Shubham

Prayas brought us visit their Railway Project at the beginning of our placement. They a booth in the station for railway children. It works to provide shelter and support to run-away and street children who live in the station. There is also a drop-in shelter run by Prayas which provides a short-term home for the railway children.

We were taken to see this shelter too. It's in Old Delhi, which is not too far from New Delhi Railway Station. It is walkable, but most of us scrambled into the Prayas Railway Project mini-van. The building is very small. The front door opens directly onto the boys' bedroom. As far as I can remember, about eight or ten-beds form two lines in the room. There's a small corridor between the beds with a mat for the boys to sit on and a blackboard at the front of the room for some schooling. When we arrived the boys were neatly seated in two lines on the mat and a young Indian man seemed to be teaching them. I'd say there were 15 or so boys there and I'd say they were aged 12ish, but some seemed younger again. One boy was deaf and dumb but with the biggest smile I've ever seen. Despite his smile, it was a very sad place. The boys sat staring up at us and it felt like all they needed was to be loved. Their situations were desperate.

There was a door at the other end of this room which led directly into the office. We were brought in here and told about the project. Unfortunately half of our group of volunteers had walked from the station. It was one of the hottest days in Delhi so far at 47 degrees, so none of them were holding up very well. Poor Daragh felt sick and had to go home. Although it was good see Prayas' other work, we were all feeling very tired and it was with some effort that we listened to the manager of the project explain how she ran the home.

She explained that many of the boys had run away from home and made their money selling or stealing in the railway station. The home provides only basic accomodation and some education, but aims to reunite the children with their parents or failing that, relocate them to a longer term shelter home like Jahangipuri (where the other Delhi Suas team works).

She also explained that many of the children are addicted to substances, glue, tippex and so on. This is one of their main problems. Prayas organise a kind of rehab for these children and their families (if they find them) a few times a year. We were given a photo album of a ceremony of successful completion.

When I took a look at the album, within the first few pages, I saw Shubham; a little boy in my class. On our first day at school, Shubham strolled into class late and Monu introduced him to Daragh and me, saying, "This boy is mentally disturbed." He's a really good boy. He doesn't participate in class really, and has only really learnt one piece of English since we arrived and that is to say "Happy" and put a big smile on his face. He tends to wander around the school quietly and do his own thing mostly.

One thing he loves is to play "A Sailor went to Sea Sea Sea" at lunch time everyday.

Week Two

Monday

On Monday morning, Daragh felt too sick to go to school. Paul was in hospital since the weekend, so Christina decided to come to school with me. We got an auto-rickshaw as usual and started class as normal. Luckily, Daragh and I had done some good lesson planning on Sunday night and I was armed with both his notes and mine. We had worked on describing emotions all of last week, so now we wanted to concentrate on dialogue, introducing the questions: "How are you feeling?" And also, "What is your name?"

Sangeeta didn't come to school this morning. I'm not sure why, so all the children were put in one room. Just as we were about to start though, Monu suggested that she would take the "small children" into her classroom and leave Christina and me with the older ones. I was really happy with this. Christina and I worked away on our teaching and the morning was going very well. Then, for some reason, Monu had to go. She didn't really explain. She just said, "Katy, you manage classroom." She had given the younger kids work and there were staying quite quiet in there. 

Just as Monu was leaving though, Christina started to feel faint. I'd been so busy teaching, I hadn't even noticed she was as white as a sheet.  The school has one plastic chair, which we put in the hall (the coolest part of the school) and put Christina in. The hallway is tiny and just outside the door of the classroom I was in. Then, Monu left. 

Needless to say the "small children" didn't stay quiet, so I had to move them back into my classroom. I was running between the class and Christina, trying to make sure she had enough water and organising that Evie would come collect her. 

I gave the kids some writing to do and luckily that kept them busy. Even the "better" ones that finish quickly are kept busy because they generally help the others, or more often do the work for the others. At one stage, though, after I came back from being out with Christina, I found one of the boys, Rajed crying. He had been fighting with a boy from the other class, called Rahoul (Later I found out they were brothers). So, when break time eventually came, I was delighted. 

The weather became a lot more humid on Monday though and the Indians seem to hate this weather. Even though, the temperature was down and the sun wasn't so strong, they couldn't handle the humidity. None of the children went outside to play (not that there's much room outside to play anyway), that meant that boys were messing and fighting in the classroom. I don't think they were actually being too bold, most of it was probably play-fighting. But after Rajed had been crying earlier, I had put a lot of emphasis on "No Fighting", so I had to follow it through now. I couldn't let them beat each other up in the classroom! It was hard work!

After break, it got even harder. Christina went home, but Monu still wasn't back. I counted 36 children in the room and they were all quite restless. It was hard to turn their former playground back into a classroom. Most of the children were actually very good, but there were two in particular who were causing trouble: Aseep and Ramzan. They were very boisterous and disruptive. Rajed also arrived in, just as lunch time was over with a plastic bag full of food. 

I tried putting Aseep at the front to keep him quiet, but then let Rajed and Ramzan do their own thing at the back of the class. They weren't listening but they were quiet at least. That way, I could concentrate on the other 34 who actually wanted to learn! The hour after lunch was hard and I was glad to be finished. 

The whole thing also gave me confidence though. I got through it and the kids actually learnt loads. I had them asking each other how they were and what their name was by the end. I also taught them, "boy" and "girl", "mother", "father", "sister", "brother" and a good few of them could even say how many brothers and sisters they have too! (except most of them didn't get the concept that you don't count yourself as a brother or sister...)

Tuesday

We had no school on Tuesday! We didn't get a detailed reason from the teachers, something about it being the last day of the month. I didn't argue too much after the day I'd had!

I slept until 12.01pm and then most of the team spent the rest of the day working on TLMs. Daragh and I made a plan of our aims for the week. Then we made three worksheets, two about the family and one recap on emotions. On Sunday night, Daragh had already made a colours one, so we finished that off too. We're well-prepared for the week now!

The rains came today too. Our road was one big puddle and kids were dancing in the street as the rain poured down!

Wednesday

Everything was back to normal today. Paul's out of hospital and he and Christina were back in HQ school this morning. Daragh was back on form too, so it was school as usual today. It was a bit of an ordeal getting rickshaws this morning. They didn't even entertain us. As soon as we said, "Batra Hospital", they just drove off. We thought it might be something to do with the rain yesterday, and possibly floods. When we eventually got rickshaws, we saw no flooding though. 

The walk down the road to Sangham Vihar was very interested. We were a little later than usual and we hit rush hour traffic. The whole street was full and everybody was walking the opposite way to us. The road was wet and muddy, so between people and puddles we had a lot to look out for. I actually really enjoyed it! It took us ages to get down the road, but it was a bit of an adventure.

Our classes ran very smoothly. We continued on with most of the work I started on Monday. A lot of it had been forgotten, so we concentrated on oral work. Sangeeta disappeared again after lunch. She had to go to HQ for some forms about New Admissions or something. It didn't really affect us though, since we teach her class on our own after lunch anyway. 

There were fewer children in school today. The teachers explained that the rain would have affected them. Their homes could be flooded or destroyed, or else they could be preparing to leave. The teachers explained to Cuisle that most of the children's parents are tailors and that the big factories where they work close during monsoon season, so the families move back to their villages.