A few pictures from the party

Most of the pictures are on my camera and I did not bring my cable with me, hence the lack of pictures on the blog. However, Dharmender took some on the Women Centre camera yesterday so now you can meet some of my kids!



Class 4 and 5 boys



Pass the parcel - Class 2 and 3 girls



From left to right; Megha, Ankita, Baby, Payal and Riya - Class 2 girls



From left to right; Priyanka, Abhilasha, Dolly, Swati, Anou and Tehrim - Class 3 girls



Some of the Class 5 girls - Pushpa, Jyoti, Neha, Tannu, Monica, Gulabsha and Manisha (from left to right) - very bright class



The Class 4 and 5 girls



The Class 4 and 5 boys





They seemed to like the samosas! Class 4 boys



Class 2 and 3 boys

My final week at the centre (16th – 20th August)

When I explained to the children that I was leaving, I asked them what they would like to do in their last few days and strangely they all asked me to do a test with them, so Friday 13th and Monday 16th we just did speaking tests. What was very good to see was that they all improved on their scores from the test we did 3 weeks ago, even the good students who got 9/10 managed to get 9.5 or 10 – these children still amaze me with how bright they all are.

I also met the teacher that will be replacing me when I leave, who was actually taking the spoken classes before I arrived but she had to take 2 months leave. I have seen some good progress with many of the kids, but those that have not attended regularly have not improved as much, clearly because they have not been practicing their English. As a result, I was very keen to share what I have been doing with the teacher and stress the importance of creating a purely English speaking environment and to encourage her to use some of the methods that I have used. I have not been perfect whatsoever and there were many things that I could have done better, but I have had good feedback from several of the other teachers and the children also. The fact that they have improved a lot must surely mean I was doing something right. I have built very good connections with these children and I know they can do very well if they are taught well, so I really do not want them slipping behind again because I know how well they can do. So, in a way I have been a bit anxious about how the classes will be carried out once I leave – there needs to be continuity for the children to keep progressing and I wanted to stress this to the teacher coming back. However, when I did talk to her about this I found her attitude was not the best. It seemed as if she was very possessive over the class asking me, “Are you the one who has been teaching my children?” and when I told her what I had done and how I had done it all she kept saying was that she had also done everything that I said to her. Clearly this could not have been the case as their level was much lower than it is now, so I must have done something different to her – again I am not saying what I did was better than what she did but that is what she seemed to think I was saying and seemed rather defensive – she seemed to see it as a case of me vs her rather than working together to teach the students as well as we can. I talked to Dharmender about this and he had a word with her so I do feel now that she will take some of it into consideration. What I have suggested to Dharmender is to actually sit down with the kids and ask them what they think works well for them – for me, this is a great way to improve the teaching methods and if the children feel they have some input this can only increase their motivation to learn even more.

I have also decided to but the centre a webcam. The children kept telling me not to leave and were saying that I would forget them and never come back (like all the others) so I thought a good way to keep in contact with them would be to set up a Skype account for them. They loved the idea once I explained it to them and they want to meet all my friends and family via the webcam. I thought it would be a great way to stay in contact with them, convince them that I do care and I won’t forget them, keep an eye on their progress, and also to enable them to practice their spoken English with me. I may have to get used to early mornings though given the time difference!

On Monday and Tuesday, we had a very interesting visitor to the project, a French businessman called Vincent. He is a friend of a donor of the project and came to see the project and see how he could help. We showed him the project, the land where planet why shall be built and also the boarding school close to the land. Luckily, while he was here, the survey that had been carried out to assess the feasibility of planet why came back with very positive results, stating that the guesthouse was feasible and potentially very lucrative. Vincent seemed very positive about the project and hopefully he will be able to help raise at least some of the funds for the project, which in total will cost around $1 million. We were anxious before his arrival about whether he would want to help but he was so enthusiastic about the land that he suggested we buy the plot next to it also to have a spice garden! I really hope Planet Why can realise its potential, as it is the least Anou deserves after the 10 years she has put into this project – Planet Why will enable the whole project to be sustainable and not reliant on donors month by month as it is today.

