So, eating here also means that you may be served on banana leaf which I am all for..the level of garbage in this country is unbelievable..at least this garbage is bio-degradable and kind of neat. This was an amazing meal made by an amazing teacher at Nallasivan's school. The teachers and the students have been overwhelming me with there welcome. It was very sad to say good-bye. I managed to get some pictures of some of the students, but the second I brought my camera out they would stand and say in unison good morning madam and then picture madam picture madam....it got a little crazy. I finally took a picture of the class outside with me in the middle. Sivan kept saying "My school is your school" but the reality was that I cused a ripple effect through classrooms adn I felt bad for the teachers that had to deal with there students after I left. Getting pictures of the actually classrooms was a real challenge. The buildings are in blocks similar to Delhi but they house many students. There is a problem with kids staying home to take care of their younger sisters and brothers..so there is a policy at the school that allows them to bring them to school. It is strange seeing a grade 5 class with a little one tucked into the dress of their sister.The one picture shows the open air building that houses grades 1,2, 3, and 5 the only divider between classes is a half wall. The closed buildings house the older grades and they are usually in larger numbers...the one teacher was away on my first visit and the teacher trainee was in charge of a class that had more than 70 grade 8's. I couldnt imagine leaving my intern in that situation...
I have a tonne of pictures that show the buildings and the blocks as well as the classes that are taught under the trees. The teachers are an incredible team and the students were very sweet. After my last school visit we went into the mountains to have a bathe and then we stopped at Nallasivan's temple. I got a special pooja blessing and I also got see a lot of the orphans again who were singing prayers and running around the temple...very adorable.
t
2 comments:
I don't know if you would have heard about it, but Oprah openned a school in South Africa for girls. She took a lot of heat over it for not keeping the money into the poor schooling areas in the USA. She rebutted by saying that the level of appreciation and desire for schooling is overwhelming in third world countries and has responded with a program that has the students over there showing how grateful they are to simply have the opportunity to go to school. You can probably relate to this - no?
PS....in Brazil they use the big banana leaves as baby cradles. I have a photo in a big box somewhere.
Post a Comment