I did not bring my camera to the worksite because I've had a lot of bad luck with cameras here. Purvi took pics and I'll post them when I get them.
My advisory co-teacher, Madeline, leads the Habitat for Humanity club and needed another chaperone to take 24 kids to a build in Karjat. We were supposed to leave at 7 but left 25 minutes late due to two girls who didn't show on time. At 7:25 we took off in 3 busses, with 3 drivers, three marshalls, 3 chaperones, 24 kids and lots of food and water. The build was about a 3 hour drive from Mumbai. It was in the same direction at Matheran - where we went for Week Without Walls. We passed the Lucky restaurant which is our standard bathroom stop. Faily decent squat toilets.
We had three 6th grade boys and one 7th grade girl go, but most of the kids on were high school students who need volunteer hours. I was on a bus with 11th and 12th graders who were upset their friend had to ride on the bus with the 6th graders. They talked about how horrible middle schoolers are, how "kids these days" are more arogant, etc. It cracked me up. They were really immature - gossiping and talking mean about people - they aren't much different than middle schoolers :) except that they cuss a lot more and their gossip is meaner.
We got to the build site and split the kids up in three groups. We put a sixth grader in each group and split up some of the high schoolers that were causing problems. The two girls that were late in the morning were the most upset about not being in a group together. One of them came over to my painting group just so she could be with her friend. My group painted a house lime green with red trim :) One group laid bricks with mub and another group hauled bricks to a construction site. One of my 6th graders and the 7th grader was in my group. The 6th grader worked so hard!!
After our lunch of Veg rolls and this other Indain food thing that the name is excaping me right now! We switched activities. Madeline made it clear that everyone was supposed to be in their original groups. That girl came to my group anyway. but the joke was on her! She hated our activity!!!! Had she gone where she was supposed to she would have been a lot happier!!! They had this big tractor/trailer thing that we had to load with bricks. They make their own brick in this field and after they dry for two years they can use them for a house. It took 15 of us over an hour to fill that trailer and 25 of us 45 minutes to unload it. It was a lot of work!! It was a lot hotter there than it is in Mumbai. The sun was beating down and we were lifting brick after brick over our heads. Some of the high school boys were great workers. Not all of the girls were. My tiny little 6th grader worked like a trooper though! All three of the 6th graders were amazing - never complained and if we were taking a break, they wanted to know when they could work again and what they could do.
Habitat has built 2,300 houses in this area since 2006. In 2006, Jimmy Carter came and 2000 volunters built 100 houses in a week! The families have to invest money in the house and they have to put in sweat equity hours. one family was loading bricks with use :)
The bus ride home took 3.5 hours. Mumbai traffic!!! The kids were more chill this time - no vulgar music for me to make them turn off. about an hour and half in one of the boys said he and a girl needed to use the toilet. I went to the front and told the driver and marshall we needed to stop. They kept driving - I asked again and they said they didn't know where to stop - we had already passed Luckys. The kids said they could pee on the side of the road - on in the middle of the road - it is India!! The girls prefered bushes, but it wasn't necessary - it is India! ha! We were on a highway with 3 lanes going each direction. There was a petrol station on the other side but no way to turn to it. The driver slowed down to investigate. I told him to just pull over there. The marshall deemed it unsafe for the kids to unload there and pee on the road. soooooooooooooooooo.. he turns the car around and drives the WRONG way on the highway for a few hundred meters then turns and drives the same distance ON THE OTHER SIDE to the petrol station. yeah. that is safe. the squat toilets were swarmed with mosqitos - the kids would have prefered the side of the road :)
The was a high school "jammies" that night at 7. High school bands play and have a "jam session". The kids were excited about it and upset that it was clear we weren't going to make it in time. My bus was the last to get in. Madeline and I had a school driver that was going to drive us home. My teaching partner, Jordan, is a drummer and performed at the jammies with some other teachers. He was ready to leave and getting rickshaws to our area from school is hard to do so he came with us. He could tell we had worked hard - we were covered in brick dust and had paint in our hair!!
