The Beginning.

After my night of fitful sleep in what seemed sweltering heat, despite the air conditioning unit & the whirring ceiling fan above my bed, I awoke again at 5.30am to the sounds of children stirring.  To my delight, I found that, despite the basin tap not working, there was luke warm water from the shower, so I enjoyed that before I suddenly had visitors at 7.00am!  The older girls are very helpful & seem to be looking after me – keen to provide hot drinks & breakfast.  I decided to try this Indian style & for the first time in my life I had curried vegetables for breakfast!  This was lovely but I had to eat it while trying to dress etc., as I suddenly discovered that I was to be taken to meet the School Head. 

After a chat about the school, I was taken on a guided tour & into each class, where the children leapt to their feet to say “Good morning!”  They are delightful – bare-footed with happy, smiling faces in their red & brown uniforms.  There are 70 pupils from the home & 150 external students, whose families are struggling financially, but are keen for their children to learn.  The classes are small by English standards, about a dozen on average I think, and the children sit on the floor with their school bags in front of them, which are all they have to use, as desks.  No interactive white boards here, just blackboards & chalk for the teachers.

I saw the room, which is having wooden shelves installed & which will be a library.  The books are visibly second hand and have mostly been donated by volunteers.  This is an area in definite need of help!  There will also be a computer room in the future; so far, it contains only the sockets!

Aarti School

The children are happy and quite self-sufficient.  They are all keen to speak English & my main difficulty so far is in understanding the strong accents.  It’s so embarrassing to have to keep asking them to repeat phrases!

I’m rapidly learning that all meals seem to consist of curry, so thank goodness I like it!  I’ve also learned today that the electricity goes off every afternoon from about 2.00 to 4.00pm – no-one thought to mention that to me!  In fact today it was off ubtil 5.00pm!  Luckily, I’d almost finished the report, which I was tweaking on the computer for the Head!  Everything becomes quiet for the afternoon, as the heat is so intense.  In fact, the Director told me that they don’t usually take visitors in May or June, as the heat is so unbearable.  I’ve already found that the guide book misled me – informing me that the average temperatures in March & April are in the mid-thirties, whereas the Deputy Director tells me that it’s mid-forties!  Hence, when I intended walking to the bank today, I was suddenly given an escort & a driver to protect me from the heat as well as from any untoward experience!

Although I normally enjoy hot temperatures, the lack of water here, let alone a pool, changes things dramatically.  I’m drinking copious amounts of filtered water & learning that my usual speed of doing things simply isn’t possible!  Slowly, slowly now!  My clothes seem to be permanently wet & that’s not from the shower!  However, I’ll get used to it.  It’s been a first day of learning to adapt & I think I need to try to sleep as much as possible to adjust to the time difference & to feel energised for the projects, which Sandhya has in mind for me!