The latter part of the week saw a lot of rain in Delhi – it is the monsoon season but for several years now Delhi has not had much rain even in these rainy months. On Thursday there was so much rain that most of the boys did not attend the centre at all, and I was quite worried that the same would occur on Friday – I finished at the centre on Friday and we had a party with all of the children planned. Luckily, despite the rain, most of the children came to the centre and we had great fun. There are so many children in the primary section (128 in total) so we decided to have two parties in the morning for the boys and two parties in the afternoon for the girls – the first party was 2nd and 3rd class, and then the second was 4th and 5th class. We played party games, danced to some Indian music, ate samosas and cookies, and there were balloons and bubbles etc. It was actually quite emotional at the end of each party and the kids just kept telling me that I should stay in India and not go back to England – in many ways I would actually love to stay here.

In the party for the older girls, I turned around to get things out of my bag for the rest of the party and when I turned to face them again they were right up close to me with lots of gifts in their hands for me! It was so sweet, they had individually wrapped pens and toffees, and one of them even put a chocolate bar in a nice little box and wrapped it up with such care. Some of the girls had got me plastic flowers in cellophane wrapping and they had written their names on the petals of the flowers, and all of them were shouting and demanding that I opened their gift first.

At the end of the parties, I allowed one of the students to come up to the front and open the webcam and they were all really confused as to what it actually was. Dharmender acted as translator and I explained to the kids that I will miss them, and if they want they can talk to me on there and they can meet my friends and family and practice their English. They were all very excited at the prospect. Dharmender then asked them whether they wanted to say anything to me – most of them were just saying that they would miss me and they wanted to know when I would come back and see them all (making me promise!). One said that I was the best teacher and thanked me for teaching her lots (Jyoti 5th class) to which I responded honestly that it had been a pleasure meeting and teaching them all because they are such great kids and I thanked them, but Kajal in 5th class would not accept my thanks and said that they were so grateful to me because I had come all the way over from England just to help them and they all really appreciated it – must admit was quite emotional to hear that from a 12 year old – so mature. I really am sad to be leaving the project and I will miss them all, it really is like I have now got over 120 Indian siblings and I am looking forward to talking to them on the webcam lots when I get back. Hopefully I will be able to come back next summer, and maybe even before then. The children have had a really positive effect on me and I just hope that I have had a positive influence on their lives and I really want to see them push on and succeed even more than they have done so already – they are really bright kids and sometimes you forget what they actually go through every day living where they live and in the conditions that they face – all of them are an inspiration to me, and I am very proud to have built relationships with such amazing young people.


Anu and Abhilasha


Mukesh

Independence Day - 15th August

Shanti Gyan International School (the boarding school that 8 of the Project Why children attend) had their Independence Day celebrations in the form of a concert. There were dance acts, singing acts, yoga acts etc and we were the ‘VIPs’ to the event. However, India also has ‘VVIP’ status so we were not the most important there! It felt very strange being invited as a VIP to Independence Day celebrations seeing that I am an Englishman, but I was very grateful and it was such a good day to be involved in.

All of the acts were amazing, but seeing the Project Why children (Meher, Utpal, Babli, Yash, Nikkil, Viki, Aditya and Manisha) perform so well in front of their peers was a very proud moment – I felt like a parent at a school concert! When you get to know these kids and you hear what they have all been through, seeing the great young people they have become and seeing them do well in school is rather moving. There are children there that were given 0% chance of survival as babies with 3rd degree burns, one of the girls has survived open heart surgery and many of them have destructive home environments. They have been given this chance and all of them are making the most of it and doing well at everything they attempt – it is just so good to see. The concert itself was interrupted by some heavy monsoon rain that made the whole cover over the stage and audience collapse, which was rather amusing but it continued in the lunch hall after a short break so we didn’t miss too much!

The school also used the celebrations to launch the new literacy program in the village nearby. The program is called “Each One Teach One” and the idea behind it is that the children of the boarding school will visit the new centre in the slum village at weekends and teach the children that live there. These children are very poor and many do not go to school. Even the ones that do go to school go to the local municipal council school, which has class sizes of over 100 students – even the best teachers in the world would struggle to carry out quality teaching in this sort of environment. The program looks to be a positive one for several reasons. Firstly, it will give these children the chance to be educated, a chance that most of them do not have. In addition to this, I feel that it is very important for the children of the boarding school to have contact with the poorer children so that they realise how lucky they are themselves and there also needs to be an appreciation of the poorest in society if this nation is to progress in the future, afterall these children are the ones who will shape social policy in the future either through political positions or even just their vote. The children in the slums do not have a voice today and neither do their parents, so they need the voices of future voters to stand up for them – unfortunately the attitude in today’s adult population does not seem to be one that will force any change, so it is even more important that the children are educated properly not just to pass exams but to become good citizens and to understand the issues that their country faces.

