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Cannot believe I have been here two weeks already and am now officially half way though my time at the hospital!! This week has been great as there've been a few other volunteers around, havng come back from a tour they'd been doing, and the hospital's afternoon school/homework club has started up. This is a facility offered on a needs basis and many of the children are the sons and daughters of the rickshaw drivers and domestic cleaners and so hovering somewhere just above the poverty line. It was also quite striking to hear from one of the teachers how many of the fathers do not want their daughters to attend, and there are some very courageous mothers out there who have fought very hard to get their girls an education.
Anyways, I pitched up merrily on my first day expecting to sit at the back and not do anything helpful, only to be immediatly put with a group of about six ten to fourteen year olds and told to amuse them for 2 1/2 hours. I optomistcally opened the one ancient text book they had between them to look at chapter 1, only to find a few dry paragraphs on agricultrural development in India, climaxing with the use of the wooden plough. So that option was rapidly abandoned. In the end, I attempted, rather ambitiously, to teach them the basics about cells for the remaining time, which wasn't entirely unsuccessful, and, now I know what's involved, I've been able to plan the time alot more effectively.
Otherwise, I've spent quite a lot of time sight seeing and shopping, although I've still only scratched the surface of what this amazing city has to offer. And I've yet to come up with a feasible plan which will allow me to see everything which doesn't involve learning how to fly from one place to the other....
I'll put some pictures up once I finally remeber to bring my camera lead along to the Internet Cafe.
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