To Bee or not To Bee?
Answer: Yes, Two Bees of Indian origin (look very different to our bees so I am wondering whether they are actually wasps but called bees??). One stung Ken on the foot and the other stung me on my thumb!!! Very painful but sorted quickly with some anti sting cream and all fine!! Think the neighbours must think 'the foreigners living next door to them are very strange people, as one night Ken let out blood curdling screams as he stepped on one and the next evening my screams woke up all the local dogs who had just gone to sleep!!! We then became aware that we were experiencing visits from many bees/wasps - we have now tracked them down to an air con unit in the lounge where we suspect a nest!!!! They don't make a sound so a bit intimidating when they suddenly appear.
On to better news!! All going well with our teaching - and have now met all the children/students for our classes. They are so keen and enthusiastic - very helpful during the sessions and they have loved the craft activities too. We are using the Asha building in Ekta Viha slum colony which consists of two adjoining rooms. A good space for the numbers we have - both rooms have two large ceiling fans (very noisy) which keep the temperature a bit cooler (very welcome). To get to the building, we walk through the slum, along the narrow streets lined with every kind of life - tiny babies toddling around naked, old women sitting on iron beds sometimes begging, or washing, children playing, chickens roaming, people filling bowls with water from a central tap - many greet us, others stare and the children want to shake our hands or have a 'selfie' taken. We see this as a great opportunity to give God's blessing to them - we have nothing else to give. "He who is blessed on earth will be blessed in heaven" (paraphrase by Heather).
Yesterday, I had my first session on the Asha bus. It's a fairly large vehicle usually used as a mobile medical centre - really helpful for visiting lots of the slums. I will be 'on' the bus on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the children. I got to the bus yesterday with a large roll of paper under one arm, a heavy resource bag and guitar and was met at the steps to the bus by hundreds of tiny fip flops on the steps - I stumbled up the steps and there were about 40 little faces all waiting expectantly with enormous smiles and then loud cheers!! A bit overwhelming really. Soni was there, a lovely lady who is in charge of the bus, and she soon realised that 40 children crammed together on the floor was not going to work very well so sadly 20 were chosen to leave but promised that they would have their turn on Tuesday. We had a really lovely few hours together. I took the theme, 'we are all special and needed'. They learned some English greeting sentences, made a jigsaw piece about themselves and then put it together as a complete puzzle, sung lots of songs, including the butterfly song and then made butterfly puppets to take home. We all had a lovely time and it was such a pleasure to be there. Looking forward now to making Tuesday special for those who missed out this time!!!
Tomorrow Ken has his very busy day - College, University and working students all day and I have my class of yr12 students for computer work and English conversation - they said last week that they like singing and dancing so might see what happens with that!!
Love Ken and Heather X
Answer: Yes, Two Bees of Indian origin (look very different to our bees so I am wondering whether they are actually wasps but called bees??). One stung Ken on the foot and the other stung me on my thumb!!! Very painful but sorted quickly with some anti sting cream and all fine!! Think the neighbours must think 'the foreigners living next door to them are very strange people, as one night Ken let out blood curdling screams as he stepped on one and the next evening my screams woke up all the local dogs who had just gone to sleep!!! We then became aware that we were experiencing visits from many bees/wasps - we have now tracked them down to an air con unit in the lounge where we suspect a nest!!!! They don't make a sound so a bit intimidating when they suddenly appear.
On to better news!! All going well with our teaching - and have now met all the children/students for our classes. They are so keen and enthusiastic - very helpful during the sessions and they have loved the craft activities too. We are using the Asha building in Ekta Viha slum colony which consists of two adjoining rooms. A good space for the numbers we have - both rooms have two large ceiling fans (very noisy) which keep the temperature a bit cooler (very welcome). To get to the building, we walk through the slum, along the narrow streets lined with every kind of life - tiny babies toddling around naked, old women sitting on iron beds sometimes begging, or washing, children playing, chickens roaming, people filling bowls with water from a central tap - many greet us, others stare and the children want to shake our hands or have a 'selfie' taken. We see this as a great opportunity to give God's blessing to them - we have nothing else to give. "He who is blessed on earth will be blessed in heaven" (paraphrase by Heather).
Yesterday, I had my first session on the Asha bus. It's a fairly large vehicle usually used as a mobile medical centre - really helpful for visiting lots of the slums. I will be 'on' the bus on Tuesdays and Thursdays with the children. I got to the bus yesterday with a large roll of paper under one arm, a heavy resource bag and guitar and was met at the steps to the bus by hundreds of tiny fip flops on the steps - I stumbled up the steps and there were about 40 little faces all waiting expectantly with enormous smiles and then loud cheers!! A bit overwhelming really. Soni was there, a lovely lady who is in charge of the bus, and she soon realised that 40 children crammed together on the floor was not going to work very well so sadly 20 were chosen to leave but promised that they would have their turn on Tuesday. We had a really lovely few hours together. I took the theme, 'we are all special and needed'. They learned some English greeting sentences, made a jigsaw piece about themselves and then put it together as a complete puzzle, sung lots of songs, including the butterfly song and then made butterfly puppets to take home. We all had a lovely time and it was such a pleasure to be there. Looking forward now to making Tuesday special for those who missed out this time!!!
Tomorrow Ken has his very busy day - College, University and working students all day and I have my class of yr12 students for computer work and English conversation - they said last week that they like singing and dancing so might see what happens with that!!
Love Ken and Heather X
Hello to you both, Hope the bee situation is under control. How was the chicken market?
ReplyDeleteJust back from life group, rather late so must get to bed.
with love,
ally x