The attitude in Indian society today is one of confusion when you talk about spending money to educate the poorest children of the slums. When Anou asks Indian people to donate to help her project, they cannot understand why you would spend money on poor children, and it is this kind of mentality that is preventing the universal education that is needed from being implemented. There is a Right to Education Act that has been passed by the government that states that 25% of all private school placements must go to the underprivileged sectors of the community, but still this is not being implemented properly and so many children that want to learn are not able to learn, simply because of the narrow mindedness behind education policy that results in a neglect of the poorest in society. These people do not have anything and on top of this they are being prevented from having an education, which is the only way out of the poverty that they face. Let’s just say India’s education policy could do with some cleaning up and there are significant improvements that can and should be made. Educating the children of India seems to be the obvious start point for this change to occur.

When we visited the site where the new literacy program will operate, there were supposed to be a list of 40 selected children that had expressed an interest in the project, and so there were 40 folders with a pad of paper and some pens inside that we were to give to the children. However, there must have been around 100 of them all pushing and shoving trying to get hold of an education pack – they are all so desperate to learn and be educated, so it was very difficult having to turn so many back. It was a manic experience to be involved with though, the heavens had opened and the plastic sheet was not staying up well so we were all getting rather wet – it was muddy, wet, noisy, chaotic, but I loved it. Seeing the enthusiasm of these children to be educated was so refreshing to see, and I just hope this program can work well and there are more similar projects carried out elsewhere – if the government will not educate these children, at least there are schools like Shanti Gyan and NGOs like Project Why who are doing their best to fill the void.



Babli and Viki



The VVIP sofa!



Some of the girls at the women centre



Raising the flag

10th August

Although the children are used to volunteers coming and going, I decided it was about time that I explained when I would be leaving and why I had to leave for England. It must be very hard for the children to have volunteers coming to teach them, making a connection with them, and then the volunteers just leave without keeping contact with the children. They are very mature kids and I am sure they understand that this will occur with all the volunteers but I did not want them to feel like I was just leaving them without a care in the world. I explained that I am only a teacher in India and that I am actually a student in England and I need to finish school. The reactions of the kids varied but most of them just pleaded with me not to go back to England and said that I should stay with them in India. Others just went quiet and had tears in their eyes, and some could not even stand to look at me for a good 10 minutes, which I was quite upset about but it was to be expected as they are only young and I have built good bonds with all the children. What was funny was that for the next few days, lots of the kids kept running to me and bringing me sweets in the centre, and once I accepted them they just said “No go England?” as if the sweets would convince me to stay! So I had to explain several more times that I really want to stay but I must go back home – I think they understood but were not very happy about the whole situation!

I only work at the centre from Monday to Friday each week, but on Saturdays the children attend the centre for activities and games. This Saturday just gone (7th August), they had a PTM (Parents Teachers Meeting) at the women’s centre, to which I did not attend, but Dharmender passed on what was said and for me it was very positive. Many of the parents came in to the meeting very pleased and surprised that their children were actually speaking English at home to their siblings and some of them were trying to teach their parents some English. These children go to Hindi medium schools and their parents are mostly illiterate or have low literacy levels and so the only place English is normally spoken is at the Project Why centre, which is a big problem because they do not practice the English and so this restricts their progression. However, the fact that since my spoken classes started the children have been speaking English at home is the greatest success that I could have hoped to have and I am really proud of the children and I am sure they will improve even further now that they have started practicing more than they were.


Smile girls! Nisha, Moni, Priyanshi and Chandni



Sonom, Priyanka and Aarti

9th August

I was teaching the younger ones again today and I decided that I would have to explain to them that I would soon be leaving. Despite their limited English, I did manage to get the message across to them which was met by a rather sad response - some of the girls actually had tears in their eyes. However, the mention of a party on my last day seemed to cheer most of them up! One of the girls in second class then decided to give me a drawing she had done for me, which was very sweet of her - but then of course all the others wanted to do the same and were ripping pages and pages out of their school drawing books, which I am sure will not go down that well when they have their next drawing class! It was very nice of them and I think things like these will be the best souvenirs I could possibly take home from this country. Last week there was also a day called Friendship Day where they all give their friends a friendship bracelet (ribbon) and so many of them were tying them around my wrists - although many had been cut for their friends so would not fit around my fat wrists so I ended up with so many tied around my fingers - again such nice things to be able to take back with me.

