Rainbow Primary School

This is a picture of the junior teachers. They have no university training and inhabit the same slum, yet they are producing outstanding scores on the government tests ALREADY, albiet for a smaller portion of the students than we would like. Here they are demanding more services from the Mandal Resource Person. This was the first visit by this new MRP to the Rainbow School and he will remember these five. From left (and closest to the camera) to right is: Sunitha, Neha (in the glasses), Divya, our new teacher Sidya (third standard), then Adi Laxmi with her hand toward the camera. They are in this school body and soul. Every meeting, every walk around with any government offical, they are there. Here they are (below) with Kalpana, like a Greek chorus in saris, silently standing in a row, daring the MRO to impress them. They are so eager to learn. Today, a veteran teacher and brilliant, kind soul, Mrs. Kumar, came to speak to them for teacher training. You would have thought ...

This is a picture (left) of our outstanding fourth class student. Isn't he great? The next picture (below right) is of a new first class student. She finally decided to go to school after four months of pestering from Ismail and myself (every DAY). She's darling, but skittish. She hates it when I try to tickle or hug her. She runs until she is a out of reach and then "communicates" with me by repeating everything I say, with an American accent. And now, the news: Today the Mandal Revenue Officer (MRO) came with the Revenue Inspector (RI) to secure the land for the school. After a few phone calls from the MRO, Mr. Reddy (the neighbor across the street) decided he wasn't going to claim the land after all. We're FREE to build! However, the MRO's office had inadvertently given about 100 sq. yards of the total 300 to another group. To make up for this, he offered a 100 sq. yards of government land down the street. Looks like we're going to hav...

T his is a scene from the tea stall next to the school. I bought them Sprites and they all had a sugar high. The little girl from the last entry (last picture) is in the middle in orange and white. She is my new best buddy. Just like Naga, she finds me no matter what where I am and then runs around with me wherever I go. Despite the two enormous problems of these last weeks, we had good news today. We still have some claim on the land the government sanctioned for the school. Ok, that is not good news, and we did think we were out of that. I know, I know, I know... However, the land survey to check the first survey (uh huh…Indian bureaucracy) has redrawn the boundary lines of the school site. We are, again, on the land claimed by our neighbor, Mr. Reddy. So what is the good news? We now have a powerful advocate in the highest levels of government who is moving mountains to make sure the claim gets removed or another solution is found this week. The education department cr...

The second big problem these last few weeks happened on "the hillside." Twenty of my students live in huts set up and across a hill near the main part of the neighborhood. This is the "worst" area; it has no electricity or water supplies. But that hillside is my favorite part of the neighborhood. I have my mental map of who lives where: the young couple with the new baby are near the top right, the tailor and his grandchildren (who go to the school) are near the bottom center, and the recalcitrant grandmother who hides when I want to take her picture is on the bottom left. The father pictured in the last entry, along with his family, are on the far side of the hill, towards the center. Here is a picture of some of the huts around mid-December (on the left). Government police and laborers tore away the huts on December 29. By January 14, many were rebuilt. I’m saying that right now so there isn't undue worrying. Here is a picture of the action. That mo...

Here are the boys acting like...boys. They were dancing and tickling all at the same time. We whacked-a-mole. The landlady is now an avid supporter of the school...until April. Then we get kicked out. But we whacked-a-mole again! The land transfer paper is now signed by all the necessary government people (see the post on "Indian Bureaucracy"). It turns out we had the plot behind our very nice neighbor's plot so there was no conflict over the land. Now the only step left is filing with the proper revenue government guy. Since we took five weeks running these government yahoos down just to secure the land, we have launched project "Kick Down the Door." Seems there is some supreme being to all the bureaucracy called the District Collector. This all-powerful person is highly recommended to me by my nonprofit friends. They consider him to be a reasonable, unassuming man. So I asked a friend to ask a friend who has connections to get us an appointment. ...

Isn't he darling? We do a lot of drawing here to cement in their minds different concepts and words. For example, today for English class, 4th standard drew Spiderman standing and sitting to learn those two words. Whack-a-Mole. We just found out the government did not own the land "sanctioned" to us for the new school. Who owns it? Our very reasonable neighbor who lives in a big house next to the slum. His son is studying at MIT, so our neighbor "gets" Americans and we talked for a long time (in English). He offered to help us buy another piece of land in the area for the school. We'll see where that goes. That same day (yesterday, Sunday) we found out we had royally ticked off our landlady. She was furious with us for cleaning out the room she is renting to us to serve as the office (top right). She is kicking us out entirely on Wednesday, out of the office and, it appears, out of the school. She has already hired a contractor to build a one-room apartm...

This blog entry was written by our darling teachers, Sunitha (Preschool), Neha (2nd Standard) and Divya (1st Standard). They picked this picture to post. Please keep in mind that there is no capitalization in Hindi or Telegu: "my childran is very good. inrainbow school i love pree school and all students and i love leighanne and kalpana. teachers names neha khan adi laxmi sunitha divya vijaya medam school antys names sabera bee nagamma." This means: "My students are very good. I love teaching preschool, and all the students. (this was written by Sunitha) I love Leigh Anne and Kalpana. Teachers' names: Neha Khan, Adi Laxmi, Sunitha, Divya, Vijaya. (this was written by Neha) School Aunties (teacher aides) names: Sabera Bee, Nagamma. "(this was by Divya) GOOD JOB, TEACHERS! Not bad at all. Then they sent an e-mail to their exhange teacher in the United States, my life-long friend Mary Helen. She teaches high school in Atlanta, Georgia. It was their firs...