Party Day

No bells rang until about 6.30am which was really quite late and no one was keen to get up and practice Bengali or go to keep fit classes with the children. I started my packing but it was a really halfhearted effort, I really didn’t want to admit that we were nearing the end of our trip. The morning was spent teaching staff from the school how to use the equipment we were leaving behind.

The architect had come to see the builders and was teaching them how to lay ‘rattrap’ brickwork so all of a sudden the building work seemed to be moving on in leaps and bounds. A shelter had been jury-rigged to provide shade for the architect, Anup and other key people who were observing the building work. Sairul was being run ragged as he was responsible for doing the measuring of the work, cooking the evening meal and running errands to purchase henna for the girls to do Mehndi tattoos on us.

At lunchtime a family came to visit the school. The lady’s husband had died a month earlier and she was sponsoring a meal for the children in honour of him. She is a retired teacher and it seemed like she may well get involved in the school - this would be a real answer to prayer as the school needs a more mature female member of staff to come alongside the girls in particular and encourage them that they can achieve all sorts of things in life. I pray that her relationship with the school will continue after her visit.

After lunch the children were all drawing pictures, many of them were copying ones they found in magazines and books so I got my painting and finished off the picture from the Sunderbans. John asked me to paint a picture for him of 11 English people arriving at the school in a bus. I had to invent this in my imagination and the children were really intrigued by the fact that I wasn’t copying an image - however one of them began playing with my paints and started painting from her imagination - this seemed like such a profound step for her.

Anup had asked Dan and I to sit in on a meeting with the property developer from whom he was hoping to purchase the next piece of land. Somehow he seemed to think that our presence would help the process. It was one of the most surreal moments of my life, sitting in the headteachers office wearing my dog collar, being introduced as an Imam to an Indian Muslim. We listened to a heated debate in Bengali which Anup attempted to translate whilst also trying to join in which made things quite complicated. The meeting came to an abrupt end with the property developer bowing to me and saying Nomaskar and dashing out of the room. I really don’t understand what happened but I think Anup was happy with the outcome.

When I returned upstairs after our meeting the older girls from the school were painting Mehndi tattoos on our female students in time for the party. I went back to my painting for John but was drawn into the exercise and ended up sporting armfuls of henna tattoos that needed to dry. The most special one for me was done by Borsha. She had been my groups team leader for two weeks and she is extremely shy with a desperately sad story. She quietly took my left hand and drew a very intricate design without copying anything, I noticed later that she had done the same design on her own hand. This meant so much to me as it felt like she was saying to me that she valued me but without using words.

Aunty, Aunty we need you! Ok what that actually meant was hurry up Diana you have to let us help you put your sari on as you are the last one to be ready. The party started at 6pm with a photo parade of saris and punjabis. I was asked by our girls to wear my less flamboyant sari so that I didn’t show them up which was fine as I can wear the more grand version to Anup’s birthday gala in London. The music was provided by DJ George and we discovered he has an extremely interesting taste but the lights were turned off and the dancing commenced - disco lighting was provided by an empty coke bottle being placed on a flash of a mobile phone - ingenious! After a while I sat out of the dancing and got my painting back out in order to try and finish the picture for John before I left - I can’t tell you how many times the children asked me which person was which on the panting and rather like guru style learning as another child came and asked those who had sat with me recited off the list. After dancing a film was shown which drove me from the place I had been sitting to paint. Anup, Dan and myself ended upstairs with most of our students for a celebratory drink (for those who were old enough). Poor Sairul, who had been run ragged all day was desperately trying to prepare us a Biryani for dinner but because of his busyness it was getting later and later. Children were falling asleep on the tables by the time it was served at after 10pm but it can be safely said that a good time was had by all. I can also say that I actually really enjoyed wearing a sari and am thoroughly looking forward to the next opportunity as long as I can remember how to put it on!