In the evening we wandered around the Delhi golf club, which is such an interesting place - so many very old monuments right in the middle of the club that are hundreds of years old. I was also shown some of Gary's photos that he has taken in many countries with his TB work, and they really were brilliant photos, many of which actually really got to me. When you see these people and what they are going through day by day it really does mark you, and is just adding to my enthusiasm to go into the development field in one way or another.

Weekend 7th + 8th August

Very chilled weekend - Saturday did very little after a few drinks on Friday.

On Sunday we went to the boarding school again for the parents and teachers meeting. Was really good to see the children again and Manisha seemed to have settled in well despite some inevitable tears.

Big Update 2! 29th July - 6th August

Again I have taken my time updating the blog - apologies!


Thursday 29th July

Today it was 4th and 5th class for the first time this week, after being ill on Tuesday. All of them are making progress each session and it was good to see how much they had retained given that we had not had a class for a week.

At lunch time one of the boys in 4th class (Anuj) decided to give me my first real Hindi lesson and was adamant that I had to learn everything that I have taught him over the last 4 weeks but in Hindi – and I have just 4 days before my big test! Just the basic stuff but the pronunciation is not easy. Two of the teachers joined in and laughed a lot, most of which I am sure was at my expense, but it was a good laugh. They now speak to me in Hindi around the centre and laugh every single time that I attempt a response!

It was also nice that they wanted to look through all of my family photos – I had shown some of the boys from my classes the photos of friends and family and they had clearly told the teachers that I had them so they were all very keen to see everyone. Trying to explain the step parents/half siblings/step siblings was a bit of a challenge though! Every picture with a female in it was followed by the question, “Your wife?” and they also seemed to think that Rosie (Paterson-Spir, not Horrod!) was my daughter!

Had a very good evening with Stamp and another Cambridge student called Lindsey who is doing a placement with a law firm in Delhi – went for a nice meal and coffee (as 2 of us were on antibiotics so alcohol was off the menu!)


Friday 30th July

A pretty standard day at the centre again today. Every day it seems that I build a better and better rapport with all of the kids, so much so that I do not think I will want to leave when it comes to the end of my time here! Am making some progress on the Hindi – I have to learn; Hello, How are you? (along with 2 responses), What is your name? (plus response), Where are you from? (plus response), How old are you? (again with response) and then I have a list of vocab for fruits, vegetables, colours, animals and numbers – a lot to learn.

We did not go out in the evening because Anou’s other daughter Parul arrived from London with her husband Jean Francoise, their son Agustia and a friend of theirs called Gary. All very interesting people to talk to and have all worked in some sort of development work/research.


Saturday 31st July/Sunday 1st August

In the first few weeks of my stay here I was using the weekends to wander around Delhi and see the sights, but I am now appreciating just using them for rest, so this weekend was another of those!
I went for coffee with Parul, JF and Gary and was introduced to Indian literature – they have a chain here called Café Turtle, which has a café on the top floor and a book shop underneath. I really wanted to read some Indian literature (in English obviously) and Gary and Parul seemed to have read everything in the shop – every book we picked up was an ‘essential read’ and very quickly I had accumulated a ridiculous number of books! JF was working on a questionnaire for a research project in the slums in Mumbai, which I tried to have some input in to, and talking to him has really made me think more about doing development work ‘in the field’ – some great experiences to be had.

Sunday was more of the same – chilling and going for coffee, this time with Shamika and Rani. Gary and I then stayed home to watch the F1 and we watched a very funny film in the evening called ‘3 idiots’ – interesting illustration of the parental pressures that students face in India – worth watching.


Monday 2nd August

I decided today that I should test the children to see what they have actually retained as I have been teaching them for 4 weeks now. It was an oral test given that our classes are entirely spoken English and I made a test of 10 questions for the younger ones and 14 questions for the older ones, with some more difficult questions and harsher marking.

What was very promising was the number of students that managed to achieve over 80%, with many of them getting 100% or very close to full marks. I mixed the questions up for each student in terms of the order so they could not simply remember their friends' answers and so I think the results do show that some good progress has been made. Another thing that I was very pleased with was that the ones that had been attending my classes regularly were the ones that were getting the higher marks. I took several positives out of this. Firstly, I hope that it means that they are benefiting from my teaching and the results are not purely random. Secondly, it is promising that it suggests that if we can increase attendance by working closely with the parents, many of these children could really get to a very high level of English conversation. The project is clearly having a positive effect and still has scope for further progress in the community, which is always good to know!


