Benjamin Horvath
9.8.2007 Calcutta
After a rather short, but comfortable night at Bishnu's we got up at 0900 o'clock. After
breakfast we drove to the railway station, but missed our train by 2 minutes. Anyway, we
bought tickets for the next train to Santiniketan and had lunch in a very nice and exclusive
club. We managed to catch the second train and had a 3 hours, air conditioned journey to
Santiniketan. When we arrived a driver was already waiting for us, and he took us to
Andrea's place, where we finally met the woman who first told us about First Light India.
We had mango and soon left for Bishnu's apartment, where we had dinner and whisky
and a nice conversation till we left at around midnight to get some sleep.
10.8.2007 Santiniketan
After a rather sleepless night, because of the heat and the many falls of electricity in
Santiniketan (no fan) we had breakfast and afterwards Bishnu and me drove to the city to
look for another bicycle and to buy vegetables, fish and chicken (the chicken will be killed
in front of you after you chose it). After lunch we headed for school, what took us some
time because it's about 9km away, and we're not used t the hot and humid climate. When
we finally arrived Buddah was already waiting and soon left to tell all the children we're
here. Within the next 15 minutes all the children arrived and we tried to start some kind of
simple conversation by asking the questions like "What's your name?". Soon I had some
children listening to me and I started to ask them colours, body parts and capitals and do
simple calculation with them. When we had to leave, all of the children shakes hands with
us and said Bye. That afternoon was awesome.
11.8.2007
Today we slept till 1200 o'clock and only woke up because Bishnu came. After having a
shower we had lunch and were introduced to an South Korean student, who spent the day
with is. After lunch we drove to an awesome, little village market, where people (even a
British woman) sell handmade stuff, tea and Indian sweets. After some time 3 Bauls
arrived and started to play their music. It's awesome to see how they manage to make
nice music with rather simple instruments. We sat and listened for hours, till we finally had
to drive home, because dusk is at about 1830 o'clock and you better be on your way
home or have a torch because of the snakes at that time. After dinner a Baul came to
Bishnu's apartment and played for us. Though we needed some time to get used to the
Baul music we enjoy it.
12.8.2007
After lunch we drove to a beautiful leather and cotton shop and I bought typical Indian
cloths and a bag. We also had the chance to have a close look at the production of the
leather products they sell, awesome how they produce it. On our way home we stopped at
a small market and listened to Baul music again.
13.8.2007
After lunch we cycled to the village and were introduced to the village leader and then
were shown around in the village. Though they seem to have no sorrow in their hearts it
was hard to see how they live. They all live in mud huts, some of those broke down
because of the rain. They have no electricity, no proper drinking water, no toilets and we
were told that they only have salted rice every day. Afterwards we started to divide the
children into 2 groups, it was how glad they are to go to school, but it's hard to see how
they have to suffer because of rather simple disease and how poor, dirty and used there
clothes are. I'll teach the red group (4-6 years) for the rest of the month. We started with
practising the numbers up to 20, the capitals, simple objects and colours for some time
and the played on the field. Though some of my pupils are quite good at English it
becomes clear that most of the aren't, when you ask just one of them.
14.8.2007
Today we were offered the typical local tribal drink (not much alcohol anyway) at the North
Sehalli Village which is called Hariva and is of course made of rice. We had more than half
a litre an it took us some time to finish our drink, for we didn't like the taste much. Anyway
it was a very nice gesture and we enjoyed having a drink and biri (some kind of cigarette)
with some tribe members while it was raining cats and dogs because of the monsoon.
Back at school I started my lesson while Florian went to the playground with his children.
We went through the alphabet, the numbers and the bodyparts again. It's a pity there are
so many children in one group, because so there's obviously not enough time to work with
those who are behind and no time to do something special with the "high potentials"
either. It would be much better if more volunteer's would be here, anyway I think we're not
bad at teaching and we help the children to improve there English skills. There is one boy
in my group called Taran, who is very good in English, even better than all the children in
Florian's group and it's a pity we cannot work with him in a way that improves his english, I
tried to make the lesson more interesting for him by letting him teach the others and write
on the blackboard sometimes.
