Teaching in Jharkand

Why I waited to start a blog after being here for over 6 weeks I do not know! Now I have way too much to write, so ill summarise some of the highlights:

Teaching at Dakshinayan

I wanted to start the 1st month of my trip with some volunteering for loads of reasons . It meant that I could be based in a really remote place that Id otherwise never have access to. The number of visitors in this state of India (Jharkand, near the Bangladeshi border) is restricted as its seen as dangerous area with tribes and 'bandits' plus it's the poorest area of India so not many travellers want to go there. We had to complete some weird registration to be allowed in. Luckily the police man loves England and wants to go there but our Australian friends, who were at the project as the same time as us got asked strange stuff - ' Why are you eyes blue? Why is your hair brown?'. Guess they don't like Aussies quite as much.

Being the poorest place in India means nothing. It just means that they live a very simple life in their villages, no electricity, growing enough food just to eat. But its not a bad thing, they are in such beautiful surroundings and I think that seeing the slums in a city is probably a lot worse. They share what they have and they seem happy. As for tribes, it sound scary and foreign, but its just a name for a group of people living with their own unique culture, they are still very friendly and their not aliens!

I also really wanted to see what teaching in another country was like and it couldn't have been nicer compared to what I have experienced in England. The kids want to learn so much. They want to answer every question and giving them a simple tick in their book makes them sooo proud. They go to school 6days per week and complain about having holidays! It was so refreshing and fun to teach kids that yearn to learn and genuinely respect you. I could literally write a book on the crazily different attitude, discipline and structure of this Indian school and about the problems with our education system. Plus how fun is using chalk and a blackboard ?


There were 80 kids in the school, ranging from the ages of 4 - 14. They are split into nursery, class1, 2, 3,4. In nursery when they start they cannot speak a word of english, some speak a little hindi, some only speak their tribal langauge. By the time they reach class 4 they can read, write, speak and understand English amazingly well. So we have to speak English all the time, with a few word of Hindi to help out. But being there really does help.


I taught class 2 and 4 with a lovely Aussie, who is slightly nuts but so enthusiastic and very similar to me in attitude and thought process so we worked really well together. We taught English, Maths, Science and Social Studies, again sooo much fun. There were a few festivals on during the month of Jan so we got to taste some of the weird and wonderful snacks that the kids brought in (which prob led to my illness!). Plus for 5 days straight we heard constant drumming as the tribes were partying! It woke me up many a time but the i just thought ' how cool is that!'. We even got to see the festivities one day when we went on a trek from our school to its sister school 6km away. On the way there we walked through jungle but the way back we walked through the villages and saw lots of people looking very! Im not suprised after 4days of no sleep and taking lots of strange tribal substances!

I am so glad I chose this project, its really good, not in it for the money and it gives you such a good pic of rural Indian life. it was so nice to live such a basic lifestyle for a month and I felt so incredibly healthy (but then got admitted into hospital!Thats the next entry!). Plus I got to see what it is like not to wash your hair for a month, self cleansing does not work!! But seriously the natural beauty and doing chores (like carrying heavy buckets of water) and being a vegetarian and remaining tee total for a month meant i felt so good. I really didnt miss stuff..... now im like wooooow electricity is weird!

It was also so good to just chill out in the afternoons, watch the sun rise and set, drink chai, read, be warm! See pretty views and get to know as much about the Indian culture as possible. Im even used to eating rice for every meal (with hand of course) and have learnt a bit of Hindi from the Aussies and kids which is turning out to be so useful! (until I go to a diff state where they speak a different language!) Any q's just ask xxxxx