Our school day now starts at 7.45 am and classes run from 8am till 12.30pm. Recently school has been a mix match of revision and dance practice. We have spent numerous afternoons teaching tiny nursery children some funky moves for 'Humpty Dumpty', 'Incy Wincy', '5 Little Ducks' and 'Happy and you know it'. Not only are we english teachers but new found dance teachers also! Though arguably, ammature ones. The actual dance function however, which took place yesterday, was brilliant. The children from nursery up to fifth standard were giving it their everything regardless of the heat. As we've grown closer to the children and recognise so many more faces it was exciting to see them giving it their all. The best, most enjoyable function yet! Hands up to Jadey who managed to wear a sari in the midday heat. The girls from school were also dressed beautifully.
Raju, a boy, in my second b section also really stood out. We see him regularly as he lives in the hostel, the building beside our room. We spend our days in the same place and follow similar timetables of school and leisure. This means that after school we often spend time chatting with the children who stay in the hostel rooms. The hostel consists of three large floors over three stories. The hostel boys occupy the higher two and the girls share the bottom floor, with a UKG, (upper kindergarden) classroom. After being asked to spend some time in the hostel with the boys encouraging them to use their English it soon dawned that they really do have very little. They sleep on the floor with a blanket only, surrounded by bare walls yet they seem happy. They keep themselves entertained and have created they're own sense of a community. Just watching them, they act like brothers. Their families are elsewhere but it seems they have their own home away from home.
Though Raju's parents didn't attend the function yesterday, unlike many others, he really gave the dancing his all. He took centre stage surrounded by other second standard boys. It really hit - a sense of overwhelming pride. His parents weren't there, but we were. He dances because he loves it, and he's brilliant at it. Being so far away from home at the age of nine and growing up alongside 'hostel brothers' only, he excels as a person. Not just in his studies but in his attitude to everything. He's brought himself up, away from his family in Hyderabad. He has the courage to come and see if we are around on afternoons to chat in a language that isn't his first. His manners and etiquette make him seem much older than he is and like many of the people who stay in the hostel he has become part of our 'school family'.
In our free afternoons we've been able to spend more time with the cooks, our host family, school children who live nearby, the hostel boys, other teachers, tailors and have been teaching Estru (madams relative) some English to help with her exam. We've been invited to many houses for tea and coffee, to play with their children, let them pleat our hair, paint our nails and watch some telugu television! We've lounged on a roof top spotting the moon, practiced some yoga moves, watched a small fireworks display with men dancing dressed as ladies, and visited the railway station copious times to book our trains for our travels in May when the school is closed for summer. On the Easter weekend we even made an 'easter special' of easter nests stuck together with icing sugar and chocolate. Jadey eventfully tried to melt her choccy over chai tea in madams kitchen. 'Quick take it off the flame, turn it off, turn it off!', is the best way to describe how that went, though the end result was fabulous!
And today... It rained! Our first real downpour of rain in three months! The air was cool, fresh, and we didn't hesitate for one moment running out into it, unashamedly in pyjamas!
Excited for what's to come...
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