After school Bishnu told us to try to carry one of the typical carry-bamboo sticks with wet
riceplants fixed on it for only some meters, though the children had fun because it was
hard for us to keep the balance, it's horrible that every tribe member, male or female, from
16 to 65 has to carry that every day.
In the evening Andrea came and we had a nice conversation about cultural differences,
it's interesting that e.g. you would not put your feet on someone's bed in Austria, but it's
no problem in India; but you never ever touch a book, colours, not even a newspaper
(creative things) with your feet in India. It's amazing that we learn something about the
fascinating Indian culture every day.
Hope you enjoyed - see you tomorrow - good night.
15.8.2007 & 16.8.2007
After we had a rather comfortable and relaxed Independence Day of India (60th
anniversery), cycling around and exploring Santiniketan and its surroundings, we were
teaching today. After breakfast we spent the time till lunch in the local bank trying, and
finally getting, money. In the afternoon we were teaching for the first time without Bishnu,
but it worked and Buddha is always there and helpful. At first we played Bingo, then
divided into groups and I started again with the alphabet, colours, bodyparts and numbers
up to twenty, sometimes singing a song with the children, when they were not
concentrating. It's difficult for them to concentrate for the whole lesson, so you've got to
make something different from time to time. I allowed Taran, who is much better than the
rest to draw at the beginning of the lesson, because the others usually just say what he
tells them to when he's around. Most of the time he's right anyway.
17.8.2007
Second day without Bishnu, I think we get more and more used to teaching and it's no
problem to work with the children alone, for they all know us by now. After Bingo we
divided into groups and I focussed on bodyparts and singing for half the lesson, and then
I let them draw a tree, a hut and a snake on a piece of paper, so every child had
something to show to their parents. At playtime it started raining and all the girl left the
playground and ran back to school. Anyway, I played football with the boys, most of them
naked by now, and we had great fun playing in the rain. After we, Florian and me, left for
our appartment it began to rain within minutes. We stopped at a small village and were
invited in the village's club house. We spent some minutes with the locals having a biri or
two and then left. Parts of the street were totally under water, that was the hardest rain I
ever saw in my life. Tomorrow we'll take a train to Calcutta to spend the weekend with
Bishnu's son.
18.8.2007 Calcutta
After a short breakfast we packed all the stuff we needed for Calcutta in our bags and left
for Bishnu's, had lunch and then headed for the railway station. We were thankful to get a
car, because otherwise we would have had to take the rickshaw and we don't like the idea
of rickshaw driving very much. When we arrived in Calcutta we were shocked because of
all th people at the station, I've never seen a railway station that crowded before.
Somehow Bishnu's driver managed to find us and took us to our Hostel YWCA. For the
hostel was quite cheap it was a bit unclean, but we were glad it had security and the
location was brilliant. We lived near Parkstreet, were a lot of nice restaurants,
coffee-shops and stores are. At night we went with Biba, Bishnu's son, to a nice pub
inside a five star hotel and enjoyed live jazz music. Like the pub, "someplace else", many
locations on park street look very British.
19.8.2007
We slept long today and had brunch at Fluriys, a beautiful, western looking cake-shop.
Like all the better restaurant and stores on Parkstreet Fluriys had a security man,
because there are loads of beggars out on the street. First it was hard for us not to give
them money or buy them what they asked us for, but we soon realised that they work
together with the shopkeepers and for we paid a lot of money to teach tribal children we
didn't really feel a need to allow the city-beggars|shopkeepers to betray us. After brunch
we did some shopping and had a look around before we had lunch at Peter's cat, an
awesome restaurant near to our hostel, where for about 12euro we got more food than we
could possibly eat. In the evening we met Biba, had beer and then went again to his
favourite pub, where we met two british nurses working for a NGO in Calcutta.
20.8.2007 Santiniketan
After a short night we cought our train at 1010. We found it hard to deal with the beggars
at Calcutta Station and were glad when finally the train arrived and we could go inside to
find some peace. After arriving in Santiniketan we quickly got to our appartment, our
driver awaited us at the station, and could relax for some time before we had to go to
school. Santiniketan is much more peaceful than Calcutta and there are no beggars at all,
though the poverty is also striking, everybody works and people seems happier here.
