March 2013, Final Exams

The academic session at Dakshinayan is over. The final exams were in the first week of March. I prepared the English question papers and went to the project for the exams.

After the exams were over it was our turn to correct the papers, which was a huge job. But the teachers, Premanand, Haladhar, Shanku and me, we finished them on time and the marksheets were drawn. Shanku was very helpful with the marksheets as he remembered the exact way guruji(Siddharth) used to do it. Finally the report cards were made and the fates sealed. On the result day the children and their guardians came and assembled in front of the Lokenath temple. The results were announced and report cards given. The pass average was good this year. There were prizes for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd students of all the classes and also for the maximum attendance in each class for the whole year.

After the last year's results were out the new session's admission is going on. Shanku visited the various villages and told the villagers about the date when admission is to start, as, many of them were asking about the dates. At present the admission for the new session is going on.

We had a bit of a good news from our ex volunteer Philip Auinger who has contributed a nice amount of money to Dakshinayan which will go a long way in running the project. Thank you Philip for keeping us close to your heart and helping our cause.

ROLDIH in January 2013

It took me a while to upload this blog as I was a bit under the weather after returning from Roldih. This time Raj(my hubby), went with me as we were carrying two cartons of goodies for the children, which our Japanese volunteer, Daisuke Ura, had sent. After returning from India he has been working in the tsunami affected areas and had sent two huge cartons and was eagerly awaiting photos.

The first day after reaching in the morning and after breakfast the school started. I went into the classes and taught a little, revised a little and checked how far they have progressed after I had left them. They were quite up to date inspite of our problems in finding good English teachers in the area. The children have been told about the gifts from before and they were all agog with excitement wondering what they will get. We gave off school a little early. The children lined up as they line up for assembly in front of the temple. Then we distributed the things which included, inflatable balls, whistles, caps, bubble blowers, skipping ropes, exercise copies, erasers, lots of pens, pencils, sharpners, scales, sketch pens, colourful notebooks etc. There were smiles all around as they got their gifts. After it was over they started preparation for the next day’s picnic.

Next day was Sunday and the children were early at the gate in coloured clothes as they were told to come as they wanted and need not wear school uniform. The previous day a chulah(oven) was dug by the children in the field. Shanku, Bhola, Haladhar and Premanand with the help of the elder children  started the fire going with logs of woods which are in abandon on the grounds. Cooking was done in huge utensils brought from Bhola’s house. The menu was khichri(mixture of rice, pulses, vegetables and spices), papad fry and tomato chutney. Even though the utensils were huge, the cooking had to be done in batches. The children did all the cutting of the vegetables very efficiently. Then, after food was ready they were called and made to sit in a line with leaf plates in front of them. Shanku and Bhola did the serving. No need to say, food was much appreciated. After the children had finished we sat down for lunch. Some of the children stayed back and went on playing and had a second helping after they had finished packing everything up and before going home.

This trip covered three things which were - checking to see the progress and fixing till how much will be taught before the exams, distributing the gifts which Daisuke had sent and the ever important January picnic.