I'm back in this strange little room so I suppose that means it's time for another blog! From what I can remember I had outlined my journey/homestay for you and was just about to get on to my projects before I had to leave as dinner was calling (incidentally, dinner was delicious)!
I am working at the Bustee Welfare Centre on Lovelock Street in South Kolkata (just in case it is GoogleEarthable). This is a centre that was set up quite a long time ago, originally just to provide slum children with milk and food. However, the lady who started it soon decided that it was not enough merely to provide food, and set about making it a centre for education, in the hope that it would give people the ability to rise above their, to be blunt, horrendous start to life and to forge a better future for themselves and their family. Since then then Bustee Welfare Centre (BWC from now on..time is limited and any short-cuts appreciated!) has expanded and now has six sub-centres: The original BWC on Lovelock street which teaches children from classes 1-7 (ages 7-14); another similar school nearby; a Nursery Nchool to get littleuns used to the concept of going to school; a Mothers' Literacy Centre, which teaches mothers from the slums; a Vocational Learning Centre, which teaches skills like embroidery, cooking, hair and beauty, and electrical wiring; and a Mother and Child project, which focuses on play therapy (buzz word for you Spanna) to develop the skills of motherhood that many of these women are unaware of. All of these mini-projects are run as a charity, and the BWC relies upon donations, interestingly mostly from Germany where they have a large support base. After the children finish at one of the schools, most go on to outside schools to finish their education. They are also supported in terms of both money and care for the rest of this time. The BWC has had lots of children go on to complete higher education and get jobs in really quite high-up places such as Government offices! Considering these children's background, this is remarkable, and just shows how important the work that the centre does is.
That's enough for now on the official info about the project, I guess you would like to hear a bit more about my experiences there! Well...they have been wonderful so far! The children are absolutely adorable and so excited to have me there (more for the novelty of my skin colour than anything else I feel!). Every time I walk into the school each and every child says 'Good Morning Miss' or they call me Madam, or Aunty (an Indian term of respect and endearment) and then throughout the day I must be greeted by each child at least three times..which adds up! They all want to know how I am, where I'm from, what my name is etc, to the point that it sometimes gets challenging to get them to listen to what I am trying to teach rather than quizzing me on my background! I also get asked for my autograph with amusing frequency but I swiftly learned not to give it, as the moment I sign one piece of paper (literally writing my name) there are 20 books being shoved under my nose, with high pitched voices screaming 'me, me, Aunty, me, me!' They would also do anything for me; I made the mistake of putting my bag on the floor one day and there was outrage, with every child offering his or her desk for what they must have seen as my precious cargo to sit on! I was walking around the class earlier in the week and crouched down to look more closely at someone's work...well you would have thought I had started to kiss his feet the response it got! They were all out of their chairs, shouting 'here, here, Aunty, please sit here' and begging me to sit in their seats rather than crouch on the floor; it's amazing.
On Monday (my first day) it was 'Teachers' Day.' This is a national day celebrated in India which commemorates the birthday of their second President (whose name I can't remember), who started life as a teacher. It is a day where, in essence, teachers are honoured. At BWC, this means that the kids are in charge for a day, putting together a programme for the teachers' entertainment, and giving gifts and honour to the teachers. All of this I was expecting as I had been told it was coming. What I was not expecting was the way I was treated, especially considering that at this point I had no taught a word! Until the programme started at 11.30, I was being shown around the school. Every child that saw me came up and touched my feet (a sign of respect), saying 'Happy Teachers' Day', quite a few also gave me pens, which is the traditional gift for the day. After the programme, which included songs, dances, poems, and even a stand-up comedian, presents were given out and I was given a beautiful pink rose...it was so moving. After this was all finished I went with Nandita and the Social Welfare Team of BWC to the Mothers' Literacy Project, where they had their celebrations. If possible, this was even more touching. With the children, I can see why they are so excited to see me; they have barely seen a white person before, let alone touched or spoken to one, and so they see me as exotic, new and a novelty. I was apprehensive about meeting the mothers though, as I expected them to see me less as an exciting novelty, than a privileged girl who symbolises all that they do not have. It turns out however, that I was the only one being so black and white about it. They were so welcoming and kind and friendly, and treated me like I was one of the staff; with respect and love. Their programme was much more subdued and shorter than the kids', and afterwards Nandita spoke (in Bengali) about the importance of teachers and their role in shaping the futures of children (and I suppose in this case, mothers). Then one of the women presented us with pudding. She (and all the other women there) work as maids in the mornings, and have to take time off work to be at the project. This woman's employer had helped her to make the pudding, and it was delicious! We also had presents from this project, I had more roses, a Bengali sweet (like a small chocolate cake), a figurine of a ballerina and a small model of a house that says 'with love' on it.
