India Service Program Blog

Millennium Development Goals

Achieved by this Team from January 5-9:

18 Hours of Class room instruction in computer skills by 2 volunteer and 18 Hours of preparation time.
10 Hours of childcare by 1 volunteer
25 Hours of Construction Labor at SEAM's Children's Home

One school, 2 children's home and 90 students impacted



Sunday, January 4, 2009

Today was our first day as a group in India. We are a very small group—from what I understand, as two persons, we are the smallest ever. I am very pleased with both my team leader, Stephen, and my fellow team colleague, Sue.

We started the day at working on team-building, and setting goals. Three goals were determined: to share with and to work for the local community, to learn about the local culture, and to meet other persons interested in service. We also identified qualities essential to successful team-work: we identified patience, flexibility, communication, tolerance, fun, discipline, and punctuality.

In the afternoon, we walked to see the site at which Sue will be working during the day helping to carry cement to finish the first floor of a new dormitory at S.E.A.M.’s House, a boarding school/orphanage for 38 boys and girls, aged 5 to 18. Many of the students were returning from the vacation and were helping to clean the classroom for the new school term. For the moment, the students study, learn, sleep and eat in a large one room, airy classroom.

It’s been a day full of generosity: smiles, food; Stephen and Sheeba have spent much time speaking to Sue and me about Indian culture and answering the many questions that we have.

The quote that I have chosen for today comes from V.S. Naipaul’s India, A Million Mutinies Now. Naipaul is speaking with/interviewing “Pravas, an engineer” whose Brahman father “would practise the hard-core Sanskrit”. He comments on change: “Change is a continuous process. […] And yet they [my sons] are perfectly at balance in the local surroundings. If you get too attached to your roots in an old sense, you might actually become unrooted, fossilized. At least in form, at least in style, you must get into the new stream, get the new roots.” (Vintage 1998, 168-169)

Alessandra Benedicty


Monday, January 5, 2009


Alexandra and I started the day with yoga from a local yogi. Great way to start the day. After breakfast and the journal, we were off to our first day of work. I went to SEAM Children’s school and spent the day hauling sand and concrete, and moving bricks for the new dormitory. Hard work. I was really glad when lunch time came and I got a break. The workers were working very hard. They did a great job with very simple tools. No wheel barrows, only a bowl to carry the material. Alexandra’s morning was spent at Assisi Illam with the very young students. She enjoyed working and playing with the kids. After lunch I returned to the same job, and Alexandra went to Grace School and worked with the fifth graders on computer skills. She was really impressed with how easily the kids picked up how to do something like an Excel spread sheet. Children seem to have an innate ability to learn the computer. Or maybe they are not afraid so learn quickly.

We came back at 4pm got a little rest, and went out again to the SEAM School for an hour. We shared some pictures that were sent by a previous volunteer. The kids really enjoyed them. Alexandra and I then worked with two kids on the computer, showing them simple word processing skills. They pick it up sooooo fast, it’s amazing. Alex asked Stephen how their English skills got so good. Stephen said this has happened through the Volunteers. Nice to see so clearly what the volunteers have accomplished.

Sue Travis

"Those who sow kindness gather Love" Author (Unknown)

Tuesday, January 6th, 2009

Today Sue and I proceeded with our regular schedule: she went to S.E.A.M.’s home and I went to the various schools. Sue said that her day was slower than yesterday, since the downstairs dormitory rooms at S.E.A.M.’s are almost completed.

