When the day is off and the night is dark these villages look more beautiful. After Charan and Jeetu counted their steps while they went to call Hikaka (an old man and our teacher for the day) to the centre others got interested too. So the excercise is to know the value of their one step in metre and centimetresetc and that’s how we start to learn about units. And after we finished the story sessions in Bondaiguda, Padmavati asked me to stay back and it was around 6 and sun had almost set. As we are working on a chain of kuvi stories and Padmavati said there are old storytellers in Kankubadi. So we took a shortcut via fields to Kankubadi and then as usual walked on a narrow stony roads with trees around and crickets buzzing.
Kankubadi is a beautiful and peaceful village with a water body aside. Like I said sometimes before about the trust within the community, it’s pretty much visible and experienced. I stayed over in this village for the first time, the village lane was lit only by the crescent moonlight and majority of the houses don’t have doors. I slept in one of our Saathis house with no main door and one tiny door leading to the room was also open for air to pass in. We didn’t need a fan or a mattress or a pillow and we slept well. Also it was totally safe to go out of the house to pee as the houses here don’t have washrooms. I felt safe so unlike many big cities. Ideally developed, right? And my day started the next day at 5 theirs was earlier than mine. We went to the centre and took children around the village streets learning about different trees and it’s usage. It was fun to learn on the road. ~ PrituVatsa Intern, Klorofeel foundation.