Today, we cleaned our room at the Boys' Home. Wait, let me rephrase. We didn't just clean it, we gutted it. It has been needing a thorough cleaning for about 6 weeks now, but it's difficult when I am the only person there and am also having to run around getting supplies for the boys and checking their work. It appeared clean on the surface, but I knew the corners needed to be swept properly and the cupboards needed to be set straight and the drawings on the walls needed to be pulled down and all the extra paper really needed to be taken for recycling. I knew all these things needed to be done, but I also knew I needed help.
Enter Prabhu and Maruthi. Now that the schools are closed for their summer holidays, and the summer camp Ness sponsored at Doddabelle is over, Prabhu and Maruthi will be coming to the Boys' Home for the next 6 weeks or so. Someone [I honestly don't know who] got the ball rolling by straightening up the cupboard where we keep books for the boys to look through.
Since that was already done, and Maruthi was there to keep an eye on the boys who were working on their lessons, I decided this morning that it was finally time to attack the cupboard where we keep all our materials, games, puzzles, sports equipment and paper, as well as our bags. It has been beyond messy for a while now, but everytime I've started to try cleaning it out, some boy or the other has had a "crisis" that has needed attending to. So I kept putting it off, clearing out a few papers at a time every few days or so, but never doing what I really needed to do.
Today was my day.
I spent the entire morning session, and most of the afternoon, going through every single shelf of that cupboard, throwing out junk, separating papers that can be used again [we re-use paper that has a blank side] and those to send for recycling, categorizing and organizing all the materials, getting rid of broken shuttle rackets, packing up things that needed to be returned to the office, and generally putting things to rights. And let me tell you, that cupboard is beautiful right now. I meant to get a picture, but I forgot, so I'll get one as soon as I go in the morning before anyone has an opportunity to mess up my system. Because I know it's going to get messed up. That's just a fact of life. But I'll know I did my part.
And while I was focusing on the cupboard, Prabhu and Maruthi corralled 3 boys into helping them get the rest of the room in order after lunch. They got rid of all those volcanoes and planets we'd made 5 months ago, they swept out the corners where all the papier-mache had flaked off, they threw out all the junk that had accumulated on top of and inside the box with the screen printing supplies, and they tore everything off the walls except the two maps and the collage the Impington group made last year. We came up with a plan of how to arrange things on the wall so that it still rotates with the boys but also has a better flow to it.
And tonight, I feel such a sense of accomplishment, something I haven't really felt in a long time. Even though we didn't focus on teaching, today is going to go down as one of my favourite days at the Boys' Home. And in 3 years of going there on a daily basis, I've accumulated quite a few.
I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the cupboard will stay mostly clean until I leave at the end of the month.
xx
Enter Prabhu and Maruthi. Now that the schools are closed for their summer holidays, and the summer camp Ness sponsored at Doddabelle is over, Prabhu and Maruthi will be coming to the Boys' Home for the next 6 weeks or so. Someone [I honestly don't know who] got the ball rolling by straightening up the cupboard where we keep books for the boys to look through.
Since that was already done, and Maruthi was there to keep an eye on the boys who were working on their lessons, I decided this morning that it was finally time to attack the cupboard where we keep all our materials, games, puzzles, sports equipment and paper, as well as our bags. It has been beyond messy for a while now, but everytime I've started to try cleaning it out, some boy or the other has had a "crisis" that has needed attending to. So I kept putting it off, clearing out a few papers at a time every few days or so, but never doing what I really needed to do.
Today was my day.
I spent the entire morning session, and most of the afternoon, going through every single shelf of that cupboard, throwing out junk, separating papers that can be used again [we re-use paper that has a blank side] and those to send for recycling, categorizing and organizing all the materials, getting rid of broken shuttle rackets, packing up things that needed to be returned to the office, and generally putting things to rights. And let me tell you, that cupboard is beautiful right now. I meant to get a picture, but I forgot, so I'll get one as soon as I go in the morning before anyone has an opportunity to mess up my system. Because I know it's going to get messed up. That's just a fact of life. But I'll know I did my part.
And while I was focusing on the cupboard, Prabhu and Maruthi corralled 3 boys into helping them get the rest of the room in order after lunch. They got rid of all those volcanoes and planets we'd made 5 months ago, they swept out the corners where all the papier-mache had flaked off, they threw out all the junk that had accumulated on top of and inside the box with the screen printing supplies, and they tore everything off the walls except the two maps and the collage the Impington group made last year. We came up with a plan of how to arrange things on the wall so that it still rotates with the boys but also has a better flow to it.
And tonight, I feel such a sense of accomplishment, something I haven't really felt in a long time. Even though we didn't focus on teaching, today is going to go down as one of my favourite days at the Boys' Home. And in 3 years of going there on a daily basis, I've accumulated quite a few.
I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that the cupboard will stay mostly clean until I leave at the end of the month.
xx
No comments:
Post a Comment