Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Millinium Development Goals


Achieved by this team from January 11 - January 15

81 Hours of class room instruction in conversational English and computer skills by 5 volunteers and 81Hours of preparation time.

20 Hours of childcare by 2 volunteer

4 Hours of construction at Seams to build the Stage 2 of the Dormitories

1 Schools, 2 Children's Home and over 115 students impacted




January 10, 2010

Hello India! It has been a very interesting experience being in between 2 groups. I sadly saw the last group leave but was thrilled to meet my new team members. Lucy was the first to arrive, surprising me upon my return from touring Chennai Saturday evening. She is a 77 year old woman with amazing experiences. She volunteers for 3 different organizations in Washington D.C., helping kids succeed, and she taught English and math in China on the Global trip last year. Her big love in her life are her grandchildren, of course. Since Lucy was placed in the really small room in the corner of the first floor, I moved upstairs so she could feel more comfortable. No need to sleep in a matchbox when there's only 5 of us in the group! Heather arrived next, coming in later than expected Saturday night. Unfortunately her luggage never left Dubai so she had to make arrangements to get it sent to the guesthouse. So of course she was overjoyed to see Stephen as one of the first smiling faces to greet her upon leaving the airport, relieving her worry of being left at the airport like her luggage. Heather is a 35 year old who works in D.C. and she's come to India to get away from American politics, so we've promised to discuss them as little as possible. She also used to be a special ed teacher in New Orleans.

Saturday afternoon I showed Lucy the main road with our favorite grocery stores and we took a fun rickshaw back. I thought the young boy said 100 rupees and he laughed and made fun of me with the driver and said "no maam, 10 rupees!" Of course I gave him double for being a smart attack. Sunday was nice and relaxed and we were all well rested. We had breakfast and lunch at the guesthouse while we went over orientation. Lucy will be teaching math and english at Grace School while Heather and I teach the alphabet and nursery rhythms to the kids at Assisi illam. Our other 2 group members are unfortunately stuck in Frankfurt, so we're anxiously awaiting their arrival as well. I then brought Heather down the main road. I bought cookies for the group and Heather got a beautiful blue top that looks great on her. Hopefully that and the Global parka will last until her luggage arrives.

Heather and I organized all the school supplies that Lori left behind for the kids while Lucy contemplated all the many trips she could take on the second weekend. We then headed off to SEAMS Children's Home where we were greeted with smiling faces and songs to welcome us to India. The kids screamed my name and quickly learned Heather and Lucy's. I pointed out who are related, who are the best dancers, and who are the trouble makers. We then had dinner at the hotel down the street. Stephen gave us the choice of the rooftop or the dining room and we mistakenly chose the dining room, only to find out we were much too early for the buffet. Se we went to the rooftop to find out it had a roof with water running throughout it into a side canal, with an opening to view the city. The breeze and view was amazing. We scolded Stephen for not saying how nice the rooftop was. Lucy had the great idea of sharing meals, so we had tandorri chicken, spinach paneer, vegetable and prawn curry, with my favorite cauliflower dish as an appetizer, and of course ending it with pistachio, butterscotch, and mango ice cream.

We then headed back to the guesthouse and Stephen headed home. We worked on our journals but retired at 2230. I am waking up early to greet Tom and Kathy in the morning. I will be glad to see them arrive safely. Lucy sang a song that perfectly described my experience of being in between 2 groups and making lasting relationships in India, so my quote of the day is "Make new friends but keep the old."


Maria





January 11, 2010

Quote: The earliest you can start any project is now.

No philosophy in this journal piece, just details about the day. It was all in all a good and productive day. More generalizations forthcoming in the next edition of the journal.

I woke up at 5, to find Maria already up and working. She was awaiting arrival of the lost couple, who, we learned later, were again stranded in the Middle East. We ate breakfast and had our morning meeting without them. This was my introduction to the Grace school. I was introduced around, and saw some bare bone classrooms and a bunch of normal, lively children. I was finally taken to my classroom, which was comparatively well lit and minimally equipped. It does have a blackboard, and an eraser plus some plastic furniture which serves as bench and desk for multiple kids.

The first group consisted of about 15 over-enthusiastic 3rd graders, who happily sang and shouted their way through my activities, consisting of some songs, Simon Says, and a review of various vocabularies. I did all exercises with the help of stick figures, which they had no trouble interpreting. I got them to work on some troublesome sounds, such as the short I sound. They had to say: “I like” (or “I don't like” ) 'to eat fish.' Not feesh, which is what they wanted to say. I also asked them which was their favorite animal, and we did a few more exercises and then switched to arithmetic, where they seem to know addition and subtraction pretty well, but we have to find out more tomorrow.

Then there was a break, during which the principal came in to talk, so I started Group 2 (Grade 4) without that lovely head-clearing minute between classes that I craved. O well. Group 2 consisted at first of a boy who had been introduced as the principal's son, and a pleasant little girl. We worked on the exercises I had tried with the first group, but, because there were so few children, we whizzed through them. A third child wandered in and sat down So I turned to stories, in this case those faithful three bears. They knew the story, so we alternated narrators. I'm not sure about comprehension, because they could not tell me how the baby bear felt when he saw that his porridge was gone. But they seemed to get the general idea.

