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Unfortunately the chap Surendra who I wanted to come and work with Educate for Life cannot. In a rather short email he cited the reasons for his being unable to join as ‘family issues’. A brief investigation into this assertion showed that this translates as ‘wouldn’t be paid enough’. Although Surendra was quite happy to come and work for us for the amount agreed, his father didn’t consider it enough, and although RBKS, and thus Educate for Life, have a policy of 10% pay rise each year, this was also considered inefficient. Surendra’s father’s greed has cost him a good job with excellent prospects and a fantastic working environment that is very hard to find in India.

I wish that people would just talk a bit straighter, I’m getting pretty bored of people saying they will do something then not. I’m at a complete loss as to why some people think it is better to lie in the beginning and get my hopes up a bit rather than being plain in the beginning. It lets not only me down, but they let down their own integrity. I guess I do push people a bit to commit in a positive way, but I really don’t think that I’m so forceful that it’s just impossible to say no and that the only option available to them is to go away and tell me (if they say out right at all) from a distance! Bah!

Child incentive

In red room we make solar cooker. Solar cooker making with little child. First we repair solar cooker then we paste silver colour paper outside solar cover. Then cut card board map of solar cooker. Then we did black colour . For black colour make powder of burn wood mixed glue and paste on card . Solar cooker is ready for cook.

New experiment with child

1.we made our black colour : make powder of burn wood. Black powder made then put glue and paste on card . This black will stay more time.

2 cook food bhuvanesh take some rice and plus. Keep in one put and then we use our solar cooker . After 3 hour we see rice and plus it not made by good because lot of clouds in sky. Some time shade came some time sun light came at last we cook on fire. Then some child eat and bhuvanesh eat both say rice is very testy. May be after some time when sun light will come good that time child will say solar cooker is very good.

3 when we cooking food to solar energy that time I say to lot of child you go and see after child came I ask some question what you see different child say different view. Some say mirrow is very hot. Some say cooking our food , some say I can not understand about this.

Solar holi

some child celebrate soar holi. When child make black powder to burn wood .some child play holi to each other. Some child play holi with me. After some time I say you can fight to each other so not play holi. Child listen me and not play holi.

My planning

I take two type mirror first type mirror is thin and small.and second is big and some fat . We shall make more two solar cooker. One will make to thin mirror and other to fat mirror . When child will use both mirror that time child can understand very easyly different of mirror.

Painting work

in green room of nandlal ji we start painting. This painting give some incentive to child. Painting is some picture say about story. We make picture on wall one water pot, crow and stone. It means a one crow it was thirsty. It went search water here and there at last he find one water pot. Inside in water pot very little water. Crow collect some stone and throw in water pot. Water came upper side. Crow drink water its incentive based picture.

One picture we made one cat and one rat. It means one game. Game name is daud chuha billey aai. In this game one round circle. Inside circle one child his name is chuha (rate) outside circle one child his name is billey(cat) cat caught rate. Circle childs save to rate. When cat catch rate cat is win. If cat can not catch rate mouse is win.

Some stories balvadi child know. Some game also know but new picture will come. This is very good for child incentive.

[Bank] Notes project

in ajit room start note project. First we give original note to child. Child make copy of note then we say to child you make your note. You take your incentive. You go all room and see what is in all room. What work you did you make this type note. Child take his incentive. Child thought and made note. All child made different type note. Good interest is coming in child. Child say this note I made. At last we collect all type note made by different child we keep in around and show to child then we made list of different think what child made. 24 different picture came. Some child made hunar ghar some child made cactus,some child made flower some child made animals, some child made birds some child made tree some child made,balvadi picture some child made earth some child made some games. Lot of child made photo of mahatama gandhi ji . That time child is taking good interst and incentive. Some child say we want go make note. Then I say ok you go.

Interest in ( silai [sewing] machine)

in blue room child good interest came. In this room child use this machine. Bhawar interest is coming very good child making some think new to machine work.

Some child making his panting. He make animals painting.

planning of next week

in balvadi we shall make one solar cooker.
In green room balvadi we shall do panting of stories and game photo.
Ajit ji shantilal both room child is interest in make note. We shall make different types note for child incentive then we shall use string in note. Then include all note and make one note of hunar ghar.

About adovate

I meet two advocate (needed for legalities involving Hunar Ghar land usage). Bot sat his fees above 1000 thousand. And depended on work. Then I call to sharma ji. Sharma ji this is cheap rate. Next time can you speck advocate. Shama ji say me I am going out of country then we shall do. I ask about blue print sharma ji say me I will give address. Next time I will go udaipur I will meet to blue print shopkeeper

Deepak has been having a bit of trouble posting on the blog but I had a chat with him this evening and is seems that Hunar Ghar is continuing to go well. Today the children made a solar cooker and they tried it out with different thicknesses of glass to see what difference it made to cooking rice. In one of the classrooms they have been exploring telling stories through pictures so have been developing their own kind of comic books and then those children that are interested in the sewing machine have been putting scraps of cloth together to make a cord with which they are going to measure out Hunar Ghar and make a map of it. I think from that they are going to develop each of the different sections of the school, where each of the four classrooms lie, into different states and Hunar Ghar is the whole country. Like I’ve said before, we are already developing our own currency so it’s all good fun for the children and it seems to be evolving itself into a really interesting project. Lots of things to learn and a really fun, practical way of putting into context the notion of a nation and how it functions. Hopefully it won’t develop into territorial interstate conflicts!

