My first day of school...

Today was my first day of school. I started my day early at around 5.15 am. I had to reach school before 7 am. When I reached school I had this sinking feeling. The rest of the teachers were giving me alien looks. I stood at the assembly just like the many k.g. kids who came to school for the first time. I was extremely nervous. I was desperately waiting for Pranitha, another Teach For India(TFI) fellow who was supposed to teach std. 2 (I was allotted std. 3). I was so relieved when I saw Pranitha walking in. After assembly I went in my classroom which had only 13 kids today and around a 27 were absent! Interacting with these 3rd graders brought to light that although they belonged to an English medium school they could not speak one complete sentence correctly. They were responding either in Marathi or Hindi. I could actually see the depth of the challenge I have to overcome with these kids and pull them to the level of English they should be at.
English aside, there came another shocker! The government supplies free text books to these kids. But all that my classroom got were sets of History and Geography texts. My kids did not get English, Math and General Science texts. I still need to find a way out - either go to the roots of where did these texts disappear or find donors so that I don't lose out on time; the later being a logical solution for now as I cannot get into the systems right from day one...I need to observe what all is going on first.
As the day proceeded, I was suddenly called by the principal and was asked to teach std. 4 instead of std. 3 due to some xyz reasons. After some discussion, I continued with my 3rd graders but I do not know what is going to happen tomorrow. Pranitha was in the classroom next to me. I really wanted a TFI person to know what was going on with me. And there was Pranitha, facing her set of challenges. She was in a classroom where both 1st and 2nd graders were put together with their respective teachers. Apparently there were no sufficient number of classrooms available so she had to share it with another teacher!
In short, like what last year's TFI fellow Sahil said, I too experienced my first roller coaster fall today. For a second compare our childhood with these kids...We had our own books, our own teacher, our own classroom...And here are these kids fighting for basic education from day one of school...Fighting for a classroom, fighting for books, fighting for their own teacher...It was all a big pain to see it happen and not being able to do much about it...All I know is I cannot fall apart. Though the misery is making me choke right now, I always knew it was not going to be easy. It was my first test today...I may have failed but I have to move on and fight. I will stick it out! I will do all that I can for these kids...I may not be able to change the world but I can do my little for these little kids.
I wouldn't say it was an all bad bad day though. The good part is, the principal and other staff is quite friendly. The alien looks which were given to me in the morning turned into comfortable talks over break time and sweet goodbyes towards the end of the day...Here's hoping tomorrow to be better than today...Its going to be another day, another chance!