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To: My loyal and healthy readersFrom: Yours truly
Status: Sick
Many apologies for the length of time since I last wrote. I come, at least, bearing good excuses. After smugly declaring to Michelle that I was yet to become ill in India, I became ill. My poor body had to forget its fear of vomiting and do the deed twelve times in twelve hours. The silver lining, at least, is that the fear has now been eradicated. But no sooner had I recovered from my love affair with the toilet did I again make another smug declaration: I was not getting bitten. “My repellent’s better than yours”, I would secretly think as the others itched away. However, there must be something to that karma thing, as shortly afterwards I was inundated with bites myself. Big, itchy bites that at least deserved to be scratched. But the itchy and scratchy fun soon turned sour, as my foot got infected and doubled in size. It was so painful that for some time I could not walk and I have been hobbling about ever since. The doctor put me on antibiotics and bucketfuls of hot, salty water, which seem to be doing the trick. Nonetheless, just as I am able to shop again do I find myself with a cold. How such an ailment is possible in this heat I do not know, but trust me when I say that it is. Today has been no more eventful than sniff sniff sneeze sneeze, a game that I am already tiring of, and I have become far too good at virtual pinball and solitaire. Perhaps my religious friends can pray for a speedy recovery, as I’m pretty certain that my own requests are being ignored. (I reckon God no longer buys that I’ll live by him if he helps me out “just this one more time”.)
Due to my aforementioned (don’t you just love that word) status, this entry will be shorter than others. I do feel up to writing a little more, though, so I will explain about my work at Pratham. My time is currently divided between teaching, project devising and some much loved online surfing. I visit one of the slums each morning to teach English to children, an activity that I am growing very fond of. I never thought that I could teach, but I must admit that my sweet, eager pupils deserve more credit than I do. Discussing their motivation with Anuj, a colleague, he laughed and said that all children react that way to school. I told him that few children in England share such a passion for learning, and that most would have run a mile from extra language classes. He did not appear to understand why this was so.
My classes start with a review of the previous lesson, which they (thankfully) seem to remember each time. I then start with the very basics of what I have planned (I am following an excellent English course from about.com). For instance, in the first lesson I taught them to say I am [name], he is [name], she is [name]… and then is he [name1]? No, he is [name2], etc. I include a lot of repetition which they seem to thrive on – their chants, such as “SHE IS RENU! SHE IS RENU!” seem to grow louder as each class progresses. I was bemused one day, though, when I stood with a little boy and asked the children to repeat: “He is Manish, he is Manish …!” They copied, but with the words: “She is Manish, she is Manish!” I stopped them and said a clear no – “Manish … boy! He is!” Their teacher hurriedly pulled me aside and started to giggle. “Manish is girl, Samanta!” Oops. I quickly got them going again with “She is Manish, she is Manish!”, praying that they would have missed my hideous blunder. (In my defence, though, the little girl really did look like a little boy.)
Right, off to bed now for some serious sleep. Leave a comment with your thoughts and news – I really enjoy reading them all.
posted by ladyinpink @ 11:59 pm
1 Comments:
Sam, so pleased to hear you are feeling better and to get an update. Your mum assured me you were on the mend over a week ago, and I was just coming up to e-mail her to find out what was going on. Glad I checked in first.
You need to take better care of yourself!
Much love, and thinking of you (but minus the throwing up, grotesque foot and spots!)
Jan, Mike & Co
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