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
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