Trips and Trips and Trips

At Devnar, School Trips are a very common occurrence with there often being one (or even more) per week. Last week alone Lottie and I attended three functions with our students and I thought it would be worth noting down what these trips will often entail...

Wednesday was National Pollution Prevention Day and to mark this occasion some of our students had been working on a science presentation ready to present at the Pollution Prevention offices in Hyderabad. This required us filing into the mini bus (as always it was at over double capacity) before we headed across town to a rather fancy office building complete with a number of conference rooms and central exotic garden. There were a few other schools attending, all of whom had won prizes for their science projects. It was a little hard to understand what some of the projects had as their focus as most of the presentations were in Telugu. This left Lottie and I a little confused but that is nothing out of the ordinary since we are still working on the language barrier. After these, the boys dance troop performed their much loved Annual Day Remix dance, and the girls performed their more traditional Indian dance. There were also a few songs to lighten to the mood before the conference delved into what seemed to be some pretty serious talks about the environment. After this many prizes were handed out and photos taken with the attending politicians before we all bundled ourselves back into the bus in time for a very special donor dinner complete with pots of ice cream! 

Thursday started with our first visit to Sai Junior College. This is where most of the Devnar students go to continue their studies doing First and Second year Intermediates after they graduate 10th class here. It was surreal to see a place that was so much like Devnar (the same uniforms, colour schemes, even some of the staff work at both institutes) yet completely different. Here there were no tiny children to tug at my trousers and ask for chocolate, no one jumped on me and the place was oddly quiet but pleasantly peaceful. We were there because we had been invited to accompany the Junior college students on a trip to the airport (though at first we didn't know what this would entail). The hour long journey to the airport was made by two buses- one for the male students, the other for the females ones- and this time nearly everyone had their own seat which was nice. 

Every year, during December, the Five Star Novotel next to Hyderabad Airport will invite the students for a to the hotel for an afternoon of speeches, performances and eating really nice food.  The students were invited to performs songs and dances inside one of the hotel's restaurant rooms, before the staff (some reluctantly) did the same. It was great to see the number of students who were willing to stand up and sing and dance in front of all of their peers and strangers, especially the solo performances. Their confidence put Lottie and I to shame as we almost had to be dragged onto the stage before we agreed to perform the Pharell Williams 'Happy' dance we are currently teaching the younger students at Devnar each evening.  

Following this, we were served one of the nicest Chicken Biryanis I've tasted since coming here along with exotic new peach and date puddings that are were far more luxurious than most of the food we get at the school. The students, naturally, had a really nice time and seemed to have a really nice time joking around with the hotel staff about who their favorite Hero was and what their plans for the future were (most want to be accountants, it seems.) 

The school bus dropped Lottie and I back to Devnar only to be welcomed by another set of hotel staff from Hi-Tech City who had come along to mark International Day of Peoples with Disability. They had divided the children into small groups and had seated them out in the courtyard where they were given crayons and a big sheet of paper. 'Village life' was the theme for this particular drawing competition and the entries were really impressive with their bright green grass, blue skies, clouds and houses of every colour in the pot that hadn't already been used. Prizes such as rucksacks and water bottles were given to the winning students which they seemed more than delighted with.

On Friday we accompanied another trip to The Hyderabad Special School for Children in Need of Special Care. A talent competition was being held here meaning both Devnar's dancing groups were in attendance, as were a number of solo and group singing acts. 

While the shows were lovely, the most interesting part of this day was meeting other children from schools around the city. There were a few schools for the deaf such as the Sweekaar Special School for the Deaf in Bowenpally. It was really interesting to see the different ways in which these children overcame their different disabilities- for example, rather than clapping after an act, the students from the deaf schools would raise and shake their hands instead. Seeing these schools made me feel very sentimental as I could picture my Dad's students from The Holy Land Institute of the Deaf in Jordan (his own Project Trust Gap Year Placement) being very similar to these students. Furthermore the similarities between those students and my own made me realise how similar the experiences my father and I will have had by the time I finish this year. Living at Devnar I have become somewhat desensatised  to the children's visual impairments but this event allowed me to rerecognise how brilliant these children's communication skills are. Before coming here I wouldn't have considered the possibility that visually impaired students could properly befriend the deaf students yet this day proved my ignorance as I saw my students signing 'thank you' and 'sorry' to the deaf students who had given up their chairs for them. What was equally lovely to see was the Special School for Children In Need of Special Care itself. Everything was beautifully brightly coloured and the courtyard was filled with flower beds and plants to encourage the children to engage their senses. There was also a sensory garden complete with stepping stone paths, climbing frames, fountains, wooden shakey bridges, sand pits, models of zebras, parrots and elephants and even a modest but beautiful Hindu temple. 

This was one of the most enjoyable programmes I have attended since coming out here. The pride I felt for not only my students but all the students who performed was more significant than I could ever have imagined it to be and, on top of this, every single person we met was a delight to be around. It wasn't really important whether the students couldn't see, hear or walk, they were all simply wonderfully happy, funny and enthusiastic children and that was what made them Special.