Day 28: The Unpredictability of New Delhi

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One of the things I have learnt in the month (!) I have been here, is to expect the unexpected... Living in England, I am used to unpredictable weather and inconsistent rubbish collections and public transport, but New Delhi takes inconsistency to a whole new level! Today seemed like a day full of unexpected surprises...
To start with, Cayla and I were bypassed by about ten autos, before one stopped and agreed to take us, then of course the traffic from Maya Puri to Zakhira was chocka-block, and I arrived late. I don't know why, but my first class were NOT co operating by any degree, and I actually had to send one of them out, after he scribbled over a page, and then started destroying his book... I have a newfound respect for past teachers who have had to deal with difficult students! (not me of course) My second class was great, as usual, although they want to help each other out, meaning that the ones who aren't as good don't actually do the work for themselves. I get the feeling they have progressed a bit, and the ones who couldn't recognise words are getting more familiar with them. At lunchtime, I sat in the corner while they had one of their Bal Mandal meetings, which seemed to involve them saying some kind of oath (it was all in Hindi and no one explained) followed by them each saying their name and something else in Hindi which I didn't understand. They then accused one of the boys of smoking, and he didn't seem to defend his case. Luckily Indians use a lot of hand signals and were demonstrating to Sushila (who was holding the meeting) so I could figure out what they were talking about. I soon lost track of the conversation, and my eyelids were giving in to gravity, so I excused myself and ate my lunch! For some reason, the centre was almost completely empty at lunchtime, so I had a nap and set my alarm so I would be awake enough to actually teach in the afternoon.
For some reason only two girls showed up to my afternoon lesson, and they were quite unresponsive when I tried to converse with them, so we sat in awkward silence for a bit, before I decided to start the lesson. We played hangman and did a wordsearch! I am still finding it hard to make an hour long lesson with only two class members interactive and interesting, but it is a good chance for them to practice their conversational skills. I found this out in my last lesson, with only 3 girls, and then we went through different verbs in past present and future tense. This went quite well, and I managed to finish the lesson a bit early. I was amazed that when I left at 5 to 4, the first auto which pulled up accepted me and we left straight away! (This is what I mean about Delhi being unpredictable.) Anyway, halfway back to the office, the auto meter was over 100 rupees already, and seemed to be adding up pretty rapidly! This worried me slightly, and I unfortunately ended up paying nearly 200 rupees, where I would normally pay more like 130. 130 rupees is about £2, so it's not exactly a lot of money, but it was still annoying that I had to pay that much!
I was very pleased to recieve a letter from my mum when I got back to the office!

The school holidays end tomorrow, meaning that most of the kids are back from visiting their villages, and will be going to school tomorrow. I don't know how this will affect my lessons, as some may have to do housework or whatever while they are not at school, which might mean they can't attend lessons. I will have to wait and see how it turns out I suppose.
I can't believe I only have 3 weeks left!
This evening I made aMAZing chocolate brownies (even if i say so myself) and for those who know me, you will know how pleased I am with this! Cooking here is quite an experience, thanks to the lack of measuring equipment, and having to use a convection oven! Thank goodness for the power of the internet!

One thing which I didn't like about today, was that the girl who is normally begging at the traffic lights under the flyover, had her naked baby brother on her hip. Even after a month, seeing her actually upset me a bit today, and makes me really wish I could do something for them. Poverty and Inequality is such a huge issue here, I just wouldn't know where to start...

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