Donald's appearance on Sunday had been a great hit. Donald, for those who haven't had the pleasure, is my muppet-like puppet with garishingly-ginger hair, who has been to India on each occasion since.He tends to draw crowds. He's got a big mouth (rather like his owner) which appears to be an open invitation for little children to insert their hands in order to be bitten. They are never disappointed! To say "alter ego" gives some clue to the basic behavioural problems Donald experiences.He gets away with some outrageous things!
I was asked to keep the youngsters amused for an hour. In 2008, with a similar request, that involved Seniors and Juniors, which was great, because there were an overwhelming number of folk there who could understand English, even mine.
This time it was just the Juniors, and the Kindergarten.It was very obvious, as soon as I started to try to teach them a song, that this wasn't going to work. I rehearsed simple things again and again, and it just wasn't sticking. It had in the orphanage, but it wasn't going to happen here. I scaled down vastly the story I had prepared (for which I had woken up at 4.15am to get ready), and it was apparent that they didn't understand anything much of what I was saying. All they wanted to do was to poke their fingers into Donald's mouth, to which, of course he obliged. I just wanted to disappear inside Donald's mouth at that very moment.I felt myself dying slowly in front of them! Barbara suggested finding out if there were any songs in English which the children had learnt by rote. There were - so we rescued the occasion with "Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine", "Seek ye first" sung, not as a round, but around and around on a loop whilst I tried to discover what else they might and I might know. I then called a halt after 45 minutes. They thanked me for a "fabulous puppet show". I just wondered if they'd been at the same event.
The Principal of the Junior School afterwards explained how most of the children are from rural backgrounds. The families have low expectations educationally, and any English that is learnt in school cannot be practiced at home (unlike the children who attend the same school from the Orphanage). It is as much as the school can do to teach them basic rules of behaviour, to brush their teeth, to take care of personal hygiene, even before they can begin the teach the rudiments of education.I have no complaint about how the afternoon session went for me - it just underlined how wonderful the staff of these schools are in trying their best against many odds to turn the educationally-reluctant into well-motivated achievers. And somehow or other, with some at least, they do.
I was asked to keep the youngsters amused for an hour. In 2008, with a similar request, that involved Seniors and Juniors, which was great, because there were an overwhelming number of folk there who could understand English, even mine.
This time it was just the Juniors, and the Kindergarten.It was very obvious, as soon as I started to try to teach them a song, that this wasn't going to work. I rehearsed simple things again and again, and it just wasn't sticking. It had in the orphanage, but it wasn't going to happen here. I scaled down vastly the story I had prepared (for which I had woken up at 4.15am to get ready), and it was apparent that they didn't understand anything much of what I was saying. All they wanted to do was to poke their fingers into Donald's mouth, to which, of course he obliged. I just wanted to disappear inside Donald's mouth at that very moment.I felt myself dying slowly in front of them! Barbara suggested finding out if there were any songs in English which the children had learnt by rote. There were - so we rescued the occasion with "Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine", "Seek ye first" sung, not as a round, but around and around on a loop whilst I tried to discover what else they might and I might know. I then called a halt after 45 minutes. They thanked me for a "fabulous puppet show". I just wondered if they'd been at the same event.
The Principal of the Junior School afterwards explained how most of the children are from rural backgrounds. The families have low expectations educationally, and any English that is learnt in school cannot be practiced at home (unlike the children who attend the same school from the Orphanage). It is as much as the school can do to teach them basic rules of behaviour, to brush their teeth, to take care of personal hygiene, even before they can begin the teach the rudiments of education.I have no complaint about how the afternoon session went for me - it just underlined how wonderful the staff of these schools are in trying their best against many odds to turn the educationally-reluctant into well-motivated achievers. And somehow or other, with some at least, they do.
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