Before the Dormitories being contructed


Stage 1 of the Dormitories completed on the ground floor



The academic year is starting in June 2009 and all our hosts are looking forward to the volunteers whose contribution to our local projects has been simply outstanding. The bright smiling faces of the children who long for your love are eager to welcome you, spend time with you, learn from you, play with you or simply be around you. They always ask me when the volunteers are coming, how many of them are coming, how long are they going to stay with us …….. And so on. They are very thrilled and happy if it is a big group since all the children get to work with the volunteers.

With the few laptops we have, we have started teaching basic computer skills to the children and also to our hosts. And these computer classes are turning out to be a big hit among our children who in their past have never touched a computer. And we need to keep this momentum going.

As many of you know we have completed the construction of the dormitories (stage 1) on the ground floor at SEAM children’s home and we will be starting the construction of 3 more rooms on the first floor from this academic year onwards. This is possible only if more volunteers sign up for construction. So that together we can fulfill the dream of the children to have better facilities to live in.

Along with the children looking forward to see you in India again soon.

Stephen

Chennai Sangamam

Chennai Sangamam

The only Festival of India that belongs to people of all religions, as well as to the non-believers. The harvest fest of Tamil antiquity - The Pongal re-discovering itself as urban thanksgiving. It's Chennai Sangamam. More than 2000 performers will ignite the spirit of Chennai for seven days with around 4000 performances. All in parks, streets and beaches. Held in the month of January 10-16 every year. Welcome to the longest and biggest Open Festival of India,

Tour of the Dormitories at Seam Children's Home

Children of SEAM Tell Their Story

I'm grateful for my connection with the children at an orphanage in Chennai, India. Having volunteered once before with Global Volunteers in the Cook Islands, I was prepared to tell their stories broadly when I returned home. Weeks before my journey to Chennai, Stephen, the country manager and my translator, sent the stories the children had written in their native language, Tamil. As I read their sad stories of how they became orphans or semi- orphans, tears welled up.

Upon arrival in Chennai, my wife Anne and I were greeted by Stephen and the most adorable little girl. She had big eyes and a charming smile. She took my hand and without words said, "Thank you for coming to our country." I experienced the same warm, greeting from the children at the SEAM (South East Asia Mission) orphanage the next evening. They flocked around us and were fascinated by my digital watch - technology is a rare commodity in their community. I showed them a special movie I had made on how to make movies. My experience in the Cook Islands where I had first begun working with children on movie making taught me to be prepared. I felt what better way to teach how to make movies than with a movie itself. (You can watch this on Youtube here).

The movie was a success in teaching them about the basics of filmmaking. Then I brought technology to the nine older children who would actually film the movie. With three cameras divided among the three teams, I was able to instruct them in simple camera operation and get the project going. Their response to the instruction was fantastic. The kids are outstanding, and given their opportunities through Global Volunteers, I could see them soaring beyond their humble surroundings. Please click to view this extraordinary film and become inspired to give of your talents to these deserving and eager children.
- Tom Barker

Global Volunteers.- Feb 2009.

Millinium Development Goals

Achieved by this team from February 9 - 13;

60 Hours of class room instruction in conversational English and computer skills by 5 volunteers and 60 Hours of preparation time.

50 Hours of childcare by 2 volunteers

50 Hours of construction labor at SEAM Children's Home by 2 volunteers

2 Schools, 2 Children's Home and over 500 students impacted


Saturday, 2/7/09 (Ginny Weber)

“The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed”.- J. Krishnamurti

It’s Saturday but we’re off to our first work day of the third week. Georgie and Linda M. are taking the overnight train to Mysore so we changed our schedule a bit and we’ll have our weekend holiday on Sunday and Monday.

Linda M. and Georgie worked construction today at SEAMS. The dormitory is coming along beautifully and we hope to have it completed on time. Georgie learned some Tamil words from the mason.

Linda W. continued her math teaching at Grace School, determined to get a few math equations in to their sleepy heads. Children here go to school on Saturdays and are a little tired of the whole thing by then.

