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.
