Blog

Although in our last post we mentioned returning trouble over the Christian fiasco, it seems as if it may all have just been a bit of a storm in a tea-cup. Nothing as of yet has come of it and we have Sharmaji’s assurance that he’ll get ti all sorted should anything happen, which is great.

In the last week we’ve been up to Delhi to have a look at a few more schools which was relatively useful but we didn’t get as much out of it as our trip to Ahmedabad. We’ve also had a bit of trouble with people management, and we’ve not always sure of how to do things. We want the school to be managed by the village, and for people to take responsibility from the village, but people turned up 3 and a half hours late for payment and three out off our teachers didn’t write their monthly report which they know then need to do to get paid, so we didn’t pay the late comers or the three teachers. on top of this, it was meant to be a meeting for 5 hamlets, but the vast majority  were from just one, so we canceled that and (yes, there is more) the accountant from RBKS, who already came late, forgot one book and didn’t bring another on purpose. We asked him to bring our account ledger to check he’d done his work, but he said that another charity that was doing an audit of their accounts needed to have a look at it, and this was deemed more important than our own needs for our own book. We sent him back, telling him to come in a couple of days when he cold sort himself out. Such a simple task and RBKS still fail to do it properly.

The problem is, not paying the latecomers and the teachers doesn’t really make it seem like they are running the show and yet, we need to somehow ensure things are getting done. Sometimes we get things wrong, and we probably could have handled things  a bit better this time, but even for all the late coming, slow work and  other problems, the school does get better and work doew eventually get done. Do we want it to go better for our sakes or theirs? This is, after all, a journey an an exploration we are going on together, so there is no sense in hurrying things.

I’m going to go back and live in teh village for a few days at least. I’ve found it awkward coming in and out on the bike each day. To me, it’s not how development should be done, at least not in Educate for Life. in some respects it is needed, but last year I made my home in Bakhel, and  in some for or another I  became a villager, so  to shoot in and out  makes me feel  like I’m letting my family down, not treating them as family any more but as workers, and I intend to rectify that right away.

And great news, mangoes are back in season! 5p for a glass of fresh juice! mmm…