Written by Flavia
Some months ago, Sujata spoke of a village in Goa which she had visited as part of a Research Program – Kudchire. I thought she was talking about Curchorem, a village in South Goa. I was wrong. Kudchire is a village located almost at the border of Goa in Bicholim taluka in North Goa.
No one I knew had ever heard of it – its not on any of the maps of Goa that I had seen. Sujata told us that the village is around 3 kms. from the border of Goa’s neighbouring state of Maharashtra. Using other information that I knew, I calculated that Kudchire would be less than 30 kms. from Aldona, the village in which I grew up and is still home. Within a month of Bookworm starting sessions there, I was asked to lead a LiS session at the Government School in Kudchire. I was thrilled.
Around forty minutes after leaving my house, we arrived at the school. It seemed that the kids were happy to see us – a few rushed up to help us with our bags and boxes. As soon as we set our stuff down, we were called into the office – for a mid-morning snack! Locally grown vegetables were used to make a delicious ‘ross’, to be eaten with bread brought by the ‘poder’ (a local word describing a person who goes around the village selling bread from a basket) baked in a bakery which was in Maharashtra. This was washed down with a cup of hot tea. The other LiS members told me that they were offered this snack every time they were here.
In class, it seemed as though I had as much to learn as the kids. While the kids in schools where LiS usually conducts sessions had never seen a deer or a crocodile in their natural habitat, these kids were able to tell me which direction these animals had run off when they were seen ‘just a few days ago’.
There were so many new things for me to learn – good and not-so-good. The Kudchire kids have that thirst for knowledge that kids from other schools seem to have lost. The only thing that I did not like about my sessions there were that the boys did all the talking and answering, while the girls sat at the back of the class and just followed orders. They would not answer even if asked. It has taken quite a few LiS sessions to get some of the girls to answer our questions, shyly.
I have been to Kudchire three or four times after that first time, and I have learnt something new on every trip.
