There is nothing like an invigorating day’s worth at Hunar Ghar to ward of the exhaustion that follows … an invigorating day’s work at Hunar Ghar. And today’s been all about talking about interesting things. Deepak and I had a long chat this morning about our perceptions of our working relationship with each other and each of us with the people and communities that we work in and with. It was really interesting understanding Deepak’s views and ideas. We realised in some sociological ways what it means to do Educate for Life, and the personal losses and gains that come with it. Sometimes it seems like we have to give a part of ourselves up in order to continue working in a professional and subjectively neutral position, but we gain a great deal from that which can only come from a continued commitment to look beyond what we think we know and discover more about our actions and their impacts. I think that we can find an even more positive way of working in our relationships as a result.

Following that, Deepak and I set out to continue with some research I am doing: We are going to a selected number of housing in Bakhel to ask about attitudes and feelings towards education. The houses are selected randomly by people’s names, so finding where they live can mean walking a kilometre or so only to be told they aren’t there, which happened 5 times today. But walking around in the fields full of young wheat and dessicating cotton, watching the disturbed birds fly up, children play and buffalos moving slowly around makes it a very pleasent walk indeed. Good interviews just makes it all even better, and it is interesting to see how, when asking different people the same questions in a methodical way how many similar idea are coming up. More than that though, spending the week going to people’s houses, getting away from the strong gravity of Hunar Ghar, and taking the time to sit and discuss important ideas with people that I usual wouldn’t has been an excellent chance for me to rediscover Hunar Ghar after 8 months away, but from different eyes. It;s good for our community relationship too.

After two interviews we popped back to Hunar Ghar to grab a bite to eat. This short interlude ending up being 4 hours as, as I was taking 40 winks in the community centre, Gopal approached me about some planning he is doing for Republic Day celebrations on the 26th of January. We’re moving to make Gopal a more independent worker at Hunar Ghar, and create more opportunities for him to be in trying positions of responsibility which will give the chance for him to develop his own planning, management and development skills. We spent several hours developing a theory of how to plan our work properly. It was an exciting conversation, with each of us learning a great deal from the other and getting excited about our work. FYI, our final theory was summarised as Bigger Picture Objectives>Deeper reasoning for objectives>What actions would contribute to achieving these objectives>How they can be done >Who will do them>When they’ll be done.

A long day, a stimulating day, a tiring day. Now it’s time to write up my interviews and prepare some volunteering brochures. And I’m bursting with energy to do it!