanted a go. In the heat it wasn't the easiest task to say the least!

Interestingly, it took them a while to realise that they could do what they wanted to do and did not need instructions - I suppose again this just illustrates how these children live at home and study at school. Once they started dancing there was no stopping them and they laughed and laughed the whole time, which was such a nice sight and I felt very happy to be involved. These kids are amazing and I feel I am developing a really good rapport with them more and more everyday, which makes everything all the more fun. It is like I have found 100 new little brothers and sisters!

Here are some pictures from the party:






















On a more negative note (yes all of these blogs seem to have some negative element - I make no apologies for this!) I was forwarded another article about the CW Games, which again highlighted the horrible scenes that are going on to make this city look "beautiful" to all the visitors arriving in October. I will allow you to form your own opinion and will not go on yet another rant, but please take a look at it:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10696792

July 20th

OK, so the blog has been a bit too mild the last few days, so here is one about nutrition, which hopefully will provoke some thought (and feedback please!)

A man from the US, who is originally from India, visited the centre today as he would like to run some kind of nutrition program to feed the poor - a task that many have tried and failed to do over the years. I talked with Anou about this and it really is a very complex issue. The Project itself have tried in the past to push forward such a program of feeding the poor, however as with many issues that I have discussed, it really is the mentality here that needs to change before any sustained improvements can be made.

When you try to directly feed the poor, as you may expect, you get mobbed by the masses because of the extent of the poverty in the city. In addition to this, once they get used to the food being given out they are more prone to complain or say they want something else because they take it for granted. By just giving them food, I personally feel that this is tackling a symptom as opposed to the cause of the problem itself. What we really need to identify is what is causing the hunger and malnutrition that leads to 5000 children dieing every day in India. Although there are 1.2 billion people in India, there is enough food to feed everyone, but so many people cannot even afford 3 meals a day - so why is this the case?

Well there are several factors that need discussing, two of which are education and mentality (towards food but also towards material goods)

The mentality in the slums seems to be that they need to show to others that they have 'made it' and therefore want instant gratification. They buy TVs etc whilst they struggle to buy enough food for their families. Also it seems that they think that, as a sign that they have 'made it', they should waste food. You would not believe the amount of food that is wasted that you see thrown on the floor. This mentality is dangerous as it is not conducive to reducing the malnutrition problem. This mentality needs to change. How do you change such a mentality? Well the first obvious suggestion would be education. These people are mostly illiterate with very little basic education under their belts - they need to be advised on the importance of not wasting food and how to make changes to reduce wastage. Projects that aim to feed the poor directly will not be able to continue to feed them forever so they need to learn how to overcome the issue themselves.

Education can also be important to inform people of their rights and help them stand up for their rights and make politicians accountable for their actions. It has been shown in many studies, and seems to be common sense, that illiterate people will be less aware of their rights and less able to form some sort of union and act collectively - they would not know where to start or how to go about it. Education programs need to be used to inform people of the schemes that are available from government, such as one fund set up by Rajiv Gandhi in his time in office, which involves children being weighed regularly and being provided with extra nutrition if they are underweight. The money is there for this program, but it is not being carried out by officials - possibly because it is impossible to make money out of such a scheme...I am sure that many of the slum families are not aware that such funds are available for their families, so education is important to inform them of their rights.

Once they have been informed of their rights, the education can also tackle the lack of enforcement and pressure on government from the poor masses. Many of the people are still fearful of their politicians, and who can blame them when you see how the slums are being destroyed left right and centre for these CW games? Even if they know what programs are available, they will not complain in fear of a backlash to their detriment. They just remain quiet. People need to be informed that this is a democratic government after all, and the money that is being wasted is the peoples' money, so it should be used for the people. At present, there is no pressure on officials to look out for the poor and enforce the programs aimed at the poor, so this lack of accountability is restricting any progress with social indicators.

Another possible benefit of wider education for poor people, especially children, is that future generations in the family are more likely to gain employment and be able to support their families, reducing the issue of malnutrition. It is also widely accepted that educated parents are less likely to have a high number of children, again reducing the food problem with fewer hungry mouths to feed. By providing education, you can empower people to feed themselves and to stand up for support that they are entitled to, which is much more sustainable than attempting to go around the slums giving out food each day.

What I have realised is that with development work, it is often the case that people have a grand idea in their heads about how much they can do, but it actually has to be a gradual process - if the right action is taken, slowly there will be change, but it is impossible to waltz in and solve a long lasting issue over night.

How can you change mentalities and attitudes overnight? The answer is you cannot - it takes time. Mentalities and attitudes towards food and material goods need to change before aid can have its maximum effect, whether it be from local government or foreign sources. In the current climate this is even more important, for example the UK has reduced its aid to India, and so money that is around needs to be used wisely - not on small unsustainable programs with the aim of "feeding the poor." We need to address the cause, not the symptoms, and the causes are clearly deeply ingrained in society, which of course will take time to change.

Right, well I hope there is some feedback on this issue as it is clearly such an important one!

Something else that I want to share with everyone is something I read in one of the 5th class girl's book (12 years old). It was a letter to request leave from school, and I thought it really illustrated how ridiculous the teaching of English here really is.

Here it is - I think it speaks for itself.

"Madam,
Respectfully, I beg to say that I have an urgent piece of work at home so I cannot attend the school. Kindly grant me leave for one day only and oblige.
Thanking you,
Yours obediently,
Jyoti"

July 19th

Unfortunately no huge insights today, just a very nice day at the Project. I was teaching the 4th and 5th class boys and girls today, which is always good fun and I feel I can achieve much more with them given their stronger base in English.

We started on the 'School' topic today, talking about what school they go to, what class they are in, what subjects they study, what their favourite subject is, what their uniform looks like, and whether they like their uniform or not. There were a few new children in the 5th class boys group but they seem very well behaved and are at a similar level to the other guys in the class. Everyone did really well in the discussion sessions but I think I will need another session to consolidate as usual. I also managed to teach them the use of before and after and they seemed to understand - we talked about what they did before they go to school, and what they do after they get home from school. We also focussed on some plurals when talking about the favourite subjects - some of them said 2 subjects so I taught them when to use "my favourite is.." and "my favourites are..." Again, they seemed to understand but I shall find out whether they did or not when we consolidate on Wednesday! It is really nice working with these groups as they are all so eager to learn, very polite, respectful and I can have a joke with them without the whole class then getting out of hand.

