20 - 23 march

Heres the latest update, going from old at the top going down to newist... peace
20th March
The meeting was short today which mad a welcome change. At the end I asked what the aims and objectives of the two projects were and if they were recorded anywhere in any documents. I mostly wanted to upon up a forum where it could get discussed and have people think about why they were doing what they were doing. I already have my reasons made up, and it appeared that the staff here had not. I got a few excuses for aims and got told the history of the project but nothing concrete. It felt ashame that they had no set aims or policies for the projects, I even felt a bit embarrassed for the organisation. It wasn’t paperwork I wanted to see, just common goals that the permanent staff wanted to see. When a short discussion did break out among the staff members I could quickly tell who had thought about what they were doing and who was just doing what they always did. I’m not judging the organisation, I was just interested and wanted to have a little poke around.

21st March
Its Saturday so nothing too strenuous.

22nd March
I had a successful trip to the market, which I love. I just go to soak up the atmospheare really. I got a few bits and bobs but I mostly enjoy watching the people and the variety of things available. I’ve said it before but its defiantly Bangalore’s answer to Camden

23rd March
It’s late and everyone has gone to bed. I’ve tried to sleep but its just not happening. I’m sitting on my bed with my bright orange mosquito net tightly tucked in around the bed, the familiar and relaxing sound of the fan is whirring above me and I keep itching with the reminder of the bed bugs in the mattress. Changing mattresses is on my to-do list somewhere.
Today felt really “worthwhile” after an unusually long bus drive (around two hours) in the usual heat, I arrived at the boys home accompanied by the other interns and two project facilitators. As we approached the entrance to the building we realised a large bus was parked outside which appeared to be giving dental checkups to the boys that we are working with, some of them really needed it. Of course no prior warning of this was given, but we proceeded into the TV room where about 15 kids of assorted ages were spread around the room. Why those boys were in the room and not with the others waiting for checkups I don’t know, but I felt it was a good opportunity to give the 15 boys some one-on-one attention, one of the key things I think they lack in their day to day lives.
I spent a short while playing simple games with the boys, trying to engage the ones on their own around the room rather than the active ones that I know well towards the centre. Some of the boys around the edge were clearly traumatised or starting to feel the effects of being locked in such a dingy place for extended periods of time. I was distracted by the sound of singing, in Hindi I think. Behind me three of the interns were gathered round one of the boys singing. The boy had no eyes at all, his eyes were always sort of shut or in some way just not there. One of the interns that was a nurse thought they may have been removed surgically or he may have been born with an eye disorder. I very much hope this is the case, but the way he sat there and sang so beautifully was the exact way a boy would do so on the street. You can’t help thinking that somebody may have been responsible for what had happened as a blind boy will always make more begging/singing on the side of the street. His song, though well sung, did have eeriness to it creating a feeling of stillness in the dark and smelly room I was in.
Anyway, I didn’t want to be sucked in by the gathering interns and boys around him, so carried on playing games with a few of the kids. We played clapping games, thumb wars, did party trick acrobatic type things, I taught them a bit of mime and then we all did some excersise and a few other games before leaving. The morning wasn’t the structure we had planned for with the kids we had planned for, but I really think it was time well spent. [there is a huge icky bug on my mosquito net now watching me write this]
After a lunch of spicy peanut rice packed in my double layer steel lunch box, which is the greatest thing in the world, we went back into the boys home to take out the older boys. Today was a bit abnormal due to the dentist checkups so the guards lined up all of the temporary boys inside “the cage” not a good idea as there is now over a hundred of them. During the process of getting the boys we have on our list out of the cage and standing in a line outside the cage, it is normal for the guards to hit or threaten to hit the boys. (there really isn’t much you can do to stop this but try and make the kids orderly before the guards get there) I had handed the cricket bat to one of the boys to hold ready for the game when a guard/housefather took it out of the boys hand and into the cage ready to threaten or hit a boy with. He was not going to hit a kid with Peacechild’s cricket bat, if I had anything to do with it. I was marching towards him when one of the facilitators grabbed it out of his hands. I’m glad she did as if I got in a fight I don’t think he would hesitate at hitting me, but a lady however, he probably would not.
Eventually we managed to split up into teams and have a game of cricket going in the concrete courtyard centred in the home. We used the concrete base of a flood light as a wicket and after the toss of a coin to see who was to go first the game began. The older boys can kind of be left to their own devices so I went and sat on a bench with the boys that didn’t want to play and a few school boys that had wondered over.
One school boy, who’s name I wont even attempt to spell (So I shall call him S ) came over to chat to me. He came to see me every day during his breaks from school. I tried to teach him odd and end of English and we always talked about what he learnt and how is day was. The really fanatastic thing is, in the course of the two months I’ve been here I can defiantly see a huge improvement in his English. Its as if day by day hes getting better. In such a rapidly growing economy which is serving the western world as well as wersterning itself the skill to speak English is one that cannot be overlooked. If I have done one good thing while being here, helping his English and interest in learning the language, is good enough for me. I do occasionally give him a pen or a toffee for his good work. The fact that he’s in school at the boys home means he is going to be there for a long time or until he reaches the end of the system at 18. I wish I could bring him back to England and give him some individual attention, I really think it’s so vital to development.
Earlier this evening I was feeling so emotionally exhausted. You think it would be the boys home, but actually in the last day I have read wrong rooms by Mark Sanderson. The most touching and sad book I have ever read, I felt physically sick it was so sad and caught up in emotion. I’m not a reader at all so was so surprised that I could have such a reaction to a book. I’m moving onto something happier and none-academic (I’ve read enough about drama as a development tool to last me a while).
Well its round 2AM and my eyes are feeling heavy, so best get some shut eye.