12.30.09

We held our first education program on the third day. This program is meant to serve the school-going children of a squatter settlement community. We went directly to the school, a 15x35 foot thatch building with a sheet metal roof. The school is directly next to a busy street that produces sufficient noise to block out the children’s enthusiastic self-introductions. The floor of the school is gravel but students sit on the quarter of it that’s covered by loose bricks. The teachers said their biggest problem is that they don’t have the required 15,000 Rs. to brick the rest of the floor. I promptly took pictures of the brick floor with a camera that costs more than what they need to finish it. They just finished rebuilding the disintegrating hut after raising 40,000 Rs. from the community, including 5,000 from an NGO.

The children were eager to learn before, during, and after we entered the hut for introductions. Their attention span seemed better than mine when I was their age (7-11 years). We took them out of the dark hut to play games in a park nearby, and they were quick learners of the games. We decided to allow teachers to direct the games, which turned out to be quite violent. Both the boys and girls proved to be effective tacklers and confident as both winners and losers. Children that don’t attend the school tried to squeeze into the game but the teachers kept them out. Those children still hung around the edges with a visible sense of dejection. Adults watched us play as they lounged on the ground in a nearby trash-covered section of the park. I feel like I provided a major highlight when I intimidated Ankit by acting as creature somewhere between a sumo wrestler and an ape.

We returned to the school hut to teach the students about oral hygiene. We had two activities planned. First, we demonstrated how to floss by using our fingers to represent teeth and peanut butter between our fingers to represent plaque. After getting over the fact that we were wasting protein-rich peanut butter in front of malnourished children, I got a kick out of kids sliding rope between my fingers to remove peanut butter. We then used Agent Cool Blue, which stains plaque, to show the children how dirty their teeth were. We then taught them how to properly brush their teeth, but their teeth and tongue remained blue long enough for their parents to see. We gave each student floss and a toothbrush. It’s impossible to know how much they’ll use the tools, and I’m personally skeptical of how effective a one-time hygiene class can be. However, the students undoubtedly had an excellent day and took our lesson seriously. In my opinion, the quality experience of the students is more than enough to justify the work our Pratit education team did to prepare for today.

We left Baghbazar without stepping foot in the squatter settlement. Our time was focused on the school and not the slum itself. More importantly, the community leaders didn’t take us into the settlement. They noticed our cameras and said that photos were strictly prohibited of the illegal squatter settlement. We’ll definitely be walking camera-less through the slum next Tuesday.