Millinium Development Goals
Achieved by this team from July 6 - July 10;
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
1 School, 2 Children's Home and over 150 students impacted
Monday, July 06, 2009
After a very amusing and entertaining weekend, we entered our second week in India. Breakfast consisted of noodles, hard boiled eggs, and tomato chutney. Unlike last week, Alexi left for Grace School and I left for Assisi Illam. Alexi taught the fifth, fourth, and second graders in the morning. I was with Stephen who helped me with the little ones. We sang songs, colored, and attempted to play duck, duck, goose. Stephen showed the crying toddlers picture dictionaries while the others watched TV.
Before I knew it, it was lunch time. We ate rice, beets, and potatoes, and mangoes, of course! Then we were off to Grace School to teach our usual group of third and first graders. We taught the third graders how a verb changes depending on the number of subjects. In the last few minutes we played hangman with them. With the first grade, we taught them big versus small, shapes, reviewed addition problems, and sang songs.
At SEAMs, Alexi showed the older kids how to work a computer. She showed them Microsoft word and most of them already knew how it functions. I, on the other hand, tried teaching a boy the alphabet and how each letter sounds. Eventually he was able to read simple words such as “cat” and “bat” which was exciting! We then made it back to the guest house for dinner. We had naan, some chutneys, and omelets. Then I went straight to bed, while Alexi stayed up a little longer to play with Roshan.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”
Tuesday, July 7, 2009:
The day began with a wonderful breakfast of dosai, peanut chutney and eggs, then it was off to the Grace School and Assisi Illam. At the Grace School I taught the 5th graders about different types of punctuation, and what they mean. I worked with the fourth grade on their reading skills and multiplication tables, teaching them a few tricks to remember the answers. With the second grade we read stories and played games. Lisa spent the morning with the children at Assisi Illam, they spent the morning coloring, singing and reciting Nursery Rhymes. Then it was back to the Guest House for a lunch of beef with curry sauce, fried naan, and cooked beans. We also had our favorite… MANGO!
In the afternoon, we worked with the third and first grades at the Grace School. The third graders learned what an adjective is and finished the lesson with a game of hangman. The first graders enjoyed learning their body parts, singing songs like “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” and playing games like “Duck, Duck, Goose.” Then it was back to the Guest House for a little rest. Lisa and I went to the Internet place for some chocolate. Then Sheeba showed us their wedding album. At SEAM, we worked with some of the older children on computer skills. I taught Rajesh how to play “Hearts” on the computer. Lisa worked with Pragash on his alphabet and made some significant progress.
The day was made complete with a yummy dinner of rice, curry, cabbage and beets. Another day in India!
Thought for the day: “Do everything with love.”
Wednesday July 8, 2009
We began our day with noodles and omlets. Then Alexi and I parted ways. She taught the fifth graders grammar rules, read to the fourth graders and second graders. I was at Assisi Illam reading, singing, and coloring with the crying little ones. I followed Stephen’s advice to save coloring for when they get really restless, which worked!
Alexi and I were on our own for lunch, since Stephen and Sheeba had taken Roshen to the hospital. We ran into them on our way to the new grocery store to get ingredients to make cookie dough. We bought sugar, butter, peanut butter, oatmeal, and chocolate to make peanut butter-chocolate-oatmeal cookie dough! Unfortunately, when Alexi tasted the butter it was completely foul! It smelt like blue cheese… So we used the butter in the fridge. Within minutes, our batter was ready to eat! Yum
We then went to the Grace School. We tried to revise adjectives with the third graders when all of a sudden one of the boys started crying! Alexi and I could not figure out what had happened, so I called in a fifth grader to ask him in Tamil what upset him. After the fifth grader’s interpretation, Alexi managed to decode what had happened. To make a long story short one of the girls had written down his name to tattle on him so that his teacher would hit him! So Alexi and I immediately gave the kids a lesson on why tattle-telling is cruel and wrong.
We taught the first graders the sounds of letters to help them with reading in the future. Alexi did most of the teaching, since I was feeling light headed. The first graders seemed to really enjoy this lesson shouting out the sounds, letters, and words.
We then headed back to the guesthouse. I went to bed and Alexi and Stephen went to SEAMs without me. When they came back we went to dinner at MaryBrown’s and ate fried chicken, chicken burgers, and French fries. Alexi and I were very happy.
“Happiness is not in having or being; it is in doing”
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