One of the lads decided to give me a sweet and touched my feet as a mark of respect, and then I got even more sweets when a girl called Sabrun brought sweets in as it was her birthday! I have found that they all really like having photos taken of themselves, so I have changed from the stick approach (the threat of calling in Dharmendra) to the carrot approach (photos at the end of the lesson) and it seemed to work well and I have managed to get some really nice photos of all the classes as you can see below!





















I have also been thinking a bit about my dissertation ideas, and it has been suggested that I could look into the effects/issues of the Commonwealth Games, and I have been shown a very interesting article that seems to side with the pessimistic view that I also hold about these games! Not sure if I could write a balanced argument on this topic though, as you can probably tell from my last few blogs last week! We shall see.

July 18th

Today was pretty chilled - woke up late and ventured out to explore some more of Delhi at around 11am with Ciara and Guylaine (Canadian volunteers) but it was so hot and the humidity was extremely high - I am not sure how it can be 40 degrees but "feel like" 48 degrees but I would not argue with the BBC weather service on that one.

Despite the heat, we did manage to have a good look around and we visited Raj Ghat where Gandhi was cremated, as well as Humayan's Tomb which was very impressive. We also had a wander around Old Delhi again, visiting the famous Karim's restaurant again for lunch, which was amazing just for the fact that it allowed us to escape the heat for a while!

Ciara and Guylaine are leaving tomorrow to travel around Rajasthan so we went out for dessert with Deepak and Gitta who work in the house to say thank you, so all in all it was a pretty relaxed although hot day. I know this entry is rather short but I can guarantee you there will be some more rants this week to make up for it.

Hope everyone is well x

July 17th

Saturday is my day off and I had many plans of getting myself sorted out for the week ahead with teaching materials, a good plan etc but then when I went downstairs at 10 there was little Manisha (see one of earlier blogs) sat in the kitchen waiting to be taken to the boarding school that I visited on the first weekend. When I was asked if I wanted to come along I said yes straight away. There is such a good atmosphere at the boarding school, and the children we dropped there a few weeks ago seem so happy there and I wanted to see them all again to see how they were getting on.

I am really glad I chose to go. I met the principal of the school who seemed a very nice man, quite young for a principal, and he was very friendly. Anou holds him in high regard so I am sure he is very good. It was really good to see all the children again, and they all crowded around to grab my hand and take me around their playground, all of them with big smiles on their faces - they were going for their refreshment break and all the Project Why children were desperate to get me a drink before they got themselves one! It was quite funny to see the reaction of the other children at the school that are not part of the Project and as a result had not seen me before - all of them were staring and talking to me in English and trying to hold my hand. One lad even touched my knees, which is a mark of respect for elders here, which I was a bit confused about until Anou told me what it meant!

It was not just the children however that were very interested in this white guy in their school grounds. The warden of the older boys' dorm saw the huddle of children and at first told them all to move on, but then he saw me and his facial expression changed immediately. He told the children they could stay, and then despite the fact that everyone was stood up, he decided to offer me a chair! Anou, Dharmendra and I then continued to talk while the warden just stood there, until he asked me for permission to leave! The white 20 year old was all of a sudden someone he needed to obey and ask for orders - quite funny at first, yet quite embarrassing when you think that this attitude must have come from the manner of British rule pre 1947...

On the way to the school it struck me that there are so many schools, and it is clear that it is a big business here - private schools have become very fashionable yet the reality is that the education at some of them really is not much better than the education at government schools, given the cost. My first thought was that if there were so many private schools, there must be a high demand for these schools, and therefore a lot of competition between private schools and also between public and private. With such competition you would surely expect a large improvement in the quality of the schooling. I am not saying that the education at all of the private schools is not good, but with so many young people in this country and a clear demand for education (especially for boys) why has there not been a significant improvement in education provision?

One reason I thought of to explain why government schools had not improved was that the children that go to the government schools are often the children of the poorest families - it does not matter how many private schools appear, the competition is only really between private schools rather than between public and private - the large number of people that cannot afford to go to private schools remain in the public sector and so there is no incentive for the government to perform any wide scale education reform. You also have to wonder about the kind of competition that goes on between private schools - the reality as I mentioned is that they are often not much better than government schools (similar class sizes etc) and you can question whether the motives of the management are centred on child performance or revenue received. In addition to this, performance of children in government schools is not exactly an opportunity to make money for officials so maybe this is the reason why there have not been improvements, after all corruption is so clearly ingrained in government here. Please offer any other explanations that you can think of, and I too shall think more on the issue!

Now, one minor rant over, and I shall (as you may have predicted) return to the issue of the Commonwealth Games as every day I hear something even more ridiculous about them. It just so happens that the officials have decided to cancel the catering contracts and instead take it upon themselves to select which caterers will earn contracts - now I may be rather one sided on this but does this just not seem like another opportunity for corrupt officials to take bribes? I am sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation...
Also, one of the sports that is played at the CWG is cricket of course, and India as we all know is well known for its cricket - however, the Indian Cricket Board have managed to organise a series with Australia at the time of the games so they shall not be competing! The officials have demanded that the Indian Cricket Board pay them a large sum because of the revenue that the CWG will miss out on because of the cricket team not competing. Where this money is going I am not so sure but I would not bet on it being spent on rehousing the slum families that have had their homes destroyed in the process of preparing for the games.

On a lighter note, I have now been labelled with the nickname "Lambu Dada" which I am told means Tall Big Brother (thanks Rohit for the translation!), and I am looking forward to exploring Delhi tomorrow.

July 16th

Today was supposed to be 2nd and 3rd class, but a bit of confusion upstairs meant I had 2nd and 4th class in the morning with the boys. It was the same old story with the 2nd class boys messing around and chatting, but I have kind of accepted that will happen now! The worrying thing was that after 3 days of doing similar things they still did not seem to know what to say. I am thinking it may be more beneficial for them to play word games and try to build their vocabulary first, then the speaking may come more easily at a later stage. With the 4th class boys, they had done the market scene to death after seeing them for several days in a row, so we just did a quiz game instead on the board, which they seemed to enjoy. I also asked some of them to draw family members on the board to see whether I could use drawing as a teaching tool in my lesson plans, and unlike the 2nd class earlier in the week, they did draw well without asking me to draw something for them to copy. The market activity worked well but I think they may be a little bored of it so I may try to have a few days with them trying doing word games and using drawing as another learning method. I was thinking of getting them to draw and talk to me about what they are doing – we shall see how it works/doesn’t work.

