BLOG 8

January 20th. I got to the school early enough to see the children arriving and was delighted to see that activities were already out for the children to choose for free play. I suggested some more areas, like the home corner and more construction toys. As I opened the boxes of wooden bricks which we had made several years ago for previous nursery centres a lizard leapt out at me and subsequently as I took the bricks out quite a variety of wild life emerged, including an enormous cockroach. I started to carry them outside to give them a good wash and Saridha the ayah took the rather dirty job away from me. The children immediately made really good use of the wooden materials, making slopes for cars and other structures. In fact all around the room they played enthusiastically with all that was on offer and the teachers joined in with their play. Several children were happy to approach me and involve me in their play.

After a good hour of free play we had tidying time and again the teachers encouraged the children to take part. Following this was registration, prayer and milk time. Whilst they drank their milk the teachers asked some of them to talk about where they had played that morning and they translated some of what they said back to me.

I then suggested it was time for the children to move around a bit and use their gross motor skills, so we had vigorous action songs - Once again the Hokey Cokey led by me, to great enthusiasm from the children; and several other songs which involve moving around, in English and in Tamil. Andy and Brian arrived at this time and we managed together to teach them the basics of What's the time Mr Wolf?

After this, we had small group time, when we swopped groups from yesterday and they experienced either the clay or the vegetable printing. Again lots of enthusiasm and creativity from the children- chappati making with clay, rolling snakes and one child made a long train. They do seem very imaginative and I think they reflect a culture in which children aren't used to having lots of toys and are used to inventing playthings.

I left telling the teachers what lovely play I had seen that morning and cycled back to BTC where some English visitors ( Dawn and Pete from Cumbria) had arrived to see the factory and to hear about how things are made for Bishopston Trading Co. Selvi had prepared a lovely lunch for them , of course and also some garlands had been purchased for them. They were very interested and delighted with all that they saw, I think. After touring the factory Arul took them to Seetarampet to see weaving and they met Balaji and his family amongst others.

In the evening Selvi had another feast to prepare for Dr Rita from RUHSA. We had a great evening with her and all felt even more favorably impressed with her afterwards. She listens so well, knows immediately what we are talking about and makes quick responses, mostly positive. She said she would be happy for Sekar to give at least 2 hrs per week for working to support the playcentre. She would look into whether we might be able to link in with Tamil Nadu open university for offering courses in pre-school education and she obviously understood how important it would be for Sekar to get this going in order to generate income. We told her how anxious we are about being able to sustain the elderly project in terms of cost, especially if we are to give midday meals. She agreed that giving them milk plus nutritional snacks ( she especially recommended lentil burgers called wadai- with onions) would be a good idea. It may be that the elderly people will only come in the mornings. Finally we told her about the problem of the bore well sinking and the need for a gate to secure the front garden- both the responsibility of Donald the chief engineer at CMC. She all but rolled her eyes in despair when talking about Donald. It seems that he is the one who has to write letters to get things to happen and then he has to process the letters before the correct people/ committees at CMC. Donald appears to lack initiative and also to be extremely disorganised, which means that all such projects - anything to do with buildings under the auspices of CMC- stall and take for ever to happen. She seems to spend a great deal of her time on the phone to him trying to move him on stage by painful stage. I felt extremely sorry for her by the time she had finished explaining! She said she would speak to him about what we needed and we said that if both our projects were not possible then we would opt for the gate first. Extraordinary! Still all in all such an enjoyable evening and we all felt, such a very pleasant person.