Teaching in Udaipur 5th January 2009

The first few days after our arrival were spent on "orientation". we went to visit Sonaria Primary School & Community Nursery where we will all be teaching. Rafi will stay at our apartment and be looked after by a local nanny, Dhanoo, while the rest of us go off. Safiya and Mum will teach at the nursery (a bit like Country Mice). Aliya & Isaac will teach Year 4(age 8-9) and Mike will do year 5 (age 10-11). In orientation, we learnt most of the children come from the Gometi Tribe. Many of the families work as day labourers and in mining. Most live below the poverty line. Many do not send their children to school at all as they need them to work or do chores such as look after smaller children, cook, fetch water, graze goats. A few years ago, the government started a programme that provides a free meal for all school children. As a result attendance has improved & many clearly come so they can get at least one meal. We will teach at the School from 10.30-12am. After that they get their regular Hindi teachers back adn then have lunch. We have to plan a lot of activities to cover the 1.5 hours. We are quite excited about teaching. Safi and Mum have prepared lots of colouring in worksheets and sorted out lots of toys for the little ones to play with such as Lego. More next week on what its all like.