I had a very interesting chat over lunch with Dharmendra (man who runs the Women Centre) about some of the gender bias issues that I have discussed in other blogs. The solution that the centre has found to this is a very interesting one and has had a lot of success. Boys pay 1 rupee a day, and girls go free. If they did not have to pay at all, there would be serious issues with attendance and support by parents, and parents may just send their sons, and by the sounds of it this was the issue that did occur. However, if they charged for boys sons and daughters, the chances are they would just send their sons. But the system as it is, means that the parents must pay for their sons, and seeing as they are paying 1 rupee a day, they might as well educate as many of their children as possible for this money, and even the daughters are sent. The success of this scheme can be seen by the numbers of boys and girls enrolled in the school. There are 98 primary students in total and 55 of these are girls. Whether this kind of scheme would work on a larger scale we do not know, but it does seem quite promising.

We left the centre at 3.30 (an hour early) because the man that is designing the website for the Last Donation (see one of my previous blogs) was coming to discuss any ideas/concerns with Anou, so Dharmendra and I joined them, along with Nina who used to be a volunteer here and still has very close ties with the organisation. For me this idea of a Last Donation is a very interesting one and is rather unique when you look at it. So many charities ask for a few pounds a month, but you do not really know what it is used for and many would say that much of this is lost in admin. However, the Last Donation, is a scheme that is to be set up to finance the Planet Why project (see the project why website and a previous blog on this). Planet Why is going to be a sustainable and green guesthouse, which will provide employment and training to many of the young people in the project and their communities. The idea of the Last Donation, is that with just one donation (provided there are enough of them) this project can be built and once it is built it will generate enough revenue to support itself and the project will not be so reliant on the continuing support of funders as it is today. Any donations will go directly into creating this tangible guesthouse that can provide such support and hope to so many people for years to come. The fact that it will be self sustaining is the big thing for me and why I think it is something very worthwhile supporting – the longer time goes on the more and more people will be helped and supported by just one single donation. We had a good brainstorm and one of the things I feel I could support them with is making links with universities and development societies within universities, and to hold conferences at universities as well as fund raising days. We are still at the planning stage on that but I am confident it could really help this project get off its feet.

July 15th

Yesterday’s blog was a bit of a moan about the Commonwealth games, and I am afraid this one will also have a similar theme! Anou showed me an article written by the former sports minister, who resigned over the issue of these games, and it really shows what a farce this really is and gives a more honest estimate of the huge cost of the games. The budget started off a fraction of what it has now become, and the former officials agreed to a bid for the games, only if the money was a loan and was paid back within a certain period of time. Now it has come to organising the games, the cost has rocketed and is coming out of tax payers’ money. He also highlights the fact that when you compare it to the Manchester games and the London 2012 games, these occurred/will occur in lesser developed areas in an attempt to see sustained improved performance and standard of living after the games. The Indian games however, will not take place in such areas and instead they are building the infrastructure and the facilities where they could see much better returns if built elsewhere especially when the games are over. Rather than providing the street sellers with more business through the games, they are banned from selling during the games, and so many will have no source of income for 2 weeks. These are people who struggle to live off 20 rupees a day as it is (65 rupees to a pound). Money is also being diverted away from programs for the poor towards the games. The games may be justified if spending was under control and they were used to have a positive effect for the poor (which they really could if carried out well) but neither of these are happening – quite the opposite in fact.

On the teaching side of things, I used the day to consolidate the market scene with classes 4 and 5, and it was very positive as many were able to give different answers to certain questions and they really did seem to get the hang of it. When anyone got something wrong the others were all helping them and correcting them with very good English. For half of the lesson we had the questions written on the board so they could see how they were written and half way through I rubbed these off and most of them managed to remember it correctly.

One of the things I have tried to stop is the automatic response of “I’m fine” whenever they are asked how they are. We have got many saying “I am good” or “I am very well” but it was quite funny when one of the lads kept saying “I’m very fine” as he thought what I was trying to do was get them to use very rather than stop using fine. Also, one lad said he was very sad whilst smiling – I think I may have do a session on emotions pretty soon!

I also had a bit of a confidence booster today when one lad came downstairs and sat in my class half way through the lesson. He has got good English so I asked him what he was doing. It turns out he was bored in his other lesson upstairs so asked to go to the toilet so he could sneak into my class. I let him stay for 5 minutes but made him go back upstairs, which he did so very reluctantly!

All in all it was a good day and I managed to get a few pictures today, which was nice, however all the children wanted to be in the picture so bad it did cause a bit of pushing and a large pile up at one stage!

Hope everyone is well x

July 14th

The more I hear about what is going on for the Commonwealth games, the more obvious it seems to me that hosting the games is not what this country needs. In a country of over 1 billion people with millions in extreme poverty, and human development indicators worse than some nations in Africa, the focus for this country surely should be on supporting the poorest and bringing them up to some minimum standard of living. How can a nation say it is developing when it’s ‘development’ is at the expense of the poor and forcing more and more to live on less and less, and in worse conditions. Take the small street, where the temple is situated that we visit every morning, as an example. Diggers have come in and ripped up trees and mud to build a drainage system, as this needs to be in place as a sign of development to visitors, yet all they have done is ripped it up and for days now have not done any more work on the system. There are piles of mud and bricks on the road side and no drainage system for the people – they wanted the drainage system in place as they do not want visitors to see the people doing their business by the side of the road but what do you expect when you rip up their drainage system and effectively take away their toilets.

