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!
Saturday, 17 July 2010
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
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.
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.
Monday, 12 July 2010
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
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
Sunday, 11 July 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, 10 July 2010
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
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
Thursday, 8 July 2010
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
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
Wednesday, 7 July 2010
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!
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!
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
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)
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)
Monday, 5 July 2010
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!
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!
Sunday, 4 July 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, 3 July 2010
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
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. "
Thursday, 1 July 2010
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!
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!
Tuesday, 22 June 2010
My India Blog
I am travelling to New Delhi for 10 weeks and thought I would keep an online blog to keep anyone interested informed of what I am up to. I leave on the 30th June and will be working for 8 weeks with slum children just on the outskirts of New Delhi in the Giri Nagur slum cluster. The project I am working on is called Project Why and works to improve educational outcomes and social empowerment amongst slum children and their families. I am also hoping to be able to conduct research whilst out there for a possible dissertation for next year, and also plan on doing some travelling around the country wherever possible if I have time. More news will follow hopefully once out there!
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