India Service Program Blog

Millinium Development Goals

Achieved by this team from January 26 -30;

84 Hours of class room instruction in conversational English and computer skills by 6 volunteers and 84 Hours of preparation time.

56 Hours of childcare by 2 volunteers

28 Hours of construction labor at SEAM Children's Home by 2 volunteers

2 Schools, 2 Children's Home and over 500 students impacted



Sunday, 1/25/09 (Katie Ohotto)

“Courage is the capacity to confront what can be imagined.” -Leo Rosten

Our team, the 76th to Chennai, India, officially united this Sunday morning for a 9am breakfast of flat eggs with onions and white puffs with a mystery green coconut sauce all prepared by our house cook, Rani. Tea and coffee complimented the meal. The team consisted of six women:
• Ginny, an admirable woman who paved the way for the rest of us women as a retired Vice President of Xerox now residing in San Francisco
• Georgie, an inquisitive and talkative woman from NYC in an interesting transient period in her life
• Ann, a brave and independent Taiwanese woman who waited two years to turn eighteen before being accepted into this India program
• Linda and Linda, two women, the last to arrive to the Global Volunteer house, who arrived from other parts of India with great insights to share with the rest
• Katie, a frequent Global Volunteer with an eagerness to experience India

From there our team leader, Stephen, began orientation with introductions to include his wife, Sheeba, and his six-month old son, Roshan. The anticipation grew as the projects were described and assigned. I was quite suprised when four of the six women raised their hands for the dirty, hot, buggy, and heavy construction work, but this was perhaps just an indication of their admirable strength and independence. Linda and I took primary post in schools, and all Global Volunteers were to assist at SEAM in the early evenings. I omit the program details for now as following journal entries will supplement this initial text. Our team collaborated to create five team goals:
1. to experience Indian culture
2. to build community
3. to help children
4. to understand how Indian spirituality impacts daily life
5. to have a fun adventure

To coincide with these goals, the team compiled a list of effective team characteristics. Next, we reviewed the Global Volunteers’ policies, guidelines, and the philosophies of service. The session ended with Nandri (among other Tamil words taught to us by Stephen) - yes, that is also Nandri to Stephen and his team for hosting such a remarkable program.

I am already getting all the unique dish options confused and cannot recall the details of lunch except for a potato curry that was fantastic. Following, we tasted our last free time break until the weekend knowing we had upcoming: journals to write, lessons to prepare, dishes to wash, children to teach, dormitories to build, and inquisitive minds to wonder.

We walked to the SEAM home to meet the children at 5:30pm and were a bit unprepared for their kind and overwhelming welcome. Yes, about forty children of all ages rushed to greet us shaking our hands and asking our names. The official greeting was moved indoors where each child was given an opportunity to shake each of the volunteers’ hands and exchange their names and personal welcomes. A group song was performed followed by a brave soloist’s performance. Stephan shared a card with photos from a previous volunteer before handing out the candy that Linda generously brought. Goodbyes were shared in the same fashion as the welcomes, and the team walked to the Grand Residence for dinner with questions of these children’s future racing through the heads. The buffet dinner was incredible in variety and flavor: soup, tandoori chicken, fried cauliflower, naan, curries with rice, desserts… so much food and service.

The walk home was not quite a peaceful reflection of the day as roads had to be crossed, dogs had to be avoided, and correct streets had to be navigated all the while dodging racing cars, motorcycles, rickshaws, and pedestrians. However, all made it home for a peaceful night’s rest before the real work starts the following morning.


Monday, 1/26/09 (Ginny Weber)

“Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment. Full effort is full victory” –Mohandas Ghandi

Today was our official day of work and what a day it was. We all marched off to our assignments with enthusiasm and some apprehension – the heavy lifting construction crew felt more apprehension than enthusiasm. We taught English to toddlers and high schoolers, prepared students for critical math exams, and introduced students to computer technology (thanks to the laptops Georgie brought). And then there was the super-human construction team that moved a mountain of bricks to complete the new dormitory. All in a days work for the Global Volunteers.

Back at the guest house we settled in to the rhythm of the Indian lifestyle. Eating delicious food at every meal, sleeping under mosquito nets, and chasing mosquitoes with our favorite new toy – the “tennis racket” mosquito zapper. The racket is such a hit there’s been some talk of importing them back to the U.S.



Tuesday, January 28, 2009 (Ann Cheng)

“A work well begun is half ended.” Plato

We started our day with great smiles on our face because we all knew that we were going to beautify this world with love pouring out from our hearts.

Today was officially our first day to work, so we were all prepared with all kinds of stuff that we might need. The teaching in St. Joseph school went pretty smooth. The children in Grace school were doing their best to learn math. With their hard work and talent, they are going to master it soon. And we had a great day in Assisii with all those sweet little children waving their panties waiting for someone to help them. The construction team was becoming familiar with carrying stuff on their head.

We went to seam in the afternoon as usual. The most exciting thing was that we finally found out how to get their interest in learning computer technology. It’s always good to know they are learning.

