India Service Program Blog

Friday, January 17, 2012.

“The more you travel the more you meet yourself.”  From the travel diary of my sister-in-law. 

Our first week is over.  Stephen and Sheeba took us to dinner as a reward.  We enjoyed another delicious Indian meal as we start our R & R weekend of rest and relaxation.  Dee and Anita are off to Pondicherry, KK and Cindy to Mahabalipuran and I’m staying here.

We’re moving along on our goals.  We’ve planned and shared what worked and what missed the mark.  Learning as we go as to what engages each child or group.  We hope they are appreciating our ways a bit as we are learning and appreciating theirs.

At Grace and SEAM we’re impressed with the amount of English the children have acquired since their experience with the language is largely the work they do with Global Volunteers.  It shows that each one of our small efforts can make a difference over time.

KK is like the Energy Bunny she just keeps going with the construction of the library at SEAM.  I think she should write her name in the cement for posterity.  It is so impressive that matching Global Volunteers workers to skilled local workers the dormitories and now the library have been built.  Without Kay Kay the construction may have been stopped for these two weeks.

Stephen Raja, Sheeba, Roshan, Rani, Barnabas and Stephen #1 are helping us experience India in a way few travelers to this wonderful country will ever have had.  I’ve just read India in Mind with introduction by Pankaj Mishra.  All those authors really didn’t get it.

Construction is everywhere in Porur.  It reminds me of China 13 years ago.  Every morning you can see new piles of brick, sand and gravel.  New sewers are going in, so narrow streets have to be traversed very carefully.  On a few streets you see boys playing cricket or football (soccer) after school.  Houses are painted bright colors outside.  One of my favorite, on the way to Grace School, has varied textures as well.  Houses are tall. The lower floors remain cool during the day. Bedrooms are on the next level with a garden above on the rooftop.  Most yards have a banana tree, the most important tree in India.  It never dies even when cut to the ground.  At every important event weddings, etc. an arch is made at the entry with large banana branches that has a full stalk of bananas on each side.  Each morning after the front garden and porches are swept and sprinkled often a symbolic ground stone finger painting is made.  I wonder how Porur will look in 13 years?

Enjoy the weekend and we’ll fire up our flexibility engines again on Monday.

 

Shirley

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Quote of the day:  Carpe  Diem  (Seize the Day)

The sights, sounds and smells of India continue to intrigue as we end our fifth day in Porur with Global Volunteers.  The roads filled with motorcycles, cars, buses and trucks appear to be equally busy at night as they are during the day.  Indeed, being a passenger in a small car on a congested highway  can be  a daunting experience – not for the faint of heart!  The roads are not without their charms, however.  Yesterday we stopped to  move a goat from the middle of the narrow street where she had found a nice, sunny spot.  She quickly returned to her favorite warm site the minute we had passed.  Along the way we also saw chickens, dogs and, of  course, cows.  As an American accustomed to seeing “do not honk horns” signs, it was interesting to see “sound horns” as well as “One family, one  child” signs painted on many trucks.

On the way to Assisi Illam this morning I chatted with our driver, Stephen, about  the roads and vehicles in general and discovered the small, yellow three-seated minivans, ubiquitous to the highways and side streets are Indian made by TATA and, at $2,000, are the  least expensive car available, costing considerably less than a good-quality motorbike.  They go  about 40 mph and are economical to run making them the ideal car for the stop and go of city driving.  As in many countries gasoline (petrol) is sold by the liter and costs RI 70 – an increase of RI 20 since January – a large jump  by any standard.

Working  in Assissi Illam Day Care certainly shows the different approaches  to child care between our two countries.  The children here are taught to  be sturdily self reliant from an early age and there doesn’t seem to be a “helicopter parent” in sight, sadly in several cases, there is NO parent in sight. At Assisi Allam the days are broken into half hour segments appropriate to the limited attention span of these young children.  “Sit down” learning experiences, with the teacher in front of the classroom, are held earlier in the day followed by a snack time of milk and cookies.  Then comes supervised play such as “Ring round the Rosies” and “Doing the Hokey Pokey”.  This is  followed by a quiet play  period with Day Care toys.  It’s an interesting observational period  with young children playing alongside each  other rather than with each other, casually hitting another child and grabbing a toy or Lego piece they want.  Tussles and tears often ensure in which Sister Stella rarely intervenes.  Survival of the fittest?  Hitting, pinching and even biting are not uncommon.  Also not uncommon is seeing the person who caused the tears literally mopping the faces and consoling their peers.  Self toileting and hand washing is generally unsupervised for these 2-4 year olds.  Lunch is quite a sight with the children surrounding a teaching aide who  rolls rice and crackers into little  balls with her fingers and  pops them into their mouths like baby birds.  I asked how they keep track of which child has eaten and was told that they “just know”.  There was no pushing or shoving to the front of the group and, in fact, no one appears to be particularly hungry or interested in food. 

After lunch the children are settled  down for a nap.  Two thin mats are placed on the floor and the children are placed side by side without  pillows – boys on one mat, girls on another.  Their nap time is  when Sister Stella, whose hand was injured in an accident by a drunk driver, does her physical therapy exercises while watching TV.  Seeing  the Indian version of “American Idol” is quite a hoot. 

