Community

Community, I think that's the word that best sums up my feelings this time about the school (and the place I'm staying). In the past that feeling had been missing but in this 'post Corona' India there seems to be more of a connected feeling than I've ever noticed before, and it's lovely. Over the various lockdowns, some children had no homes to go to so they stayed in the school with staff but education as such was not happening. Perhaps that enforced joint living is responsible, who knows. What I have noticed is more laughter and more coming together rather than being in isolation. I felt these pictures of the playground embodied it though.
My blip is the main courtyard of the school. Last time I was here, some of the money I brought was used to provide new seating here and to fill in an old and dank unused fishpond which served only to act as a mosquito magnet. The equipment was also refurbished. Over the last few years they have also paved the surrounding area, the trees have grown and now it's really a pleasant place for the children to play and for others to gather. You can see the former fishpond in the upper picture, a round platform with a boy sitting on it.
The staff also enjoy it, many are here 24 hours a day and in the evening they sit there and relax. Fewer mosquitoes too which is a blessing.
I spent time in classes today, everything was very formal when I first started coming here and many of my ideas seemed odd to the staff. Again, gradually, things have changed and I saw children doing water play, one was soaking a sponge and squeezing water out of it as part of his hand physio treatment, transferred to the classroom and led by his teacher not his physio. You won't believe how hard it was to introduce that sort of thing 16 years ago. Now though it's happening.
After school I went home for my afternoon down time, it's really been necessary. Whether I'd forgotten, whether it's slightly later in the year or whether, and probably most likely, I'm getting older, I really am finding the heat hard work this time. Having said that, I am able to access AC in school, in my room and in many shops and restaurants whereas in 1997 when I first came AC was almost unheard of. It's 38° just now at 5pm!
I wrote a batch of postcards over the weekend and went with Raja to pay them today. He did make me smile with his friendliness and willingness to help. His text messaging can be brief in the extreme though and sometimes has me guessing:
S = yes
K = Ok
and many others which escape my over heated brain at the moment! Saw a large Eagle over the field by the school today, wingspan well over a metre, extra.