Another example of how the games are proving so detrimental for the poor, is the case of the horse drawn carts. There are only around 200 left in Delhi, and are all owned by old and poor people that have always tended to their animals and used these carts for a living – they do not know how to live any other way. However, rather than letting them die out gradually (as they would have done soon enough), the officials decided overnight that they would destroy their carts and not allow them to operate their horse drawn carts any longer. What was an attractive sight in Old Delhi, has been seen by officials as a sign of underdevelopment which they cannot allow other nations in the Commonwealth to witness, and as a result have done away with them as they have done with many slums, clearing them out so extravagant hotels can be built in their place. The offer given to the people with the horse and carts was a kiosk where they could start a small business from, however none of them would know where to start. If this wasn’t bad enough, what they actually offered them was a small slab of concrete to operate on, which is miles and miles from where they live. It seems that the government has their head deeply buried in the sand as they feel that they can try to prove to the rest of the world that they are a developed economy by building big hotels and stadiums, whilst sweeping the poor under the carpet. I am sorry but this is not a sign of a developed economy, and there are too many poor people in this city alone to convince anyone that India is developed. It would seem that they think people come to India to see a copy of the western world, when this is completely wrong – you want to see the people, the traditions, the street food stalls, yet the government seem set on destroying India’s natural beauty and building some unsustainable and unsightly version of what they think people see as a developed economy. I really do struggle to understand what they are trying to achieve, and more importantly why they are trying to achieve it.

As for my teaching today, it wasn’t the best day I have had as I was teaching class 2 and 3 who are very young and therefore very chatty and hard to control, especially as I do not speak Hindi and they have very limited English! We had fun but it is very frustrating, as I have mentioned many times, with the little ones because whatever you try to do, they just repeat you and are not taught to think about questions. All they are looking for is what they do in school which is read a question and assign a rehearsed answer to this question – I have tried many things but with children so young it is difficult to explain unless you can speak Hindi to explain what is being asked of them, as too many times they clearly do not know what they are supposed to say. We did the same activities as we did earlier in the week but they still did not know what was going on and seemed to have forgotten everything we had done previously. A lot of them are very bright, I just feel with a better government school program they could all do very very well – but this does not seem to be on the horizon. I suppose I will have to try to change my style with these classes, as I want to teach them something by the time I leave!

So a fun but frustrating day, but an amazing Indian dinner followed by home made cookies and ice cream sorted everything out!

July 13th

Thank God it rained last night! The weather today was much fresher - still very warm but nowhere near as bad as it was. Lets hope for more tonight.

I started the hour long sessions today and already I think it has been a good change to make. All of the children had plenty of chances to practice what we learnt during the lesson, which is so important given that the chances of them consolidating their work at home is almost zero. It was however quite tricky to keep the concentration levels high for the whole hour, so what I may do from now on is have a 5 minute break in the middle where they do something much more active, stand up, sit down, jump around etc so that their minds are really focussed for the second half of the lesson - we shall see. Generally though the concentration of the majority of the kids is great, but there are the odd few who begin to stray, so it is not exactly a major problem.

The session itself today was based on one being the shopkeeper of a fruit and veg shop, and the other being a customer. The customer had to come in, they said hello how are you? etc then the shopkeeper asked what the customer would like, to which they would respond, and then the shopkeeper had to work out using a price list how much it would cost - they exchanged the money and the customer left the room. As always, each conversation was followed by the whole class clapping to praise those that were involved. One frustrating thing that was quite prominent in today's sessions was that when asked how they are, they all respond with "I'm fine." What I tried to do today was explain that they can say "I'm well" or "I'm good" or "not great" etc. However, one of the lads just said to me, "but in school we need to copy" - this just summed up the education system here for me!

Matt, I took your idea and paired the stronger students with the weaker ones and it really did help. The stronger students helped to correct their partners and I am sure it helped all the children. By the end of the session the stronger students were correcting the others with near perfect English so I saw it as a success!

There are a couple of young women that have come over from the US to visit family, and one of them (Nina) volunteered here for 10 months last year, and they popped into the centre for a few hours in the afternoon. Sheeba came and sat in on one of lessons and took some pictures to put on the Women Centre blog, which was nice, and she was very kind to say that she enjoyed my lesson.

All in all, it was a very good day and slowly I feel I am making some good progress with these children.

July 12th

Right, after a few more mild blogs this one may be a little bit more of a rant!

We went about the morning routine as usual, visiting the temple for a cup of tea, when I was shown a test paper that a little 4 year old in the family is due to take later this week. Lets just say it angered me a little! Firstly, one part of the exam was a recital of a short story/passage of English by memory. OK fair enough, some memory work can be useful but I had two issues with this. The first was that literally everything they learn here has to be by memory and if there is one small mistake or if they change the words in any way they will be failed - everything is examined in this way and I do not really see it as an examination in how they think or how they understand - it is learning to just say what you are told to say - doesn't seem like an education to me. My second issue with this was that the passage itself had some horrific grammar errors and the way things were worded was as if we were talking in the 16th century. They are forced to learn by heart incorrect English, and if they correct it they will get zero...something is not quite right there is it?! In addition to this, she is 4 years old and some of the words in the test piece were way beyond what you would expect a 4 year old to be learning - they cannot say things like 'I have 2 brothers' but are learning some ridiculous story with long words that are not used anymore along with poor grammar...

If that was not bad enough, I then was shown the next section of the test paper, which was all about fruits and vegetables. One of the questions for example was 'name 5 fruits' and another was 'name 2 green fruits' - perfectly reasonable questions - however again for each question there were specific answers provided that had to be given - for example the two green fruits had to be watermelon and pear and if you wrote anything else you would fail! Even worse than this, one question asked of your favourite fruit and they had to write mango! When these children will be allowed to use their imagination or think for themselves I do not know...

OK, well that is the rant over! I started my first class like I had done so the others in the week when I was allowed to do what I want. The man that runs the centre then came in to see me and was very nice about everything, apologising for the misunderstanding and what he has done now is asked the English teachers to teach them the books and use my lessons to do the kinds of things I was doing last week. So we continued as we had done before Friday, today focussing on introductions and a bit about the children and their families. I tried to keep it very interactive by choosing two at a time to stand up in the middle of the circle and have a conversation in English while the others listened - the ones that were behaving were the next ones to be called up and soon I had everyone's attention for a change! It was really fun and the children laughed a lot and seemed to really enjoy themselves, which is what I want my classes to be about. So many of them are scared about making mistakes after being used to their school's way of teaching but I think personally they will learn a lot more when they feel comfortable speaking English without fear and they are enjoying themselves. It seemed to work today as they really were progressing even in the short 40 minute lessons.

