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Founder's Travel Journal: Bandipur Day 6

June 6, 2008

A boy about 13 years old threw rebar, stones and pieces of wooden slats abut 2 feet long at me and the girls sitting on the other side of the classroom. The boy had been acting up all week and had a bullying influence on the handful of younger(?) boys sitting around him. I took his pack, threw it out the door and kicked him out of the class. He wasn't aware that I knew where he was sneaking back into the classroom until when he tried to sneak back in after I threw him out. I beat him to the "secret" window and the look on his face was so simultaneously shocked and perplexed. Kid didn't think I was that smart. I shut the window shutters and secured them to keep him out. The whole week the headmaster never checked up on the class to see if things were going okay. He was never on campus either. I caught him urinating in the front courtyard where the children enter school. Tony (H. Encounters owner) says he's the headmaster from H-E-double hockey sticks. The headmaster had the nerve to say "please come back" to me after I threatened to stop teaching the class altogether. Tony says the guy's all show and no go so don't expect too much. Thanks for the tip.

I've resolved the issue by reducing the class time to 30 minutes instead of an hour and having an assistant accompany me: Meena.

Meena is wonderful and so humble! She has the most welcomig and comforting smile. She has lived in Bandipur all her life. She is young looking but I can't remember for the life of me at the moment whether she is two years older or two years younger. Anyway, the two of us are going shopping next week - a girl trip. I want to get her something but I am not quite sure yet.

Tomorrow we are meeting the boys at the computer lab at 8:30am and then going up to the ball field for some sports fun: volleyball, soccer, etc. Afterwards we are cleaning up, meeting again in the afternoon, maybe at lunch. We're picnicking and trekking for a few hours. I need to remember to bring my coffee and water purifier, and plastic water jug.

I've just made my list.

My 5th Grade English class in the morning & afternoons has made so much progress this week! I'm so proud of them and feel like the mother hen fluffing her feathers at the school. I've made a progress chart with a calendar and a key at the bottom describing what each of 3 colors stands for: Green = good, Yellow = fair, Red = Bad. Since they got all green squares this week (each representing a day of the week), they got a surprise today. They will get one every Friday IF they keep up the good work. Today's surprise was a snack of bananas and bread (roti) and story time. I read the first story in Harold's Purple Crayon Treasury and up to the letter "G" in Curious George Learns the Alphabet. That was all we had time for since the class is only 40 minutes. They have improved, and some have even perfected, their "V-", "F-", and "Th-" pronunciation.The class age range is from 10-15 years. I've got to figure out a way to appeal to the teen boys. They get bored about 10-15 minutes before class ends.

Anyway, for now I've got to get some rest on this bed that my feet hang off the edge of. I'm going to rearrange furniture tomorrow so I have more bed to sleep on.

 

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