Friday,
January 27, 2012
Try not to become a man of success,
but rather try to become a man of value.” - Albert Einstein
Chris and I headed over to SEAM’s with only one thing on our mind. It was to finish making the sand shifter. We have a big crew coming in next week and I didn’t want anything slowing us down… Last week the odds weren’t in our favor whether it was power outage, missing extension cord, or lack of proper supplies. Well nothing was stopping us today! Even after a fuse blew on our first cut, we were determined to finish. In the end, we succeeded and built the best shifter in southern
During the afternoon break I decided to clean up the activity cabinet in the guest house before the new team arrives… There was so much random stuff in there and I did the best I could to straighten it up… Then I focused on finishing the SEAM’s children's profiles. We decided we would place each kid in 4 different categories based on there English abilities so that when future volunteers teach a SEAMs the will know where others have left off and where they should continue... After all that was complete a ran some errands and got ready for another trip to SEAMs
Today Chris and I finalized all the profiles, then spent the rest of the time reviewing the points system, and handing out some fruit. This has been something we’ve done the last few Fridays and the kids really seem to enjoy it. In the end everyone wins but they realize that it's important to keep their home clean and finish their chores. Room 1 won again this week and there has been much improvement since the program was started. The boys have yet to win but are gettin close.
Over the weekend I spent the my time looking all over Chennai for a blackboard for SEAMs Children's Home. This was a task I set out for in 2010 and finally found one. I went to a few stores then carried this thing back to the guest house by train,auto, and even crossed the main road without getting run over! I cant wait to install it this week...
Dustin
Thursday,
January 26, 2012
“On the mountains of
truth you can never climb in vain- either you will reach a point higher up
today, or you will be training your powers so that you will be able to climb
higher tomorrow.” Friedrich Nietzsche
Today was similar to
those preceding it, except that Dustin and I went in different directions. I
made my last trip to Assisi
Chris
“All
great things are only a number of small things that have carefully been
collected together.” – Anonymous
Today I
woke up pretty early and I headed downstairs for my normal morning coffee…
Today I figured I would try to make coffee a little different by heating it
using one of those hot plates. Well I turned it on and it started making some
noises, so I put my hand over to see if it was hot. Well it was and I burnt the
tips of 3 of my fingers (don’t worry mom I’m ok). I guess I was a little more
sleepy than i thought.. Let’s just say if the coffee doesn’t wake you up this
will… I escaped with only some minor burns and Sheeba came to the rescue. I’ll
just stay out of the kitchen for a while especially after my incident last year.
At Assisi
Illam, Chris continued with the computer project while I played with the
babies… We read books, played with blocks and worked on some basic English
skills…. The time moved quickly and they were some much fun. After they were
fed and napping. Sister Rose had a wonderful lunch prepared for us of cabbage,
beets, tomato rice, okra, French fries, and a few other treats. This was my
first time having lunch over there but Chris has been talking about how great
it was since I arrived. He was right, it was amazing!
After a
quick break back at the guest house Chris and I worked at SEAMs. Our goal is to
complete the profiles for each kid but I can easily be distracted when asked to
play; snap cards, bingo, cricket, or just reading with the children…There is
definitely not enough of me to go around and I just need to find away to make
my rounds to each child… Chris and I are trying to learn all the kids’ names
and I think we have about 85% memorized…
Just when
you think the day couldn’t get any better. We finished the night off with
dinner at a local restaurant with Sister Matilda, Sister Stella, and 5 of the Assisi
Dustin
Tuesday,
January 24, 2012
After a
nice lunch, Dustin and I got a special treat.
Stephen’s mother Jamuna came to the guest house and gave us some South
Indian cooking lessons. We had requests
ready for our favorite dishes and she was only too happy to show us poor white
boys how to cook some real Chennai cuisine.
Most importantly, she demonstrated that the majority of dishes we have
been savoring these past weeks start very simply with a wok, hot vegetable oil,
mustard seeds, onions, curry leaves, and chilies. We told her that we would
return the favor and cook for her one day soon.
That’s one critic I wouldn’t want to disappoint.
In the
afternoon we went to SEAMs as usual.
This is the third week of the points system that Kerry and I crafted and
the improvement is huge. I’m stunned at
how clean SEAMs is now compared with four weeks ago. I’m so proud of the
children. We took a break from our usual routine to show the kids a movie. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed watching the
Jungle Book so much. It was quite moving to see all of the little faces glued
to the screen, clapping and screaming at the dance between Baloo the bear and
King Louis the orangutan. Back at the
guest house we got to enjoy all the excellent food that Stephen’s mother had
prepared during our lesson. Just another
wonderful day in Chennai.
Chris
Monday,
January 23, 2012
your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." -- Mark Twain
It's the start of my third week and it still feels like I just arrived. Each week brings new and exciting things... On Saturday a few of the members from the last team headed back home. Diana and Candy
will definitely be missed. Even the
After another wonderful lunch back at the guesthouse I cut down my first banana tree with the help of Stephen and Sheeba. It went down pretty easy and I even cut out the trunk which we will probably be eating the rest of the week. I can't wait for the 150 some bananas to ripe...
In the evening, we stuck to our routine and headed over to SEAM's. Chris and I are working on giving each kid a profile based on their level of English skills. This will definitely help future volunteers prepare and bring the proper materials before heading over to SEAMs. After working with a few kids my eyes got heavy and I played a match card game with Sneha and finished the night off with B.I.N.G.O...
Dustin
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