The Magic of Recycling...Creating Games and Playing Games...

We started the day welcoming Shaona once again. She joined us with some of the children from the Magic Bus project that she works for on campus. The cutest bunch of children - Amuda, Lidya, Nivedita, Shweta, Salman, Akash & Robin.

Shaona, Ragavendra and Robin doing the introduction drill 

The day had been planned by Shaona who got the children to understand the usage of colour to provoke feelings and desires, and explained to them why if one goes to see all mineral water bottles have Blue as a common colour.

Shaona explaining the usage of color to the group

They then played a game of segregation of the bottles into shapes and sizes and in a very interesting manner she divided the children into 3 groups, gave them 15 bottles each and asked them to come up with their own games using the Footballs she had brought along for a later session of the game.

Abhi being his guiding and organising nice self to the kids

Lina thinking about the concept with the next group of children for the game

A game similar to 9 Pins being played

Amuda of Magic Bus trying to tackle the ball through bottles

The groups came up with some interesting ideas and Abhishegh was a great guide into the games.

Shaona and the kids working on the concept for the recycled tree

Post that they began conceptualising and working on a tree made of the discarded mineral water bottles that had been collected. It was a simple process of cutting and moulding the bottles to make them feel like plam leaves which were eventually mounted on a bamboo stick and pitched in a bottle pot full of pebbles. The kids created 2 of the same and a third one in parts for us to carry to Goa.

Everyone is at work with the bottles

Kumar being helped by Abhi to add color to the palm leaves

The Magic Bus girl group 

Assembling the tree together

Shaona Adding the little details for the groups 

A proud group with their plam tree 

Post lunch they gave the finishing touches and moved on to a solid 2 hour football training.

Abhishegh and the kids warming up, while one of the Magic Bus kids getting ready for action

The children of Magic Bus came onto the field like professional football player wearing their football gear and mingled with our children for a simple practice session and then a short game.

The group learning a bit of tackling

Mahesh trying some head shots 

The kids got the experience of a mini football game as well

When they returned to the temporary art studio we have now on campus, the excitement levels and energy of the game filled the room.

The entire gang ! 

Through all this time, Sophie and Lina tirelessly worked on finishing the aquarium for the children. It was our first time of making an aquarium with recycled materials so we had some technical glitches but in the end it looked absolutely fabulous.

The aquarium built with all the aquatic life made by the kids using recycled material

The day ended in a slightly stricter note by Sophie sitting the our children down for a short discipline talk because they had left the art studio in a mess including their own art bags and art materials strewn all over the place, so in a very patient manner she got them all to sit down do an inventory check for their things and then we disperesed for dinner. Where, they were treated with Ice Cream once again by a student on campus.

It is amazing the amount of attention and pampering they are getting from all and that is why we need to also be a little strict at times with them. Its really like getting all your Disneyland rides for free ......