school…

So every year things are a little different regarding my classes here at school. This time i have five different groups of kids to teach, depending on age, some will be doing arts and crafts, some photography and some photoshop and illustrator classes. I keep my classes small, around 12-13 kids in each and that way i can build up a proper relationship with each child and get to know them well. However some of them i have been teaching for three years now and that is really great for continuity and development. So here they are…the class of 2011…well some of them…

School’s out:

attention, at ease…

School assembly for the seniors…a whistles is blown and a woman commands “attention, at ease”, eventually after prayers and notices the kids file back.

These are tough times for them. They are in the thick of exams…which by all accounts are quite demanding. In the Indian educational system the kids do not require to think but they do need to MEMORIZE and regurgitate facts…a huge amount of them. You see them studying by murmuring mantras of facts over and over. This week they had exams in Telugu, Hindi, English and Maths…

baghya’s story…

Baghya is a day girl at the school, she is one of the lucky ones in that she still has her parents to return to every evening. But here life is never quite as it seems…Her father is a very grumpy man, who is permanently pissed off that life has provided him with 2 daughters…girls are more expensive…girls need a dowry to get married…Baghya has problems with her eyes so she is even more expensive…

(when i asked the kids to create a page full of pattern and colour which we would later fold into christmas decorations, Baghya decided to de-construct a face for hers…genius!)

Baghya loves to draw and wants to study art…S, the headmistress has managed to persuade her father that this is a good idea as it is a vocational training, she can become a teacher and so will not be a financial “burden” to her father…also apparently when marriage time comes along, her dowry can be reduced as she brings a wage along with her…

sneha ullal – bollywood movie star…

School was somewhat disrupted by the arrival of Bollywood actress Sneha Ullal. It was a publicity stunt to get some promotion for the C&S charity…but what a palaver!!!

We hung around for hours…They don’t do things by halves here…the whole school plus extra boys from Butterfly H bussed in to line the length of the school to see and greet her.

All part of a days work here..you never know how its going to go…I missed all my morning and early afternoon classes…The kids went crazy when she arrived though as she walked the perimeter of the school…and then…she left and all returned to normal…

This excellent shot was taken by my student/class assistant Dalayya

the lost boys…

…So all the boys have been moved to the second Care and Share orphanage in the area Butterfly Hill. Well i exaggerate, the young boys are still at Daddy’s Home as are year 10, the final year (see previous post), but the older ones, and nearly all my students from last year are now over there. So decide i to spend at least one day a week teaching at Butterfly Hill.

It takes the school bus more than an hour to get there, we pick up a LOT of kids on the way…lets not discuss the health and safety issues here but suffice it to say we are packed in like sardines. The other day i had three little ones on my knee!

So it does have a touch of the wild west to it Butterfly H. On the serious side it’s where most of the HIV kids live (there is a hospital and lots of help on hand). But mostly it’s just hundreds of boys…running around barefoot. We are in real countryside here, there are monkeys in the trees and vivid green parakeets with scarlet beaks.

The campus is still being constructed. My kids sit on the floor to draw, and i bring in the art supplies with me.

But it’s lovely to teach here and really lovely to see my old students. There is no art teacher here yet so the boys are really keen.  Ranga (a thirteen year old drawing genius with a twisted/unique vision) just grabs my hand when he sees me for the first time in over a year and beams at me…he keeps grabbing my hand for a full five minutes. It’s very moving and i feel the same, am so happy to see him and all the others too.