And Ann and I went back to Assisi to work with the children. Those kids are non-stop and it takes every ounce of energy to keep up with them. They are adorable and Ann and I love being with them. We thought we might escape Sister Rose pushing food on us at lunch time as we were planning going back to the guest house for lunch – but as we left Assisi she insisted that we take 3 boxes of food to share. She makes me laugh and is truly a delight.

After lunch we prepped for our next classes. During our break I walked down to the bangle shop. While there I chatted with the cutest girls coming from St. John’s High School. Kids go to school on Saturday and they all must wear uniforms (not a bad idea for the U.S.). They spoke beautiful English and were lively and vivacious like typical teenage girls. In the afternoon we all went to SEAMS for our one on one teaching with special kids. We ended the day at SEAMS with a wild and rollicking play time with all the kids.

After dinner (another wonderful vegetarian meal prepared by Rani) Georgie and Linda M. headed to the train station for their weekend adventure in Mysore.


Tuesday, 2/10/09 (Georgie)

The journey is difficult, immense…We will travel as far as we can, but we cannot in one lifetime see all that we would like to see or to learn all that we hunger to know. –Loren Eiseley

While we have all traveled a long distance to help the community of Chennai, many, if not each of us, also came here to test and learn about ourselves. Our time in India is coming to an end where we no longer count the days we have been here, but instead, we acknowledge the remaining days of this journey. Now that today is behind us, we have three glorious days left.

Now that we are fully immersed in week 3, our routine is on autopilot where we make only slight adjustments based on the specific needs of those we are helping. Gone is the need to figure out how to adapt to the culture. Linda W. is getting closer to preparing here SEAM students for their upcoming math exam while her Grace School kids fully understand her routine of how each day’s lesson will progress. Linda M. graduated to both lifting cement to the rooftop to also handing it down from the rooftop giving her upper body and lower back quite the workout. Ginny helped Sister Caroline type her first letter on a computer. Ann is able to balance more and more children on her lap while at the same time teaching them their colors, shapes, and how to use a glue stick. I am getting the hang of teaching multiple kids at once how to use a computer even though they don’t fully comprehend English. Linda M. and I finally wore our saris to St. Joseph’s – the novices were so excited.

We ended our evening with a team dinner on the rooftop of our guesthouse. A near full moon peaked over the trees while candles lit our table. The cool breeze seemed to keep those pesky mosquitoes at bay. What a great way to spend one of the last few days here with an amazing group of people. Their support and generosity is something I won’t forget.

Wednesday, 2/11/09 (Linda M.)

Only two days left on our journey. I think we are all trying to find a way to say good-bye to the children we have become attached to.

Ginny spent the day teaching Sister Caroline the computer, and Ann spent her time with the children of Assisi crawling all over her.

Linda W’s boys at SEAM are away until 8 pm studying for their exam so she spent her evening helping the girls prepare.

Georgie and I worked construction at SEAM were the work is progressing smoothly. The building is almost totally cemented over.

Linda W. bought samosas for all the children at SEAM as a treat for our evening visit. They enjoyed them immensely…so did we!

Thursday, 2/12/09 (Ginny Weber)

“The moment the slave resolves that he will no longer be a slave, his fetters fall …. Freedom and slavery are mental states” Mohandas Gandhi

The yoga team (Linda M., Georgie, and Linda W.) started their day on the roof with a downward dog. The sleeping team (Ann and Ginny) did their best to get out of bed. After a nutritious breakfast we went off to our assignments: Georgie and Linda M. back to construction at SEAMS, Linda W. back to teaching math at Grace School, and Ginny and Ann to Assisi to take care of the little ones and teach Sr. Caroline some computer skills.

At noon we all gathered at St. Thomas Hospital to meet Sr. Rexline. Sr. Rexline is one of these incredible human beings who have moved mountains. From a one room clinic she created a large well known hospital, an orthopedic wing, a nursing school, and a convent.
Sr. Rexline is tiny and soft spoken, but when in her presence you feel her intelligence, strength, and determination. She is quite a woman and we were all in awe. She and her nuns fixed us lunch and showered us with gifts – the Indian way of having guests.

