Back to School

We have now had a day of introductions and a further two days of training. This has been Hindi lessons in the morning which are fun but hard. There are currently 15 volunteers. Another three are due to arrive but are having problems getting their visas approved by their respective Indian Embassies in Ireland, Australia and England. We have been split into two groups to reduce the size of the class. Learning Hindi is fun and although hard not especially difficult compared to any other language. There are many fits of giggles as we get things wrong. We have limited time to learn so I am aiming for 30 minutes every day or so but I am sure this willbe difficult as time seems to evaporate here.

Each trip out for dinner or to Lodhi Gardens takes at least 15 minutes as the road is so packed and busy. Going for a run yesterday meant dodging 6 lanes of rush hour traffic, some open sewers, wonky pavements and road works in order to get to a park where risk of breaking your neck trying to exercise was greatly reduced. I’ve been told we are in the area where refugees used to come to live on arrival in Delhi. This seems like a good way of assimilating all the volunteers into Indian life. We have good parts and not so good parts here. It is not just getting around that takes ages as bureaucracy is a factor. Even getting a pay as you go sim for my mobile has meant copies of passport, visa and a photo. I don’t relish trying to set up a bank account or getting an internet connection. These things seem to take weeks to sort out.

The last lesson for this week was on Indian Sign Language. I was asked to speak briefly about sign languages and then the Deaf chef from the VSO office was drafted in to teach everyone a few signs and chat to the class. It’s a shame there wasn’t more time to prep for the session and to chat to my colleague beforehand. Nevertheless I managed to interpret for the class so they got both an idea of sign language, Deaf awareness and how an interpreter works.