Taj Mahal

DSCN2064, originally uploaded by Katy Dobey.

On Saturday, 19th July, we got the train from New Delhi Railway Station to Agra with all the Calcuttans. All the Suas Calcutta teams arrived in Delhi that morning for Global Perspectives Week. The trip to Agra takes about six hours, but it flew by because we all had loads to catch up on.

We stayed in a hotel called Hotel Sheela. It was pretty basic. The decor was very out-dated with white, shiny plastic panelling on all four walls. Mags, Fiona and I shared a room and Mags and I screamed upon first entering because we saw something move above the door. It turned out to be a little gecko. The bathroom wasn't particularly pleasant either and the water was yellow and smelly! But it was very bearable all the same. It was all worth it because the East Gate to the Taj Mahal was literally a stone's throw away.

After dinner in the hotel with two of the three Calcuttan teams (Vikramshila and Sabuj Shanga - DAS booked into Sheela Inn, since Hotel Sheela was full), we went to bed at about 2.30am and the plan was to be up again at half five to see the Taj Mahal at dawn.

The room had no air-conditioning and although I slept my full three hours, when I woke up Mags was sitting up in bed reading her book. I don't think she slept at all. I'm not sure plastic panelling is the best idea for this climate! The sun was already up when we went for breakfast, but I didn't mind.

Entering from the East Gate, you have to walk through a courtyard and through a red brick arch before seeing the Taj Mahal. When you come out the other side of this arch, the Taj Mahal is directly opposite. It looks spectacular, but quite small, from this spot. The water and the gardens before the Taj Mahal are stunning. We sat on a bench in front of the water in front of the Taj Mahal and watched the sun make its way around the side of the dome.

James and Aisling had taken a tour guide and invited us all to walk around with him. He told us the story behind the burial chamber and gave us tips about where to take the best photos.

After taking loads of photos and having a good look around, we headed back to the hotel. We had a second breakfast (French toast). I went back to sleep for another two hours, but was woken at quarter to eleven for check-out. Our bus was to take us back to Delhi at 1pm and we planned to get lunch with all the teams in our hotel at 12pm. I was sitting in the sun and had just started reading my book, when Daragh suggested going to Agra Fort. Nobody else was interested, but I was delighted to go. The others were planning to relax in Cafe Coffee Day, which I really didn't feel like doing.

The fort is really interesting with lots of courtyards and gardens as well as impressive buildings. We took a rickshaw there. As we were sitting in the rick at one stage, I saw Daragh with his mouth wide open staring at the road behind me. When I looked out, there was a huge elephant walking down the road beside us! We were so excited. Five minutes later another one went by! Then later, as we were dropped back to the hotel, there was a camel standing outside. We were on a high after all these animal sightings!

We made it back to the hotel by half twelve and the others were still waiting for their food. We managed to get our order in and eat with them as well. The hotel had put all their tables together in a long line on the lawn. It was really really hot, but it was lovely.

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.

Flights

For anyone who's interested, Air France flights Dublin to Delhi is under €500 for the first two weeks in September.

School: Day 1

Cuisle, Fiona, Daragh and I took an auto-rickshaw to Batra Hospital, then walked down the busy road to our school building in Sangam Vihar. The building is at the very bottom of lane 2 off this road. Inside it has been newly converted, into a school of four classrooms divided by partition walls. Daragh and I are working with the teachers, Monu and Sangeeta, while Fiona and Cuisle are with Usha (who is filling in for Sumon) and Shalini.

The first day was hard work. We arrived at eight but there were no kids there yet. Only at quarter past nine did we have enough children to start class and after that more still strolled in. We taught from 9.15 to 10.30 ("lunch-time") and it felt like forever. We were constantly looking at eachother for things to do. In the class, we covered Introductions, Emotions: I am happy, I am sad, I am angry, I am tired. We also did numbers and simple sums which they already knew! So we quickly moved onto a song: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Once I Caught a Fish Alive. It took is the whole day to get them to remember "once I caught a fish alive." We kept going back to the song, back to the emotions and to My name is... Then we played "The Ball Game" which was very successful.

We all sat in a circle and threw the ball to each other. When we caught the ball, we said our name. First Daragh and I demonstrated, but the kids soon caught on. Daragh and I then sat back to back in the centre of the circle, so that there were two semi-circles. As the kids got the hang of it, we moved onto the full sentence "My name is ___________". It was really good practise and the children really seemed to enjoy it.

I think I got the better semi-circle though. I got lots of the older girls and the quieter boys, whereas Daragh was workins with most of the boys. The ages in the class are as mixed as their abilities. We have 3 year olds to 14 year olds. It's so hard to keep them all interested! The older ones seem to be easy to please however, and it's probably why they stayed in school so long.

After the lunch-break, we moved into Sangeeta's class. Her's is much smaller. While there were about 26 in the first class, there were only about ten in this one. It's totally baffling to me why they split the classes like this. They're definitely not split due to ability and clearly it's not a numbers thing either! It was great to get a second chance to teach the same stuff though. We were able to recycle everything again in this class! And it all ran more smoothly as there were much fewer kids too.

That afternoon was really exciting. The team got back to the apartment and we all shared our stories and experiences. There were a lot of laughs about names and incidents. We had names from Roxanne to a boy who claims to be called "Saddam Hussein."

The Apartment

We first arrived in the apartment in the early hours of Friday (17th July) morning. First impressions were mixed. We're living in a place called Greater Kailesh 1 and it is quite a wealthy area. As we walked towards our building, bent over with all our luggage on our backs, we could see lots of lovely houses. There were security men, or drivers, standing outside many of them. After climbing a set of narrow, marble stairs, we finally made it to our front door and into the apartment. The living room is lovely.

You step into a big room with three couches around a coffee table; a desk in the corner, with a very old-fashioned computer on it. Then there is a bit of an arch that leads into the eating area. A big glass-topped table is surrounded by about six chairs. With the stairs to the left, the dining table is almost under the stairs. To the right, opposite the table, is a small kitchen. There are three bedrooms on the first floor and one upstairs. Upstairs there's also a roof terrace area, to which we haven't found the keys yet.

I'm sharing a bedroom with Fiona and Mags. We have two beds and one mattress on the floor. Mags kindly offered to take the mattress for the time-being but this'll be reviewed if it turns out to be too uncomfortable.

Each of the bedrooms has an en suite, which is great. Unfortunately there were two problems with the bathrooms when we first arrived: they were disgustingly dirty and there was no water! After a full day's traveling, a lot of people had trouble coping with the filth, not to mind the toilets that wouldn't flush and the hands that couldn't be washed (never was hand sanitizer more appreciated).

Most of that stuff has been sorted out by now though. Evie contacted the estate agent and the next morning we realised that the water is hooked up to the electricity. When the electricity goes, the water goes, but usually the electricity doesn't go for long, so it's not a problem, there's usually enough water to get through it. However, when the electricity goes, you have to flick a switch to get the water back on, which is something we didn't realise before. I'm not quite sure how it all works, all I know is we've had water ever since. And the one time we didn't, we just had to run into the hall, press a button and it came back!

As for the filth, Fiona and I got incredibly excited when we found a shop that sold rubber gloves, toilet brushes and buckets! We bought bleach and sponges and a new shower mat and curtain. Although Fiona and I started the job, Mags went at it for real yesterday and it's sparkling now (or as close to sparkling as you can get in India). Let's just say we don't wear flip flops in the shower anymore!

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