In the afternoon we continued with our assignments then all went to SEAMS for our one-on-one training with selected kids. At the end of that the kids gave a rousing and tearful send off to Linda M.

We drove to the Ambica Hotel for a fantastic dinner (I had ice cream of course) then home to the guest house for the next day prep and bed. Another exhausting but fulfilling day.

Friday, 2/13/09 (Ann Cheng)

“Love is something eternal.” Vincent Van Gogh
Today was the last day of our program. Every one seemed sad to leave though looking forward to our journey back home.

We had our lunch at Assisi with Sister Rose. It was enjoyable as usual. We ended our lunch with the babies handing each one of us a gorgeous blanket as a present and the cutest kiss goodbye ever.

The hardest part of the day was saying goodbye to the kids at Seam. They gave each one of us a hand-made thank you card with their names written inside. We were all amazed by their beautiful dances. I am sure their images will stay in our hearts every single day.

Millinium Development Goals

Achieved by this team from February 2 - 6;

82 Hours of class room instruction in conversational English and computer skills by 6 volunteers and 82 Hours of preparation time.

20 Hours of childcare by 2 volunteers

50 Hours of construction labor at SEAM Children's Home by 2 volunteers

2 Schools, 2 Children's Home and over 500 students impacted





Monday, 2/2/09 (Ann Cheng)

“Your only duty is to do the best you can.” David Seabury

Today is our first day of the second week. Ginny and I were switched to the construction work while Georgie and Linda were going to Assisi. Linda and Katie were continuing the teaching in St. Joseph School and Grace School.

Today was a hard day for Katie because the teacher in kindergarten was sick, so she had to take over the whole class on her own. Linda had a very fun experience with those little kids in Grace School. To prevent them from copying the math problem, she had two types of sheets. After they found out there were differences between the sheets, they tried to switch it but unsuccessfully. Linda and Georgie had a very good time with those babies in Assisi and they went to St. Joseph school to teach English to the nuns in the afternoon. Ginny and I were falling in love with the construction. With Ginny’s help, they built up two sides of the wall. And I finally mastered the head-loading thing. This simply made the day to be my greatest day ever.

We all went to Seam at 5 p.m. and enjoyed our time with the children there while teaching them English and computer skills. After we came home from Seam, we had our own cooking class taught by Sheeba. We learned how to make Puri, and I bet that is the best Puri we ever had.

Tuesday, 2/3/09 (Linda W.)


“Prayer in action is love. Love in action is service. Mother Teresa”

By Tuesday our “tourist” frame of mind of the weekend had very much been replaced by our “worker” frame of mind. We are back in the thick of teaching, head loading and sand sifting.

The day had great moments. It started off with Sheeba decorating our hair with jasmine and our foreheads with bindis. Thus adorned we set off for work in the little white van. Linda M. and Georgie brought silence to the children of Assissi by introducing them to glue sticks and construction paper. Each child had a sheet of paper. To this paper she could attach a variety of shapes … circle, rectangle, square, triangle, heart. The child had to request by shape and color; so she was learning on many levels. Katie had good responses from her computer students. And today’s construction work was similar to Monday’s. Linda W.’s joy of the day was Pradesh, a first grader. During the past week when asked what 1 + 2 was, he would happily say 5. He would just as happily say that 2 + 3 = 1. Today he got everyone of his written problems correct. The secret … the number line!!!!!

We finished our day with a super dinner at Grand Residence where Ginny had strawberry ice cream for medicinal purposes. Over dinner Ann informed us that the men do wear shorts under their skirts. And Stephen shared lots of anecdotes about Indian culture and life.

So another day of service-learning ends!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009 (Georgie Kovacs)

“There is no royal road to anything. One thing at a time, all things in succession. That which grows fast, whithers rapidly. That which grows slowly, endures.”-Josiah Gilbert Holland

This quote accurately and effectively depicts our world. I believe this is why we are calmly able to handle each day of volunteering. Today started off with a few changes as Ginny’s cold was too much to handle construction. While she rested and took medicine, Ann continued off to the construction site with Linda M. in tow. They were greeted by arguing construction workers which Stephan, our calm, even-toned leader dealt with.

