It's quiet on the project. Suman's in the kitchen. Mitali is washing her hair. Bhola and Amie have gone to Godda to buy new books for the kids. We are switching to teaching Science and Social Studies in Hindi and Amie has kindly offered to buy them for the school. While there Bhola will also pick up a few things we need for the project. Hopefully they'll be back by lunch time.
Amie has had a bug in her stomach for the past couple of days. We don't know what brought on the diarrhoa. I certainly don't want her to eat anything in Godda except food. She lived on boiled banana for a whole day yesterday and today, hopefully, she will be able to consume some "real" food. Of course, for her real food is chocolates!
The kids haven't come to school because the final exams finished yesterday and we declared today a holiday. Bhola will bring some printed report cards from Godda and we will be handing out results on Monday. All the kids in classes 3 and 4 have passed. Some kids in classes 1 and 2 have failed. And almost half of nursery has failed! So we will only be able to admit 10 new kids for next year if those who failed stay on. Admissions of the old children will take place on the 8th. Then we'll know how many kids are going to be re-admitted to school. There's some rumours that quite a few Burhikura kids are planning to join the school in Devdand. I don't know why. But I presume it's because they aren't able to cope with the standard of education here. In fact, most of the children who failed in the lower classes are from Burhikura. But now that we are switching to Hindi medium, perhaps they will stay?
Personally, I feel school did not go very well this year because of lack of teachers. Even though the class 4 children did a much better job of teaching than any "teacher" we hired, somehow the parents of the children -- especially the ones from Burhikura, did not take them seriously. Could this be one reason why they have decided to send their children to Devdand? We'll know on the 8th. Sometimes rumours are just that -- rumours.
There will be no Class V next year. Lalita and Prahlad are going to join Saraswati Shishu Mandir in Devdand. Radha, Anajana and Kartik have decided to take private tuitions in a coaching class in Devdand and then appear for their Matric Exams. Raiman wishes to join the mission school in Agiya Mor but since his father isn't here, he said he will stay at home for a year before resuming his studies. But won't he forget everything in a year's time? Hence, we've come up with a solution for him. He'll be coming to school here like he used to. He'll teach the Nursery children for an hour and half and then hang around and study till school is over. We'll pay him a small amount for teaching Nursery. This way he can save up money for his schooling and also stay in touch with studies.
We have also decided to retain Kartik and Radha as "teachers". They can come to teach in the morning and go for their coaching classes in the evening. We'll give them an honorarium which will help them to buy books, pay for coaching, etc. Mitali, Bhola and I talked to them yesterday after the exams were over and they are very happy to continue being involved with the school.
I'm quite happy with this arrangement and so is everyone else.
On Monday Amie, Mitali and I are leaving for Kolkata. We hope to spend Christmas there. Mitali has invited us to a party a friend of her's is throwing. I haven't been to a party for ages and I'm quite looking forward to it. Amie is glad that she will be able to spend that time in a city where she can be online and in touch with her family. She's looking forward to the party and to meeting a few new people. Bhola is also leaving with us. But he's going to Ranchi to pick up two of the laptops that Intel has donated. He'll be back on Wednesday. School will be closed meanwhile. From Thursday, however, the children will be coming to school and familiarizing themselves with the new books and also so a bit of "shram daan" around the project. The trees need to be watered, grass needs to be cut and the new classrooms cleaned up in preparation for next year.
Amie will be back on the project on the 27th. I'll return on the 30th with Neera Kapoor, a friend and also one of Dakshinayan's Trustees. This will be her first visit to the project. She'll spend a couple of days here. She and I will then return to Kolkata from where she will catch a flight to Delhi. I'll stay on till the 6th and then return to the project with Dani and Tak and then perhaps stay on till the end of the month.
One of the reasons why I have not been writing the blog is that I have been away from the project quite often. And another reason is that while I'm here, I've been quite ill. In fact, I have just recovered from yet another bout of malaria. Come to think of it, I've actually been continuously unwell since the start of November! Hopefully, I will stay well over the coming days. I don't wish to miss the Christmas party and I certainly don't will to be ill when we step in to the new year.
For the time being, I have shelved the idea of starting the orphanage/old age home. It will require a lot of commitment, energy and resouces and quite frankly I am not sure I am up to it at the moment. I'm thinking more along the lines of starting a vocational trainning school in Bolpur. Let's see how things shape up. But one thing I'm certain about is that I will no longer stay continuously on the project. I'll most likely set up base in Bolpur towards the start of 2010 and visit the project every now and then. I'm sure Bhola, Kartik and Radha and the volunteers will be able to run the show. And in any case, I'll be round the corner if I'm needed. I feel if we have just one more teacher, we will be all set to move into the new year at the new pace.
Well, that's all from me for the moment. Here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. I'm sure I'll be writing again before the year is over. If not, expect the next entry in 2010.
