Mireia's sixth letter

Dear students,

How are you? I was really happy to read your letter! It made me almost cry…I miss you a lot, but remember that in a few days I will be there and come back to school with you. You are also the best students in the world! ;) So, Carme’s tummy is getting bigger and bigger? That’s great!

I tell you about my life here: I changed the school. Now I am going to a school situated in a “red neighborhood”, it means that there is a lot of prostitution there, and the children sometimes have no opportunities to study and they are analphabet.

So, this school tries to help them. It works as an orphanage where they can live: sleep, play, study…There is a roof called “rainbow” where they can study with the help of volunteers and teachers from the same school who go up there and teach them some hours par day. And that is what I have been doing: playing games with them, teaching them the letters of the alphabet…It is a really nice experience.

Here you can see the pictures:

But I am really sad because I know I will miss them a lot, as I am also missing now the students I had before in the other school: Loreto Entally. I have met a lot of people, nice people, with whom I have spent the afternoons visiting places, walking through the streets, talking...so I know I will miss everything a lot. But I am also looking forward to seeing you!

I went to Varanasi, a city on the north, where they burn the dead bodies, according to the Hindu culture. Some people cannot be burnt and some others have less privilege when they die, so every funeral is different. It is hard to observe it. After the body is burnt they throw it into their sacred river: The Ganges.

Here you can see some pictures of this particular place:

I hope to see you soon, I miss you very much!


Kisses,


Mireia

Mireia's fifth letter

Dear students,

I am very happy when I read your comments on the blog.

This week has been special. I visited a lot of temples (religious temples). In India, and specially here in Kolkata, people are Hindu, Muslim or Christian. Here I show you some Hindu temples:

You asked me what I eat, so here I show you a picture of one of the best meals I have ever tasted here:

And this week I also said goodbye to my students in Loreto. It was very sad, because they are really nice and I will miss them a lot, but I will change to a school where the students are poorer than in the first one.

I will tell you more about this experience.

Here more pictures of the streets and the people:

Lots of kisses!! I miss you,

Mireia

Mireia's fourth letter

Dear students,

How are you? I am very happy every time I read your comments on this blog, really really happy! I am also missing you a lot, but it is nice to be in touch thanks to this blog where I can tell you things and show you some pictures of Kolkata (Calcuta). This way, you will learn more cultural and social things.

Here you can see another picture of my students and me. They are now learning how to read in English and we also practice “mental maths” in English as well! As I told you, their English is quite good. In the other pictures you can see Kindergarten students (Infantil) playing some games outside.

 

  

 

 Here you can see a video of them singing a song in Bengali (their language):

You asked me what we eat: Always rice or noodles with some spicy sauce. They mix the boiled rice with vegetables, and sometimes they eat it with “xapati” (the typical Indian baked bread). Everything is so spicy that I sometimes need to put “curd” on the food, or eat it after. It is an Indian yogurt. 

Here I show you a temple of this city. I visited it last weekend. It is a religious place where people can go and pray. They are all really nice and peaceful. People normally go there and spend some time relaxed.

 

  

This weekend I have been in an Indian wedding! Weddings here in this country (Hindu weddings) take almost six days! They are very long and each day there is a different ceremony.

 

  

And here the weather is hotter than in Spain, but it was colder than now some days before. In February the weather changes a little bit and becomes warmer than before, so it is better for the people who live on the streets.

 

  

 

I miss you a lot and I enjoy your comments very much!
So thank you, and lots of kisses!

Mireia

Mireia's third letter

Dear students,

How are you? Are you studying a lot? I hope so! I am also working a lot here in Kolkata.

Here you can see me with some of my students. They learn everything in English in the school, so their English level is very good, but is good for them (for their future job), because they are all really poor...

 

 

But they also learn their language: Bengalí. I think it is more difficult than Catalan! Look!

 

Here you can see some women washing the cloths and talking, and some boys and mans “having a bath”. As I told you, they are poorer than we are in our countries, so lots of families have their houses in the streets. 

 

 

Some children cannot go to the school and they have to work since they are really young. So you must be happy for having the opportunity of studying! You have more fortune than them!

And the streets are crowded during the whole day. You can find people working in the markets, selling fruits and vegetables…

 

I hope you enjoy my letters. I miss you a lot!

Kisses,

Mireia

My first days in Loreto School

Dear students,

I am also missing you a lot! Thank you very much for all your messages. I am very happy in this school, but it is a really hard experience. You have learnt how to compare things, haven't yo? So, now you can compare both realities:

People here in Kolkata (Calcuta) are very poor. Most of the children who come to school are really poor. Some of them are orphan children who don’t have father and mother, so it is very sad.

As you can see, they have to wear the same clothes in the school every day, and they have really old materials in the classrooms: desks, tables, books.., everything is old. They don’t have Internet, or computers, they just have wood tables, a blackboard, notebooks and books. That’s all.

But they are all really nice and they smile all the time; I am really happy with them and I hope they are also happy with me. I am like “something strange” for them, because some of them had never seen a foreign person before, and I have: blond hair, blue eyes, white skin.., so I am really different!

Kolkata is bigger than Barcelona and bigger than Madrid. It has more than 15.000.000 of inhabitants! And life in this city is harder than in Spain. People work more than 12h par day, and they earn less money than we do in our country. Some people don’t have house and they have to eat, sleep, have a shower…everything is done in the street!:

It is the only place in the world were “horse-men” exist. They are mans who can bring you wherever you want as you can see in this picture. And most of the times they don’t use shoes!

I hope you are having a good time in school and also in your life, and I hope to see you soon (in March). I wish you the best! And remember...you are rich if you compare to these poor children and people here in Kolkata! You must be happy with all what you have!. I promise to write a letter for you every week.

Lots of kisses,

Mireia

Life in Kolkata

Life in Kolkata

Dear students,

As you know I am now in Kolkata (Calcuta) in the region of Bengala Occidental, India.

The picture above is the flag of the city. I will work in different schools but the first one will be Loreto Convent School, where Mother Teresa started to work in the beginning.

What do you know about Mother Teresa's life? And what do you know about India and Kolkata? You could search for information on the Internet!

Here you have a video (only pictures, without sound) about life in this city, so that you can have an idea about the place I will be for two months.



I will miss you a lot.

Kisses,


Mireia