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Sozialprojekt der Klassen 8, 9 und 10 |
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Vom 10. bis 14. März 2008 |
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Schülerberichte |
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Menschen, Menschen, Menschen... - Anna, class 10 |
Geschafft vom langen Sitzen, empfangen vom Bürgermeister und mindestens fünfzig Dorfbewohnern -
ziemlich genau so begann unsere Klassenfahrt und sollte uns wohl auf die nächsten Tage vorbereiten.
Nach einem kurzen Fußmarsch, begleitet von vielen Dorfbewohnern, gelangten wir zu unserem Zuhause
der nächsten Tage.
Doch auch nachdem wir dort ankamen, beobachteten uns die Dorfbewohner weiterhin, hauptsächlich
von den Dächern der benachbarten Hütten. Täglich und beinahe rund um die Uhr, schon beim Aufstehen
gegen 7 Uhr bis etwa um halb elf starrten Augenpaare auf uns hinab.
Es war uns eigentlich unmöglich mal alleine zu sein.
Bei all unseren Aktivitäten bildeten sich spätestens nach ca. 5 Minuten große Trauben von
Menschen, beim Töpfern, beim Fischen, beim Streichen der Schultoilette, beim Volleyballspielen,
beim Einkaufen usw. ...
Ganz extrem war es auch, als wir am Donnerstagnachmittag mit einem Pferdekarren über die Felder
zu einer "Jaggery-Fabrik" gefahren sind. Zu Beginn waren wir mehr oder weniger mit den Arbeitern
alleine, aber es dauerte höchstens 3 Minuten, da fanden wir uns in einer Menschenmasse von etwa
150-200 Indern wieder.
Es ist nicht unbedingt so angenehm, wenn plötzlich aus dem Nichts viele unbekannte Menschen kommen
und sich fast schon an dich drücken, und teilweise sind ein paar von uns auch an diesen Menschenmassen
verzweifelt, trotzdem waren diese Situationen auch ganz besondere Erlebnisse.
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Bans Kheri - Shivani, class 10 |
It was the day before we were supposed to leave. Jan, Guni, Sele, Anna and I were on the fields.
We were all amazed by the fact that we weren't being followed by the entire village and mostly
also relieved, for once it was just us and moods were high. We waited anxiously for what awaited
us in the unknown. I admit that I was pretty nervous at first, later it developed into a lot of fun.
It was swelteringly hot, strangely it cooled down as the day progressed and the more I worked.
We started off cutting the sugarcane and scraping off the excess leaves. After being stuck
with my fellow mates for four days back to back, it was hard not to keep the peace, every
now and then quarrels arose. They never really lasted long though. Preparing the cane for
transportation was amazingly stress-relieving and a great way to relax. The only problems
we had were transporting the canes to the cart, believe me, the bundles weren't light.
As soon as I finished, I felt very exhausted and couldn't figure out how those workers
could do that for hours and hours. It made you respect these people, working on the fields
all day, even more, out in the fields for hours on end, trying to make a living. It's a life
I don't believe I could live but all in all I had a lot of fun and I'm glad I could experience it.
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Guni's report, class 10
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During a long excruciating trip to a village called Bans Kheri,
a group, consisting of Jan, Anna, Neha, Jenny and Guni, decided to
enter an adventure, so grand, that we would be telling the story
years after. In a pool of water was our dinner, lurking, trying
to get away from a net, which we used to go fishing. A helpful
volunteer and the mayor aided us to set the net into position
and extract the fish we had caught. Before beginning the task,
we took off our shoes and accessories to preserve them from what
was about to occur. In the midst of the crowd was the small lake,
which was also connected to the sewer lines. The uncomfortable
feeling between our toes came from the mixture of mud and poop,
forcing us to squeal and shout until we got used to the feeling of
mud and moving fish. All in all we caught 5 fish and had a
delicious dinner. It was an interesting trip for all of us and even
though none of us would do it again, it was a life changing
experience.
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New Faces, Places and Experiences -
Our classtrip to royal India; Bans Kheri
By Neha Dutt, class 8
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Towards the beginning of the school year 2007, two teachers, Mr Krank and Mr. Remy,
cam to the 8th, 9th and 10th grade and asked us if we wanted to do something
different for our classtrip. They offered to take us to a small village in Uttar
Pradesh, Bans Kheri, where we would stay for a few days and help the school. The idea was
to do something like a special project. It was Monday the 10th of March, 2008. At 8 o'clock
the three classes where to come to school with their belongings and help load all the supplies
onto the Mercedes bus, in which we would be travelling for the next five hours. Two students,
one from the 9th and one from the 10th grade did not come. Everything was set, the things were
in the bus, the students ready to leave and the teachers were in the jeep, including Ms
Buhrmeister, our apprentice. Mr Khan, one of our school bus drivers would take us there
along with his wife, since they had relatives in the village. The plan was to stay there for
five days, and four nights.
