Newsletter winter 2008/2009
December 27, 2008
New building is finished
The building with the room for the boys and the guest flat was finished at July 2008. The 10 boys are really happy that they have their own room. Two boys share one bed. The two boys who share a bed also share a box where they keep their belongings so they can keep the room neat and clean. The boys have their own bathroom which they keep very clean them selves. In their room they sleep, play and do their homework.
At the moment the guest flat is housed by Inge and Kees, a married couple from the Netherlands.
The Dushera festival trofee
Last October the children performed very well at the Dushera festival with their dance performance for the Laxman Jhula community. They won two prizes by dancing an Indian National Dance, a devotional dance and a local village dance in their beautiful self made costumes. Congratulations Children of the Ganga Valley Homestay/School!
In memoriam
We also have some very sad news. Last month one of the children of the Ganga Valley School, Sunny, died of a snakebite. He was only 6 years old. We miss him a lot. We all are very sad that he died this way and we wish his family strength to deal with his dead.
New volunteers
Since December 15th 2008 Inge and Kees came to live in the guest flat of the Ganga Valley Home stay. They are a married couple from the Netherlands who teach the children after school English and math. For many years they come to India for 3 months each year to teach underprivileged children who need help with learning English and math. Both of them speak Hindi so they can really communicate properly with the children.
Inge is really passionate about teaching and she prepared many materials for teaching when she was back in Holland. With the materials she brought to India Inge can teach the children English and math during tuition in a playful way. The children love it and always come early.
At the 15th of December, Nicole a volunteer whom is also from the Netherlands came to stay at the Ganga Valley Home. Each morning she helps two or four children from pre-school with their math, like practicing counting or practicing which number is the biggest. She also helps the children with their homework after school and she helps one of the girls, Renu, individually in tuition.
Winter activities
During the holiday the kids are preparing for the function of this year. They will perform a play who is written by Rachel. They will also perform a dance. As in the past the teachers and students are planning beautiful hand-sewn costumes for the dancers and hand-made decorations for the school are being designed and created by the staff and students.
During the holiday the children also attend tuition to keep up their schoolwork. They have tuition in the morning and in the late afternoon. In between they practice for the function. They also get a hula-hoop course from Inge which is a lot of fun and they are going to learn to play softball.
