Getting schooled

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  Pune, Maharashtra, India
Friday, July 10, 2009

Today we visited children in an orphanage, a school, and a shelter throughout Pune and its surrounding rural area. The orphanage, called Save Our Schools (SOS) village, is divided into 20 small cottages (10 children and one "mother" to each cottage). The campus is beautiful and very well maintained- the place felt more like a refuge than an orphanage even though the furnishings were sparse. It seems like the children we met were extremely lucky to be there. As of right now I can't get my pictures to load (arghh) but I have a picture of the orphanage’s employees trying to take pictures of us just as we’re snapping away at them- a funny-looking mutual desire to commemorate the visit. The children are of course so sweet, and they love seeing their digital image after their picture is taken. I’d love to have a Polaroid camera with me- I bet none of these students has a copy of their own photograph.

The chalk art on the ground is ubiquitous at the schools, and again, I noticed plenty of swastikas in this art form. We watched one woman create a chalk design in less than a minute by gently pouring the stuff from her fingers. Also there’s a picture here of a shrine to Ganesh, the Hindu elephant god- I found this in a children’s bedroom.

We enjoyed a super cool road trip out of the city and into the mountains- I was surprised that the slums stretched for miles out of Pune. The countryside was enchanting with small farm plots and cows that had been specially marked with bright pink or purple chalk. Here in the country we were guests at a Kasturba Gandhi Memorial Trust shelter for orphans and destitute families. The children here were very friendly and seemed to be having fun. What a difference between this shelter and the orphanage (where the respective staffs seem to take their children on as their own) compared to the joyless, prison-like madrasa we visited in Delhi!  

My most uncomfortable moment so far- you know, there aren’t really restrooms for women (dudes just pee on a wall) in most of these place were visiting. Those of you who know me well can imagine the particular challenges I face! Anyway, I really had to go at this shelter and our tour guide seemed to think it was no problem. A young girl who spoke no English led me to a bathroom-like stall- but inside there were only three buckets, each one partially full. I couldn’t distinguish a urine smell, but I could tell I wasn’t supposed to pee on the floor. I pointed to the bucket and the girl pointed to the bucket- I hope I understood her correctly and didn’t just pee in their drinking or washing water!

Next we got celebrity treatment at a rural public school- about 200 girls sat in incredibly neat and ordered rows to receive us. There were sayings in English painted everywhere in the school’s courtyard: “work is worship” and “old is gold” for example. The students sang beautifully for us, and then we sang a friendship song back for them- I love international teacher diplomacy! We received a fond farewell at the end- again, none of the tyranny and painful shyness we saw at the madrasa.

I’m having big problems with the computers in our Pune hotel. Hopefully I can get today’s pictures loaded soon.

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shrine to Ganesh at SOS	my boy, Ganesh	grounds at the orphanage	these are everywhere
at the shelter in the country	rural kids	courtyard at public school	we get a rock star send-off
classroom at small rural school	performance just for us!

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