Day 2 - Wed., February 25, 2015
Wednesday, 7:00 pm - Shyness is getting in the way. I imagine it’s all a bit overwhelming and the students are not accustomed to being interrogated (albeit gently) by strangers. Familiar faces are okay, though. That's the nature to some extent of the Hunar Ghar bubble. But they do seem awfully quiet.
First stop was the Wisdom Home Senior Secondary School, and their students were shy, too. CEO Siddiq and his right-hand man Hussain warmly welcomed the group, but the visits to Class 6 and Class 9 were replete with moments of awkward silence as host and visiting students alike found themselves speechless. As Hussain put it, “There is much in the culture, both at home and outside, that discourages children from speaking up.” The most successful encounter was with four college prep teachers that engaged the students with “the route to becoming a teacher.”
Cameras get in the way as well. The desire to be photographed, and to a lesser (but still oppressive) extent, the desire to photograph, seems omnipresent. It can't be the cell phone scourge, can it? Surely these kids are not that familiar with technology. And of course there is the issue of documentation. We are charged with capturing this trip, so we take lots of photos in hopes that a few will be blog-worthy. But posing—and this is my essential objection—is mind-numbing and without intention. No thought required. And the goal of this trip is to provoke thought. Hmmm.
Lunch at The Millets of Mewar was more than good nutritious food. It was fun, too. The Millets folks were delighted to see us. They have roots in local NGOs Shikshantar and Banyan Roots, and two of the owners even worked for Educate For Life in the early days. The creative lunch started with an amaranth patty immersed in mint sauce. The students got some food philosophy and when the dishes were cleared away, some dancing to help digest the feast.
Onward to the spice shop, where Teena delivered an eloquent career story and gave each student a packet of chai tea spices she mixed in front of our very eyes. Her four-year-old helped and put labels inside the packs.
There were some surprises, too. At the Dudh Talai, an expansive maidan on the shore of Lake Pichola, half a dozen army trainees stripped to bathing trunks, dove in, and practiced their swimming to lots of splashing and laughter. The kids’ eyes grew wide at that. A British guy doing some fancy moves on a skateboard caught their eyes, too. “What’s that?” they wanted to know. He talked to the kids and even gave Sohan a ride. What a contrast to kids using the new architecturally designed skate park just erected in our village of Wakefield, Quebec.
Polled at the end of the day, the students agreed that the boat ride was the highlight. Ed joined us mid-trip, to their surprised delight.
Simple pleasures. That's where we’re starting from.
First stop was the Wisdom Home Senior Secondary School, and their students were shy, too. CEO Siddiq and his right-hand man Hussain warmly welcomed the group, but the visits to Class 6 and Class 9 were replete with moments of awkward silence as host and visiting students alike found themselves speechless. As Hussain put it, “There is much in the culture, both at home and outside, that discourages children from speaking up.” The most successful encounter was with four college prep teachers that engaged the students with “the route to becoming a teacher.”
Cameras get in the way as well. The desire to be photographed, and to a lesser (but still oppressive) extent, the desire to photograph, seems omnipresent. It can't be the cell phone scourge, can it? Surely these kids are not that familiar with technology. And of course there is the issue of documentation. We are charged with capturing this trip, so we take lots of photos in hopes that a few will be blog-worthy. But posing—and this is my essential objection—is mind-numbing and without intention. No thought required. And the goal of this trip is to provoke thought. Hmmm.
Lunch at The Millets of Mewar was more than good nutritious food. It was fun, too. The Millets folks were delighted to see us. They have roots in local NGOs Shikshantar and Banyan Roots, and two of the owners even worked for Educate For Life in the early days. The creative lunch started with an amaranth patty immersed in mint sauce. The students got some food philosophy and when the dishes were cleared away, some dancing to help digest the feast.
Onward to the spice shop, where Teena delivered an eloquent career story and gave each student a packet of chai tea spices she mixed in front of our very eyes. Her four-year-old helped and put labels inside the packs.
There were some surprises, too. At the Dudh Talai, an expansive maidan on the shore of Lake Pichola, half a dozen army trainees stripped to bathing trunks, dove in, and practiced their swimming to lots of splashing and laughter. The kids’ eyes grew wide at that. A British guy doing some fancy moves on a skateboard caught their eyes, too. “What’s that?” they wanted to know. He talked to the kids and even gave Sohan a ride. What a contrast to kids using the new architecturally designed skate park just erected in our village of Wakefield, Quebec.
Polled at the end of the day, the students agreed that the boat ride was the highlight. Ed joined us mid-trip, to their surprised delight.
Simple pleasures. That's where we’re starting from.