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!