The second half of the final week was just
as much fun but quite different. Thursday was a national holiday so all the
volunteers took the opportunity to make one final trip to Jodhpur for
sightseeing and shopping. Many scarves, lots of fabric, saris, teas and spices
were bought but by early afternoon we were all back at the Guest house to
escape the heat.
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| So many colourful things to buy! |
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| The impressive Jodhpur Fort |
During the final week we have been
distributing bookshelves and books to all the 5 schools we have been working
with. Surendra organized custom made shelves with plenty of room for more
donations in future. We have given the schools a mixture of English and Hindi
books. Some are Indian stories and some from UK and we have distributed all the
books we have used over the past 6 weeks. Hopefully the teachers and the pupils
will be able to make use of the new libraries in their schools. Sanjay and I
took Thursday’s school their books on Wednesday to ensure they wouldn’t miss
out. All the teachers seem really grateful for the donations.
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| Book Donations |
On Wednesdays we have been working with all
the classes from 1 to 8 and it has been amazing to see how much their
confidence has grown, they are happy to see us come and eagerly await their
turn, wondering what things are inside the BookBus bags! Some of the pupils in
class 7 and 8 are exceptionally bright and it was great to see their excitement
when they understood the exercise of a code challenge, where A=1 B=2 etc, at
first puzzled, when it clicked you could see their sense of achievement. Wednesday’s
school is a Sanskrit school, which means that as well as learning Hindi and
English the pupils also learn Sanskrit from an early age, a subject which is
usually reserved for high school children.
On Friday Sanjay decided to take us on a “cross
country” ride to school. A kind of route that has no “real” roads and shows you
exactly dry how the landscape is, how the people live and farm there. It was all great fun, especially when we got
the 2 jeeps stuck in deep sand! A lot of pushing and dry branches under the
wheels and we were out but not before we all got a sand bath! The highlight of
the ride was seeing a huge orange and yellow rattlesnake slither across our
path like lightening; too fast for cameras but a great sighting.
The children at Friday’s school made sure
we had a fantastic last day. They are always so full of energy, keen to learn
and happy to take part in anything. The teachers really got stuck in with the
colouring and the activities too.
Pipe cleaners were all out by Friday but the children here got windmills which are always a hit wherever they are made. The last books were distributed, the final worksheets filled in and the last renditions of favourite songs were sung and then it was time to leave. It was a very fond but sad farewell with many smiles and waves and a promise of more times together in the near future.