One of my frustrations has been that once the children really start to settle down and understand what we are doing, they have to go for their next class. So what we have changed now is the structure of the day. Rather than squeezing all classes into one day, we will have hour long sessions for half the students one day and the other half the next day. I think we will really see much greater progress this way, allowing them to practice what they have learnt a lot more in the lesson so that it is less easily forgotten between lessons!

So, today went smoothly, and our prayers have been answered just this minute as the monsoon rain is hitting hard - the weather the last few days has been unbearable. The only slight problem is that a small river seems to be forming outside the office (in the garage) which I am going to have to cross in a minute to go inside for dinner - will let you know how that goes tomorrow!

Hope everyone is well x

July 10th and 11th

Saturday morning was a bit of a write off after Friday night out - managed to wake up at 12! We did venture out though after lunch for a while to go for dessert. They have loads of desserts here, which are all so so sweet - very nice though! The heat however was unbearable - the shop was only 5 mins away and we were both knackered by the time we got there - so the rest of the afternoon was spent resting in the house. Not very exciting!

We did however venture out in the evening to the Lodi gardens - very impressive free park where you cannot hear any traffic (for a change) and the air seems much cleaner. Lots of nice tombs and ruins to see as well. We then went to Khan market, which is much more upmarket to what you would expect, and unsurprisingly saw many white people there - more than I have in my entire time here so far! It was nice though, went for a drink and a wander around and was nice to get out of the house seeing as we had been inside all day.

Sunday was much more successful, although the heat was unbearable. We ventured out around half 10 to visit the Red Fort which was very impressive. I expected it to be more like a castle, but the Mughals' idea of a palace was a large impressive series of gardens with large marble buildings used for addressing the people, dressing rooms etc. What was a bit weird was that when people were taking pictures we were trying to get out of the way (as you do) but they were actually asking us to be in the photo because we were white! Other people literally came over to us and took our picture as if we were just some tourist attraction - very amusing. After the Red Fort we ventured over to the largest mosque in Asia, but were not allowed in because we were wearing shorts, but from what we did see it was very impressive. Another extravagant piece of architecture built in the era of the Mughal rulers - no expense spared!

So that was the first weekend of sightseeing done - have a lot more to plan ahead. Over the weekends and the 12 days at the end of my stay that I have assigned for travelling I plan to see a lot more of Delhi as well as Agra, and hopefully a lot of Rajasthan including Udaipur, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer.

July 9

Quite a frustrating day in many ways. I started off the morning with the boys classes doing a similar thing to what I have been doing but this time look at opposites such as big/small, tall/short etc. However the class 2nd and 3rd boys are so hard to discipline and spent most of the time fighting and then shouting to tell me there was fighting going on. I did shout at one stage which startled them all but soon enough they were at it again. In addition to this, the timings of the day were not great as the structure of the day does not seem very rigid to say the least, and when it came to the 5th class boys who are a pleasure to teach, they had gone home already!

I then had a chat with the guy who runs the centre and it seems that there has been some confusion, possibly lost in translation, as to what he wants from me. The class is an English speaking class, so I assumed that the reading, writing etc were being taught by the other English teachers. As a result, I was taking the kinds of topics from the syllabus and doing purely speaking classes on these areas, such as fruits and veg, opposites, body parts etc and trying to make them interactive. As I have mentioned before, the ambitious topics that have been mentioned e.g. water storage, I felt would be needed to be taught in Hindi rather than English as they do not have their basic skills and vocab to have a conversation on such topics. The simpler topics that I have been looking at I felt with the aid of props I could explain well and have a conversation with them, which is what I have been doing. However, now the man running the centre seems to have the same view that I have on the complicated issues but surrounding the whole course and thinks I should be focussing on the main text book and going through it properly because their schools do not - however, this includes reading etc rather than just speaking. So what do I do!? I has been doing well developing their understanding and speaking skills using the basic topics, yet have now essentially been told that what I have been doing is not good and they do not understand.

Well, in the afternoon I started going through the exercises in the book and it was evident early on that it was not working as they did not understand what they were reading and I could not explain in Hindi. They were bored and wanted to do the stuff I had been doing the last few days that they obviously really enjoyed. It also upset me that one of the girls who is really bright in the speaking classes, got upset because she could not read very well. She is very clever yet has taken a big hit to her confidence because she has not been taught to read like she should have been - no fault of her own at all.

I like to have clear objectives to work towards and only then can I really plan ahead and achieve what I want to achieve - but I felt really confused today and quite helpless in that the objectives are not clear and are ever changing it would seem! This centre could do great things, and is doing so, but it could do even more if the English teachers work through their books well (so they can pass exams) and the speaking class really is a speaking class and is interactive and not too complicated. I have spoken to Anou (head of whole project) about it all, and she has very kindly said that what I have been doing is in fact good, and that there has been some confusion between all of us as to what exactly needs to be achieved from the speaking class. Hopefully by Monday it will all be sorted out and then I can really plan activities ahead that the children will really enjoy and hopefully it will help their English and build their confidence to use English - difficult task ahead.

In other news, had my first night out in India last night at some bar in Delhi - it was quite empty with a big dancefloor and cheap drink - music could have been better but was a good night. I went with my French room mate, Shamika (Anou's daughter), Nolwynn (family friend who is French but lives in Delhi) and a few of their friends - all very nice people and we had a good night. Must admit did not expect to be going out drinking when I came here!

That's all for Friday, shall update it after the weekend, where hopefully will manage to visit Delhi if it cools down - really need some rain as it is so hot and humid you cannot walk round for more than 10 minutes!

Love to all x

July 8

I really enjoyed today. Rather than using flash cards, I tried using a pop up book version of The Wheels on the Bus. The idea was that we would read it together, do the actions, and then I would ask them questions about it to see if they understood. It took a while but most classes got the hang of it eventually!

What I have found really useful to keep their attention is making them move around rather than just sitting there, and also praising them a lot when they get things right. Today, whenever each person wanted to speak they had to stand up and when they got it right the whole class clapped - it was only then that I got 100% attention as each of them wanted the chance to stand up! Also, we learnt the words up, down, forward, back, left, right, in and out. Getting them to stand up, sit down, shuffle forward and back etc was a good laugh and they all really enjoyed it. I was also quite proud of myself and the children that they managed to teach me the Hindi words for up, down, forward, back, right and left - not sure how to spell them though so won't try!