He got a TV and cable this week. cable is $120 a YEAR with hundreds of channels!! Kind of like that I don't have "TV" . I have A tv - I watch DVDs on it. It took me two months after I bought it to get it set up. I have not gotten cable yet, but think I will just for news and such. There are also several american movie stations. Jordan invited a few of us over to watch Wayne's World - which I have actually never seen. I was exhausted from the sun and work and could barely stay away and his school couch is way more comfortable than my school couch. and his isn't pink. or a breeding ground for ants :)
My advisory co-teacher, Madeline, leads the Habitat for Humanity club and needed another chaperone to take 24 kids to a build in Karjat. We were supposed to leave at 7 but left 25 minutes late due to two girls who didn't show on time. At 7:25 we took off in 3 busses, with 3 drivers, three marshalls, 3 chaperones, 24 kids and lots of food and water. The build was about a 3 hour drive from Mumbai. It was in the same direction at Matheran - where we went for Week Without Walls. We passed the Lucky restaurant which is our standard bathroom stop. Faily decent squat toilets.
We had three 6th grade boys and one 7th grade girl go, but most of the kids on were high school students who need volunteer hours. I was on a bus with 11th and 12th graders who were upset their friend had to ride on the bus with the 6th graders. They talked about how horrible middle schoolers are, how "kids these days" are more arogant, etc. It cracked me up. They were really immature - gossiping and talking mean about people - they aren't much different than middle schoolers :) except that they cuss a lot more and their gossip is meaner.
We got to the build site and split the kids up in three groups. We put a sixth grader in each group and split up some of the high schoolers that were causing problems. The two girls that were late in the morning were the most upset about not being in a group together. One of them came over to my painting group just so she could be with her friend. My group painted a house lime green with red trim :) One group laid bricks with mub and another group hauled bricks to a construction site. One of my 6th graders and the 7th grader was in my group. The 6th grader worked so hard!!
After our lunch of Veg rolls and this other Indain food thing that the name is excaping me right now! We switched activities. Madeline made it clear that everyone was supposed to be in their original groups. That girl came to my group anyway. but the joke was on her! She hated our activity!!!! Had she gone where she was supposed to she would have been a lot happier!!! They had this big tractor/trailer thing that we had to load with bricks. They make their own brick in this field and after they dry for two years they can use them for a house. It took 15 of us over an hour to fill that trailer and 25 of us 45 minutes to unload it. It was a lot of work!! It was a lot hotter there than it is in Mumbai. The sun was beating down and we were lifting brick after brick over our heads. Some of the high school boys were great workers. Not all of the girls were. My tiny little 6th grader worked like a trooper though! All three of the 6th graders were amazing - never complained and if we were taking a break, they wanted to know when they could work again and what they could do.
Habitat has built 2,300 houses in this area since 2006. In 2006, Jimmy Carter came and 2000 volunters built 100 houses in a week! The families have to invest money in the house and they have to put in sweat equity hours. one family was loading bricks with use :)
The bus ride home took 3.5 hours. Mumbai traffic!!! The kids were more chill this time - no vulgar music for me to make them turn off. about an hour and half in one of the boys said he and a girl needed to use the toilet. I went to the front and told the driver and marshall we needed to stop. They kept driving - I asked again and they said they didn't know where to stop - we had already passed Luckys. The kids said they could pee on the side of the road - on in the middle of the road - it is India!! The girls prefered bushes, but it wasn't necessary - it is India! ha! We were on a highway with 3 lanes going each direction. There was a petrol station on the other side but no way to turn to it. The driver slowed down to investigate. I told him to just pull over there. The marshall deemed it unsafe for the kids to unload there and pee on the road. soooooooooooooooooo.. he turns the car around and drives the WRONG way on the highway for a few hundred meters then turns and drives the same distance ON THE OTHER SIDE to the petrol station. yeah. that is safe. the squat toilets were swarmed with mosqitos - the kids would have prefered the side of the road :)
The was a high school "jammies" that night at 7. High school bands play and have a "jam session". The kids were excited about it and upset that it was clear we weren't going to make it in time. My bus was the last to get in. Madeline and I had a school driver that was going to drive us home. My teaching partner, Jordan, is a drummer and performed at the jammies with some other teachers. He was ready to leave and getting rickshaws to our area from school is hard to do so he came with us. He could tell we had worked hard - we were covered in brick dust and had paint in our hair!!
He got a TV and cable this week. cable is $120 a YEAR with hundreds of channels!! Kind of like that I don't have "TV" . I have A tv - I watch DVDs on it. It took me two months after I bought it to get it set up. I have not gotten cable yet, but think I will just for news and such. There are also several american movie stations. Jordan invited a few of us over to watch Wayne's World - which I have actually never seen. I was exhausted from the sun and work and could barely stay away and his school couch is way more comfortable than my school couch. and his isn't pink. or a breeding ground for ants :)
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