From The Tin Shed School:

Struggling to get there

Under the harsh summer sun, I awkwardly stumbled through the rubbish strewn path to the tiny Tin Shed School: A make shift school for construction worker and slum children where I had decided to put my free time to use and volunteer as a teacher. From the corner of my eye I could see curious children peering out of their little huts and their parents behind them casting suspicious stares, wondering who I was and what I was doing there.

At the school itself there were only about ten children aged five to fifteen. I realised that there were a lot more children wandering around outside the school than in it. The permanent teacher/helper told me that it was a real task convincing the reluctant parents to part with the helping hands of the children even for an hour.

Bearing in mind the odds, I was grateful to those who were there; smiling eagerly in that sweltering hut with no chairs – just a tattered mat – and inexperienced teacher.

One of those beaming, optimistic faces belonged to 14 year old Madan, who was in fifth grade. As soon as he saw me he promptly wrote down his name in English and showed it to me. I wasn’t sure whether to be pleased at his enthusiasm or to cry at the amount that they needed to be taught. I decided to go with the former.

He was busy showing his handiwork around the class when his mother burst into the hut and asked him to go and stand in line at the water tap. I tried to convince her to let him stay a while, but she insisted that because of the water shortage if they didn’t stock up during the hours that the government provided them with water, they wouldn’t have any water all day and she really needed to get to work at the construction site. It’s hard to argue with that kind of logic, so I let him go.

But not for long - five minutes later I saw him at the window which was close to the tap where he was queuing up. ‘Look’ he said in Marathi, ‘from here I won’t miss a thing’.