The surprise of the morning came when the new student wanted to tell a story. He told an illustrated tale, complete with plot, characters, and suspense. He's far ahead of the others. One student, on the other hand was difficult to control, as he is a motormouth, and just smiled and continued as I used various strategies to get him to react to the tasks at hand. His story was pointless, derivative, but well-illustrated. The little girl told a nondescript but adequate tale.

The break for Session 3 apparently was not supposed to happen, so when the bell rang my 4th grade left and the 5th grade, consisting of 6 boys and 1 girl, filtered in. They were lively and had the usual pre adolescent male wish to punch each other and carry on. We played some Simon Says, with the children each taking their turn to be simon, and tried some other exercises, then turned to arithmetric.

They appear to know their basic facts reasonably well, and have the method of multi-digit multiplication down pretty well, though they can use some practice.

We went back to Seams this evening as planned. We were greeted by the usual hand holding and skin stroking. I was given two groups to work with, preferably on multiplication and division. The chaos in the big room prevented much discussion with the first group, of middle school age boys,, but they seemed to have an idea about basic addition and multiplication. They practiced what they knew, but we could not venture into anything new..

The second group was older boys, and we developed the entire multiplication table from 3 through 9. After they each created the table we were able to analyze it, and find some general rules about the commutative rule in multiplication and the unique characteristics of zero, the 5 table and the 9 table. They seemed to be excited when they saw the relationships among these one-digit numbers. I plan to work with them on division tomorrow.

After classes, there was an awards ceremony for the students with best academic record. They received presents, to much applause.

More news: It looks as if Heather’s suitcase has finally arrived! And the couple we have been awaiting has missed yet another flight. The airline business is having troubles, and so are the consumers, i.e., us!

That's all for now. Things started well; let's hope they continue that way!


Lucy





January 12, 2010


Yay! Kathy and Tom arrived early, early this morning. And sure enough, they got up for breakfast this morning ready to go. Wow! After breakfast, Kathy joined Lucy at Grace School. Tom went over to SEAMS to use his skills and muscles to help with a dorm construction project. Maria and I headed off to Assisi Illeam.

When we got there, the kids rush to greet us. They want to grab our hands, our arms, our legs.

The first group of kids came upstairs. If You're Happy and You Know It, Clap Your Hands. Clap, Clap. Lots of smiles, lots of hoorays. The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round was up next . Again, lots of smiles. Lots wheels going round and round, wipers swishing, horns beeping and babies waaaaing.

Then the kids did Ring around the Rosie in Tamil. We go on a bear hunt and we make it home safe and sound.

To calm the kids down, Maria brought out books and puzzles. The kids loved the books, and at first they struggled with the puzzles, but with a little help, they started to get the idea.

Jessie, one of the beautiful women who work at the home, came upstairs and told Maria and me to come downstairs. When we got down there, the music was playing and kids were dancing away. Maria and I had lots of dance partners. Maria and one of the girls started the Macarena. We all joined in, even Jessie. The music changed. Jessie asked Maria and I to sit on the bench. Two of the little kids started an Indian dance. It was so cute. Some of the little ones joined in with their own versions of the dance.

What amazed me the most about these kids is how happy they are. For the most part, they had smiles on their faces. Happy, happy, happy.

The kids had a little time with a counting program on the television. They wanted to sit on our laps, next to us or as close as possible. After the show, the children washed their hands and feet and sat down for lunch. Stephen was waiting for Maria and me.

Lucy, Kathy and Tom arrived back at the house. Tom looked a little tired from his hard work out in the Indian sun – it was the hottest day so far.

After lunch, we all started preparing for the evening with the SEAMS' kids. Sheeba and Maria took me to get some clothes – my clothes' suitcase still hadn't arrived. I worked and slept in the same pants for five days. I think the pants were ready to walk away on their own.

SEAMS was great. Stephen introduced Kathy to the children. The kids were excited to introduced themselves to her, and they were asking about Tom's whereabouts. Tom is a hit!

I felt much more confident working with the kids on the second day. With the girls, we worked on identifying fruits and vegetables. Then, I set up Heather's store, and I had them practice the terminology for picking out the items and paying for them with American dollars. They seems to have fun, and they picked up the language quickly.

Kathy, Lucy and Maria had a good evening as well.

One of the best parts of the day happened at about 8:00 pm. The phone rang and the person on the other end told me to open the door. IT WAS MY SUITCASE WITH MY CLOTHES! I couldn't get the bag and shrink-wrap off quickly enough. My clothes! Thank goodness.

Quote - For it is in giving that we receive. St. Francis of Assisi

Heather





Wednesday, January 13, 2010


If Mother is not happy, then no one can be happy


An anonymous male

Today was the beginning of Pongal, a five-day festival which celebrates completion of the harvest. The school that the children at SEAMS attend was closed as was the Grace School. Construction at SEAMS was also stopped for the rest of the week. Lucy, Kathy and I went to SEAMS in the morning for English lessons. However, the Sisters’ school was open and Heather and Maria taught in the morning. After lunch we all went back to SEAMS for the afternoon session.

