School Visit Truly Remarkable

On a day that is best described as magical, the touring group on Tuesday visited Lucky’s former school. This government funded middle school provides free education to some very poor people.
But the school itself is also poor. Of the 500 children, most sit on the floor as only a handful of class rooms have desks. Materials such as books and stationery are very limited.

Through fundraising efforts, some generous donations, and the touring group itself, we were able to make a significant contribution to the school. On our first full day in Bangalore, several members of the touring party spent the day with Lucky securing good deals to purchase materials for the school from local wholesalers. We were very pleased to secure the following at good prices:

5 radios – to enable the use of radio broadcast lessons.
6 floor carpets – to make sitting on the floor a little more comfortable for the students
500 packs of stationery – consisting of books, geometry sets, pencil cases, pencils, sharpeners – one for every child of the school.
500 packs of uniform material – every child received enough material already cut to size to enable a new school uniform to be sewn. 500 shirts, 290 skirts, 210 shorts.

This material was delivered to the school in the morning morning and the touring group arrived early in the afternoon to check out the school, meet the teachers and children, and formerly present the materials during a school assembly.

We probably hadn’t thought much about how we were to be received but it is true to say that what happened exceeded any of our expectations, and totally blew us away. The head mistress, teachers (and educational officials that visited) treated us like Royalty (the only thing missing was the red carpet) and the kids treated us like rock stars.

None of the staff or children could speak any English at all, so the only communication we had was body language, (or Lucky if he happened to be nearby to translate). But the beaming smiles on all their faces said it all.

Smiles, waves, handshakes, photos, laughs, and more smiles. Johnny McKay was especially popular, at one stage appearing to be pulled apart by each arm and leg in a different direction, by about 20 children at once. The kids begged for their photo to be taken, and then mobbed whoever took it to have a look at themselves.

After checking out the classes and performing a few different activities with some of the children, we were then given lunch before a formal assembly took place. We sat up the front like royal dignatories. We were blessed, then each given a lay of flowers draped around our necks. 500 loud and happy children sat in front of us. Each of us then had the opportunity to give a gift pack to about 10 children one by one.

The proceedings were completed when each of us sat amongst the children as Lucky taught them to give three cheers. But is was so exhilarating to everyone that Lucky just kept going. 3 cheers turned into about 24. None of us wanted to leave but in the end we had kept the children longer than their normal school day and none of them had yet had their lunch!

Chaos then broke out as the energy level of the kids somehow rose to even newer heights as the food was brought out. As the teachers regained control we noted that the disciplinary tactics used by the teachers differ somewhat to what we use in Australia (a stick proving a very effective tool).

After farewelling the students (a few hundred handshakes and smiles each within a few minutes) we then had some photos with the teachers and it was all over. The teachers kept telling Lucky what a wonderful gesture this was by us, and how they had never seen any generosity like it.

So thank you so much to those supporters and donors who contributed. You really did make a difference to this school and the 500 students.

Thanks to:

Ravenswood Hotel

Rod Duggan

Barry House

Jeff Miller

Dennis Lillee

Anthony Stubberfield

Jason (Mad Dog) Muir

Boyd Colgan

Tony Massara

Kath Allen

Maggie Caramia from M&MJ Constructions

Hallyburton Family

Sam Burge