Hannah BW

Mumbai: Day 3

So today was my first day working in the Akanksha centers, and it's no use expending energy trying to verbalize how cute these children are, because I'm just not articulate enough. Instead I will just say that I'm working 5 days a week for the next 6 weeks. My morning assignment (9-11:30) is by the main train station here (I've not yet set foot on the train, I'm intimidated, but the horror stories about crossing the street were just a little off the mark, another story for another day, so maybe I'll brave the train this weekend) and the kids there are between 5 and 7. They are mostly girls, and they're starting their second year, so they really don't know much English. I feel only slightly crippled by not knowing Hindi because these kids speak Marathi anyway, and I would never have been able to pick that up in Texas. Anyway, it's an immersion program, so they're not supposed to speak Marathi in class. And they are very good about it.

This center is in some kind of shrine at the entrance of what I gather is a public housing complex (it's called "B.M.C. Colony," and B.M.C. stands for Bombay Municipal Corporation, but I haven't explored the area yet). I know it's a shrine because you have to take your shoes off outside it. Also because there's a brass figure of the Buddha and lots of paintings of the same man, adorned with garlands. And since, you know, it's raining buckets, and my fugly waterproof shoes don't go with my spiffy new salwar, I wore my converse. And then I had to leave them outside in the rain. Now I understand why people wear rubber flipflops at all times, despite the yards-long puddles. Goodbye, converse. I hate to see you go.

My afternoon assignment (3:30-5) is right around the corner from my hostel, at a boys' school, and these kids are slightly older and have slightly larger vocabularies. It's also a larger group--there are about forty of them--though equally cute. But there are also two teachers for this group, and it's split according to age and language level, so all in all I get to work with kids 5-10 from two different areas of South Mumbai and at very different levels of English and math capability. I'm super excited about spending time with so many adorable children.

Monsoon: 1 HBW: 0 Converse: -1

posted by HBW @ 8:57 AM