We returned for a quick dinner and then out to the center of Chennai to attend a classic dance program. The dancers were all female between 10 and 17 and the costumes and pageantry were amazing. A wild van ride – was enjoyed some!

Tom


Thursday, January 14, 2010





The real reason we are here is to give the children love.?


Stephan

The early risers were again privileged to see colorful fresh artwork on the street. It was decided that today's schedule would be the same as yesterday. Today was the second day of the celebration of Pongal, which meant, among other things, that for the second day the children had no school. After breakfast Stephen drove Lucy, Tom and Kathy to SEAMS, then went back to the guest house to take Maria and Heather to the nun's orphanage. The days have already started to meld together, and for Tom and I it is only the third day. For the first hour of this morning, I had two very attentive young students ? Madhan and Kumar. Before the end of that hour, however, various other children started coming over to our cluster of chairs to check out how the two were doing and to see what I might have in my bag today. Tom and his group played cricket on the concrete for the first hour. Lucy was in the girl's room with the older girls making good progress. Because the rest of the kids seemed pretty revved up and Stephen wasn't there to keep them in line, Tom and I tried to go with the flow and it went pretty well. The special thing this morning was that each child got a piece of raw sugarcane. To eat that was quite a lengthy and rather quiet activity. The only down side was that wherever the kids spit out the woody insides became a mass of flies within minutes, which I soon realized was the reason the director asked everyone to sit together in one place. Lucy came out for the last hour of free time and tried some sugar cane. On the way back to the house, I was talking about how hard it had been to maintain any sense of order that morning and Stephen said ?Remember, the real reason we are here is to give the chidlren love. Thank you Stephen, for reminding me of that!

Lunch was tasty as usual,though we missed Sheba and the baby. After lunch we each did various things. Maria and Heather showed me the internet cafe, Tom fixed Lucy's mosquito netting and some of us took wonderful naps. At 4 pm all 5 of us headed back to SEAMS. Maria did the first of two lice treatments on each of three girls ? what a job! The rest of us did our thing with our kids. I would never have imagined that I could sit still in such heat and flies and mosquito and be feeling good but that's the power of those kids.

Tonight was amazing. We went to a music service at a temple near enough for walking. The music was drumming, horn blowing and singing or chantings. The people were very friendly, insisting with their gestures that Lucy be right up in front. After the temple, we walked to a restaurant and had some wonderful Indian food. A couple of the dishes were really hot, by American standards, and made some of us cry and cough. We all had desert, including carrot Havel ? a new dish for Tom to make.

It was a full and fulfilling day.

Kathy




 January 15, 2010


My last full day with my team. I am saddened and dismayed to not be able to spend another week with them, especially leaving Heather to handle the rowdy 3 year olds on her own, but she'll do great. The children love her and she has a glowing energy around them. Today was special because we all went together to SEAMs. I once again assessed Arun's wounds, cleaned them, and rewrapped them. The wounds are already healing with only one application of Neosporin. We all had our first group and did our lessons in the morning. This time I perservered through teaching my group how to tell time. They struggled at first, but then understood the concepts and the differences between the short arrow and long arrow and am and pm. It felt great teaching them something new, even if it's my last day. We then watched Narnia for the second part of the morning and afternoon. The kids have not seen a movie in a long time so it was a great treat for the holiday. Afterwards they sang a song and danced a dance for me and said their goodbyes. Stephen and I gave them treats and I promised to return in the morning to finish the Lice treatment on all the girls' hair. I also have to give them their new combs which they shouldn't share, although I know that's impossible with a close-knit gossipy group of girls.

We then all went to Stephen's house for dinner. Stephen, Sheba, and Roshan, Stephen, Rebecca, and Robinson, Stephen's sister and her husband, and their parents were present. Stephen's mom has the most warm and welcoming smile in all of India. It could light up more than the palace in Mysore. We were each given plates with multiple Indian cuisines as we stuffed ourselves silly and oh'd and ah'd over both Stephens' wedding albums. We laughed at Robinson's nonstop discussions with himself and Roshan's driving skills. We even had a dance session with Frosty the Snowman – Robinson was not amused. The evening was wonderful and we couldn't thank them enough for having us.

As I reflect on these 2 weeks in India, I am reminded of how fortunate we are in the U.S. We must appreciate every little thing we have in this world, and really be grateful of the small joys in life. I worry so much back at home, over stupid stuff, yet I worry about nothing when I am here and listen to Stephen when he says "just go with the flow." India has taught me greater kindness, trust, humility, and above all, patience, of course. Although I would like to end with one of my favorite quotes by Anne Frank "How wonderful it is that we need not wait a single moment before changing the world," I used that one last year. So I will end with a motto of mine which reflects my desire to deviate from societal norms, move to India, and what brought me to India on my own in the first place – "Well behaved women rarely make history." by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich




Maria

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