Afternoon all. So I landed here safely from Mumbai yesterday morning. It was definitely a culture shock! There is nothing remotely western about Jaipur and cows, camels, goats ands naked people washing on the side of the road littered the way from the airport! I arrived at my homestay and am currently sharing a room with two girls (one Canadian and one British). Both sadly leave tomorrow so it will be me and three young lads from then on. The accomodation is basic but the family who own it are charming. An old man of 85 and his 5 grown daughters all live in and around the house so there s plenty of life to the place. The food is vegetarian and delicious so far (spicy!) but I am dreading the first sign of sickness as fro m what I understand it is totally unavoidable!
This morning I went to the school where I am volunteering for the first time. This was what I was most apprehensive about. Not entirely sure what was expected of me, or what the conditions would be like. The Vihann Project (the school) is situated in s slum area of the city- approximately a 5 minute tuk tuk ride (more on the roads and driving in general here another time!) from the house. The school has around 100 students; their first language is Hindi so we are tasked with improving their English. They are gorgeous children. Dirty and barefoot, but gorgeous. Today I did one to one reading with a few of them and then assisted the class of another girl (who is a teacher in England)..pretty daunting to think that is what I am working up to but I am up for the challenge and everyone says how quickly the children improve. None of the other volunteers are complimentary about domestic methods of teaching!
Off to visit the inside of the walled Pink City this afternoon and hopefully getting my Indian SIM card later too. I wanted to upload some photos to this post too but the IT facilties here are really lacking. More from me soon and love to you all x
This morning I went to the school where I am volunteering for the first time. This was what I was most apprehensive about. Not entirely sure what was expected of me, or what the conditions would be like. The Vihann Project (the school) is situated in s slum area of the city- approximately a 5 minute tuk tuk ride (more on the roads and driving in general here another time!) from the house. The school has around 100 students; their first language is Hindi so we are tasked with improving their English. They are gorgeous children. Dirty and barefoot, but gorgeous. Today I did one to one reading with a few of them and then assisted the class of another girl (who is a teacher in England)..pretty daunting to think that is what I am working up to but I am up for the challenge and everyone says how quickly the children improve. None of the other volunteers are complimentary about domestic methods of teaching!
Off to visit the inside of the walled Pink City this afternoon and hopefully getting my Indian SIM card later too. I wanted to upload some photos to this post too but the IT facilties here are really lacking. More from me soon and love to you all x
Glad everything is going well sis and that you have a bit of company. Can't wait to see pictures of everything when you're back. Keep getting stuck in and enjoy it! x
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed your first day the the school and great to read your blog! sure the kids absolutely adore you. so proud of you em x
ReplyDeleteSounds absolutly amazing !!! it must be really colourfull there as well, the clothes, the spices, the markets... or am I way off?! :p
ReplyDeleteHave a great exprence and good luck to you with everything !!
x x Scrap x x
Lovely to hear you're safe and sound, looking forward to hearing more tales from Jaipur. Mum xx
ReplyDeletemeate - if only you had the pinky j for the pink city. might be a little hot me thinks. sounds awesome - sure they all love you mate - looking forward to more updates.
ReplyDeletexx
Two Words...........JELLY BAGS.
ReplyDelete