'blog'
Wednesday, 3rd June 2009, 16.17
Today was our first day at the work placement and it was very challenging, primarily due to my shyness and lack of experience with children. I and 7 others were placed at Sukeri Government School. It's about a half hour drive from our camp in Bandla, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh. The drive to school is simply beautiful; lush greenery, tall, gangly trees and views that make you feel like you've recieved a blow to the stomach.
When we arrived at the school, we were introduced to the kids in class 4 - Nikita, Sorav, Usha and Abishek. Our Project Executive (and helpful translator) Alka asked the children to each say their name and age. The kids seemed shy, but I'm sure it's first day jitters.
Saying that, all the children are very adorable and smiley, some of them just as shy as me! I feel really useless though as I can't communicate efficiently with the kids despite Alka being around. It's hard to share her between 8 of us.
Otherwise it's really good fun. We were warned that school staff may treat us unwelcomingly, and to say the least the teacher at Sukeri is not the most friendly of souls. Nevertheless, the weather is perfect and I love wearing Salwar Kameez. We each have to decide which class we would like to teach, and we get a few days to observe the kids. Ruth and Shona already decided they want to take on Day Care, which is pre-school children, sort of like nursery. I just hope the school situation improves over time and that we become more comfortable around the kids.