I have not really had the chance to take pictures as yet of my trip, so it was nice today that one of the teachers came round taking a lot of pictures with the different groups to put on the website and send to those who are sponsoring the project. May try to put some on facebook soon if I can get hold of the files on this computer -look out for them! I am also planning to spend my weekend having a look around Delhi as I have not had the chance as yet so plenty of pictures hopefully.

One thing I am concerned about is the class 2 children - they are so hard to discipline and teach as they really do not have much of a base in English - I feel I have tried so much but am not getting anywhere - any ideas would be greatly appreciated! It is also quite frustrating that a few of the class 2 girls are very bright, and I feel they could really progress well, but they are being hindered by my inability to bring the others up to the same level. Hopefully in the time I am here I can at least make some progress with them! I also feel I am running out of material at the project to use with them - going to have to use my creative side...not great at that as many will know! Again any suggestions would be brilliant...

I do not want to use this blog as a direct source of fund raising but in case anyone is interested, we have been thinking of a possible scheme to raise money for those special case children that are in the boarding school that I talked about on a previous blog. The project currently has sponsors that sponsor a child to go through the school but this is 85 quid a month, which is a bit much to ask from people! However, there are often extra things that are needed when the uniform needs replacing or they need a new bag, or when fees rise due to inflation etc - so rather than sponsoring an individual, we thought we could set up a system whereby people can donate whatever they want to go into a pool of funds for all 7 of the children in the boarding school (each with their own amazing story that I would circulate to those interested). This would really help especially given the rising prices that India faces - for example food inflation is around 25% at present. It was just a thought.

That is all for today - not very insightful or exciting but I enjoyed my day!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summers x

July 7

During one of my lessons yesterday (class 3 girls), one of the girls seemed much older than the others. It turns out she is a few years older and she was one of many girls in India that had to drop out of school at a young age to look after the family, cook and clean, because both her parents are labourers. Luckily for her, she has been able to be reintroduced into schooling, but there are so many children, especially girls that do not have such a chance.

There are many theories about why boys are favoured over girls when it comes to education, such as expected returns, bride wealth and concerns over the safety of girls travelling to school. I had a long chat with the man at the head of the women centre and it seems that one of the main reasons is actually the illiteracy of parents. Parents are illiterate and therefore very narrow minded - these mothers never went to school so why should their daughters? They are illiterate so have to go to work for long hours on a low wage and so the daughters are seen as the ones that should look after the home, like their mothers used to do when they were young. This really highlights the importance of extending these projects to females in particularly so that the next generation of parents are more educated and hopefully will want the same for all of their children, not just their sons!

The reason why I have mentioned this girl is that she was very shy and not confident with her English, and at one stage she pronounced something slightly wrong and one of the girls decided to laugh - soon after the older girl seemed to get quite upset. It turns out she actually has problems with her sight so her eyes are strained a lot when trying to write or read for long periods of time. However, when I spoke to the man at the head of the project about my concerns over the children laughing at each others' mistakes, he told me something very interesting and really quite shocking. Apparently, at home girls are not allowed to laugh. They can smile but cannot laugh, whereas boys can do so. Some parents even tell their daughters that they cannot talk to any other girls or boys. How are the children supposed to learn to socialise and do well in a class when they are too scared to even talk to each other? One of the good things about this project is that they encourage the children to laugh and enjoy themselves so that they do not see it like a boring school but a place to learn where they are happy and comfortable with each other. The fact that the children in project why do much better than others in their schools I am sure is partly due to such a learning environment being provided for them.

A further reason why I have mentioned this girl is that during my chat with the leader, he talked to me about other such issues he had encountered with some of the children and why they may arise. What I found extremely interesting was to find out that all of these children come from very different homes, the sources of heterogeneity even within a slum village is much greater than I imagined. There are 1000s of castes across India, different classes, different religions (and within Hinduism over 30 Gods whereby families tend to follow a specific God) and different traditions (even non religious traditions - most of the people in these slums have migrated from very poor areas such as Bihar so many still follow traditions from their home villages). On top of this the incomes, despite being very low, differ between families, you often do not know the health of family members, and also how many siblings they have.

All of these issues can cause very different problems for the children and it is very hard to understand where the problem is and how to solve it. While the problems remained unresolved, they will not be able to learn well at the project, if they can make it to the project at all. It is therefore essential that these are resolved and children are able to come to the project every day and enjoy it without other concerns clouding their minds. The project has a really tough job to try to understand these issues and have the results it wants to have for these children. The fact that the children are doing so well is testament to the great work and care that everyone in the project is putting in on a day to day basis. As you can tell if you have read the other blogs, this project keeps impressing me more and more every day!

July 6

A less eventful day today, but I really enjoyed it as I managed to have my first classes completely alone without another teacher sitting in. As I mentioned on the previous blog, the children here are used to just reading, reciting and copying down word for word everything that the teacher says, so what I did today was a purely spoken class - no writing involved at all - in an attempt to achieve some sort of understanding on their part.

The topic for today was body parts, as it is one of the main areas in their syllabus and there were some good flash cards in the store cupboard, which had pictures on the front and the name of the part on the back. I started off with just the names of the parts, then asked them how many they had of each,and finally what they are used for (stuck purely to limbs, head and torso...)

What was interesting to see was that there was not such a noticeable gap between class 2 and class 5 especially for the girls - I just wonder whether if they managed to have access to the project at a younger age, they would have developed a bit more than they have done. Hopefully the project will have the effect that I am confident it can have and the current class 2 girls will learn a lot more by the time they are in class 5 - you can tell some of them are so bright - it is just a shame that the government schooling is not of a higher quality than it is. While the project continues, there is at least hope for these children.

The children were quite quiet to begin with (understandably so, being faced with some random big white guy that cannot speak any hindi) but they soon became much more vocal, and in the case of some of the girls a little too vocal and very giggly! When I asked what hands were used for I did make the mistake of saying clapping along with the motion, which was promptly followed by the girls clapping so loudly that the main teacher stuck his head round the door. Any time I mentioned hands after that they decided I wanted them to clap. Also,when I asked them how old they thought I was it had gone up from 30 yesterday to 36, and one girl even said 50 and kept calling me uncle as she thought I was so old...cheers.

