Sixth and Final Week - Part One!

The final week of the Bookbus India pilot project has come and gone and so much has happened, it's going to take 2 blogs to write about it all.

 

This one is about the final Monday and Tuesday, both days we were treated to spectacular farewells. This week our topic was action words, with the youngest ones we read Jazzy in the Jungle and made hidden monkeys. With the middle kids we did fill in the blanks for action words, read about what rabbit could see and hear, played verb bingo (which was massively popular) and made rabbit finger puppets. Then with the older ones more words, advanced worksheets and bingo and reading of the gingerbread man. As a final treat all the pupils made pipe cleaner glasses....another big hit with the children, parents and teachers alike! And a good way to use up the massive amount of pipe cleaners brought out from UK!

 

Many of the parents and community members showed up for the final day and we also had some special visitors from the Ministry of Education, who were interested in seeing what the Book Bus has been doing. Here, schools are divided into blocks; the Mandore block has more than 240 schools and some of the top people in charge of this block came to visit us on both Monday and Tuesday. They were impressed with the pupil’s enthusiasm, the volunteers’ commitment and the joyful interactive way we were teaching. We have Surendra to thank for introducing our programme to the Ministry before we even arrived, for explaining the mission behind our project and for organising their visits. It is always good to work hand in hand with the local authorities and it is so much easier for them to understand our work when they see it first hand.

The weather is really heating up here now, the past week the temperatures are reaching 40 in the afternoon and afternoon naps are becoming more common!. The landscape is becoming dryer and dustier every week so it’s always great to come home to Mandore Guest house with its green gardens, cool drinks and shady sitting areas.

After teaching at Monday’s school we were presented with flower garlands and beautiful, colourful scarves by the teachers, pupils and members of the PTA. Lots of speeches were made and although it was very sad to say goodbye, we all left on a high note with the children running behind the jeeps waving and smiling. They kept saying see you next week but we had to explain see you in October instead.



Monday School
 

Tuesday School

 

 

At Tuesday’s school they hooked up a PA system to the battery on a tractor, ingenious and amazing! Again flower garlands and speeches all round. We were very impressed with the head teachers speech in English, which included all our names and the pupils performed some marching and other exercises that they do in physical education and practice for national holidays and important occasions. Once again it was very hard to say goodbye, we have really seen the pupils and teachers embrace what we are doing and they are already looking forward to our return, as are we.

 

Headteacher of Tuesday School, Surendra and Kelly.

 

The last Volunteer Crew.

Kelly April 2013