Channel youth, the rainbow song, and a rude cow

OK, diary extracts will possibly take too long, so I’ll just do a summery of the last few days.

Actually I should start by filling you in on the project. I signed up via GVI, but the project is actually run by channel youth. The staf that are working directly with us are Gaurav, Ritu and Ravi, all enthusiastic 20 somethings who really believe in bringing education to Rajethstan. We also have a cook Meena Ji, her helpers Tulsi, Pinki (I think are her kids buy not sure), and Kaniya Ji (her husband) is our driver. Atm there are 5 other volunteers, Ben, Fiona, Serina, Clare and Laura. Sometimes there are as many as 25 volenteers working so its pretty quiet atm. Currently we are working on three projects. The day school in the mornings, the boys orphanage on Monday to Wednesday evenings and a disabled kids school Thursday and Friday evenings.

A bit of background. Udaipur is a very poor area with 90% of the population below the poverty line. The policy of ‘more hands to more work’ stands here, so families are large. Girls are sen as expensive/liabilies due to dowerys, so arranged marrages with fixed doweries are common and sometimes baby girls are even killed so familes don’t have to deal with theexpense. Many parents are alcoholics. Children are regularly orphaned from disease or poverty. Its preety intense. The channel youth project was set up to improve education. Education is not valued here, so kids had to be lured in with the offer of a free meal before their parents would allow them to stop working and attend. But the kids are lovely and really happy to learn. They are the first in their families to do so.

Conditions at the school are basic, just a concrete room, the doors don’t close so occasionally the wild dogs wonder into the class room. The orphanage is far worse. 90ish boys live in very basic conditions, 25 beds are crammed into rooms with ½ a foot between them. There is only 1 family looking after all 90 boys, so parenting is non-existant. The orphanage boys are understandably a little more rowdy then the school kids. What really surprised me was how nicely the boys played together. One boy voluntarily wrote ‘I love my friends and my teachers’. If I was locked up with 90 boys day-in-day out I don’t think I would be writing words of love. The disabled school is far nicer. It is funded by a private charity. Rooms are still basic, but they at least have a rug, and there are enough staff to look after the kids.

I’ve been thrown in the deep end as a teacher. I teach year 1 at the school with Laura. Tuesday did not go so well, 18 6 year olds turned up, we were out numbered and it all went the way of lord of the flys, ending in blood shed. Yesterday and today however were much better, we were given a bigger class room and split them up which helped. I think I’m making progress at teaching them the rainbow song, we had some mumbling today. See I’m helping – even if it is only by teaching the rainbow song, which is actually inaccurate, but hay ho.

What with teaching, lesson planning, Hindi classes, cooking workshops and meetings I’m a very busy bee – has been good as I’ve yet to even have a chance to feel properly home sick yet. Oo I forgot to mention the trip into town. The dirty bustaling India I enjoyed viewing from the security of the truck is far less enjoyable when your walking amongst it. They do not drive on the left in India – they drive everywhere! The constant beeping makes me jump out my skin, but at least you have fair warning that they are about to run you over. The cows give you no such warning unfortunately. I was unceremoniously chucked into a gutter by a wondering cow. The dirt was the thing that got to me. Dust and the smell of open sewage fills the air and force me to close my mouth and hold my breath at times. Just a bit intimidating right now, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it with time.

Oo forgot to say my bag finally cought up with me, unfortunalty not all it contents came with it. Lesson one in India – if Its not bolted down, it will be stolen.