Of churches and Trees !

-Deyone ( Learning facilitator)

A Friday Nature Walk at Gubbachi Learning Community :)

There was some confusion whether we should go to the area behind the school or towards the village. After voting it was decided we'd go to the village. We started at 11.30 am. Deepanjali and I accompanied the children. 22 of us walked along the side of the road towards St. Anthony's church - just 200 meters away from the school. I felt like exploring the church premises thinking that children may not be familiar with the idea of a church and there also are some trees to climb onto.

So we entered the small compound and peeped into the church. There was a statue of crucified Christ who was bleeding all over. Anita was quite sure that her uncle had donated blood to this bleeding man some months ago. :D Vikas thought it was a school, seeing all the benches, and asked where the children are and when does the class happen? Some of the children said that it is Jesu Appa's place and it is equivalent to a temple. But the benches arranged in rows were still a mystery to Vikas.

We explored the area around the church and saw a small garden. We decided to create a small garden like this in front of our center. (Hope the idea will grow into some action.) :) There was a spruce tree in front of the church. We collected the secretion from its stem and burned it. It had an amazing fragrance - (thanks to the candles and match box at the church). Breaking the 'badam' seeds and eating them was fun too. Malli was concentrating on breaking and eating them with no distraction at all!

By this time many of them started climbing the other trees around. There were badam trees, jackfruit trees and teak wood trees. None of them had branches lower than 12 feet high. Vikas tried to teach me how to climb these trees using the strength of my upper body, which I terribly failed at. I even tried hugging the tree and just held to it; then, I would slowly slip down to touch the ground. They advised me to put sand on my feet so that I would have more grip to hold the tree. Everything went in vain. Anyhow, I've decided that I would learn how to climb this type of tree soon. :)

It was 12.20 pm and time for lunch, so we walked back to the school and some of the children sketched out the church building, trees and flowers before going for lunch. In one of the sketches you can see crucified Jesu Appa happily floating in the air. :)

Climbing is fun.

Happiness matters. :)

Have a happy weekend.