Pre-Christmas update – Administration and After-School Club

Merry Christmas one and all (for those who celebrate christams and don't just get coerced by the mass media into buying unnecessary presents).

My apologies for taking so long in getting my fingers caressing the keyboard to forge another update for you. Turns out I've been quite busy. I have found myself in the dual role of admin assistant and examiner. It is the time of the students and of term exams and Miss Nehra and I have been putting ht students through their paces in their physical exams. When not doing this, I have been helping our MD Sodagar to get things moving with the FCRA. This is the governmental body concerned with foreign currency and charity donations. They have to date been blocking funds to the school, for some reason that I'm not sure any of us can fathom any more. Knowing India, it is probably the case that someone is holding out for a bribe and hope that if they delay us long enough, even though every scrap of paper work is now in order, we will eventually succumb and ask how much it will cost us to get things moving. Thankfully they will be disappointed.
Things are certainly moving now. We have been to meet with the Deputy Commissioner for Fatehabad district – a clearly bright guy of my age who told us that now the case is with his department he will ensure a speedy resolution. The only minus point to this meeting was that the DC decided he wanted to show how important he was in front of the Gora by totally misrepresenting Sodagar to me. It took me about an hour in the car afterwards to calm Sodagar down and explain that the DC was probably just trying to look big and make himself feel better because his wife had argued with him that morning. This cheered up our MD, though he was amused by my attempt to make him feel better rather than the factual content of my reasoning, since he informed me that the DC was in fact unmarried.
Having put in a word for Miss Nehra in my last blog I must now big up (which is hip hop speak for praise) Sodagar. He has quite successfully transformed himself over the last week or so from a human being into a Beesque Blue-Arsed Fly, so busy has he been and such has been the amount of running about he has done to try and get the various issues sorted.
Sodagar even managed to fit in the trip to Jalundar to buy the sports equipment. The school now possesses sufficient footballs, volleyballs, badminton rackets and nets etc to provide an excellent level of coaching. Consequently the school's reputation as an institution that builds human beings well versed in teamwork and leadership as well as academic excellence will be built henceforth.
The After School Club will begin tomorrow – my Christmas present to myself – with some unique coaching drills that combine cricket, football and athletics. We will then be playing some theatre games in the vein of 'who's line is it anyway' and will be building a brick and clay oven together so that in the coming days cookery can become an integral part of the activities. It is my intention also to share the role of documentary makers among the students each day, so hopefully once I've taught them how to edit the footage we'll have some amusing and insightful clips to parade on youtube, all of the children's own making.
The only fly in the ointment is that the ***&^%$^%$ing roller has still not %*&%$#%#$^$%& been **^%&%$^#^%^ delivered, despite the man promising it more than two weeks ago. This has gone beyond a lesson in 'this is India and be patient' into George would swear and curse profusely were there not a minute chance children might be reading this. We have now been promised a roller in two days time…I'd say watch this space, but you might end up with a very hefty broadband bill and square eyes from staring at this space for longer than…(insert suitably lengthy metaphor/simile here)

The other major development is the discovery is that it is possible to get broadband at the school. We just need 1000m of wire, a capable engineer and some persuasive arguments as to why we would get our broad band service from a different village telephone exchange than we currently use to receive our phone services. The experience of the roller has taught me not to get too excited yet, but the very fact that there is now a light at the end of the tunnel means I'm going to start working towards it with all energy and means at my disposal.

A mention must also go to my family, who have been very supportive in recent weeks. Of particular note is the sympathy of my sister, who was always the fat kid at school who hated sports (before she blossomed into a fitness fanatic who runs marathons) so she sent me some money to buy both supplementary cricket equipment, for those of a sporting persuasion, and arts materials for those children who want to take part in After School Activities of a non-sporting nature. I have used some of this to buy some pots and pans and an electric whisk, so I can show the children how to make pancakes in time for pancake day, it is also my hope that we may be able to bake a 'welcome back to school/happy new year' cake in time for the return to school on the 1st January.

I'll try to let you know how the activities pan out. I've laid lots of plans as best as I can, so I'm sure everything will be perfect!

Have a good festive period. Don't do anything I wouldn't have done in my youth.
Massive love.
Xxx