A little joyous, Sumit and coach Kishan returned from the
Seoul Special Olympics victorious with a silver medal for the India hockey
team. The first I saw of them was being swamped at morning assembly and
applauded. I managed to catch up with Kishan, he had never been OS before and
was totally awed by the difference, cleanliness, technology etc. Sumit’s team
had won every round-robin played until it came to the final match, where the
team numbers were brought from 16 a side to 11. China all of a sudden had a long
list of injured players and a number of fresh recruits to play in the final
match, much to the questioning and chagrin of the others teams. Funny, you kind of don’t consider that in the
Special Olympics you are still contending with under-handed tactics <insert
some clever comment regarding Armstrong>
* Victorious, Kishan and Sumit, Dinner with Kishan and his wife tonight :)
Monday will be my last day sadly; of course I have now been
swamped with multiple requests from all the teachers to merely whip up
laminated posters, flash cards and photos of their classes. They seem to think
it all takes just moment to do it all; design, layout, retouching photos and
the trip into town for the printers and no doubt this all happens at no cost to
me, I will try my best and there is a touch of wanting to leave my mark in some
way. Rajani, my teacher was sweet, saying she was honoured that I was in her
class and that she will remember me for a long time as she think of me using
all the resources I have created and added.
Drilled again, this time by the music teacher and a student
teacher… *all in pigeon English. “Why aren’t you married? Do you have a
girlfriend? When will you get married? Is your brother married? Don’t you want
to be married? Is there someone special in your heart?” I just tell them in Australia you can marry at
any age and that many of my mates are “unmarried”, oh jimmenies I won’t miss
that daily interrogation!! Though it did come out that I was 36 and was smugly
satisfied at their shock.
Listening to a little Dolly and staring out the window to
the sun dappled jungle backing onto Raphael, slurping my Nescafe coffee (can’t
wait for a real coffee) and smiling, I am ready to go. I have had the
experience of a lifetime.
Some pics of my last couple of weeks xoxox
Community outreach program - out with the physio therapist hitting rural Doon,
* Roof top preschool
* Another school - "Uncle, uncle, photo Uncle!"
* And another school, found somewhere behind a series of ramshackle buildings and seemed to be someone's concrete backyard
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| * A strange little community, people from Uttrapradesh travel here to work in the brickyards. |
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| * Poo!!! Nothing is wasted |
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| * Just about to pass another baroque painted truck |
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| * Sooo cute with her screwed up little legs, phyio sets to work doing exercises |
Chai with Chavi, Ashu, Pooja and Komal
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| * House mother to the four girls living at Raphael in Barbara Cottage |
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| * Ashu wanted a pic of her moving out of her chair to her wheelchair |
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| * Lol, Komal showing off her teddies |
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| * Just hanging with the cool kids |
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| * Pooja displaying her domestic prowess |
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| * Chavi whips up some chai |
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| * Teacher Rajani |
