16th May

I’m typing a few lines to let you know that I’m still alive and all systems functioning normally. This past week has been all about the class really. We now have 17 students. They all seem a swell bunch of kids and are getting on with things. There are a few talented artists in the class. There is one lad who is scared of drawing but his work is not bad. My guess is that he hasn’t really been encouraged to follow his creative side.

The lessons are going well. I have Rakesh with me and he is really keen. He loves the teaching in the Lab. I don’t have to do much there. More of a supervisory role really. He’s warming up to the Creative Practice classes. The first one I gave him was the Perspective class. He really wanted to give that one a go. He had finished his lesson in a little under three minutes. (Just as well I was there.) I took over, making it out to be a tag team effort and we got stuck into actually giving it a go. I give him credit for trying. The next CP I gave him to do was Face drawing. That was much better. He got them to try using his techniques to draw some faces. For this one I was able to sit back and watch. Well, I did draw a few funny faces on the whiteboard, which they immediately copied, but I was trying to get them to have fun. So, we’ve nearly done the first module. About three more days and we will have completed the Logo design exercise.

The staff here are really nice. They are working hard to try to bring in more students. They always have a smile for me and are extremely polite. Its kinda fun trying to think of ways to help them understand what I’m needing. It’s not that they don’t understand English. Its just that they have different words for things. For example, they call a 30 cm ruler a Scale. When you think of it, it makes perfect sense why they should call it a scale but who would have guessed. The funniest one of all is when I say “Can I please have some milk?” They scratch their heads and ask me to ask again. “Can I please have some milk?” No, they don’t get it. So I ask again. “Ah, milk. Yes certainly.” The funny bit is when they say milk, it sounds just like when I say milk.

India is having a major problem at the mo, especially here in the Punjab. (The Punjab is the main rice and wheat growing area of India.)I heard on a report from the BBC that the water table has dropped significantly over the last 30 years. Whereas the water table used to be at around 30 feet, its now more like 100 – 200 feet and the water is not as good down there. There’s more salt in it. Therefore the crops are not getting the correct nutrients. This in turn is causing a food shortage and the farmers are going into increased debt. I don’t think the farmers are as well looked after as they are in NZ.

The Mango crops are down to 20% of last year’s season as well. Apparently the monsoons came at the wrong time and it wasn’t enough. That’s of course if you believe everything you hear on the news.