Week 41, Pune India

Dear Ethel, Family and friends

We finished our teaching in Aurangabad and it’s amazing how much they can learn in a week when they are keen students. They were a lovely group of people and they prayed for us again, gave us small gifts and much thanks. We really enjoyed our short time in Aurangabad and wish all our students and friends there all the best and thank them for their wonderful hospitality.


We traveled back to Pune during the week to stay with Melinda and Brian again. Another volunteer Jema has been staying here and teaching at the Poona School that Melinda organises, Gyanankur English School. We went out on Thursday to meet the students and teachers and sit in with each of the classes to get an idea of where they are all up to. On Friday we took a couple of the classes and will be teaching there for the next 2 weeks.

The Gyanankur English School is on the outskirts of Pune, set amongst the rural farmland and local villages. There are about 200 children at the school ranging from 3 to about 8 years, nursery to 3rd form. The children come from the surrounding villages, disadvantaged, orphaned and homeless children and children from NGO’s. Resources at the school are at bursting point and there is currently a 40% shortfall in their budget. Donations make up some of this but more is needed.

Please visit their website for more information.
http://www.gyanankur.com/

Thursday night, Brian took us out to a cultural village to meet up with another group of Australian volunteers who have been in Pune for the last week, working at the school and on other projects in Pune. It was great to be able to sit and talk with some fellow Australians for a while. The cultural village had numerous displays and activities including, camel rides, traditional dancing with a stack of pots on the head, fire eating, puppet show, rope walking with pots on the head and Louise got a henna tattoo as well. Dinner was a vegetarian Thali, numerous small bowls of different types of food. Thanks again to Brian for organising a fun night out.

We spent Saturday night at a hotel in town to give Melinda and Brian some family time. We took the opportunity to hit the shops and see what is available in this big modern town. Plenty of shopping malls, restaurants and coffee shops we also hit a few museums as well. Next weekend we will be going to the hill station of Mahabaleshwar.

All the best Ric & Louise