Happy Birthday: Anton!

Today was basically a very intense working day at the hotel. We did a lot of research and tried to specify the program and its initiatives we recommend for the two pilot schools we selected. The selection is mainly based on the teacher's level of English, the general (teacher, children, principal) motivation to improve their English and the existing infrastructure.
At the first step, there will be just two pilot schools for one year - but the expansion won't get lost on track.


Today is also Anton's 31st Birthday. The best reason to surprise him with a nice party at the common room. The only wish he had for us was: Meat for dinner!!! :-)
So we organized the delivery of meat dishes from a restaurant, girish organized an indian decoration of the room - and party got started :-)

Slice the birthday cake

PARTY!!!! :-)

Happy Birthday Anton!

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light bulb moment: sanskrit

Today was a very focused working day in our project office at Essar's.

One important fact I didn't know so far is that English is really the fourth language indian school children learn. Of course - a lot of people said so before, but I always thought, "sanskrit" is more focused on notation teaching - but that's not true! Sanskrit is the primary liturgical language of hindi and all other regional indian languages. Like Latin for all indo-germanic languages.
So that means, these children are learning 4 languages simultaneously from the 5th to the 8th grade and higher. Wow...
A fact, which makes it even more important to consider any options about activity-based learning and alternative teaching methods, and to support the language teachers to improve their on language skills.

Today also a new "welcome graphic" at the Essar entrance hall was made - this time with colored sand instead of rice. Always impressing...:-)

double precision required :-)

each sand grain is in place

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Essar refinery visit and meeting with the district's education officer

After a constructive discussion about our ideas, which objectives they face and how we further should work on them, we were able to visit Essar's oil refinery. We have been to the laboratories, their control center and drove through the storage area where their final products are stored. In accordance to all security guidelines, everybody had to wear a helmet and safety shoes.

...better be safe... :-)

IBMers wearing security helmets

 After this impressing journey we had a meeting with the district's education officer. He is responsible for more than 1700 schools throughout the Jamnagar area. This meeting gave us an overview about what is centrally given by the government and what can be done by the district itself, respectively the extent of flexibility which is given. 
He assured that he reflects our findings and recommendations to his next hierarchical level. 

Meeting with the district's education officer

Tomorrow is a day where first meetings with the parents are supposed to take place.


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3rd week started with a hotel working day

Since it takes us every day 2 hours of travel to go to Essar's and back, we decided to spend another day in the hotel to work very focused on our data analysis and first ideas for the solution.

Concentrated work session

So what we basically did so far is:
we tried to figure out which assessment dimensions are relevant for the children's level of English. Apart from the teacher's level of english there are some infrastructural reasons,  general "vibe" of the school and how supportive the community/the village is. Also the role of the principal and the parents is important. A bit
challenging is the bias we got, when interviewees told us they they have a 100%-solution on all dimensions.
But of course, we will handle that. We already brainstormed some good ideas like internships, university partnerships, new methods in teaching and ways of visual informal exposure in the classrooms.

Tomorrow will be a special day, cause our colleagues from the Essar foundation team organized us a guided tour through the oil refinery. I'm really looking forward...

Relaxing Sunday

Today was a relaxing day...after all the school visits and the travelling - a pleasure. So I took the time to go to the tailor again to pick up my Sari.

MY Sari :-)

So I'm really looking to wear it on August 31st, when a reception at Essar's will take place.

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Dwarakadheesh Temple

Temple for Shiva

 Today we went in a small group of four colleagues to Dwarka, the city where the famous dwarakadheesh temple is located. Unfortunately it is not possible to take cameras inside - so therefore just some impressions from the outside:

 

Nina, myself, Paula, Gica

It's homepage says: "...Dwarkadish is one of the most holy pilgrimage sites called the Chardham of Hindu faith and is dedicated to Lord Krishna's life".

We had very good guide there who kindly introduced us to the hindu way of worshipping. A special part for that is the exchange of the flag at the highest point of the temple five times per day. There are only 5 families who are allowed to change the flag. Anybody who wants to sponsor a new flag can do so - but the next free slot for sponsoring is already in 2016 (!).

yellow/white flag when we left

Colourful striped flag when we arrived

In the afternoon we went to bay dwarka, a little island close to Dwarka city, to visit another temple. The way to get there was a little boat - which obviously got bigger and bigger :-) I haven't seen so many people on the same boat so far...

Luckily we got a seat...

...other people had to stand

camel shepherd 

 On our way we were able to see a lot of other interesting things, here are some impressions:

Women selling spices at the market

Naan bread supply for everybody

Rubber tire as roofing material

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School visits concluded

Since next week are holidays in India and we are not able to visit any schools anymore before September, we had to get done with the visits as off today. Even though our schedule was quite tough, we made it ...Yeah!
Today we had some very different experiences: School principals who weren't interested or didn't even show up, and principals where we got a very warm welcome. Some children who were really shy - almost too shy to talk to us - and other children who were so motivated and enthusiastic!
This is a pattern, which actually adopts to all schools.
Now the data gathering phase is completed and we need to do a deep dive into different topics throughout our data analysis.

"Where is Germany?"

Dedication to each child

Last school visit so far

 Our way to the last school today was really adventures in terms of the street conditions. Beside of that a herd of buffalos let us stuck for a short stop-over. 

stuck because of buffalo jam

This evening, I had my second non-veg dinner in more than two weeks now. I'd say, I'm already 90% vegetarian.

Tomorrow we'll do a day-trip to Dwarka. The place where the oldest indian hindu temple in India is.

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