Rambo Christian School

No fear…..I have not disappeared. We have been experiencing some internet difficulties at the hospital. Somewhere a fiber optic wire was cut on accident and they informed Dr. Henry that it would be fixed in an hour or so, but that was 24 hours ago and we are finally back up and running. I hope you are all doing well. Yesterday was for the most part a pretty non-eventful day. You will probably not think so, but in terms of Mungeli and India and our trip, the day was very easy going.

We started our day, as we do every day, with chapter at 7:30am. Following Chapel, we were still without the rest of our team as they were still on their trip back from Bissamtuckett. So Lisa decided to head out to the villages with our neighbors, Lisa and Marcie, as they continued their research on still births in India. Meanwhile I set out with Shane into town to pick-up a few things and then off to the school to continue working on hanging strings for our posters.

The school is a very old and beat-up cement building with rebar grates in the windows, exposed ceiling rafters littered with holes and spider webs galore. The furniture consists of either wooden chairs and small desks or simple metal benches and desks. The wooden furniture is all in extremely poor shape. Finding a truly sturdy chair is a treasure hunt. The lighting in the school is sparse at best. Some rooms have lights and others have nothing. Every door is beaten beyond anything you can possibly imagine. Most of the classrooms have no order to them. Chairs turned this way, tables that way and if they are lucky the room may have a chalk board at the most. In some cases, two classes meet in the same room. The teachers are all working with basically little or nothing in terms of curriculum. They don’t have large expense accounts or access to places like Target or Wal-Mart or any other store for that matter to purchase decorations, materials and supplies to help them educate these children. There is a separate building that is set on the back part of the property where some of the older students have their classrooms. This building is in the same dilapidated shape that the main building is in. The shock to me was when I read the cornerstone that noted the dedication of the new building in 2001. I was shocked at how aged this building looked and it was only ten years ago. I mean is it the weather conditions? Is it the climate? Quality of the construction? Lack of good building materials? Whatever the situation is, this school is certainly in need of some major help. The school yard is littered with garbage, chunks of cement, dirt, sticks, you name it. Most of it is the remnants of an old part of the school that was torn down some time ago. The only part of the school yard that is not in this shape is the small fenced in playground where the jungle gym and the swings are located. It is hard to look at this facility and believe that an education is really happening here.

But there is so much more to a building than the color of the walls or the quality of the roof. When you meet the principal Avinash and you hear him speak of his desires and dreams for this school. When you watch the teachers in action, instructing and guiding these children – you are left hopeful. There is a lot to be desired. There are things that go on here that teachers in America would freak out about. At times during the school day, you can’t honestly tell who’s running the place – the teachers or students. There are kids going in every different direction and in some rooms, the students are seated and working while in others there are seven different conversations going on and a teacher is nowhere in sight.

The hard part right now is deciding whether to spend or save. We could easily come in here and do a major spring cleaning, slap some paint on the walls and the entire building would look completely different. But then again the footers have already been laid for a brand new building that will house the entire school. It is planned for this project to be completed in the next two years. This is not meant to be a knock on anyone involved in this situation, but the reality is that I don’t see the construction happening that quickly. I hope they are able to continue raising the funds needed for this new building and I hope that that project can be completed much sooner than their two year goal. After several days here and interacting with the students, you get hooked. You see their joy and you see their faces and want so much for them. They show up to school every day, the dress for success and they have the same hopes and dreams that students in America and all around the world have. They want more for their lives, they want to be successful and they want to do anything they set their mind to. When you hear about the caste system and you walk the streets of Mungeli, it’s easy to understand why some people have already counted these youngsters out. They will simply grow up and live the same lives they are living today and have been living for hundreds of years. But don’t tell that to the Avinash or the teachers or any of us who have been here. Sitting in anyone of these classrooms could be the future Dr. Henry, the future Kobe Bryant, or the future President of India. I don’t doubt it for one second.

In order to put up some of the hundreds of laminated posters that we brought with us, we had to go through each of the classrooms and hammer large cement nails into the walls and then run a tight string between them. We then purchased about 300 binder clips and spaced them out on these ropes all over the school. From there we divvied up the posters and hung them all over the school. It was awesome to see what something so simple can do for changing the entire look of a school. We all spent a good part of the day working on this once Kelly, Dave and Gregg returned from their train ride.

That was really about it for today. Oh how could I forget?….Lisa had befriended one of the teenage girls from the area at our picnic on Sunday afternoon and was interested in learning more about the skin art that is extremely popular in India, called Mehendi. So Lisa had Retchna or Rimi for short, over to our guest house for a little artistry work. Before you knew it, we were joining in on the fun. Lisa got artwork on both of her hands and wrists, I got my name and a Tiger paw on my shoulder, Gregg got a heart with “MOM” in it, Judy got some flowers on her arm and Dave got the Gateway Tank logo (the company he owns) on his massive biceps. It was a whole lot of fun and laughter getting our Indian ink. Another great evening of fellowship spent with our friends from all over the world. Again….one of the million reasons I can’t wait to come back to India.

Until Tomorrow……enjoy!
-Nate