Strange & Busy Times

Some of you have emailed to ask what specific work I’m doing here.  It’s all been office work so far, eg. typing up & amending the Annual School Report, which was read out in its entirety at the Annual School Day – no printing off & distributing to governors etc, as I was used to in the UK.  Then I helped re. a bid to the government for extra funding.  This involved putting together a history of what the charity has achieved to date, together with evidence (reminded me of preparing for Ofsted Inspections!).  Obviously they have a lot of photographic evidence, which had to be sorted.  It’s surprised me that so much is done in English, which is where I’ve been useful, I hope, in reading & amending some of the documents.  (All exams are done in English too.)

My major job since then has been to compile a bank of up to date pen portraits about each individual child.  I’ve been fed the details eg. school progress, hobbies etc. & then have put together a profile, again it has to be in English, so that it can be emailed, with a current photo, to the sponsor (if there is one!).  They’re hoping to do this at least three times a year to keep the sponsors informed about ‘their’ child.  It apparently costs £300 per year to sponsor a child & some people sponsor for life & others just for one year.  Quite a lot of children have no sponsors at all!  So, this is something I hope to be able to help with in the UK – to find ways of gaining more sponsors.  (All suggestions gratefully received!) 

I’ve noticed that the Indian way of working differs greatly from what I’ve been used to at home.  As some of you know, I’m a morning person & like to get started early, work through the day & collapse in a heap in the evening when finished!  No chance of that here!  Although I might be at the laptop from 8.00am (having showered, breakfasted & done my daily laundry – by hand, of course, & put it outside to bake to a crisp!), the rest of the office workers arrive from 10.30ish.  By then I’m ready for a coffee break!  They then proceed to work collaboratively, which means slowly, as it involves endless discussions & even arguing, so the actual production in the end appears somewhat limited!!  Lunch is from 1.00pm-ish & then everyone disappears until about 5.00pm.  I found this strange at first & was ready to continue after lunch but I had to get used to the idea that they all need a rest, due to the heat, & anyway there’s the daily power cut in the afternoons.  So, just as I’m ready to wind down from about 5.00pm, they all appear in the office again and work until about 8.00pm!

There is only one full time office worker, that I can make out, at the Home.  The other people (& there were nine of us working in the office last week) are all volunteers.  There is one very sweet girl from Aarti Home, who is on holiday from college at the moment & whom I’m apparently training!  I hadn’t actually realised this!  She’s very conscientious & knowledgeable about the place & is used to helping out in the office, so she supplies me with the info I need to put together a document & then she learns how to do this herself.

Indian timing is also quite individual!  When I’m told that something will happen at a certain time, I’m ready & waiting (the emphasis is on the ‘waiting’!).  I now know that things usually happen at least a couple of hours later than you expect!!  Things also often don’t happen at all or plans are changed at the last moment.  Hence, I’m never quite sure where I’m going or what I’m doing until I’m actually doing it!  It’s certainly teaching me to be far more laid back & to simply ‘go with the flow’!