Wednesday 28^th November

So...the space camp is actually in Kentucky, not Nevada.  And I am sorry if I gave the impression that Jeff was about to jet off to space camp… This is the main prize for the national winner; Our Jeff from Dominic and Tim van Winden from Youngtown are state winners.

I think I have written before about the definitions the children in primary school write.  Leo (Illustrious Jeff’s Illustrious 6 year old Son) always writes very factual, clear definitions.  Recently the prep class had to define collection.  Most of them did a fair job; Leo’s, I think, was perfect:

More than one of something you like

He also filled a worksheet about collections.  They had to define things which are safe to collect, and things which are unsafe.  Not a problem!  In glorious technicolour, Leo drew some black objects, and wrote, rocks are safe to collect.  And then, below, in even more graphic explosive RED and BLACK was…it is not safe to collect bombs.

Well no, said Jeff thoughtfully, when he found this worksheet.  They have obviously been teaching the children about safety, in prep.  It is not safe to play outside without a sunhat; it is not safe to walk down the street in bare feet; it is not safe to touch bitey spiders; and…it is not safe to collect bombs!

We are so glad the primary school curriculum is being adhered to…

India #30

On our first evening in Hampi we went for quite a long walk around the river.  It was all very beautiful, with ruins of temples and bridges.  On our way back we looped through the back streets of the village.  Children came running out to talk to us.  We were followed by a cheery, friendly 12 year old boy called Rom.  He told us that he goes to school right next door to Padma’s Guesthouse.  We found this hard to believe; there was nothing resembling a school anywhere around us.  Or so we thought… In fact one of the small, shuttered building diagonally opposite Padma’s did turn out to be the school.  Five hundred students squeeze in there, in the heat and the gloom.  And very quiet, studious and hard-working they are too!  From our balcony we could see the rooftop next door, and every evening and early morning there would be schoolchildren sitting up doing homework, with older girls coaching the younger students.

       

There is a sign in the middle of the main street in Hampi saying Please don’t give our children money, food and valuables, to protect their futures.  This did not stop the children from rushing at us, shouting something incomprehensible which turned out to be SCHOOLPEN.  We were in fact asked for schoolpens all over India; pens must be some subterranean sort of legal tender!

       

In the morning we watched the children going off to school.  Some went by bus, or jammed into autorickshaws, to Hospet.  They wore very smart, clean uniforms.  The boys wore blue shorts, crisp white shirts, ties – ties are so inappropriate in such a hot sticky climate… The girls wore blue tunics with white shirts and ties, and they all had ribbons in their pigtails.  Different colours to denote different age groups, we worked out.

Lots of young boys roam the streets of Hampi, selling postcards and stickers.  They are in their mid-teens and they live in the shelter of the temple, huddled up on thin blankets.  A very hard life.  When we were in Hampi there were hardly any tourists so they swarmed and pestered the very few.  But when the crowds come to Hampi it isn’t any easier because hundreds more touts come, all wanting to sell postcards and stickers.  Competition is fierce.  We all bought just a few things.  Well we thought we all bought just a few things… But early one evening Mary Sharma was seen creeping out onto the street with a thick packet of unwanted postcards and giving them away to one of the sellers…. She had, of course, bought them because she wanted to make one of the boys happy; they were so hideous, however, that she really didn’t want them, and then she thought she could recycle them into the system.  She was probably the very nicest and most lucrative customer the boys ever had!

       

When we were walking along the river track, some of the boys were being particularly pesky.  They wouldn’t leave Mary alone and she was looking just a bit hunted.  I went and took her by the hand, and said firmly, “Come this way,” to Mary, and “NO!  She doesn’t want any!” to a peskyboy.  The next day when we were having our meal at Geeta’s. one of the boys we had made friends with came up, with Rom.  We were quite relaxed by then, because we had all bought this and that and they had a few rupees in their pockets, so they could talk to us about Australia, and cricket.  Another boy was with them, a very dark, good-looking one.  He looked into my eyes and said, “Why haven’t you bought anything from me?  You have bought from all of the others?”  I sighed and bought a horrid sticker or two from him.  Then he said, “You hurt my feelings last night.  You took your friend by the hand and said, Come away, don’t talk to him! and you wouldn’t even look at me.  Why did you do that?”  I felt just dreadful, but I explained to him that Mary was tired and did not have inexhaustible supplies of money to buy stickers and postcards, and that I had just a little bit more energy for fending off sellers.  But I did apologise and say that I did not mean to be rude or to hurt his feelings.  He accepted this and all was fine between us.