Another difference - nobody tries to betray us, for they all know what we're here for,
actually people in Santiniketan a very helpful and whenever we have a problem with our
bicycle there are helping hands within seconds. At school we had a guest today, Sara, the
south-korean student, who wanted to have a look at the children and brought sweets for
them.
21.8.2007
After breakfast we sat in the sun, relaxing and reading our new books, we bought at
Calcutta. At first I didn't realise, but I think I bought a faked copy of "The google story" :-).
Anyway, we enjoyed the sun for the first time since we had left Austria on the 8th of
august.
In the afternoon it was sunny all way long, the way to school was exhausting, but our
motivation "suninfluenced" high. Today we didnt't play Bingo to pass the time till 1600
o'clock like we usually do, but used all the stuff we could find and played with the children.
We showed them how to juggle and how to play with Flo's Diabolo, we played catch and
tennis. The children quickly had my camera, but were very cautious and I got it back when
the lesson started with some more pictures on its chip.
The children were very motivated and we draw a man, writing all the important bodyparts
down. They really enjoy drawing and we're glad we thought of bringing pencils and paper.
After the 40-minutes class we played for 50 minutes in the sun, what was quite hard but
great fun and I felt like being 7 years old again. The difference between me with my cap ,
the long-sleeved skirt and my sunglasses on and the children with hardly any clothes on
must have looked quite funny.
Today was the best day so far, for I could teach them all topics I prepared for the lesson
and playtime was awesome - and the sun was shining!
There's one retarded child that is usually just playing with us and for obvious reasons not
attending classes, he joined us today at playtime. Though I enjoy playing with him I don't
like the idea of giving one child all the attention - because there's no time for the rest of
the 25 children. Anyway we had fun and the other children involved him nicely.
In the evening four students introduced themselves as our neighbours. Though only two
of them spoke English we had a nice conversation and enjoyed talking to somebody of
our age.
22.8.2007
Today workers started to build a fencing around the school, during the next days it will be
finished and painted, and on Saturday we'll start to plant trees inside.
On our way to school was a huge stampeed of cows, sheeps and goats on the street,
though we're used to Indian traffic with all its animals we had to stop, but used the chance
to take some nice photographs of the unusual spectacle.
At school the children were very active today and it was challenging to get them under
control and teach them something, maybe some of them are just too young for writing so I
decided to do more oral work and draw more.
Playtime was hard, because it was very hot and in stark contrast to yesterday the children
didn't play when I wasn't around - anyway i guess one can't win everyday.
Today Flo had some new children in his group, you never know how many children attend
your classes till you start them.
While I had my lesson I saw some tribals carrying a dead dog out of the village, what
made me ask Bishnu what actually happens to dead cows - for Hindus are not allowed to
eat beef. I was told that the owner can either sell it to one of the local muslims or, what
they usually do, take the milk till it dies, then carry it in the woods, skin it and burry the
rest of the animal.
23.8.2007
In the morning FloW drove to the local internet-caffe to buy the 1000Rs refill for our
mobile we'd ordered yesterday, but was told to come again in the evening, because we
were the first guys wanting such a big refill for a long time. Meanwhile I worked on the
computer at Bishnu's place trying to get the fundraising thing working, but it will need
more time.
After that we drove to school, I for myself not too motivated, because of the children being
rather norty yesterday. Anyway the lesson was much better, probably because I mainly
worked on oral matters and draw with the kids.
In the evening we had a good conversation with Bishnu about how a Santal tribe is
oragnized. Blue-eyed I thought that all the fields and animals belong to the whole tribe,
but actually they are owned by certain families. Therefor Buddah has to get paid for
working at school, I thought that the tribe would just provide him with everything he
needed in return. In fact every worker working on the fencing or on the building (usually
tribal people), has to get paid and it took Bishnu about 3 months to make the tribe realise
that a school was a very good thing to have for their children.
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
 |
 |