Unfortunately that is all for today! Best go write some lesson plans for the rest of the week - thank you everyone who is reading this blog - awareness is the first hurdle then maybe action on these issues will be taken.

P.S. Please watch the latest video about Kakenya -the issues I have encountered are not just occurring in India - they are an unfortunate reality that happens in so many poor nations - http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/blog/






(Mum - I hope you had a nice last day at work and you didn't get too drunk! I will try to sort out a sim card very soon - apparently international calls are quite cheap so I will aim to call you in the very near future - love to everyone x)

July 5

Despite a strike by the opposition party over fuel tax rises, the children made it to school and I was finally able to start teaching at the Women's Centre. The project has many centres, and the Women's Centre is situated in a village community and despite the name is for children as well as women.

One of the main problems in the poorer areas of India is that women and men are not treated equally. An Indian woman will not defy her husband, will ask her husband for permission even when it comes to family planning, and often lives in fear of her husband - yet she will not leave him. The women centre is there for the empowerment of women and for increasing awareness of women's rights. These women can come for counselling sessions and awareness sessions covering topics such as why you should not marry your child off too young, how to feed your child well, what legal rights women have etc. There are also sessions that train women to sew and be beauticians so that they have the skills to earn a living and not be so reliant on their husbands to support the family. It is very important that these things go on as it is only when women can earn money and support themselves and their families that there will be any chance of moving towards more gender equality and a fairer society.

As I said, the project also educates many primary children from the area with 4 boys classes and 4 girls classes - and these are the children that I shall be teaching spoken English to during the next 7 weeks or so, and I had my first sessions today. All of the children are so respectful and eager to learn, however did seem rather shocked when this 6 foot 3 white guy came and sat in their classroom! One of the girls groups even said that they feared me and thought I was 30 years old! But we overcame that minor stumbling block and I think we made some progress - we did some introductions, animals, food, and emotions from their main textbook.

It is difficult though because in their schools they are taught by repeating what the teacher says and learning things by heart rather than really understanding what is being said - so when you ask a question they will often repeat the question rather than answering it. The older ones that did understand what I was asking them decided to be very clever and turn the lesson on its head, trying to teach me Hindi rather than me teaching them English! Hopefully in 7 weeks I will achieve something with all of the classes.

One very interesting thing that I experienced today was that girls as young as 7 brought their younger siblings to the project with them. Both parents were out working and it is expected that the daughter looks after them - luckily the project does not turn away the siblings but in the case of many (such as Sonu on the previous blog) daughters just do not receive an education at all as they are expected to act like mothers.

This afternoon I managed to have a chat with Anou about the future plans for the project and there is an exciting new project called Planet Why that is currently being discussed. Planet Why is different in that it will actually be a guest house for people to stay at - however it will be completely sustainable and will incorporate the children of project why offering them employment and training. A lot of money is needed for the project to get off the ground but there is a scheme called the "last donation" that is being thought through at present whereby people can make a one off donation to the project and will receive discounts if they visit the guest house, and their name will be on a special wall along with the rest of the donors - the reason why it is the last donation is that once the required money is raised the project will be able to support itself with the revenues generated, which for me is a very exciting prospect. At present, they survive on donations, which are not guaranteed to be a constant source of income, so the idea that the children of the project could be supported without reliance on others,whilst gaining employment and training is amazing. When I have more information on this I will post it on here - there is some general information on project why's website (easily found via google)

That is all for today I think - will try to blog again tomorrow!

July 4th

The children do not go to the project on a Sunday - it is their day off - however, I was still up early as it was the end of the holidays for Utpal as he was going back to boarding school until November.

As a bit of background, I shall explain Utpal's amazing story.
Utpal's parents moved next door to the Project Why centre when he was very young and they planned on putting him in the Project creche at age 1. However, when he was just 11 months something terrible happened - his mother was a drunk and he was a product of a drunken brawl so he never knew his real father. When he was just 11 months old, his mother was cooking in a wok, but as their house was so small this was placed right next to Utpal's bed - she walked out of the house and Utpal woke up and fell in the wok - he suffered third degree burns on his head, his arms and his chest - he lost half a lung and was sent home from the hospital with a note saying "Chances of survival: Nil" However, he did survive and with the help of many people is now a happy child and is being sponsored to go to boarding school in a more rural area of Delhi.

This brings me onto the topic of boarding schools in India. Boarding schools are seen as something that is only for the richest children from wealthy backgrounds - most boarding schools are around 25000 rupees a month (350 quid). The state of the government education here is very poor and children do not receive more than half a day of education unless they are in boarding school or part of projects such as Project Why - the most shocking thing that I found out today was that when Anou asked for funding for the slum children to go to boarding school from Indian people the response was simply; "why are you spending so much money on these children? They are slum children" This kind of attitude is what NGOs such as Project Why face day to day and you just get the impression that so much more could be done for these children if only the mentality of the population changed.

The boarding school that Utpal goes to is very different to most of the boarding schools - it is in a rural area of Delhi so the air is cleaner, and there are all sorts of sports that they can play and there is a really friendly family feel about the place - they are fed well and looked after well, and all of their grades are As or Bs showing that these kids do have potential but so many children like these do not even get the chance to try to make a life for themselves. The school is only 85 quid a month per child and that includes everything - there are no hidden costs. For just 85 quid a month these children can have the chance to fulfil their potential - the sad truth is that there just is not the funding from within India to sponsor these children - my aim when I get home would be to try to increase the number of sponsors from the UK - it really is such a worthy cause.

There have been some improvements in the other boarding schools in that the government ruled that 20% of the places must go to underprivileged children - but one child Kiran (whose mother had to pay about 350 quid as an underhand payment to get her into the school) told us that some meals and snacks do not get given to those who do not pay - the system is far from inclusive - yet when you look at schools like Utpal's it is clear that the boarding schools can work, but there is such corruption and a poor mentality towards these slum children that so many are simply left to stay at home and never do what they are capable of doing - the previous blog about Sonu and Manisha just goes to show just one example of this - and the reality is that there are 1000s like this.

The fact of the matter is that 85 quid a month could do so so much for these children - it really is not that much is it?

