Blog 013 - What Does the Future Hold For Our Kids

Day 25 – Thursday, March 27

The dogs have been relatively quiet these last few nights. Traffic too. Been thinking this intestinal bug has been giving me strange dreams of quiet nights. Woke up around 7:30, about a half hour before the phone alarm was slated to go off. Of course, my stomach is growling, giving me just a few minutes to get to the bathroom. So, obviously, it's not over yet. I dared not eat anything this morning, just a few sips of water before heading out. I left a little early to find a local shop that sells cell phone chargers. Of course, no shop opens before 10 around here. No problem; I ask some guy which shop has them and he heads me in the right direction. I will stop by this afternoon on the way home.

Nora shows up at the dolphins a little after 10 and we head out. As always, ricksha drivers always go for higher prices and you haggle your way down, almost always ending at the same price on a daily basis. And, as almost always, its passenger overload, evading traffic police along the way.

The kids are waiting for us at the gate. Today is the first day I have brought the football in a few days. My mind is still on making footballers out of them during the next school session starting in mid-June. Right now, I am just teaching them how to throw and catch. To my surprise, I have several quarterbacks in the making. I show them how to wrap their fingers around it and how to throw it. Not good, good, not good, getting better. Honesty counts. Not every throw is a spiral – even mine. Practice, practice, practice as I tell them. I see one good spiral, followed by a wobbler. But they get better. A few kids have a really good arm and can throw quite a distance – better than I expected. None of these kids had even seen an American football before I came here. I am eyeing my future quarterbacks today. The field now is hard and rocky. Come end of June, the monsoons will begin. I envision a field of wet and muddy little guys running to make a play, all laughing in the rains having an awesome time.

For our classes under the verandah, we had our Standards 1 and 2 today; the smallest of the small. Nora and I just split the kids in half and we each took one group. I wrote down each kids name on small sheets of paper and had them attempt to duplicate them. One in particular did well from the start, others needed a little help, and little Piti is determined to draw her P backwards. I keep showing her and at times she gets it, but then she reverts to writing it in Gujarati.

I go get the alphabet chart we bought last week and we start working on ABC's. One little guy knows it all; makes it difficult when trying to get others to say it. I recommend he help the ones having difficulty instead of just blurting out everything. It's like promoting a leadership program where the ones that do better take their knowledge and use it to help the others.

Nora and I are talking to some of the older kids later, asking what they want to do later in their lives. Policeman, doctor, etc. Sumie, our smart Standard 7 wants to do something in science. Engineering? Machines? I ask. Space, he says. Sumie wants to be an astronaut. How do you let a young boy with dreams beyond the sky, know that he will never have the opportunity to even come close to that aspiration. It saddens me. Sumie is smart, probably one of the smartest in this school, but his future is determined by his class, his parents and his financial situation. When he leaves this school at the end of this session, he will at most only be able to complete two more years through Standard 9. What a pity.