Today Sister Helen and I visited St. Anne’s School for the 2nd
time. Last week we came in the evening and talked with the teachers and
students who come for evening school. Today we set off from Bellefonte in the
jeep after breakfast for a surprise visit to the head administrator. The road
to St. Anne’s is a perfect example of the quality of roads in the northeast. At
the widest places the road is what we could call in America a 1-lane road and
yet cars come and go in multitudes in both directions. The smell of smoldering
tar comes every mile at least, as construction rambles along. On the side or in
the middle of the road is a pile of larger rocks, then a pile of smaller
gravel, and in some places a pile of sand. You might see a number of boys
beating the rocks with a hammer or chisel to break them up into the gravel that
is then melted on cast iron atop roadside fires. Often there are women sitting
or standing, watching the work and just as often, women are participating in
this process one way or another. From one side of the street to the other, men
and boys carry this “tar” in buckets hanging on sticks and either hand pour it directly
onto the road or pour it into a large spinning cylinders (imagine a small
cement maker). This morning at one such work site, we sat behind a few
construction trucks waiting for them to move to let traffic by. In the meantime
one small car and one jeep squeezed by us, mostly driving off the road, and the
cars behind us honked the soundtrack of India in impatience. Of course, there
are no traffic diversions or flaggers and you simply drive over the hot tar as
it sets and over the more manageable piles of gravel. Or you swerve off the
road to avoid colliding. On the way to St. Anne’s, there is one patch of
totally unpaved road, only red clay and rock with 1 foot deep potholes. In the
US, we’d call it off-roading. It is no wonder most people here have either
jeeps or very compact cars.
We arrived at St. Anne’s Day School at 9:45am where students
were waiting for their 10am classes to begin. There were no teachers there yet,
however, only the administrator. A few rolled in after we did and a few came in
about 10:15. Two teachers did not show up at all and I overheard that they’ve
been absent for more than 2 weeks. At this point in the year, though (the
school calendar is Feb through mid-Dec), there seems to be no point in trying
to change behavior patterns or hold people accountable. Teachers are supposed
to sign-in in a hand-written ledger every morning and afternoon, but they often
just lie about what time they come and go. When I asked about the possibility
of finding more accountable teachers, I was told that due to low school
enrollment there wasn’t enough money to pay teachers who were more qualified or
accountable (none of them have an education degree and only 2 have Bachelor’s
degrees). Sounds like a perfect catch-22. Not to mention that it’s pretty
typical for things to start 1-2 hours after they are scheduled in India. If
you’ve been to a 3rd world country, you’ll know what I mean.
The administrator, a beautiful Khasi woman, had asked Sister
Helen a few months back about the possibility of BCC taking over the school as
it is not being well managed or attended. Today they discussed the details and
what that would mean for the school and for BCC. There is a lot of bureaucracy,
of course, and details to figure out, but Sister Helen has agreed to run a day
school there, as well as continue the evening programs. There are currently
about 60 students enrolled in secondary school, 5th – 10th
grade, in an area where hundreds should be attending. I never did get a clear answer
if there was a public school nearby but I’ve been told repeatedly that village
public schools are a waste of space and money and they don’t begin to supply
the education that is needed. The Indian government claims to be committed to
making free public education for every child in India but that will take a very
long time and as of now is seriously lacking. So the hope is that with better
management of the school, better resources, and more qualified and accountable
teachers, attendance will rise and the surrounding villages will appreciate and
support the school. The sisters have seen it happen in other communities.
The school itself is “being renovated” which means that it
looks like a construction zone and that work is slow and little noticeable. In
the front entrance there are about 20 bags of cement, lying here and there are
4 foot high piles of wood and debris, and the electrical wires hang low enough
for the Khasis to have to duck - and most of them are at least a foot shorter
than me. From what I saw there were 4 classrooms being used with one catch-all
room not being taught in. The vision you conjure up of a classroom, though, is
probably far from the reality here. By classroom, I mean 4 concrete walls, 1 to
2 iron-barred windows, long wooden benches and tables that hold 2-4 students
each, a black board and an empty teacher’s desk. There is one box of chalk in
the school and students are sent to ask for it a piece at a time. This morning
I saw a few teachers come take pens out of their purses a while after class had
begun as there are none in the classrooms. I have been asked to teach a
training to 15-20 teachers in 2 weeks and realize that they’ll be a far cry
from the ultra-media heavy teaching tools we employed at trainings in Korea. The
administration is a small room behind the chapel, which also seems to have
rooms upstairs, but the whole building is currently under construction. Sitting
in the asymmetrical concrete office, hammering overhead shook the whole room
and pieces of loose concrete crumbled overhead. The room itself spills over
with unfinished bricks and rock in the “storage area” where student’s notebooks
are piled. Teachers’ books are piled into another tight corner.
After the meeting we were treated to very sweet tea and
local treats – we can’t escape meeting anyone without accepting that nonnegotiable
offer – and on the drive back we stopped into the nearby North Eastern Hill
University (NEHU) for a quick driving tour. Sister Helen and I talked about
student interns at Indian University and whether they offer student teaching
possibilities or internships. It sounded like that is not something that
happens normally but Sister Helen has some contacts in the Education Department
and is trying to convince them to start a program or offer their support to
BCC.
Our days have been packed and I’m not even going to try
offering a play-by-play of life in the convent and Shillong. One highlight was
taking 2 Bellefonte house girls to our friends’ hotel to learn in the kitchen
for a few hours. It was an exciting day for them and they didn’t want to leave.
Circus and I stayed for a luxurious dinner with our international family (photo here).
Evening meetings are not a possibility this week, however, as the protests have
increased and they are imposing 7pm-5am road blockages throughout the
state. On Sunday, the protestors burned
a brand-new BSNL cell phone tower and mobile station. This is supposed to be the
busy season in Shillong, with the Durga Puja state holiday next week and the
best weather, and tourism is reportedly down 70-80% in the state. Everything is
closing early to allow people to get home by 7pm. This week there have only
been 3-4 construction workers at BCC, I think both because of the protest
actions and the unreliability of the workers, and Sister Helen has complained
to the contractor to find new blood. Things like this just happen all the time
in India, though, and projects take a long time to complete. Fortunately,
patience is a Catholic virtue that the nuns have mastered.
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