Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to school we go

Up bright and early bound for my Vidya placement.  Wearing my salwar kameez and feeling numerous feelings of anticipation, I spent my first morning with the remedial class I will be working with while here in Delhi.  

It's a lengthy drive to the school, approx 45 to 50 minutes.  The school is located in a shanti town in South Delhi, about 20 minutes south of the Delhi International airport...depending on the traffic of course.  Despite being called a "school" it's nothing like the schools we're familiar with in everyday Western society, ie there is no play ground, no school buildings as such. It's like an apartment building; ground floor a resource room which is used for dance classes and computer lessons, first floor are the couple of rooms used for the remedial classes. It's basic yet clean -rugs on the floor, a small blackboard, low bench desks and 2 squat "toilets". The room looks out over a dustbowl play area which is frequently used for cricket and games of various descriptions.  The entry to the shanti town is cleanish by shanti town standards.  It's still a little confronting seeing children wandering around without parents and looking after the younger children, the lack of basic hygiene, the large amounts of rubbish, the numerous dogs lying about, the goats and general way of life.  

The children I'm working with are all boys aged between 6 and 13 years of age. They come to the remedial class in the morning and attend school in the afternoon.  The girls do the reverse. There are 15 in the class and they are taught by a lovely lady who speaks good English. They were most excited by my arrival and have fond memories of Andrew, a Lilly colleague who volunteered here last month.  They had numerous questions for me. Though upon knowing I was Australian they wanted to talk cricket and their favourite players...Shane Warne still rates a mention as does Shane Watson. Thank you Dad, Andrew and the 12th man tapes/CDs for all those years of cricket education.  The goals while I'm here are teaching English related with some maths. 

With day one over in what seemed like 5 minutes, it was back home for lunch to hear about everyone else's morning before heading out on another spiritual adventure.   

Based on our lunchtime conversations, I soon realised just how "5 star" my placement is vs that of the Vidya creche school.  Once again we discussed the contradiction which is India.