We really enjoyed our day today, and we are going to love our life here a little bit more each day for sure.

Wednesday, January 28, 2009 (Linda W.)

“Keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve.” Howard Thurman

Amazingly, we have been here just 4 days. It seems like so much longer. We have been presented with many challenges (opportunities) and I have had to “keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve.”

We are finding the groove of our daily routine. Perhaps a special in India is the 7:30 arrival of a yoga teacher. Four of us make our way to the roof terrace of our guest house to awaken our bodies in early morning Chennai. (Although the crows are our constant companions, we have not yet tried to emulate them by doing a crow pose.)

We participate in a variety of service projects which are often tweaked due to circumstances. Today there was no work at the Seams work project since the tiles had not yet arrived. So Georgie and Linda M. (our laborers) lent out a helping hand in the morning at Assisi. Katie and Linda W. were very pleased with the increased attention span of the students at Grace English School. Katie’s teaching at St. Joseph’s is smooth; she does notice the effect the different classroom teachers have on the students. Ann and Ginny continue to delight in the children at Assisi. Today was hokey-pokey day. All the 2-5 year olds participated with gusto moving those little arms and legs in and out in hokey-pokey fashion. And they had a special guest … a REALLY BIG monkey paid a visit. Ginny and Ann took pictures and what a monkey!!! The children’s parents were not all that concerned about this afternoon visitor however.

Other highlights of the day included:
• poori for lunch;
• Linda M.’s Seams student learning the alphabet both the Indian and American way;
• A late afternoon shopping trip to the government Emporium which carries items from cottage industries from around the country; and
• Really good math comprehension by Rajesh and Suresh in the Seams program.

So, indeed, it was a full day filled with service and learning experiences.


Thursday, January 29, 2009 (Georgie Kovacs)

“Harmony is on phase of the great law whose spiritual expression is love.” -James Allen

Imagine getting a group of six women together who have never met in order to work together for three weeks (or in Katie’s case, two). Now imagine them working together in order to improve the community of Chennai, India. That is what we are doing and in some cases, we are already seeing the fruits of our labor.

Each day has its ups and downs but we have a great process in place to handle them. Over breakfast, lunch, dinner and during our rides to each of our assignments, we discuss the events of the day and pass along any wisdom to incorporate the next day. Having this harmonious relationship among us ( and with the local people) helps us be more effective at accomplishing our goal – loving and helping the community.

Thursday was the first day each of us settled into our “official” schedule. Although, we know this could always change tomorrow. Ann and Ginny are continuing to develop their relationships with the children at Assisi. Linda W. is getting into the groove teaching her five classes a day. Although, today, she realized that some of her students don’t understand her. Time for Plan B. Or is it Plan C we are on now? Linda M. and Georgie are on half-day assignments: 1) construction work, meaning helping masons (in India, this is called a tender); and 2) teaching conversational English to the novices at St. Joseph’s. Katie is the resident computer expert who has great overall insights given her multiple mission trips prior to this one in India.

The two Linda’s and Georgie watched an Indian dance performance – Bharata Natyam, which was developed in 1200 AD.

The trip to see the dance performance was interesting. As we drove along, we asked our country manager, Stephen, how the driver knows where to go as we did not see any street signs. First, the streets do have names but there are two – one in Tamil and the other in British English. Second, one cannot always find a map of how to get to the destination, which was the case for us. As a result, one must drive in the general vicinity of his destination and pull over, asking multiple people where to go.

During the ride, Stephen mentioned that he was in New York City for three days in 2007. While we are fascinated by the cows on the streets and in people’s backyards, Stephen is fascinated by the dogs with sweaters! Imagine his reaction to this when in India, dogs tend to be unwanted homeless animals that walk the streets. In contrast, in the US, we take them to doggie daycare.

It’s nice to see the harmony developing among us as we continue to do our great work. That’s what I call a successful and well-oiled “team machine!”

Friday, January 30th, 2009 ( Linda McCamic)

“Recall the face of the poorest and weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if this step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him.”
Ghandi

Our first full week of work and all seems to be going smoothly.
Georgie and I have finished our week of construction and are moving over to Assisi Illam to work at the day care/orphanage next week and are looking forward to it. We will continue to teach conversational English to the novices at St. Joseph’s every afternoon which we enjoy immensely.
Ginny and Ann will take our places as the construction crew with a bit of apprehension.
I think they will miss the children at Assisi immensely as they seem to have really bonded with them.
Katie will continue teaching at St Joseph’s And Grace School and is making good progress teaching computers at Seams.
Linda W. the math wiz will continue to teach at Grace School and Seams.
After a week of Indian food Stephen offered us pizza from Pizza Hut and with some coaxing we gave in and tried it, I must say it wasn’t bad and there was none left so I guess everyone agreed.
Tomorrow we are all off to Pondicherri and Mamallapuram for the weekend. It sounds like it will be a wonderful trip and we are all looking forward to some well deserved R&R!