Thursday and Friday were spent at Morningstar, another fledgling school focused on teaching English here in West Bengal. Here in the Darjeeling tea plantations, and near the border with Nepal, the Nepalese connections are strong. Upon our arrival, we were feted with scarves, garlands and bouquets—one after another after another! It was overwhelming. I believe I collected ten scarves, six or seven garlands—mostly of marigolds, and many bouquets. This is, apparently, their tradition for welcoming people! We felt very welcomed! This was accompanied by songs and dances under the hot sun until the shiny parts of my head were beginning to feel uncomfortable! On Thursday, we worked primarily with the children, and I also did some preparatory investigations on the teachers to focus my workshop which took place on Friday. Both sessions went well, and we hope will be of lasting benefit as this school plans to continue adding classes each year. It currently has three pre-school levels, and the first four classes of basic school. They have obtained registration from the district inspector of schools; this seems to be based on adequate facilities and adequate curricular match—progress!
This completes are scheduled work with schools for this visit to India. We feel quite satisfied with our attempts in all localities except Chennai. We have continued to track the situation there, and it has not improved! The continuing rains led them to release water from a local reservoir, which in turn, caused further flooding, evacuations, power outages... We can only imagine the ravages of exposure and disease that still remain for them. The rains have not stopped yet, so who knows when clean up and recovery may begin!
No comments:
Post a Comment