Sunday 28 May 2017

Finally - It's too hot!

I have coped pretty well with the heat up until now, even enjoying it and because I am tight, not putting the fan on loads in order to save electricity!  When i lived in the UK I would scrimp on heating and now the situation is the reverse!  Have to say though, it is easier being hot than it is being cold!  I really don't miss the cold, I used to hate it!   However Friday was the day when it really hit me, as I sat in a heap at school, telling the children 'bahut garmi' meaning too hot, as i waved them away.  We all sat in heaps on the ground, having endured already two months of temperatures in the 40s and no fan within our make shift school, so no means to cool down and sweating profusely!  I finally have to relent and say that i am too hot!  The woman who loves the heat wants it to cool down now!
Image result for melting in the heat
There are many things in the pipeline at the moment where are a bit too new or too in the early stages to mention just yet, but they are keeping me exceptionally busy to the extent that this is a short blog post before I go and crack on with many jobs whilst making time for Hindi homework.  It is good to be busy but this is super busy and I have so many people to liaise and meet up with but it should lead to my end goal of being able to stay out here permanently, so it's all good.  As a result though I have been far too busy to get up to much, including not really celebrating my birthday.  So today's post is going to be about the children as work with them continues as always.

Recently I have been working on teaching them their name as it bothers me that they can neither write their name in Hindi or English and many of them can't even recognise their names amongst three other names.  I think being able to write and recognise your name is so important as it gives a sense of identity and increases self worth when you can write your own name.  The children have been loving it and most are doing really well with it that we have moved on to writing some basic phonics and making sure the children actually know what they are writing, so that they recognise that 'cat' is cat and not dog.  The children love doing their phonics sheets and I am beginning to question how I can start teaching them English, which is something I have not done until now.  Up until now the focus has been getting them to come to school, trying to get them to recognise the English alphabet then working on their counting, working on recognising shapes and colours, all of this is done in Hindi and I am slowly trying to teach them it in English too.   They are complete beginners when it comes to learning English and so it is hard to know where to start but at the same time, I see great potential with them.




Some of these kids are so lovely and actually pretty clever, had their situations been different and they were born into easier and more pleasant circumstances.  Therefore I want to help them be the best they can because some of them are young enough to want to do well and to really focus on it and at the end of the day, every little bit does help them.For once these children are enjoying school and they tell us that and more and more kids come to school each day despite the heat.  It's not unusual for us to have 20-25 kids there.  Children who never used to come to school are coming every day and asking for you to give them school work.  With exception to the heat and dust at school, the easiest part of my job at the charity, is working with these kids.



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