It was really overwhelming. These women have lives that I cannot really imagine. Even after visiting a home in one of the slums with Kalkoli, one of the BWC social care team, I still can't get my head around the fact that that is all they have and all they have ever had, and quite possibly all they ever will have. Yet they come, three afternoons a week, missing out on pay, just so that they can learn. It's very humbling. It was wonderful to see as well, because they all seemed so happy. One of the social care team hit the nail on the head I think, saying that these women are so lacking in individuality in most of their lives: they are mothers in the slums and maids in their jobs, but at the project they get to be themselves.They are there only because they want to be, and if they decided to stop coming no one would make them return, but therein they get some sort of autonomy, which is sorely lacking in all other aspects of their lives. They are really inspiring, and when I got a chance to teach them English yesterday, I saw it even more in their patience with me, which shows me, more than anything else, that they really want to learn!
Since Monday the school has been a bit all over the place. Tomorrow is BWC's annual celebration for 'Founder's Day', where they commemorate the start of the school, and they are having a big show in a nearby auditorium with every sub-centre involved and a prize-giving. This means that lessons have been somewhat disrupted due to rehearsals and preparations taking place, and everyone generally being in a bit of a tizz and worried about it. I have been drafted in to help with the English drama, Hansel and Gretel. It's frustrating because as far as I am concerned the kids in it are doing unbelievably well - they have memorised the whole thing and it is completely understandable, no mean feat considering the fact that largely they do not understand what they are saying! However, they are being put under extreme pressure from their director and the BWC's director to make it sound as if they are English children doing it, which they will never be able to do! It's a shame because it means that they are not enjoying it as much as they could be, but hopefully once they have done it tomorrow everyone will be a bit more encouraging! I am looking forward to the celebrations though, as there will be a chance to see lots of dance and Bengali drama also.
Despite the atmosphere of disruption, I have taught quite a few lessons now. It's difficult because I don't actually know until I get to school what lessons I will have, and even then I don't know if the teacher will expect me to simply watch and help or to take the lesson. Then there is the added difficulty of our differing styles. They are quite tough on the kids (some teachers more than others), so where I would be inclined to praise the children for what they got right, the teachers tend to criticise them for what they got wrong. This gets a tad frustrating. It's also hard because despite being excessively polite in some areas, as far as classroom discipline goes, they are somewhat rowdy! I'm not sure exactly how to deal with this. When the teacher leaves me on my own it is ok, as I can try my own methods, but when they stay they try to do the disciplining, but the kids just don't listen a lot of the time. From lessons I have observed, it seems a lot of the time a core group of pupils will be doing their own thing, but the teachers don't do anything about it until they are disturbing the rest of the class. It's a weird dynamic and it's taking some getting used to, but I'm sure I will muddle through! Saying all this (which when I read back over it sounds more negative than I'm feeling), some of the lessons I have done I've been really happy with. I taught the present and past continuous tenses yesterday and when I saw the class again today they remembered it really well. And I did adverbs on my own with class 3 today, who yesterday were very naughty for their actual teacher, and again they completely got it and were able to act out loads by the end of the lesson. I'm not saying every lesson has been great, but there is definitely a foundation there to build on!
From next week my schedule will be changing and I will be doing a little bit at a mixture of the BWC projects. I'm looking forward to this, but just hope it doesn't mean my whole month here is too disjointed. Lots of people warned me that that is exactly what India is though, so if that's the case I will just have to go with it!
I am absolutely loving Kolkata as a city. The part that I am living in a very non-touristy which I am really enjoying, as wandering around here it is obvious that this is 'real' India, and not a postcard version thereof. That does mean that it's pretty overwhelming sometimes though! The streets, if you can call them that, are choc-a-bloc with people doing everything and anything from walking to work, to selling chai or food from stalls, to sitting chatting or playing cards, to washing clothes, to sleeping, to washing themselves, to haphazardly creating a bit more pavement, to praying to small Hindu shrines along the side of the road and a million other things beside. The smells, too, are difficult to ignore, and range from the pleasant smells of chai or street food to the less pleasant smells of sewers, traffic fumes and street dogs and every now and then it is cut through by something completely unexpected like the smell of soap! It's such an incredible experience just walking around, and I cannot wait to explore a bit more of the city once I have properly found my feet. I have visited the Kali temple (most holy place in Kolkata), but I'm out of time to tell you about it now, so that's my cliff-hanger! Hopefully by next time I write I will have lots of Kolkata sights to tell you all about.
Have to get home to dinner and bed, as I told you it is a big day tomorrow - I have borrowed a saree from Nandita to wear as a sign that it is a special day, so goodness knows what the children's response will be to that!