So as to log “what I did” today, I thought I’d give the activities:
• Assisi: We started with “Jump, jump, jump, sit, sleep”. They love the jumping and mimicking sleeping. We sang “ring around the rosy”, “patty-cake”, “hokey pokey”, “Brother John”. These were all songs that they asked me to sing, and there were a few other melodies that I did not recognize, and for which their words were approximate. We also did the vocabulary for the face and traced our hands on the black-board. We sat in a circle and did “up, up, down, hold hands”. We also learned to kiss our hands and then place the hand on Manigendar’s foot since he had hurt himself badly over the vacation. I worked with Manigendar, Santosh, Anisa, Afrina and Simba. Santosh and Afrina are strong little personalities, and today both were extremely obedient. I also realized that the activities need to change every 3 minutes; but an activity that charms Santosh or Afrina, may last even 20 minutes. I spoke with Father Christu and Sister Rose for a few minutes. The atmosphere brings me back to my Catholic school days and the extreme peaceful beauty of those mentors who marry religion with service and spirituality. Father Christu told me that he’d been offered many positions in the United States, “but there is still too much to do here; I must serve India first.”
• The Grace School: I continued to work with the six, 5th graders, dividing them amongst the two computers in a girl team and a boy team. The girls are: Priti, Ashvita, Vaishnavi and the boys are Yesprerit, Kavi, and Mirmar. Yesterday, we turned the computer on, opened a 5th Grade file folder, created a Microsoft document and an Excel document. On Microsoft we worked with font color, size, spell check, copy, paste, clip art. They love the colors and clip art. We also learned to save (very important  ) and file away a document. On Excel, we created a spreadsheet of a budget for a party with multiplication formulas and sums. Their math skills and conceptual skills are excellent, so the application to excel was simple and “magic!!” they exclaimed over and over again! Today, we reviewed the Microsoft skills using “My favorite film/song/actor.” I learned all about the stars of the Tamil film industry, and they loved trying to write out their favorite stars’ names using the English alphabet. They impressed me with the respect for each others’ space and the patience and respect with which they help each other out.
• S.E.A.M.’s: With Sue, we set up the two computers again and worked one-on-one with a student. Again, the students’ ability to pick up the computer skills is incredible. We do the exercise twice or thrice and then they have it down.

On a more personal level, I have developed a soft-spot for Arun. He is eight and lives at S.E.A.N. He is very slow and meticulous in speaking, only speaking when he is sure he is correct, and he is shy in groups. However, yesterday as today, he came to me and dragged my book bag to me asking me to give him a book. Unlike the other students who quickly goes through all the pages and abandon them; rather, he picks one book and slowly goes through it alone. He doesn’t ask me for anything but a crayon and with the single crayon he begins to color in the figures. Initially, I did not want him to color the books, but when I noticed how carefully he paid attention to shading, and slowly went through each figure, I let him be. He is the most sweet little book-loving artist. Stephen told me that he got into trouble for being late to school today, and I found it adorable: a little artist with his head in the clouds. So quiet, so respectful: he packed up my bag just as meticulously, making sure that his crayon went into the pack upright and in the right order. Precious!

The evening ended with books: we went to downtown Chennai to the bookstore and perused the shelves for at least an hour, and I returned with many new books! Now Sue and I are just hanging out; she is a splendid and fun conversationalist, and Sheeba, Stephen and Roshin are superb hosts.

My quote is from an author whose elegance matches that of little Arun: “…beware that you not cross your arms in the sterile attitude of the spectator, for life is not a spectacle, a sea of pains is not a proscenium, for a man who cries is not the man who dances…” Aimé Césaire, Cahier d’un retour au pays natal
«[…] gardez-vous de vous croiser les bras en l’attitude stérile du spectateur, car la vie n’est pas un spectacle, car une mer de douleurs n’est pas un proscenium, car un homme qui crie n’est pas un ours qui danse… »

Alessandra Benedicty

Wednesday, Jan 7, 2009

We started today again with yoga. This is getting more difficult. I implore the yogi with a look that my body is not a pretzel and will not bend that way, but I continue to try. Alexandra’s grace is beautiful. We are alone today because Stephen and Sheeba have gone to their home for the night. Breakfast and then off to work. Again, Alexandra to Assisi this morning and I went to SEAM. When I first arrived there were only to two workers and they were working in an area where a helper was not needed except a load carrier. I asked the head master if there was work to do, and he consulted with the workers, and I was set up with the job of sifting sand. A screen that was nailed into a wood frame was set up against a wall, and I poured sand over it, so that the finer sand could be used for plastering the walls. The worker showing me how to do the job, came by to watch, and corrected me several times. He seems very solicitous and does not want me to lift too much sand at one time. Concerned about my back, and all of this is conveyed with no language. I assisted him by providing bug repellent because the mosquitos are ferocious today along with the humidity.

Alexandra’s morning at Assisi was spent entertaining the children with games and song, which she seems to enjoy immensely. After lunch we returned to our respective assignments. The sky was very threatening and within an hour it was raining. That ended my assignment of sand sifting since wet sand cannot be sifted. My fellow worker insisted that I just sit down and rest. After about five minutes of that I was fidgeting, so I got out my camera, and started hunting down prospects. The grandmother was cooking out in the open and the fire was smoking in the rain, which made a nice picture. The workmen were all too happy to stop for a moment and pose. Because of the laziness of the day, they chatted a bit, and Rebekah acted as translator. Two questions they posed, “How old are you?” And “How much does that camera cost?” They couldn’t believe the answer to either question. I got a great unposed picture of Swathy with a somewhat pensive look. She is such a beautiful child. The boys were all too anxious for a “photo”. One in particular was insistent at least 15 times, and he pointed out to the other boys that I took 15 pictures of him. They love looking at the picture after it is taken.

