My 1st week at school

Monday 28^th January: my first day at school. After an early start (school starts at 8am) I met the three Teach for India fellows: Tarun, Vatsala and Preetika who I would be working with for the next three months and then got straight to work on my project. I am a firm believer that being thrown in at the deep end ‘forces’ you to adapt quickly to your environment and, for me, it is the best way to work. Luckily, that is exactly how my time at school began; in our first gardening session 100 kids turned up in the school courtyard, I assumed there had been some sort of mix-up but I was assured this was perfectly normal. Between myself, my counterpart and one of the TFI fellows we handed out the tools, including pickaxes (yes, pickaxes!) and got straight to work.

 Though I spoke no Hindi and the kids spoke very little English, I somehow managed not only to keep my groups under control but also formed strange little friendships with these kids, especially the cheeky ones (I wonder why...). I quickly learnt that controlling a group of rebellious kids isn’t all about shouting, though it often involves a little bit, it’s about allowing the kids to be themselves and in return they will respect you and your authority. Well, that’s the theory anyway. Before long I was no longer just Jess, I had transformed into ‘Jess didi’ or ‘Jassydi’ for short. This may sound a little dramatic but I suddenly had this popularity I’d never seen before, everywhere I went, kids wanted to shake my hand or play with my hair and I had this magic pasty skin that turns red if you press it (this would keep the kids entertained for hours on end if they had their way and it didn’t hurt so much), everyone knew my name and wanted to talk to me, I really did feel like a completely different person.

As well as gardening sessions, we also helped out with English lessons where I took the opportunity to learn a little Hindi. In my first week I learnt: Big=Baṛā, Small=Chōtā, Boy=Laṛakā and Girl=Laṛaki (Sorry about any possible spelling mistakes). During our first week at school we also visited the local nursery to get some ideas of which plants we wanted to buy for the garden. This was an interesting experience to say the least; I was stared at rather a lot, nobody spoke English and they all seemed very confused as to why this white girl had come to their nursery. I get the feeling that these are looks I’m going to have to get used to during my trip but I can’t wait for my school project to really get under way!