18th July 2007 Emily Moore From--- U.S.A
I did not quite know what to expect as our train rolled into the Howrah station, but
my tired mind was put at ease as we were warmly greeted by Bishnu. He
immediately made sure that we were comfortable and fed while we waited for our
connecting train to Santineketan, a sleepy, peaceful village a few hours from
bustling Kolkata. When we arrived in Santineketan we were met by a driver who
took us to Bishnu's beautiful apartment complete with all the amenities that we
enjoy at home (A.C., computer with internet access, and yes, cable tv...he definitely
gets more channels here in India than I do at home!) Though the electricity was
out in the town (a usual occurrence) we did not have to light candles as Bishnu has
a generator in his apartment. The cook, Pari, had left us an incredible table full of
steamy, spicy delicious vegetable and egg dishes with roti. After stuffing myself
and being treated to a musical show by Baul friend Ananda, sleep came easily.
19th July 2007
This morning took us on a trip to the market. After Pari cooked a breakfast of
eggs, toast and coffee, we set out on bike and moped to take care of the day's
shopping. Bishnu bought fish, chicken (which was alive when we first saw it...) and
perfectly ripe mangoes. The village has a laid back atmosphere which was
welcome after a week of travelling through India. The people here are genuinely
friendly and thankfully, not trying to get us to buy all of their wares..as anyone
travelling in India is probably all too familiar with. After yet another delicious meal
of roti, curried fish, potato and some other vegetable that Im not quite sure of the
name of, we set off to see the school and meet the children for the first time.
The ride to the school was beautiful, for lack of a better word. A winding dirt road
through lush fields and palm trees led us to the tiny outdoor school house. Walking
up to the school, we found kids gathered around a whiteboard with small slates in
their hands writing the alphabet. They were so excited to see us, it was definitely
one of the warmest greetings I have ever gotten. They were so excited to show us
all the English they already knew (the alphabet, some numbers and words) and
they were eagerly soaking up all the words we were saying to them. After the
initial frenzy died down, I was in charge of teaching the day's lesson to the students
aged 3-6. I have never seen any children as adorable as these. Their eagerness to
please and learn was evident by the way they repeated every single word I said,
even the "hmm" and "let's see...what should I do next.." It is clear they have had
some good teachers in the past though, as they all know the alphabet already. I
look forward to being able to feed these children with some of the English words
they are so eager to learn. After the lesson it was time for Janice's older group to
use the school, so it was playtime for us out in the field behind the school. I had to
stop myself occasionally from our heated game of soccer to take in my
surroundings. Beautiful green fields, small thatched roof houses and palm trees
sprinkled in the view. Now it is easy to see why these children constantly have a
smile on their faces. These are truly happy children. They don't have a lot of the
things that most kids take for granted, like toys, treats and even shoes...but they
seem to have so much more where it matters...
20th July, 2007
Woke up in the volunteer apartment after a good sleep. Breakfast and lunch at
Bishnu's apartment, during which time we watched The Ellen Show, a fun diversion.
Another beautiful bike ride to the school where the kids ran out to greet us. A
dark cloud above threatened to pour on us, which it eventually did, creating a fun
mayhem in the school room. Because there are no walls in the school house, it is
quite difficult to continue conducting a lesson while being rained on. I guess it was
a good opportunity to teach them the meaning of the word rain. As we biked home,
another monsoon hit us so we were drenched upon arrival to Bishnu's apartment
for dinner. Pari's delicious meal warmed us up though and after drying off, we
spent the evening with Bishnu's friends for a birthday party.
21-22 July, 2007
This weekend we went to Calcutta, a city with a bad reputation internationally, but
is actually really quite nice. We found an awesome bookstore and loaded up on
books, while drinking coffee from enormous glasses for breakfast. The Indian
museum provided us with some history of the type you will rarely find elsewhere
(parts of buildings from the 2nd century and prehistoric fossils) and on Sudder
street we caught up with people from home at a friendly internet cafe. It was really
nice to laze around to different cafes for tea and coffee (including the infamous
Flurys with incredible chocolate cake) for a day to rejuvenate ourselves for the
upcoming week of teaching in Santineketan.
23 July, 2007
We left the YWCA in Calcutta early this morning to greet Linda, a new volunteer
who has come to help with the website. We met her at the train station, had
breakfast before finding our seats on the 10:10 Santineketan Express to head back
to school for the afternoon. I decided to run to the school (I ate a lot of naan and
sweets in Calcutta) which was a beautiful run, but I did get a lot of funny looks from
the locals, and I think, even the goats. I guess they don't see a lot of people
running for fun around here. So about an hour later, I arrived to the school
drenched in sweat, to find out that Janice had not yet made it to the school on her
bike. It seemed a bit odd at the time, but I went ahead with a fun lesson on colors
and numbers. The kids seemed much more attentive and eager to practice. The
kids were also wildly excited by Linda's camera and being able to see their images
after she took a picture. Linda and I tried to get them try to say "cheese" and
smile, which they found to be quite hilarious. After about 2 hours, Janice had still
not turned up even though Bishnu went searching for her, we got a bit worried and
called the police. But she turned up soon after, just having taken "a few wrong
turns." Having Janice safely back, we went for some tea and my favorite, potato
chop, at a local stand. The evening concluded with another awesome dinner and a
visit by Ananda, the baul.
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