India Service Program Blog

Wednesday, 13 July, 2011

'The great man is he who does not lose his child's-heart.'

- Mencius

Day 5 in Chennai - or another great day between two birthday celebrations.

After a good night of sleep, followed by an exquisite breakfast (the sweet couscous was absolutely wonderful, thank you, Ranie) taken with beautiful people, I was ready to start this new day!

Heather and Marionne left for Grace School, as Katie and I for Assisi Illam, where both of us spent a busy and fun time with our little friends. Few cried, few peed on the ground while few others fought and bit, but in the end we had a great time dancing, singing and playing with them. It is absolutely impossible not to love these beautiful angels. Some young visitors from Houston,Texas showed up during our busy morning. Then, without knowing, it was already time to come back 'home' for another delicious lunch and some pleasant conversations... but, not before experiencing a great concert of honking cars stocked on the crowded road. Definitely an experience by itself, I would say.

After lunch, Katie and I got ready for our daily afternoon at Grace School. Needless to say that, as usual, Stephen had the kindness to take us there. So off we went, Roshan and his father seating in front. Our teaching only lasted an hour today because we had the privilege to go make some shopping. Around 3h45, the four of us left with our private chauffeur for a new destination : the Central Cottage Industries Emporium which is a leading source for indian handicrafts created by skilled Indian artists. We girls had a good time buying gifts to bring back for our friends and the family.

After our shopping session and few purchases later, we all went to play with our brothers and sisters of SEAM Children's Home where we had a great time as usual. Taking pictures and having fun blowing soap bubbles outside. That is right : no teaching today!

Finally, to end this day more beautifully, a power cut invited all of us, after dinner, to the intimacy of candles lightning. Yes,another great day this was, and I just can't wait for tomorrow!

Sylvie

Celebrating 100th Team in India

Celebrating 100th Team in India

Tuesday, 12 July, 2011

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
Mahatma Gandhi

I've read that it takes three weeks to change a habit, or to make a behavior rote, and I wonder if this is true. We've only been In been Chennai for three days and what was originally nerve wracking and unusual is no longer so. Small children on motorcycles - seen that. Cows in the middle of the street - no big deal. Temperatures in the high 90's - ho hum. However, what does strike me, is the things that are the same. Children in Chennai want to learn. Children in Chennai will goof off, if given the opportunity. Teachers in Chennai get excited talking about teaching, what you ate for breakfast, and 100's of other things.

Today there was not the anxiety of first walking into a classroom. We knew what we were going to teach and knew the students. Or at least, we knew to have them make name tags so we could pretend we knew who they were. The third graders laughed at the mad libs game, at the same time that they were learning nouns. The fourth graders didn't want to use full sentences, but couldn't play the guessing game without using them. The fifth graders surprised us with their comprehension of the story we read and we learned that we needed to make the next day's lesson a little harder.

We returned to the guest house for another delicious meal, of lemon rice, green curry sauce, and the fried bread that takes like potato chips, and after a quick rest, worked on our lesson preparation for tomorrow. Then we went to SEAMS house for one-on-one tutoring. It was haircut and bath day. The boys were sitting outside getting their hair trimmed by a barber and the girls were just finishing putting fresh braids into their clean hair. We each worked with a child and started with the usual, "How are you?" , "I am fine.", "How are you.", and progressed into more complex topics, depending on the ability of the student. But, as I was sitting there, talking to a young boy, and and listened to him say that he wanted to go to university to become a computer engineer, as he swatted the flies off of his face and I watched another 100 or so buzz around us, I thought about how he was living. There are six children in a room, he sees his parents one time a month, His meals are cooked over a fire, and I realized that it wasn't the same. Some things are meant to be changed and this is certainly one of them, even if it takes more than three weeks.

Heather

Celebrating 100th Team in India

Celebrating 100th Team in India

Monday 11, July 2011

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about."

Today was our first day teaching.

Sylvia and I started working with the little children at the Assisi Illam Children's Home and Daycare Center in the morning. Sister Mathilda and Sister Rose run both the home and daycare. The oldest child in daycare is five, but most have never been to school before. Their school year just started, so many of the little ones were having a very difficult time adjusting to being away from their parents for the first time. Some cried, and some were so young they weren't even speaking in Tamil yet. We played with them, looked at picture books, and sang nursery rhymes. I think I need to brush up on my nursery rhymes! I forgot how short two and three year olds' attention spans are. But they were darling.

There was one boy in particular, Karthick, who already knew several English words. Stephen told me that he is 5 years old and will be starting school next year. He is an orphan and lives at Assisi Illam. The other children that we worked with were only at the facility for the morning while their parents worked. But Assisi Illam is also a children's home, mostly for girls who either lost or can no longer live with their parents. They live at Assisi Illam and attend school during the day, so we will most likely not be working with them during our stay in Chennai. We met one girl though, because she was home sick. There were a lot of children sick today because of the rains last week.

After a couple of hours we returned to the Guesthouse for lunch. It was awfully hot today, even the Indians complained, so the air-conditioning was a welcome relief.

Sylvia and I began our second assignment after lunch, teaching English at the Grace School. She had 1st and 2nd graders, and I taught 3rd through 5th. It is a small private school that serves mostly lower income families who hope for a better education for their children.

My classes were small, but they were lively. I teach fifth graders at home, so it was fun to work with kids the same age here. Their English is surprisingly good, especially since their English teachers change every three weeks as new volunteer groups come. We could carry on basic conversations without the need of a translator. They have a lot of vocabulary, but their sentence structure is weak, so we will focus on that in our lessons.

After Grace we returned to the Guesthouse for a break, and the other volunteers and I were able to plan lessons for tomorrow.

In the evening, we returned to SEAMS House, but this time we practiced speaking English with individual children. They loved looking through the picture books and having me read to them. We also practiced conversations. The two hours flew, and soon it was time to return to the Guesthouse for dinner. It has been a long and exciting day. We will all sleep very well tonight!

Katie

Celebrating 100th Team in India

Celebrating 100th Team in India