hmm we've been slacking a little on the blogging...lo siento amigos!
So the last week has been pretty eventful. We met Dr. S & finalized our projects, moved into a new makeshift classroom, went to a YTTS staff meeting, shopped our asses off in delhi (i bought shoes and a sword), and then topped the week off with the best indian-chinese-kashmiri food EVER (crispy curried lotus stems anyone?!?).
We finally met with Dr. S on Tuesday to go over our observations and ideas for YTTS. She was running on Indian Standard Time (I.S.T) and made us wait for an hour before she decided to show up. The wait especially sucked because we had to sit there and listen to Col.BD* talk about his ideas for YTTS. Imagine stereotypical machismo indian uncle who refuses to listen. Ya, no thanks. Finally Dr. S showed up and we were able to go over our ideas and suggestions for our internship. Luckily, she was receptive and ended up giving us complete freedom to develop a needs assessment and outlines for community education workshops.
Thursday we were invited last minute to a monthly salary meeting, which is a meeting where the staff talk about site issues and receive their monthly paychecks. Dr. S was once again late, this time clocking in at a record 2 hours past time. But she's such an easygoing & likable person that you can't stay mad at her...plus she brings her teenage son everywhere so she's got the whole 'mom' thing going on. The staff meeting ended with a traditional Langar (lunch) with our partners in crime Kamleshji and Neelamji...(*sigh* always the photographer, never the photographed)
Friday we went to Badmajra to meet with Neelamji. Lakhvirji (our regular autorickshaw driver) picked us up in the morning and dropped us off at the new location for the classroom. The new place consisted of a two room building that ended up having a drunk sleeping off his hangover in one room and the other room having a dangerously loose ceiling fan that threatened to chop off anyone's head who neared it--but the heat was unbearable so we turned it on anyway and watched it rumble and shake. The drunk eventually left and we were free to clean up the space with a rug, some chairs, and a portable fan. The new classroom was definitely a step down from where the class was originally held. We tried to find out the reason for the move but Neelamji was kind of sketch and said that it was because one of the neighbors (a teen girl) would distract the kids from studying. I don't know, it just sounded strange to me--how could a 15 yr old girl force a routinely held community classroom to move locations? We couldn't get a better explanation, and the language barrier didn't help either. At the end of the day we still had a packed classroom & the children were happy to learn the day's lesson-- which is def what makes my heart smile (that and jalebi's).
Stay posted for our adventures in Delhi!
*names have been changed to protect the guilty
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