Rainbow Primary School

The parents very particular, they have high standards! They insist we only hire teachers (junior teachers) who graduated from high school. That is hard to find! Only 1/3 of India's children pass on to secondary school, and most of those cannot pass the final exams. So, despite being illiterate for the most part, the parents want only the most qualified teachers. The second demand from the parents is for strict discipline; this means corporal punishment. Back in 2005, on the very first day of school, the parents requested we use corporal punishment. No, no, no is always our answer. Even after two+ years, the parents are completely convinced we need to use "the stick." It comes up at EVERY parents' meeting. Finally, one parent took matters into his own hands. He brought us a huge bunch of palm tree branches, stripped down into lovely "sticks," he was more than happy to provide us with loads of sticks for the next few years. We all had a good laugh!...

These girls are the Alpha Girls. They never miss a day of school, and rank at the top of the fifth standard class. The intensity of their attachment to their teachers and the school is remarkable. They stay and watch our teacher's meetings, soaking in every bit of the interaction. They have even formed a student committee, chasing down students who are tardy or skipping class. (We tried making a parent committee, but they all work during school hours!) We are so lucky to have these girls! Their future plans are all to become teachers. I will enjoy watching them over the coming years.

We are dealing with some paperwork. 1) We requested three more junior teachers, "Vidya Volunteers," 1,000/mos salaries as directed by the district level bureaucrat on 2 August 2007. Paperwork is into the lower level bureaucrat, working up to the district level. (1 and 1/2 months and counting) 2) A Utilization Study for the work done to date on the building is underway at the district level. I'm organizing coordination between our contractors and the government engineers. (Only 1 week and counting!) 3) 4 March 2007, we received additional land for a preschool but we need paperwork from an adjoining neighbor, a state-level bureaucracy called the A.P. Tourism Department, to hand this land to our bureaucrat at the lower level. (6 months and counting) 4) We requested government funding for the preschool (called an Early Childhood Education Center, ECEC) from the lower level bureaucrat. (2 months and counting) 5) We requested a government nurse be reinstated (ours was transf...

First, here is a full timeline on the building . It explains a lot of why we were SO delayed. Second, we found this mask near the site and the owners gladly gave it to us for the school. It is from Kerala; Apa Rao is showing us how to wear it. Last, look here for pictures of the latest stage of the building construction.

See this link for a PPP on the vision for the school! Vision for the Rainbow School!

Ismail and I visited the Vada Prasad house today (unannounced, as per our standard operating procedures). He looks just fantastic, greeted us with giggles and belly laughs. Vada is responsive, clear-eyed, much more able to direct his limbs; he even claps his hands! His mom is doing a great job. She required a baby buggy to get him to therapy, so Ismail will deliver one on Monday. The partner organization at the Rainbow School is the Anokhi Aasha School. Reema Gupta and her professional staff give free physical therapy and educational support to our special needs students. www.anokiaaasha.org Thank you, Rema! Here is Vada in action... what a crazy, good year for Vada.

Today was another great day. Progress on the building, the kids are so wonderful and really settled in, and the community doesn't want to kill us (today). So I had to celebrate with this picture of our first, second, and third standard kids. Thank you, Ismail, for taking this shot.