It is clear that improvements are needed desperately especially for the slum children, but attitudes and corruption are deeply ingrained in society and are extremely difficult to change. This is one of the main barriers that India's population faces and is a difficult one to break down.

July 2 & 3

Friday July 2nd

My experience really started on the Friday (2nd) as I was shown around the rest of the centres, learnt a lot about the project and got involved with some classes.

Before Anou started the project she suffered the loss of both her parents and was not in a good way - she visited a healer who healed her and the project started when she saw a boy called Manu who has cerebral palsy and mental retardation. All the children were throwing stones at him and he was left to his own devices by the rest of his family. Anou saw this boy and wished she could do something to help. Her healer said to set up a centre and that is where the project starts. As a result of this, every morning she visits the healer and is blessed. The healer even blessed me, putting a white dot on my forehead!

We left for the centre after seeing the healer and I spent my morning with the "special class" for children with disabilities. The children all have different disabilities and help each other where they can, it really does feel like a small family, which compared to Manu's previous experience was very good to see. I helped one boy with his spellings, and after 8 attempts he successfully managed to copy the word elephant from one side of the page to another. The look on his face when I told him it was right was brilliant. We also did some basic addition, where I found explaining how to carry the 1 very difficult given that they have very little English - we got there in the end though!

The temperature was over 40 degrees so sitting upstairs in the sun was very uncomfortable especially when a hot curry was given to me for lunch - I promptly went extremely red and caused a few laughs! Everything here seems to have so much chilli in it!

I will be starting my teaching on Monday, so to get an idea of how English is taught here I went to one of the primary centres to observe a class. The boys and girls were so excited when I walked in, like they had never seen a white person before, all standing up and shouting "namaste" which is used when greeting someone at any time of the day. I joined the English speaking class in one corner of the room, where they were learning opposites and basic adjectives. They are all so keen to learn, not like kids in the UK, no backchat, no need to discipline them, they just love to learn. The centre itself is situated right in the middle of a slum, with no sanitation or anything, where they make their houses out of any scraps that they can find - it really was a shocking sight, and even more shocking to hear that the land is not theirs and if the government want the land they can destroy everything that is there instantly. Apparently, this is happening a lot at the moment, with India preparing for the commonwealth games in October, as the government wants to build impressive buildings to impress the other nations - clearly at the expense of a lot of the poor people of India.

The evening was spent playing a game called Jungle Speed after dinner, which is essentially a game of matching and speed - and I got owned every single time - quite embarrassing really! But we did go to a huge cake shop afterwards, which kind of made up for it!


Saturday July 3rd

Another early start and even hotter weather! We visited the healer as usual in the morning and then went on to the centre where I did some yoga exercises in the special class (again I was awful at this!) and then did some more maths. Another of the volunteers from England was keen to get a football game going for some of the kids at the centre in the slum that we visited, and had even brought kit and balls over to India with him. We travelled over to the slum where they said they knew of a pitch on which we could play - it turned out we were playing football on an old railway line in 46 degree heat with lads who did not know the rules of football and did not know enough English to understand our explanations! Despite this they really enjoyed it, both the secondary and primary students, and they loved the kits. The game did end up being a bit scrappy with everyone tackling people on their own team, all chasing the ball anywhere it went and catching it when it went in the air - but it was a good laugh. It is now Saturday afternoon and it is my time off, so I am going for a sleep! Will update again soon x

Manisha

This piece was written by Anouradha Bakshi who runs Project Why and I thought it said a lot about the children over here

"After more than ten years of working with the less privileged, I often think I have seen it all and am now inured to things. But that is not quite so. Yesterday we went to Manisha's home to talk to her mom about her going to boarding school. Yes you rad right our little Alien is off to boarding school sooner than we thought! We had hoped to catch her mom at lunch time but that was not to be as she was still out picking rags and was not expected till late afternoon. However the little home was not left unattended as Sonu, Manisha's elder sister, was in charge. She is just eight years old.

Sonu welcomed us with a serious smile and asked us to sit down. We did and looked around.
Manisha's home is not bigger than a store room and yet what struck us was that it was spotlessly clean and well organised. Everything seemed to have a place be it the little school bags in one corner or the mom's sarees that hung in another. A tiny plank set on two bricks in the third corner was the kitchen and well organised. To beat the incredible heat a table fan was tied to the wooden beam that held the low tin roof of the house in place. One could see that in spite of all odds Manisha's mom had tried to give the best she could to her children. I cannot find the words to describe what we felt: awe, respect, bewilderment laced with anger and even helplessness. This was the world of the survivor, one we could only salute.

We sat a while talking to Sonu. She told us she was very happy Manisha would be going to a big school and then little a true little mommy she turned to Manisha and told her quietly in a tone way beyond her years: you must study hard and do well! We asked her whether she too would like to go to school and again she relied with a wise smile: how can I, who will look after the baby, she does not stay without me. Those simple words summed up the plight of so many little girls across India. Here was a little girl, one who should still be playing with dolls, who had become an adult overnight. If she did not look after the home, the mother would not be able to earn and no one would survive. She knew it and what was killing was that there was no resentment or bitterness in the girl, it was simply her life.

As I said I thought I had seen it all but this little girl moved me beyond words and was a stark reminder of how little we had achieved and how much more needed to be done. "

July 1st - arrived safely

There were no major panics with the journey over here and arrived into Delhi airport at 11am local time, after having no sleep due to the lack of leg room - far from comfortable! Then had to explain to a taxi man where I wanted to go and he was far from helpful arguing that the address was wrong! However, after 1.5 hours in a non AC cab in 40 degree heat we finally arrived where I shall be staying. I met the two main people that are in charge of the project, both seem very passionate about what they are doing, and they have decided to assign me to English speaking classes as of tomorrow, which I am slightly nervous about seeing that I thought I would have the weekend to think of what I want to do in lessons!

I went to have a look at the centre, and after dodging cattle, dogs and "waste" we arrived at the centre to see the girls being taught (government schools are so crowded they teach girls in the morning and boys in the afternoon) - the state of the place was shocking despite me expecting the worst, however they have small classes and the children seemed happy enough. I had a good chat with the man that runs the project and he highlighted the extent of the problems in Indian education and that they are using books that the British used over 100 years ago - tough task ahead then!

Not much else to say really other than I am knackered so will head off to bed very soon - will post again soon!