When I returned to the guest house Alexandra had cabin fever and was out wandering in the rain. When she returned we chatted for awhile, and then returned to SEAMs for the computer lesson. She is again enchanted with Arun. He is an adorably sensitive child, and one wonders what life will be like for him.

After SEAMs we went to Stephen’s parents for dinner. On the way the traffic was horrendous. It seems the prime minister is in town for a special dedication of a highway section, and things are backed up everywhere. Dinner was delicious, and it was fun meeting Stephen’s family. We are driven everyday by his brother, so have met him before, but met his wife and child, and his sister who is visiting from Kashmir along with her husband and son. Lots of interesting conversation about what we all do in “real” life. It was a delightful evening. Tons of pictures were taken and we promised to provide copies before we left.

On the way home the traffic was completely stopped for five or ten minutes. The prime minister needs to go back home.

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings. ……..John F Kennedy

Susan Travis


Thursday, January 8, 2008

“For me the fact that something is secret and personal and internalized gives it a new dimension and a strength. The fact that you can’t perform or express it, what you feel, heightens the experience, the power of that.” (Amir in V.S. Naipaul’s “The End of the Line” in India, A Million Mutinies Now)

The “power of that” is what I feel often in my life, but now I have another nuance to what I feel as “that.” Arun points simultaneously to the A in the ruler of a Word document and to the first letter of his name and smiles a very slight smile when I clap. The fifth graders at Grace School exclaim with large smiles and huge enthusiasm “magic!” when the items of a house for which they plan a budget are summed up in Excel, but with the same exercise, Shivamprakash says nothing, asks me to show him again, erases the entire one hour exercise and reproduces it in five minutes. I kissed Arun goodbye yesterday, on his cheek, and I put my cheek out, but he did not kiss me back; this morning, he kissed my cheek, and this afternoon he carried my bag to the car. This afternoon, he came and drew again, but he brought his brother and three friends, who rambunctious this morning, followed Arun’s example: they would not compromise Arun’s privilege to sit in the office near the computers with the older boys and draw. I wonder if it’s fair to make friends, and then just leave, but then again, there are many of us volunteers, with many styles, and that makes for many friends.

Just beauty: marigolds, Susan’s incredible ability to charm those near to us so that they pose for photo after photo, Roshin’s big eyes with black olives as pupils, cashew-paste pastries, Shiva’s laugh, Stephen’s “yeah”, which quietly, but non-judgmentally confirms our curiosity (and repetitive, simple questions).

“In poetry I am never satisfied with what I write, and especially because the type of poetry I write can only appeal to a few people like myself. But I find that helping others is something that I can tackle, although I make mistakes. I keep on learning from them.” (Dipanjan in V.S. Naipaul’s “After the Battle” in India, A Million Mutinies Now)

Alessandra Benedicty

Friday, January 9, 2009

Today is Alexanadra’s last work day, and she is sad. So am I, because I will miss her. We change the routine today, so that I can go with her. We have yoga again today because it is no longer raining. We missed it yesterday. It is so refreshing to be on the roof early in the morning. We go to Assisi together. The little ones are so adorable, and soo tiring. They have such energy, and Alexandra is good for them because she also has the energy to “jump, jump, jump”. There is one little boy and girl that are apparently new to the school and still cry when they are left by Mom and do not stop crying or looking for mom to come. Children are the same all over the world.

We go to lunch at Father Christu’s. The location is beautiful, up on a hill with a view of the city below with wonderful breezes. The Father is very charming and outgoing. He plays the drums for us, and another priest Father Sebastian, sings. The drums have a great sound and the rhythm is infectious. Lunch was very good, a new dish we haven’t tasted with radishes.

The afternoon is spent at Grace school teaching computers to the 5th graders. The lesson is on how to create a graph from an Excel spreadsheet. Then the kids are shown how to use the drawing on Word. They loved it. After a break we go to SEAMs for more computer lessons. I used the drawing as something different for the boys to learn. Before we leave there is a small going away party, with the children singing for us. There was a birthday party in preparation with the Birthday Girl being dressed up in a bridal dress. Quite stunning. The children were very sad to see Alexandra leaving and we got a picture of Arun with Alexandra. After dinner we had Indian ice cream. This ice cream was vanilla with pistachios in it’s own little hand made pot. Very unusual, and good.

The children are our future. We must invest in them, if we are to survive. Author Unknown.

Susan Travis