Tuesday 3rd August

Carried on with the testing today with 2nd and 3rd class - again, the same kinds of trends appeared as with the older groups on Monday. It just really highlights how important it is to incentivise parents and encourage them to send their children to the centre on a regular basis - the results can be so positive if this is done well. We have also seen that working with the parents has helped attendance and has also given many of the mothers the urge to learn skills such as English and sewing, and we now have large groups attending the centre to learn these skills. By incorporating the whole community into this project there are so many opportunities for positive feedback and the project can have so much more of an effect on these people's lives if the community really work together and want it to work. The commitment of the parents is paramount for the success of this kind of project.


Wednesday 4th August

I decided to try to teach the children words such as in front of, behind, next to, behind, under, over etc and we had a very fun activity lesson. I would ask each student to stand either next to, behind, or in front of one of the others and they were all helping each other work out which was which. I then chose the brightest student to be the teacher and order the others around and tell them where to stand. I was really pleased because when one of the girls was confused where to go, one of her classmates then instructed her in very good English where to go - very proud!

There were a lot of giggles when they did the over and under - crawling through each others' legs and then playing leapfrog - surprisingly no one got hurt and they all seemed pretty clear on the vocab by the end of the lesson so it was quite a success!

I have not written many rants recently and this will not be a full blown rant but just another comment about the CWG. I was shown another article today and watched a news report about the games. Many things shocked me but the two main ones were as follows. Firstly, the former sports minister has released some figures that show what is being spent on what for the games and one of the entries was a treadmill. A top of the range treadmill can be bought in Harrods for what is 7 lakh rupees (1lakh=100,000) but the committee have managed to RENT a treadmill for 45 days for 10 lakh rupees! Waste of money?!

Another thing that I read about was about the slums in Delhi and the process of 'beautification' that is going on. I have already written in a previous blog about the fact that the committee are wiping out slums and clearing Delhi or slum dwellers, beggars, cattle etc but there is concern that they will not have time to clear out all the slums they want to clear. So what solution has been proposed? - well the first suggestion was that there should be a huge tent put over the slum areas in question (yes, this was a serious suggestion...) But the latest idea is to just build bamboo screens to put across the front of the slums so that they are out of sight - again just trying to sweep the poor under the carpet like they simply do not exist. You have to wonder whether the committee actually believe that visitors will be fooled by all of this. Everyone knows the issue of poverty that India faces, and rather than trying to resolve the issue they are just trying to ignore it like it will just go away. The fact of the matter is that if you just ignore these people, they will not be educated, India will continue to see the unsustainable population growth rates in the poorest families and the issue of slums and beggars will be even greater. They cannot really believe that India will grow and be a developed nation like those in the west when they have such a lack of social policy?! India wants to have these games to prove that they are a growing and developing economy but how can you call a nation 'developed' when you have such high incidence of absolute poverty?!


Thursday 5th August

Classes went very well today, and thanks to Nina I have some new ideas of how to keep the children entertained and on task in the lessons, which is a God send really especially for the younger children who are very easily distracted.

Had a nice evening with Leonie from Cambridge (one of Fitz's friends) wandering around some more of Delhi - saw India Gate and went for some very good Indian food.


Friday 6th August

Carried on with the new games that Nina showed me, which went down very well with the 4th and 5th class boys and girls. Also carried on the next to, behind, in front of etc activity and many of them got the chance to be the teacher. I felt it was important to do this so that they were actually doing the speaking rather than just listening to me. We also sat in a circle and rather than me asking them questions I told them to ask each other questions so that they practiced this a lot more. Often they will know how to respond to questions but struggle in conversation so I felt they should focus more on this. They actually all wanted to ask me questions, which was good fun and they struggled pronouncing English names - they also kept asking me what my wife and kids were called...have lost count at the amount of times I have told them I am not married!

After staying in last Friday we ventured out to the Turquoise Cottage (a bar) for the evening, Stamp joined us and it was a great laugh - struggled to get up this morning though (Saturday). Am looking forward to chilling this weekend and going to the boarding school for the parents and teachers meeting where I will be able to see all the kids again.

(Happy Birthday Chris! x)

Some pictures from the last week:


Roshan, Sameer and Anuj


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Ruksarr!



Monica, Sabrun and Jyoti



Anuj, Sohit, Mahesh, Ashish and Rahul Pandey