The remainder of us went on with our usual schedule. Linda W. headed off to Grace School and had a “one step forward, two steps back” kind of day with the kids. It is both her patience and persistence that we admire as she handles the ups and downs.

I had a quiet ride to Assisi where I helped Sister Rose and Sister Caroline on the computer. Since they know little English and virtually never interacted with a computer, I had to use extreme patience to make sure they got the most out of it. They are wonderful to work with as they see the outcome of the learning process and show great appreciation for my assistance. Just as my one-on-one lesson with Sister Carolin came to an end, she had to rush downstairs because one of the little boy’s finger was slammed into the gate resulting in a visit to the hospital for stitches and a splint.

Katie’s voice is coming back thanks to the many cups of ginger tea made by Sheeba and Rani. Thus, she is better able to speak over the 50 kids in her morning classes. I am sure that her new salwar kamis helps her feel refreshed, too!

Linda M. and I are doing well with the novices at St. Joseph’s. They bought us a small package of bindi. Given that they are given 300 Rs (~6 USD) per month as “play money,” this was quite the generous gesture.
The highlight of the day was having dinner with Stephen’s family. We were each handed a large plate of briyani rice, chicken, fish, potatoes, veggies, two kinds of Indian bread, and for dessert – bananas. Ann was the only one who was able to fit a second helping of rice into her tummy – and she is the smallest one of us all!

Stephen’s family is wonderful. His parents are kind, always smiling, and love their grandchildren. They spoke enough English that we were able to communicate with ease. I know I can speak for us all when I say how much we appreciated their generosity and delicious cooking!

Thursday, 2/05/09 (Katie Ohotto)

“Thoughts lead on to purposes; purposes go forth in actions; actions form habits; habits decide character; and character fixes our destiny.” –Tryon Edwards

By day thirteen all was down to habit starting with 7:30am yoga on the rooftop. “Take five breathing” was now a familiar resting posture although our teacher threw us off with a wheel pose at the end of class. Breakfast and morning assignments were habit as well with the exception of the newborn kitten that Ann took from a child at the SEAMS’s construction site. Animalitarian efforts were aborted when the kitten couldn’t take milk on her own and had to bee returned to SEAMS by Barnabus. Lunch was habit with the exception of the cake and cookies from Kumar’s Sweet Shop that Stephen brought home for a surprise. Even the work assignment van reports were becoming a bit habit. In Linda’s words, “There were some good things that happened today.” Perhaps after two weeks we were becoming a bit accustomed to the culture? Or perhaps not as Katie was shocked to receive the kind letters of gratitude from the computer students at Grace School since during the education process they didn’t appear interested in maintaining the positive and calm disposition of the teacher. In the end, they were truly sweethearts. In the same fashion, the SEAMS children said goodbye to Katie, and they were truly sweethearts too.

Stephen treated the whole team to a last full team supper at the Green Park Hotel’s Tulip Restaurant. The buffet was the best yet- it was a very special treat. Katie’s the first to depart and wishes everyone a safe and pleasant final journey.

Friday Feb 6th ( Linda McCamic)

The most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well!

It’s Friday and the end of our second full week volunteering.
Katie left today for her next adventure in India, 2 weeks in Goa at a yoga retreat. She seemed excited to be going and we will miss her but I am sure her students will miss her more.


Ginny and Ann were back at SEAMS on the construction crew where work is progressing nicely. They were quite happy to find out that the kitten they found the day before is still alive and well.

Linda W. is slowly taking a few steps forward at Grace School.
Georgie made some progress teaching Sr. Caroline the computer and I made progress with Vinayagam at SEAMS to read English. He read a 4 page book by himself today and was as proud as could be but no as proud as I was of him.

So all and all even though it sometimes is frustrating because it seems that progress is slow in coming, it is coming! We are beginning to see the fruits of our labor if it is in the completion of a wall, the understanding of a math equation, the recognition of a word or just a smile on a child’s face at the end of the day we have accomplished something and made our time here worthwhile!