Starting Work

Had to get some sleep but thunder and lightening crashed above us all night, it woke me in the early hours of the morning and I got up to watch it light up the mountain range, the torrential rain swept across the farm land whipping up leaves and straw.

Up for work bright and early, we are introduced to three projects, a day care centre, a computer school for women and a primary school.

My first impressions were how elegant the women looked in there brightly coloured saris and how eager they are to learn the skills they will need to find work. They are very friendly and interested in where we live and want to show us what they can do on the laptops that are laid on a large bed in the room we are working in. They sit cross legged on the bed round the edges with the four laptops ready for use, each take it in turn to work or encourage their friends and there is a great atmosphere. I am working with Cassandra a Canadian and we have been lesson planning tonight ready for the morning.

The day care centre was a little sad to enter, two little children were tied to a table to stop them roaming. (Please note I later learned that the children do this, it is a game of animals in the stable)!! All the children just sat on a mat without any interaction between them and the helpers. Staff were not unkind, it was just not what we hope to achieve with the children and what the toddlers need, so our remit is support for staff development and for the children to learn through creative play. We have made skittles with empty water bottles, jigsaw puzzles and will be making a batch of play dough before bedtime. Busy, busy, busy.

We also support the Primary School. The project has had desks made in the village and built a toilet block for the children to use so that they do not have to cross the road to use a public block. This evening we have planned some lessons for tomorrow that will have to be differentiated for special needs; we are teaching a graded year 4 and 5 class which includes 7 to 12 year old boys and girls.

Late this afternoon we went into Dharamsala market which is up a very winding road and as you pass the stalls you catch a glimpse of the clouds sailing by the snow topped mountains. A sadhu(a holy man from Rajastan) will pass with feathers in in hair on his way to who knows where and a Tibetan lama flashes down the hill in his flapping orange robes on the back of a motor bike. My mission was to buy two lengths of cloth for a tailor to make my salware kameeze (tunic, trousers and scarf) and a song came into my head from the show, 'Sweet Charity', "if you could see me now..........."