Lots and lots of love,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am working at the Bustee Welfare Centre on Lovelock Street in South Kolkata (just in case it is GoogleEarthable). This is a centre that was set up quite a long time ago, originally just to provide slum children with milk and food. However, the lady who started it soon decided that it was not enough merely to provide food, and set about making it a centre for education, in the hope that it would give people the ability to rise above their, to be blunt, horrendous start to life and to forge a better future for themselves and their family. Since then then Bustee Welfare Centre (BWC from now on..time is limited and any short-cuts appreciated!) has expanded and now has six sub-centres: The original BWC on Lovelock street which teaches children from classes 1-7 (ages 7-14); another similar school nearby; a Nursery Nchool to get littleuns used to the concept of going to school; a Mothers' Literacy Centre, which teaches mothers from the slums; a Vocational Learning Centre, which teaches skills like embroidery, cooking, hair and beauty, and electrical wiring; and a Mother and Child project, which focuses on play therapy (buzz word for you Spanna) to develop the skills of motherhood that many of these women are unaware of. All of these mini-projects are run as a charity, and the BWC relies upon donations, interestingly mostly from Germany where they have a large support base. After the children finish at one of the schools, most go on to outside schools to finish their education. They are also supported in terms of both money and care for the rest of this time. The BWC has had lots of children go on to complete higher education and get jobs in really quite high-up places such as Government offices! Considering these children's background, this is remarkable, and just shows how important the work that the centre does is.
That's enough for now on the official info about the project, I guess you would like to hear a bit more about my experiences there! Well...they have been wonderful so far! The children are absolutely adorable and so excited to have me there (more for the novelty of my skin colour than anything else I feel!). Every time I walk into the school each and every child says 'Good Morning Miss' or they call me Madam, or Aunty (an Indian term of respect and endearment) and then throughout the day I must be greeted by each child at least three times..which adds up! They all want to know how I am, where I'm from, what my name is etc, to the point that it sometimes gets challenging to get them to listen to what I am trying to teach rather than quizzing me on my background! I also get asked for my autograph with amusing frequency but I swiftly learned not to give it, as the moment I sign one piece of paper (literally writing my name) there are 20 books being shoved under my nose, with high pitched voices screaming 'me, me, Aunty, me, me!' They would also do anything for me; I made the mistake of putting my bag on the floor one day and there was outrage, with every child offering his or her desk for what they must have seen as my precious cargo to sit on! I was walking around the class earlier in the week and crouched down to look more closely at someone's work...well you would have thought I had started to kiss his feet the response it got! They were all out of their chairs, shouting 'here, here, Aunty, please sit here' and begging me to sit in their seats rather than crouch on the floor; it's amazing.
On Monday (my first day) it was 'Teachers' Day.' This is a national day celebrated in India which commemorates the birthday of their second President (whose name I can't remember), who started life as a teacher. It is a day where, in essence, teachers are honoured. At BWC, this means that the kids are in charge for a day, putting together a programme for the teachers' entertainment, and giving gifts and honour to the teachers. All of this I was expecting as I had been told it was coming. What I was not expecting was the way I was treated, especially considering that at this point I had no taught a word! Until the programme started at 11.30, I was being shown around the school. Every child that saw me came up and touched my feet (a sign of respect), saying 'Happy Teachers' Day', quite a few also gave me pens, which is the traditional gift for the day. After the programme, which included songs, dances, poems, and even a stand-up comedian, presents were given out and I was given a beautiful pink rose...it was so moving. After this was all finished I went with Nandita and the Social Welfare Team of BWC to the Mothers' Literacy Project, where they had their celebrations. If possible, this was even more touching. With the children, I can see why they are so excited to see me; they have barely seen a white person before, let alone touched or spoken to one, and so they see me as exotic, new and a novelty. I was apprehensive about meeting the mothers though, as I expected them to see me less as an exciting novelty, than a privileged girl who symbolises all that they do not have. It turns out however, that I was the only one being so black and white about it. They were so welcoming and kind and friendly, and treated me like I was one of the staff; with respect and love. Their programme was much more subdued and shorter than the kids', and afterwards Nandita spoke (in Bengali) about the importance of teachers and their role in shaping the futures of children (and I suppose in this case, mothers). Then one of the women presented us with pudding. She (and all the other women there) work as maids in the mornings, and have to take time off work to be at the project. This woman's employer had helped her to make the pudding, and it was delicious! We also had presents from this project, I had more roses, a Bengali sweet (like a small chocolate cake), a figurine of a ballerina and a small model of a house that says 'with love' on it.
