Riots, Papercranes and Kids

(Below: The twins Shivani and Saloni sunbaking on the patio)





My dad used to complain when we had student free days from school twice a term, he would have conked out by now if we had gone through our schooling years in the Indian education system.


Here they have holidays in the summer for being too hot, in the winter for being too cold/foggy and in the monsoon for the rain. They also have public holidays for the MANY Hindu festivals as well as Muslim ones and Christian ones. While these holidays make sense most of the time, like if there is too much rain the schools not only get flooded out, but the risks that parents will have to take to pick up/drop off their children from school on scooters or bikes if a flood came, can be catastrophic. According to Clifton’s calculations, holidays make up 3 months of their school year. That is a lot, but like I said most of them are justifiable, I might blog about that later on, it’s one of those topics that has enlightened me and broadened my perspective on poverty and education…:P


Recently the kids have had quite a few extra holidays. Last week they had 3 days off because of possible riots they were expecting throughout this state, after the verdict of a 60 year old land title case was announced. The riots were expected to be pretty serious; in 1992 there were riots over this case that killed over 2000 people! Fortunately however, there didn’t end up being more than a few tussles because the verdict was a split between the parties anyway. Yay, for now at least.


So while the kids aren’t at school, we have to find ways to entertain them. Man, school holidays would be a huge test of patience for all the staff!
Before Katharine (USA) left she had been doing quite a few crafts with the kids while I had been taking the others for computer. One day they learnt how to make origami cranes, quite a number of them ended up bringing their creations to me and so I put them to good use and wore them as earrings and an attractive 80’s looking scrunchy for the rest of the day.





Over the last few days I have been making paper mache with the small girls and the small boys. Lots of stress for impatient little me, but also a lot of fun! Unfortunately most of the creations were a flop, it’s the first time they have done paper mache so this was a trial run, and Indian glue isn’t the greatest sticky stuff ever invented. However, they had fun and I got nice and covered in glue and my cheeks ended up hurting after blowing up all the water balloons to make the animals out of. How do primary teachers do this on a daily basis?!






I have taken them on a few walks around the farm; a favorite path is the one to the fish tank. I am yet to see a fish that is bigger than 7cm, but the kids get extremely excited and go to fetch bottles and bags- anything that holds water to makeshift a home for them. Not surprisingly, none of the fish last more than a few hours and certainly no more than a day. I find it a little sad at the waste of it all, but in India there is such a different perception of death. Ok so that sounds gory or whatever, but what I mean is that death is so common and open here, of animals and even people, that their perception is a lot different to ours. The amount of stray dogs, cats, cows and other animals that wonder the streets, the only way to keep them away is to kill them. The other day a cat came around and to prevent it from becoming another one of the many pets that cause trouble around the place, the older boys killed it. I was so shocked, but it’s the how life goes here and it’s a necessary evil to prevent further problems I suppose. Anyway, the other day Debbie brought forth her fish to show me. I could barely see it through the murky dirty water it was just surviving in, but she was ecstatic to have it nevertheless. I asked her what she named it and she said ‘Lauren’. What an honor! :P However, about 15 minutes later she managed to spill the bottle over and sent Lauren flying through the air landing on the concrete, jumping and jerking. Thanks to the quick reactions of Kelly, one of the small girls, Lauren was rescued and put in a fresh bottle of water and once again was free to ‘thrive’ in her surroundings. The next morning I woke to Debbie at my door with a grim face, Lauren had died. Although Lauren fish will stay in our hearts forever, we have moved on and are trying to regain our normal lives. It took about 2 seconds.




(Pic: Debbie with Lauren)


Yesterday was a brilliant day at the river for me =). Through a tiny patch of jungle, through the village that is behind the strong farm, there is a river that is particularly large but, surprisingly empty after the monsoon season. Pricilla announced that she was taking all 17 of the nursery kids to the river for a swim and I went with. I don’t know about your family, but I always remember as a kid when we planned to go to the beach it always seemed to take forever before we would actually make it out the door. Yesterday, we announced we were going swimming, and in the space of a few minutes, they had retrieved their bathers (a pile of spare undies) and were ready to leave. After a pleasant walk that should have taken us about 10 mins but took more like 30, we arrived at the river with every single one of the kids practically wetting themselves with excitement. What a great feeling it is seeing those kids ecstatic about just being able to go swimming!!




I wasn’t quite sure if it was culturally appropriate for me to go swimming but the water looked clear enough, and under the warm sun, I was dying to join them for a dip. I waded out to my knees and was immediately ambushed by 10 kids under the age of nine with crazy splashing abilities, and before I knew it I was soaking wet and in the water. Yipeeeeeeee!!!! And thankfully, one of the other ladies that had come down with us was already in the water by the time the war was over, and Pricilla joined in a little while later. Phew. I’m still learning what is appropriate and what is not for a young lady to do here, there are a lot of restrictions but not too many that I didn’t expect. Pricilla did say that they don’t let the older girls swim in this river anymore because it is too open and anyone can see. That would seem a little extreme in Aus I suppose, especially considering what we wear to the beach at home as opposed to the fully clothed swimming we were doing, but I kinda like this part of the Indian culture a bit better…I’m sick of seeing too much skin bared and hanging out at home…





Well I think that about wraps up my last few days. Thankfully, they are all back to school this week and my slightly more sane routine starts up again =) Only 5 weeks of India to go, where did these last 2 months disappear???

All my Love, Lauren xox