We are settling into our new home in Bangalore.
The sights and sounds and smells of India are all around and Bangalore, far from being a very modern high-tech city (in the centre anyway), contains all the elements we associate with India. Where we live, the cows wander along the dusty, pot-holed, rubbish-strewn roads, people sell fruit and veg from carts, do ironing with coal-filled irons from carts and sell their wares by shouting in front of houses. Bullocks pulling loads are a common sight. The air is polluted with auto-rickshaw fumes along with buses, cars, mopeds and scooters - often with the whole family astride.
The main roads are a driver's nightmare and it takes about half an hour to get into the city centre. In the district where we live, it is a little calmer and very colourful. The flashes of colour from saris and the fragrance of jasmine and spices are welcome respite from other less pleasant sights and smells.
Anyway - our project is called Peace Child India which aims to empower young people through education, care of the environment and health. It has links with the Peace Child International charity and was set up here as a charity called Arivu which means "understanding" in Tamil, the language of Tamil Nardu, the state to the south of us. We are working in 2 schools for children from deprived backgrounds. They are at least an hour away across the other side of the city.
GKBMS school is a primary school. There is little structure and the conditions are very primitive. The school has concrete classrooms with very little light,and there are very few resources. The classrooms are sited around a dusty courtyard with channels at each side which are the open sewers that come from the toilets which are holes in the ground in a brick building at the back. These overflow and run down the channels. Lots of the children just go to the loo against a wall - by piles of rubbish. Previous volunteers have built a reading room (a few shelves, a few books and dusty floor - but with a smell of damp) and are trying to introduce creative and participative teaching and one-to-one and small group support. There is a separate section in the school for the Tamil children.
We are there to try and improve their environment and improve their English understanding which is extremely basic.
The other school is called Binnys and is a higher primary school up to age 14. This again is in a very deprived area and they have introduced a free meal each day. They seem a bit more organised - but again the environment is very grim. We will be helping them to aspire to better lives through raising self esteem, motivation and attainment. Most children have only a basic grasp of English at this school too. In both schools, the children are very friendly and eager to learn, although we are a novelty for them at this stage. We are still thinking through how to do this!
We are working with a third volunteer there called Judith (from Morecambe) - also a mature (in years) volunteer! Most volunteers are new graduates having a gap year.
As things evolve, we will tell you more about how we are approaching the problems.
Republic day on Wednesday - don't know what that entails.