Loreto Day School Sealdah – 2003

For the second time in my 9 visits to Calcutta Sister Cyril of the Loreto Day School Sealdah allowed me to go on the village trip with her students. I don’t know how I can write this story as it truly is unbelievable.

I met all the Loreto Students at the Loreto Day School Sealdah at about 8 AM. It’s a very busy place with approximately 1500 students (all girls). Today I was going to go on a bus with the Loreto students who would teach in 9 village schools. The young teachers are put into 9 separate groups of about 15 students each, from grades 5, 7, and 8, along with a 10th grader who is in charge of each group. One adult teacher is in charge of everyone, all 9 groups of children.

I will never forget when we boarded the bus, it was standing room only. Sister makes sure that I have a seat. Sister introduces me (Ray OBrien from Boston) to the children on the bus and tells the children that I am a visitor and to talk to me and tell me all about India and the Loreto school. But when we reach the village, forget about Mr. OBrien and to put all your effort into teaching the children at the village school

It was a wonderful day. I learned many things during that trip from the Loretto girls.

It was a long walk to the village once the bus stopped about 6km. As we started our long walk the 9 groups of young Loreto teachers would break off one by one from the main road to go to their assigned village school. I was with the last group.

When we arrived at the village school Krishnarampur Malanga F.P. School the children and staff were very happy to see the Loreto girls. I watched with my own eyes as these young Loreto teachers took control of the classroom and taught the children. The class size looked to be about 50 children. As I watched and observed, I saw the Loreto school girls show kindness to the children as well as discipline when needed. The girls keep the classroom under control at all times and made sure everyone was learning the lesson at hand.

I did not bring any donations on this trip as I did not want to cause any problems. I was also there to learn from the Loreto school girls.

To this day I think about that wonderful day and what a great job the Loreto Sealdah girls did. It was unbelievable.

I would like to say a big Thank You to all the girls of the Loreto Day School Sealdah who looked after me on that special day especially Salmoli Choudhuri 13, Sayantani Bhattacharya 14 , & Monica Roy 14 I also would like to say THANK YOU to Sister Cyril and the staff at the village school Rafigut Islam Sarder , Khuku Ghosh and Sufti Das If I have mis-spelled any names please forgive me. Below you will find a few photos of this wonderful trip.