Slow Progress

The work on the well is slow. Of the two diggers, one is soooooo lazy, he does no work. In fact, every time we go there, he's sitting in the shade of a tree. The older of the two, who's been here almost from the beginning, seems to be doing all the work! And it's too much work for just one man. It took then two days (yesterday and today) to dig through two feet of not so hard earth and concrete cast it. There's water in the well. So much of it that this morning when the diggers started work, they spent an hour emptying out the water which had collected in the well overnight. In any case, the well is now 24 feet deep. Bhola insists that we dig upto 30 feet to ensure that the well has absolutely no chance of drying up during summer.

One one of his village visits Bhola noticed that a Santhal farmer was using a pump. So today he went and worked out a deal with the man to pump out the water every morning. That's great. It will save the well-diggers some time. That's what I like about Bhola. He is very observant and gets things done. He doesn't have to be told what needs to be done. And even though he's not working full-time on the project, he does a lot more for the project than all the others put together. Right now he, along with Sharad and Khagen, are working in the garden. We are growing maize and they are preparing the field and will probably water the trees afterwards.

Nilambar and Bansi have gone on village visit. We decided that's it's not a good idea for 4/5 people to land up at someone's house. It could be quite intimidating. Especially if of one them is 6 feet 6 inches tall! So some of them have opted to stay behind and work in the garden instead.

Today, Sharad invited me to listen to the poems written by the kids of class 3. They were good. But honestly, I felt that the kids of class 2 were more enthusiastic and better at writing! So today I am putting up a poem written by Saniram Murmu and also something that Kartik wrote when I asked him to imagine that he's a neem tree on the project. I have typed it as it is without any editing. It's not perfect. But I'm glad that they have started to think for themselves and have learnt to express themselves in English.

I am imagin to be neem tree: by Kartik Pandit (Class 4)

I am a neem tree and i am on the school’s hill. In the morning i see the sun is raised up. My birds are chirping loudly and they flew away for food. The principal like Banshidhar, Siddharth, Nilamber, and Suman. Sooman cook the food for the principal and in the afternoon the Siddharth guruji is reading paper Banshi and Nilamber talk about the well. Suman rang the bell for lunch and all the guruji goes to eat food and my all the creatures crawls on me. My each part at the body is medicine my branch can be brush to clean teeth. Banshi and Nilambaer goes to market for goods and Siddharth and Sharad playing game under the banyan tree. The Bronny and their puppies are playing. Suman clean the pots and also they give food for Bronny. The banyan tree have lots of aerial roots. Nilambar and Sharad guruji is hanging from the aerial roots. The Elder guruji starts playing game from their telephone. The sun is slowly slanting in the western side. All the guruji is sitting together and they talk to each other. The sun set up and all my birds and insects are kept quite and they all sleep. Then all the guruji is went kitchen room for dinner they eat food and Bronny also eat food and the guruji is went their own room for sleep and then i sleep.
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The cat: by Saniram Murmu (Class 2)

Cat is a pet animal. Yes
Cat has a three 1 legs?
No no no.
Cat has a four legs.
My cat name is gunu pusi.
Gunu pusi has a little cat.
Gunu pusi cats name is I don’t no
Gunu pusi I aM going to school
Bay Bay Gunu pusi.

Summer is already here, I feel. It's quite hot from sun up till sun down. The nights are pleasant and a little chilly towards the morning. But I've moved out. I'm sleeping on the veranda since day before. And yesterday was the first night that I felt the need to use a mosquito net. They have suddenly appeared from nowhere -- these blood thirsty creatures!