How accommodating of Dubai International to provide me with free internet access, and on a MacBook Pro at that. I’ve got three hours to kill in fantasy land before I can get my connection. I’m starting to think it is work paying a few extra quid and do away with these dull stop-overs, especially with Emirates. The service is good but they don’t half try and dupe you into thinking they aren’t in the middle of collapsing.

I arrived in Mumbai yesterday morning and went to meet Indira, who contacted me with an interest in opening a school in Banswara, a town in Rajasthan, who had kindly invited me to pass the day at her home and spend the night at her parent’s home who live nearby the airport. The day was far different from that which I expected, all in good ways. Indira cooked a great breakfast and then we went off to her 5 year old daughter’s Steiner school. My train was late arriving so the founder of the school wasn’t free to meet me when we arrived but I had a good chat with one of the teachers who has been there from the start. I learned more about the challenges faced in urban education, such as in Mumbai incredibly heavy taxes and all parents demanding English medium schools for their children. (North India is split into Hindi and English medium schools, ie the language that the teaching is conducted in. Our school is a little unique in that respect in that we actually teach in the children’s first language – not so in many rural schools.) 

After that it was back to Indira’s for more tasty food and then Caroline, the other woman interested in Educate for Life who I had been scheduled to meet, came over. Indira and Caroline had never met before but Indira is a bit of a networker so it wasn’t long before there we we joined by two more people active in the field of education. The Rajasthani dancer’s flight was late so I wasn’t able to meet her, which was a shame because I was looking forward to learning a few moves!

Indira’s daughter is great fun and we had a good time with her showing me the climbing frames and ropes at her school which I’m always happy to have an excuse to play on, then later on we collected leaves, mud, flowers and twigs to crush to make natural paints. Indira was really interested and inspired by what we are doing at Hunar Ghar and she in turn is an inspiring woman full of energy and determination so we go on really well and I’m very excited to see where we can take things with the idea of a new school. Before I met Indira I thought I was going to have to be careful ensuring she felt the school was hers rather than an Educate for Life thing, starting and maintaining a school that is entirely different from everyone expects a school to be is pretty tough going sometimes and we could be doing with someone who might buckle under the pressure. Fat chance of that though! It’s is much as we’ll be able to do to offer our experiences and have Indira and her daughter come and join us at Hunar Ghar, she’s definitely the energy behind this one!

I don’t think I could have had a better last morning than today. Everyone was on form and Hunar Ghar at it’s best yet. Some children were making jewellery, some painting, others still making bags or practising on the sewing machine. Deepi and Tina turned out in their fantastic matching fluorescent yellow saris and started giving all the plates an extra clean with ash without being asked to; a great first!

We also introduced some children to solar cooking so we were talking about convection, conduction and radiation as well as what light is made of and how different wavelengths act while we explored how the white rocks around us were cooler than the black ones and cooked some lentils in our old solar cooker. At another point Deepak was explaining to the children about why we have night and day using a globe that one of our teachers had made a couple of weeks ago with the children which he was holding half in and half out of the shade cast by the door frame. Others yet were playing games, climbing trees, singing, reading a story book that some other children had made the week before, writing, practising their times-tables or just hanging out exploring things around them for themselves. We were even doing a bit of quantitative easing; we’re making a Hunar Ghar currency and some children were busy drawing notes. We’re going to make a stamp to officiate a certain amount of Hunar Ghar cash then, together with inspiration and ideas of the children, we’ll find a way to start trading it at Hunar Ghar.

So all in all it was brilliant. Everyone was doing what they wanted to do with ‘no pressure, no tension, using the children’s initiative’, which is how Deepak and I paraphrase how we do things at Hunar Ghar. Deepak is now absolutely brimming with ideas about what to do at Hunar Ghar, he’s got a list long enough to last us until the next ice-age. He’s really enjoying seeing the kids come on in such leaps and bounds, as am I and the teachers, which inspires and rejuvinates all of us. So many things we’ve been talking about hypothetically for such a long time are taking shape which is fab to see and I gives the teachers good confidence in our ideas, making new changes easier to do and perhaps we can even acheive exponential growth in our informalness.

Thus, I leave Hunar Ghar on a high, couldn’t be happier with it, am filled with a happy anticipation for what we can acheive in the next 6 months, and added weight in that little spot somewhere deep inside me that positively quivers with excitement at the very thought of that which this is just the beginning of.