It was really overwhelming. These women have lives that I cannot really imagine. Even after visiting a home in one of the slums with Kalkoli, one of the BWC social care team, I still can't get my head around the fact that that is all they have and all they have ever had, and quite possibly all they ever will have. Yet they come, three afternoons a week, missing out on pay, just so that they can learn. It's very humbling. It was wonderful to see as well, because they all seemed so happy. One of the social care team hit the nail on the head I think, saying that these women are so lacking in individuality in most of their lives: they are mothers in the slums and maids in their jobs, but at the project they get to be themselves.They are there only because they want to be, and if they decided to stop coming no one would make them return, but therein they get some sort of autonomy, which is sorely lacking in all other aspects of their lives. They are really inspiring, and when I got a chance to teach them English yesterday, I saw it even more in their patience with me, which shows me, more than anything else, that they really want to learn!
Since Monday the school has been a bit all over the place. Tomorrow is BWC's annual celebration for 'Founder's Day', where they commemorate the start of the school, and they are having a big show in a nearby auditorium with every sub-centre involved and a prize-giving. This means that lessons have been somewhat disrupted due to rehearsals and preparations taking place, and everyone generally being in a bit of a tizz and worried about it. I have been drafted in to help with the English drama, Hansel and Gretel. It's frustrating because as far as I am concerned the kids in it are doing unbelievably well - they have memorised the whole thing and it is completely understandable, no mean feat considering the fact that largely they do not understand what they are saying! However, they are being put under extreme pressure from their director and the BWC's director to make it sound as if they are English children doing it, which they will never be able to do! It's a shame because it means that they are not enjoying it as much as they could be, but hopefully once they have done it tomorrow everyone will be a bit more encouraging! I am looking forward to the celebrations though, as there will be a chance to see lots of dance and Bengali drama also.
Despite the atmosphere of disruption, I have taught quite a few lessons now. It's difficult because I don't actually know until I get to school what lessons I will have, and even then I don't know if the teacher will expect me to simply watch and help or to take the lesson. Then there is the added difficulty of our differing styles. They are quite tough on the kids (some teachers more than others), so where I would be inclined to praise the children for what they got right, the teachers tend to criticise them for what they got wrong. This gets a tad frustrating. It's also hard because despite being excessively polite in some areas, as far as classroom discipline goes, they are somewhat rowdy! I'm not sure exactly how to deal with this. When the teacher leaves me on my own it is ok, as I can try my own methods, but when they stay they try to do the disciplining, but the kids just don't listen a lot of the time. From lessons I have observed, it seems a lot of the time a core group of pupils will be doing their own thing, but the teachers don't do anything about it until they are disturbing the rest of the class. It's a weird dynamic and it's taking some getting used to, but I'm sure I will muddle through! Saying all this (which when I read back over it sounds more negative than I'm feeling), some of the lessons I have done I've been really happy with. I taught the present and past continuous tenses yesterday and when I saw the class again today they remembered it really well. And I did adverbs on my own with class 3 today, who yesterday were very naughty for their actual teacher, and again they completely got it and were able to act out loads by the end of the lesson. I'm not saying every lesson has been great, but there is definitely a foundation there to build on!
From next week my schedule will be changing and I will be doing a little bit at a mixture of the BWC projects. I'm looking forward to this, but just hope it doesn't mean my whole month here is too disjointed. Lots of people warned me that that is exactly what India is though, so if that's the case I will just have to go with it!
I am absolutely loving Kolkata as a city. The part that I am living in a very non-touristy which I am really enjoying, as wandering around here it is obvious that this is 'real' India, and not a postcard version thereof. That does mean that it's pretty overwhelming sometimes though! The streets, if you can call them that, are choc-a-bloc with people doing everything and anything from walking to work, to selling chai or food from stalls, to sitting chatting or playing cards, to washing clothes, to sleeping, to washing themselves, to haphazardly creating a bit more pavement, to praying to small Hindu shrines along the side of the road and a million other things beside. The smells, too, are difficult to ignore, and range from the pleasant smells of chai or street food to the less pleasant smells of sewers, traffic fumes and street dogs and every now and then it is cut through by something completely unexpected like the smell of soap! It's such an incredible experience just walking around, and I cannot wait to explore a bit more of the city once I have properly found my feet. I have visited the Kali temple (most holy place in Kolkata), but I'm out of time to tell you about it now, so that's my cliff-hanger! Hopefully by next time I write I will have lots of Kolkata sights to tell you all about.
Have to get home to dinner and bed, as I told you it is a big day tomorrow - I have borrowed a saree from Nandita to wear as a sign that it is a special day, so goodness knows what the children's response will be to that!
Lots and lots of love,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi Milla, just sending you loads of love from us all in chelmsford-it all sounds absolutely amazing, what an experience - sights , sounds, smells, tastes, people, language, interaction. . . .incredible. lotsa love Anth xxxx
ReplyDelete