Monday, July 11, 2011

Sunday 10, July 2011

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost,
to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer
experience."— Eleanor Roosevelt

Today we ate breakfast at nine. I'm still adjusting to the spicy food so I tried to eat as much of it as I could. Apparently it's bland to Sheeba and Stephen even though it burns my tongue. After breakfast we had a meeting. We all sat at the table as Stephen went over A LOT.

First we came up with our group goals and the characteristic of a good team. Our group goals are "To love, To serve, and To learn". Next we learned about the three school we'll be working with: SEAM children's home, The Grace School, and Assisi Illam. We figured out the schedule, so Heather and I will be working at the Grace school this week while Sylvie and Katie will be working at Assisi Illam and The Grace School. Next week, we decided we will switch places. Every night, including tonight, we will go visit SEAM from 5:30 to 7:00. We went over policies, guidelines, a Global Volunteers philosophy, the 12 essential package, and some vocab. This meeting went all the way till 1 which is when we had lunch. We then had some free time before visiting SEAM. Most of us took the time to relax. Next thing we knew it was time to go! It was a short walk to SEAM and when we got there we were sweating beyond belief. We went into a room where the children were sitting but the minute we walked in they all swarmed. They were so excited to see us. I shook hands with, oh I don't even know how many children. They were so eager to try English, asking us our names and telling us theirs. It was very endearing. After the quick meet and greet, we all sat down in chairs in front of the children. Stephen introduced us to the children and one-by-one they came up and introduced themselves. They started with the youngest, around five, and ended with the oldest, around seventeen. It was interesting to meet kids my age. Afterwords, we each got a tour of the buildings by our own guide, a little boy. My tour guides name sounded like Stanjay and after we shook hands, he didn't want to let go. He showed me all the rooms asking if they were clean and jumped up and down when I got to see his. After the tour, the children sang us a welcoming song while playing a drum and then we played around. Everywhere you looked, children were jumping up and down or singing. I played some games of Simon Says and Ring Around The Rosie. I was surprised and enlightened by how happy they became by simply jumping. They couldn't stop laughing when we played Patty Cake. What seemed like 15 minutes turned out to be an hours and we were all sad to go. We left saying "Goodbye" and "See you tomorrow!" while doused in sweat. Afterwords we went out to dinner and walked home. If I had to describe this day in one word, I would definitely say "fun".

Marion


Celebrating 100th Team in India


Celebrating 100th Team in India

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