First of all, I need to tell you all that only today have i read the comments you all put on my blog. So aaron, Janet. Mum, Dad, Chelle, hayley, and louise plus every one else who wrote i have only just found out and i very much appreciate all of them :)
24th - as usual ill go over this again! it was a good day. found om's cafe and it was brilliant. i'm here today infact, it's just a lot more western. we play really cool music all the time and just hang out on the roof. I will take photos because it's hard to describe. Heavenly, in comparison to most of jaisalmer. 30 odd of us went for lunch for someones birthday. Had my first beer, just the one but it was nice. had a nice long chat with my grandma which cheered me up a lot!
245/8/2010 - teaching went a lot better today. we have split the group up more. 3 volunteers take class two, myself and two other volunteers now take class 1 which consists of about 15 children aged about 3-6. their abilities range massively. There was only two of us for this week teaching as the 3rd volunteer is a hypochondriac and believes that a bit of a fever will kill her. ( we all have a fever, you have to power through!) but anyway, despite my bitterness it went well. the kids are getting used to our teaching style and are beginning to behave more. i refuse to tell the other teachers if they misbehave because i've seen with my own eyes the beating it leads too. i have come here to teach MY way, which involves ignoring the naughty ones until they feel left out and join in. it also involves hugging, giving stickers too and pretending to be an eagle with the well behaved ones. it's getting FUN, would you believe it. I hope people don't take this the wrong way, but my personal aim is to make it seem like i am teaching them but really i will be just having fun with them. The teaching methods are basic and rubbish over here, but they're not as developed in england so i have no qualms with the way they teach. However, it is more important for me to leave these kids with a dream, a broader horizon, greater expectations, than it is to teach them how to say cat and dog. indian teachers can do that, i want to focus on what I as a westerner can offer. did a community visit in the afternoon. it was a waste of time, i sat in someone's house in the desert and asked them loads of really detailed questions about the economy, their needs in terms of health, transport and general living. upon my request for questions in return their came none. I left frustrated, i would have rather spent more time with the kids, or at the hospital helping give injections etc. I got my post today off louise however, which cheered me up MASSIVELY as i never thought it would actually make it. Some postman on a little tuc tuc thing just turned up and it was good! I went to bed in a bad mood because i have bites all over my body and the bed is sweaty. it was a good day though, so bugger it i will manage i thought.
26/8/2010 school was ok again. we taught the younger children. the other volunteer was playing a game called i am a square, which i loved as she kept referring to herself as a square. as you can see my level of humour is not high. I have found a child who is my favourite. His name is Chanda, although i call him Charmander as it sounds cooler. He has massive learning difficulties, but he is clever, loving and funny. I intend to take him under my wing because i see real potential in him. after the lesson i spent a while taking photos with the kids and they seemed to warm to me once they got to have fun with me instead of just learning. the bites have got painful now, they're not even mosquitos. they are like bed bugs of some kind. lunch was potatoes and soya which over here is a 5 star meal. camp morale rocketed upwards. i exchanged about 40pence worth of rupees for another volunteer to wash my bed sheet and pillow case. wow did they wash it, it was filthy. had a big discussion about gender for a couple of hours. i won't go into it, but things that were discussed were bride burnings, foetecide ( backstreet abortions) how religion in india will stop the kind of progress english women went through in the last century ( suffragettes etc) and it was inciteful. some of the facts are hard, 20 million kids have been killed by their parents in the past 20 years for being female. thats just the ones we know of. anyway, enough of the hard cold truth. it hurts! back to lightheartedness, i had a big discussion with another volunteer in my group about what she felt i had done well and not so well at during teaching. i went to bed feeling rejuvenated and with a much clearer vision of the next few weeks with regards to teaching.
27/8/2010 today goes down as by far the best day in india so far. one of the best days of my life too. I woke up really happy for some reason, and not tired. I Think ive settled into 6 0 clock mornings and 8 0 clock bed times now. someone gave me some nutella for toast which was an unbelievable treat. got to school, id planned the whole 2 hours of teaching myself. However, India being india it threw up a new challenge of sorts. there was a festival, so most kids went playing and not to school, this just happens and noone but the english seem fussed by the lack of perfect precision in planning. Anyway, it turned out great. i took 4 kids, got a huge piece of paper, and drew with them, taught them words, and ran round the room pretending to be all sorts of automobiles for 2 whole hours. by the end of it they had had loads of fun, and knew about 10 new words. success, i LOVED it. LOVED it. The kids are starting to like me, i'm getting more confident, and they are starting to learn. the teachers dont like our methods. in a polite way i basically told them that their presence was not needed as i was here to do things my way, they didnt like it - but they left. they were mean to my colleague so my stubborn ways set in and i had a bit of an argument with a teacher, my exec translated it. at the end of the day if they dont like how i teach then why dont THEY teach rather than drinking tea all day? i'm not bitter, i promise. there was bland dry pasta for lunch. again this was highly appreciated. it had no flavour, but i could fill myself up with it so i was grateful. on many occasion meal time is not fun, so this one was great. spent an hour making a lesson plan for all 5 sessions of the week so now i feel really relaxed and at last i know that im going to enjoy teaching. i really havent so far, but i know it will never be the same. i even know loads of the kids names. despite that, i do morph them into the names of pokemon or well known super heroes for my own asmusement. my day concluded with a bucket of cold water ( shower ) i went to bed with clean sheets, a happy boy. oh i almost forgot, i walked to a lake with a big axe thing, and got loads of clay. spent about an hour with some volunteers making clay shapes it was thereputic. i might get more for the kids to do an art lesson.
28/8/2010 well that's today. did not have to be up until 9, but woke up at 6.30 not feeling tired. indian james feels very old! english james never wakes up early. any way, i washed my clothes in the bucket and i filled in the minutes of yesterdays meeting. ( yesterday we had a a big 1 hour meeting about camp issues. i was the chairman, and i had loads of good feedback. if people spoke out of turn i ignored them and let those with hands up speak up so i annoyed some people but in general my style of leadership went down very well). today will involve me spending loads of money on resources for the class, and going on a boat ride on a lake, and also some pasta at an italian which should be nice.
CONCLUSION - settling in. much happier. enjoying teaching. getting somewhere with the kids. tuesday is the start of week 5 and i feel like somewhere in the distant distant future, i can actually see home! anyway, im now going off here and to all facebook users im going to TRY to upload about 200 photos on to there. then my mum might put the best ones on here. please remember that if the photos work, theyre just a drop in the ocean. there are thousands of pictures of me on, theyre just on everyone elses camera. you might get a little snippet of india but when im home and you see the whole lot, then youll be able to add images to what youve read over these ten weeks. hope youre all ok, i miss EVERYONE and thanks as always for the support. a more upbeat, and appreciative james signing off for another week :)
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