37.5 Hours of class room instruction in conversational English and computer skills by 2 volunteers and 37.5 Hours of preparation time
10 Hours of Childcare by 1 volunteer. over 65 students impacted
“If you can drive in Chennai, you can drive anywhere!” – Sheeba
Today began our final week in Chennai. We reviewed our team goals and feel comfortable with the progress we have made so far. One of our team goals was to travel with purpose. I know that Laura and I are making a positive difference in the lives of these children, the same way that all of the previous volunteers have. Sheeba shared with us today the importance of learning English for these children. Students who are fluent in English upon graduation can easily find good jobs while students who only speak Tamil have a difficult time finding work. I am excited to know that my time here has been spent helping these children on their journey to become fluent in English.
Our second goal was to experience the culture of South India. We have definitely been experiencing the local culture during our stay here! This past weekend’s trip gave us a great opportunity to see more of South India as we traveled to Kanchipuram, Pondicherry, and Mahabalipuram. Tonight after SEAMs we got to experience Diwali shopping madness in Chennai at a popular market. The traffic was insane and the crowd was massive! Laura commented to Stephen that this market area made Times Square seem empty
Our final goal was to meet and connect with the students and teachers. I feel that we are making good progress in this area. The teachers at Grace School have really taken to Laura and like to have lots of conversations with her between classes. The children are amazing! It is so great to see how their faces light up when we arrive to teach them.
I’m looking forward to a great second week!
Megan
“ All the world is an oyster” unknown
Megan was feeling a bit under the weather today so she sat out the morning visit @ Assisi Illam. I went off to Grace School and worked with the children as usual – today the first graders and I did rhyming words – Second grade we did some more difficult rhyming words and then they each came to the front of the class to come up with their own. The 3rd graders love to do math so we started with some Spiderman math flash cards – then identified all the visiable traits of Spiderman – each child wrote them on the board (including – he has a red mask, red boots etc). Fourth grade read aloud – Green Eggs and Ham (one of my all time favorites) and the 5th grade class each took turns reading a book called Grandpa and Me. Later at SEAMS Megan and I both worked with the boys at different age levels on various English studies. After SEAMS we were treated to an Indian movie – Robot. What another awesome experience – loud – colorful and with traditional Bollywood song and dance numbers! Even the popcorn was a lot of fun with chili pepper spice! Each day a new experience – they continue to keep on coming – what will today bring?
Laura
Time flies when you are having fun!
Wow, I cannot believe Wednesday is over already! This second week is going by so fast. It rained last night and now the humidity is out of control! It is even hotter today (if that is even possible). Before going to Assisi, Stephen and Sheeba took me on a quick visit to St. Thomas Mount. The view of Chennai from this hill was amazing! At Assisi we worked on alphabets and puzzles. Laura took the elephant puppet to Grace School for the little ones and said they liked it, although it scared them at first. The electricity went out several times at the school, making the heat even worse. Poor Laura got over heated, but was smart and stayed in her room to cool down in the A/C during the afternoon. I went alone to Grace School after lunch and found the kids to be very sad that Laura was not feeling well. They all really love her teaching them, which I made sure to share with her. In 4th grade we worked on reading and forming sentences with two sight cards at a time. The children did very well with this exercise and I was glad to see it made them use their imagination more. In 5th grade we learned about dinosaurs and colored dinosaur pictures for a bit, then moved on to practice vocabulary.
SEAMs was fun as usual. Laura worked with the older boys and I had my original group of 4th graders. I know we should not have favorites, but I must say that I really like this group of boys. We played snap card in teams, competing to see who could get the most matches. These boys love competition! Unfortunately for my team, I am not good at snap card, so we did not win very often.
After SEAMs we had the pleasure of visiting Stephen’s parents at their house for dinner. His mother and sister-in-law made a delicious meal for us. They served us so much food! Poor Laura was given a plate heaping with briyani! She ate like a champ but eventually had to give up We were worried that it would be rude if we did not finish our meals. Luckily, Stephen and Sheeba assured us that it was fine to leave food on our plates. While we were in the neighborhood we had the pleasure of meeting Real Stephen’s wife, son, and mother-in-law. They live next door to their parents, so we visited their home as well. Rani lives across the street, so we visited her also. It was so nice to meet everyone’s family and to see their homes!
Only two days left before the end of the program! I’m already dreading saying good bye to the kids.
Megan
“You make a living by what you do – you make a life by what you give” unknown.
Today started as most other mornings – with a hearty breakfast and off to our school assignments – I to Grace School and Megan to Assisi Ilam. The first second and third graders were very good today as we worked on various reading and writing activities. As each grade began to do some writing I started taking pictures of them – each grade turned into little models - posing – smiling and saying – me – me – photo! Even the teachers posed and smiled for their photos! Ive been happy to stay out of photos the last week in particular as Im not looking my best self (and I know what I look like). Megan mentioned her day care group had a difficult time focusing today. Maybe it’s the heat? (laughing). In the evening we visited the children at Assissi Illam instead of SEAMS. They were a great deal of fun – sang songs with Megan and loved the sequin crowns and butterfly wings I brought from home. And as always all the balls were a great big hit. I was treated to a Mendhi design on my left hand as a parting gift from one of the teachers! Well tomorrow is our last day – it will be difficult to say good bye to everyone (oh – except for those darn mosquitos)!
Laura
“Don’t cry because it is over. Smile because it happened.” Dr. Seuss
It is hard to believe that today is the last day. These past two weeks have flown by! It was hard to say goodbye to the children at Assisi today. We played games, sang songs, and danced! I took videos on my camera of Mario and Vinodinni singing their favorite song “Johnny, Johnny.” I tried to not think about the fact that it was the last time I would be with them. Laura had a good last day with the younger students at Grace School. They had fun posing for pictures for Laura but were sad to see her go.
Grace School went well for me in the afternoon. In 5th grade we read a story about a pumpkin competition and drew pictures. We ended the session by taking photos and videos. Each student wanted to do a solo dance for me to record. It was so funny watching the kids dance, each one was even more silly than the last. 4th grade was fun as well. We took pictures/video, practiced vocabulary, and finished off the class with “Hang Man.”
Saying my goodbyes to the children at SEAMs was very difficult. They are all so very sweet and special! During our time together we played ball with the boys, danced with the girls, and just spent time with the children. We then all gathered in the main hall for songs and dancing. The children all sang a group song, and then some of the girls came forward to do a song and dance. The 4th grade boys did a free-style dance for us at the end, which was very enjoyable. They took me by the hand and pulled me out of my chair to dance with them. I had such a great time! And then came the hard part. All of the children came up to Laura and I one by one to say thank you for spending time with them. I tried to hold back the tears but a few escaped. Some of the boys hugged me and wiped the tears from my face with their little hands, telling me not to be sad. While I was very sad to say goodbye to the children, I am so very grateful for the amazing experience I got to have with them.
Coming to India to work with the children has been so rewarding. The culture is so fascinating here, the people are so kind, and the children are so much fun to spend time with. To those of you reading this who are contemplating coming to India, I say pack your bags and get over here! You are sure to have a wonderful and memorable time!
Megan