Once we arrived, all the students were most excited to leave the bus and have a glimpse of
the village. Shockingly, we had about 50 men and children staring at us, probably because
they had never or hardly seen foreigners before. I myself am half Indian and look very
Indian, so I fit in a bit.
All of us carried as much as we could and made our way through the small alleys of Bans
Kheri towards our promised house - the mayor's house. We got there and looked around.
There were three bedrooms, one small Indian toilet and one tiny room with a bucket and
some water, which we would be using as our shower. Between the two rooms and the third
was a small open area, where we ate, pumped our water, cooked and washed dishes and held
our class meetings.
An exciting, adventurous trip cut short. Everyday the small groups, in which we had
divided ourselves, would go with one of the teachers to experience something new. We
did all sorts of things: we milked cows, made clay pots, cut sugar cane, made bricks,
helped the schools, went fishing in the lake and caught fish with our very own hands.
We also went to a sugar cane factory on a buffalo cart. Doing all these activities
was very fun. I got more and more used to the village until the last day, Friday.
We had to leave this way of life and go back to our own, modern way. We woke up and
made breakfast. Then we packed all our things and made our way back to the Mercedes bus.
Once we said our good byes, we drove all the way back to Delhi. Our wonderful time at
Bans Kheri was over.
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About the Indian people and ME -
Our Classtrip to Bans Kheri
By Etkin Haskamp, class 8
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The 8, 9, 10 graders of the German school New Delhi went to the village of Bans Kheri in Uttar Pradesh. Uttar Pradesh is one of the poorest states in India.
Monday
It all began on Monday, 10.03.08. We met at 8 o'clock at school. We still had to load all our
belongings, food, "school things and presents for the rural school on the bus. It took us
nearly three hours to do so. Finally, at 11 am, we took off and said good bye to civilization
and hello to Indian village life. After five hours of driving in an uncomfortable bus, we
arrived in Bans Kheri. As we left the bus, most of the male population and children of the
village surrounded and just stared at us. At that point we noticed we were the main attraction there. We unloaded the bus and carried the things to our new home. On the way there, which we walked by foot, the whole village followed us. It felt strange to be observed by so many eyes, but we were positive and knew that they didn't know any better. If an alien came to my house, I would stare at it and follow it, too.
Our new home was the mayor's house. It had three rooms. One next to the toilet and the shower
and the other two next to each other separated by an open space - our future dining room and
kitchen. The toilet was basically a hole in the floor and the door of had had so many holes
that we shortly decided that each of us would have a "toilet partner", just someone who
stood in front of the door and watched it. Since we had no beds and no one of us was
willing to sleep on the ground, a few of us went to buy charpoys. I was among them. We
drove to the market by horse cart. Again many people followed us. The ride was much fun,
because we drove quickly and there were many bumps on the way - almost like a roller coaster.
At the market we didn't find enough beds but our "guide" assured us that we would finally get enough beds for everybody. What was really weird was that in no time 200 people surrounded us and we almost couldn't breathe. We drove home and had dinner, Indian food of course. We slept early.
Tuesday
7 am, I woke up, or was awakened by my friends and noticed that from our "dining room" some children were staring at us from the roof. I wasn't annoyed but just wondered how special or different they thought we were. Anyway I got ready and went to milking. We arrived at a family who had all kinds of animals in their backyard. We tried milking the ox, but we were too scared, because it seemed aggressive. Instead we milked a goat and made butter the Indian way. Afterwards we went back and ate breakfast.
Then we produced bricks for the first time. As we arrived, the first thing you could see was dozens and dozens of bricks. Only men were working. I also tried to make a brick, but it's really hard. It took me about five minutes to build one, and it takes brick workers to build 20 within that amount of time. What you had to do was pour sand and mud into a brick form, quickly turn the form and carefully try to get the brick out of the form. It sounds easy, but it really isn't. Afterwards the bricks are being put into a giant oven and burned. That's it.
Wednesday
At noon we went to a sugarcane plantation and tried to cut sugarcane in the field on our own. Afterwards we went to the sugar factory by ox cart full of sugarcane. It was interesting to get to know more about the production of sugar.
Thursday
This was the semi-last day of our class trip and I could already tell that I would be going to miss this place where all Indian people were staring at us. But I knew I couldn't live there, I'm rather used to the big city and not a small village. The programme for that day was visiting a school, a Muslim private school. We went there and gave each child a few gifts like notebooks, pencils, etc. Later on we went for a horse-cart ride, because it was our last wish to do before we would return to Delhi. The ride was long, very bumpy and lots of fun.
Friday
We returned to New Delhi and I knew this experience taught me a lot about the Indian people and ME!
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