6th January: Last day of teaching

Clem and I arrived at school at 6.30am; Derya had decided to help with the Dum Dum project again. As before, Clem was in charge of the youngsters (Manish, Amit, Kiran, and Sunita) while Puja was teaching the oldest group. For a while I was trying to teach several of the boys, all of whom were at different levels, but thankfully Boby arrived to rescue Raja from my clutches and I was left with Arit and Kunal.

Arit and Kunal

Our little school

The first challenge was deciding what to teach. The boys seemed to prefer maths, but that prospect was quickly squashed when their opened their book, which was entirely in Bengali (numerals included). That left us with English. We then had to decide whose text book to use, since one book was slightly more advanced than the other. After a brief debate that seemed to focus on whose book had more pictures of dinosaurs and tigers, we chose the more basic book. The slightly older boy stifled his protest and off we went.

The main difficulty, unsurprisingly, was the difference in reading speed and comprehension skill between the two boys. There was only a small difference, but it was enough that I had to prevent, as subtly as I could, the slightly quicker boy from butting in when it was the other's turn to answer. It was also difficult to keep his attention while he waited for the other to finish. This was with two students; I can only imagine what it is like for teachers of classes of 30.

I was not entirely successful in either endeavour, but we muddled through. After more than an hour of focus, their attention started to wander, so for the last 15 minutes or so I resorted to drawing (terribly) and spelling the names of their favourite creatures. At 8am the kids scurried off to their formal school and we packed up and headed back up the road to the flat.

Amit's extraordinary smile (for the camera, which he loved playing with)

The youngsters

The rest of the morning was spent both catching up on our blog and planning our onward journey. Derya returned from Dum Dum, after picking up some souvenirs from New Market (which she seemed more able to tolerate than we were). Clem and Derya went out to buy some henna, which Puja then painstakingly applied to Derya's hands. In the meantime, I went to the internet cafe to type and print the next lesson for the "Women's Awareness" class.

After lunch, when we were about to head out to school, we found that Derya was perched precariously on the edge of her bed, sound asleep. Since she had not been feeling well we decided it would be best to leave her resting, so the two of us left for school.

There were again five women in the class. We learned a little more about them and they about us, and hopefully we helped them with their English in the process. They were focused, eager to learn, and lots of fun - especially once we had them talking about themselves, their families, and what they like to wear, eat, and do. That was our last class, so at 5 we bade farewell to the women and headed back to the flat.

Clem teaching English

Exploring my feminine side at the Women's Awareness Class

We then had a relaxing evening back at the flat, as Derya applied henna to Clem's hands while I kept out of the way. I popped out to the internet cafe to fire off a few emails, and while I was away the girls managed to deal with an unwanted visitor all by themselves.