Its 7 am and the sun has just finished turning the sky from deep orange to a beautiful shade of blue and now it’s anxiously trying to get into the room. This is one of those moments when you open your eyes and you don’t know for sure where you are, maybe you’re still on that exotic beach from earler on, or in your bed at home or god forbid you should’ve been at work already and missed your alarm. I’ve opened my eyes slowly, and nothing matched my expectations so I’ve decided to continue my dream. However, as I was about to reach that perfect place, I hear three powerful knocks in the door which send me straight into an upright position. I run towards the door in my sleeping bag reanacting some Japonese game, I open the door, but the hallway is all empty. Doubtful about actually hearing those knocks, I return happily to my bed. I cuddle up like a cat and zip up my sleeping bag trying to ignore those sunshine rays. BANG BANG BANG! I wake up again and see a sleep Zsofi walking towards the door. The mayor’s wife is chatting away in Kannada, accompanying her chattering with a colourful laughter and picking up some unknown tools from the cupboard to dissapear once again into the kitchen. Well, this was most definetily the end of my siesta, a new day is about to start.
Breakfast is waiting for us in the living room on the table, for a second I thought we forgot to eat our dinner, as breakfast is made of rice, curry and very spicy vegetable sauce. Gathering new forces, we go straight to school where the electrician is already at work mounting the cable rack.
The teachers come in one by one for a morning visit, giving their approval that what we’re doing is very honourable and good. However, I’m decided today not to waste any time and finish setting up the cables and the sockets. A second electrician shows up, but he didn’t bring any tools, so he’s more of a moral support than actual help. For the first time, we manage to close the door so we could keep all distractions away and get on with our work. As we’ve been especially organised this morning, results came quickly, so that by lunch time we had all sockets into place, as well as the switch and the cable rack.
Later on children finished classes and the area around the lab became their playground. The children bang on the door and yell to open up as they shake with curiosity, they cover up the window trying to peer in leaving us with no light to work in. There’s nothing you can say to tone them down and the electrician is getting more and more annoyed with their behaviour so he starts chasing them around the yard with a bat. However, after a few laps he just gives up admitting defeat and tries to ignore them.
Thankfully the children disappear for about an hour, giving us enough time to cut up the cables and connect them. However, we continue work later on with our cheering audience which has returned for a second round and we manage to connect all the sockets and we end our day by measuring the network cable and numbering it.
The mayor’s house is right opposite the school, so all the children decide to walk us to the door and wait there for us. Zsofi and I start preparing the network cables in front of the house, and the children one by one move in closer and closer with their black eyes filled with curiosity. Not long after, one of them finally dares to ask us if they could help out. We tell them that everything we do is for them so they are more than welcomed to join in. We explain what to do and how to do it and with their help in half an hour we’re all done with our work for the day. Fortunately enough, by the time we finish work, the electricity is available in the house. We can start up the netbook and have all the children gather around us as we show them photos of their families and we teach them how to use the laptop to see the globe and identify the countries we come from. In a few minutes the mayor’s living room is crowded with children and family members, all fascinated by what they could see and how they could use the computer.
It’s dinner time so everyone has to make their way back, but they all promise to return the next day. Now it’s time for the older generation to have a go at using the laptop. The mayor’s dad, lead by his grandchildren starts drawing and discovers all the digital maps and photos of India available on the laptop.
As soon as the clock strikes 9 o’clock everything reverts to its usual ritual. The grandfather takes over the remote and gets settled in front of the TV for his daily soap opera fix. With a great smile he zaps between 2 channels watching both of his favourite soap operas at the same time. During this time we finish our dinner and we go back to our room, where I need to start installing software so that once we’re done connecting everything in the lab we can start setting up the computers and clone the operating system. I fall asleep a few times with my head on the unit, so half asleep I decide to redeem my sleeping bag and end the day.
Thursday comes to a great start, as I get a bit more sleep. At 8 o’clock the electrician is already in the house waiting. I take advantage of the situation and skip breakfast, not because I don’t like rice, but I have been consuming about a kilo of rice everyday and I haven’t yet visited the loo. Therefore, I feel its for the best to skip this meal and just have some tea. My decision sends the ‚mom’, the mayor’s wife, into a panick as she’s now worried of me being sick or not enjoying her food anymore. So I wait for her to leave the room for a second, and make a run for it. When Zsofi shows up, we start mounting the network cable leaving very little to do for the afternoon. However, we might have finished our work, but we can’t set up the computers yet as there is still no electricity in the school and all we hear everyday is ‚Tomorrow, you’ll have it tomorrow’.
We meet up again with the teachers and everyone assures us that Tomorrow is the day when electricity will be given to the school. Meanwhile, the carpenter shows up, and he’s travelled all the way from Bangalore. He asses the job and asks for 400 Euros. We try to tell him that all we need are 3 tables, 2 six metres long, and one 3 metres long with no beautiful wooden work, just simple tables. However, he’s adamant that he can’t go any lower than that so we just decide to buy normal computer desks and mount them ourselves. We shake hands, I thank him from coming all the way from Bangalore and wish him success in his future endeavours.
The afternoon goes by quickly, while Zsofi is holding English classes with the children; I take advantage of this breather to go up on the roof of the house and enjoy the starry sky. I choose a star and then realise it’s a plane, so I cross that one off and choose a tinny little one next to the shooting star.
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