When we returned from SEAM we had the amazing experience of being served a traditional Tamil meal called virundu consisting of rice and sambar, two kinds of vegetables,  a b anana and a sweet called laddu.  Stephen and Sheeba are the most amazingly gracious hosts and we all feel incredibly fortunate  to have been recipients of their hospitality.  This is the unique kind experience which very few visitors share and we thank them both most sincerely.

Diane (Dee)

Wednesday, January 15, 2012.

Quote of the day"........"give more than you take and grace will be yours".
Seen on a bathroom wall in Rome

India fills all your senses. My 15 minute walk to SEAMS every morning is a real slice of India. The colors, smells and sounds all blend together in one chaotic yet harmonious blur. I feel I have already met one of our teams goals, "to experience India". I can't imagine a better way to experience India then working with and learning from the children.

Another one of our goals is "to represent our country in a positive way". I'm still working on that one. My day job here is to help with the construction of the new library at SEAMS. Since we are a team of only five I am the only volunteer working with the two Indian workers. The work is tough, hot and a bit tedious. I'm sure the workers are curious about a 100 lbs middle aged American lady handing buckets of cement up to them. I work hard and each day they open up to me a little more. We communicate with our hands as if we were all deaf. I am working on earning their respect, they certainly have earned mine!

The four on our team who are teaching reported a day of both delight and frustration. Kids bouncing off walls seemed to be the theme of the day. Cindy told of bring a bag full of games, books ect but the only thing that kept one of her classes interested was when she just started counting to 100 and making up dance moves to go with them. Shirley came home from Grace drained but satisfied.

On to SEAMS at 5:00 where Shirley took on the project of weighing and measuring some of the kids. Cindy and I had great success with using the iPad video to interview the kids then in turn having them interview us. They loved watching it played back and hearing themselves speaking English.

Shirley, Dee and Anita went to a traditional dance concert tonight. Their report was of an excellent 20 minute concert. Unfortunately to get there the drive was over an hour each way. Again a slice of India.

I would also like to say a little something about our team leader Stephan and his lovely wife Sheba and adorable son Rosham. They have been the most gracious host opening up their home to us and being our tour guides in Chennai. They have become our friends. So I have another quote of the day devoted to them......


"make new friends and keep the old. One is silver and the other gold"

Looking forward to another adventure tomorrow,

KK

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 - Valentines Day

Quote: life is what's happening while you're busy making other plans.  John Lennon

Coffee...check, newspaper read...check, bug spray on...check. Ready to embark on day 2 of our journey. After a nice breakfast meeting at the Guest House, we prepared for the day ahead. It's a 15 minute walk to Grace School or a 10 minute extremely bumpy car ride. The streets in the neighborhood are all dirt and most of them have huge pot holes, big dirt piles for the new sewer drains, or cows in the road.

After yesterdays day one jitters and initiation, today seemed like a breeze. Working with kids in kindergarten, grade one and two is priceless. Spotless as can be in their little uniforms and have wonderful manners. They are so adorable and egar to learn but grade 1 has about a 1 minute attention span. I had very few items prepared but used my imagination and my ever so ready, grab bag. In my grab bag, I keep crayons, plain paper, flash cards, picture books, easy reading books, my laptop and iphone both filled with hundreds of pictures, games and best of all, Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson music. After they finish a few lessons, I reward them with some dancing or a physical activity. The kids biggest thrill was when I pulled out pictures of my husband fishing in Alaska and to see all the boats, fish and snow. When I showed them pictures of cities, they would yell out "America, America"! They are little sponges and soak up everything you do and say. Our job is to teach, be creative and provide positive reinforcement.

 

Anita and I both agreed the Valentines were a huge hit and the little candy hearts with words on them were magical. The kids called them "chocolates" because that's what they think all candy is called. Valentines Day is not celebrated in India so this was new to the teachers and children.

Dee had 18 children today at Assis instead of the 30 yesterday. I bit less hectic for her and felt that it takes quite a bit of energy to keep up with the little ones. She commented that the children at Assis are dressed to the nines in their fancy clothes, most from donations.

Shirley agreed that today went well with the second session at Grace school. The kids are making a great effort to say "may I have this and may I have that".

KK did her manuel labor at SEAMS and chistled away at bricks all morning. Quite labor intensive but trying to get the library done before April.

This evening we went to SEAMS to do our one on one with the kids. We started out giving them their Valentines and they were beaming from ear to ear. At SEAMS, it's all about the TLC and one on one communication. Their english is quite impressive and they love to play on the laptop and with the iphone. For never having a computer in school, their skills are amazing due to all the volunteers who bring along a laptop.

Walked home and the usual traditional Indian meal was waiting on the table. Absolutely delicious!

Tired and time for bed.

Cindy

Monday, February 13, 2012

“There are only 2 mistakes, one can make along the road to truth: not going all the way and not starting” Buddha 563BC – 483BC

Those of us here in Porur, these 2 weeks are certainly starters and judging by our various life stories or all well along our own roads. What better location then working with our Indian children and learning their truth? Some of their life stories are amazing. .

Today was: Batter up, Everybody! Tasks at our three day time sites had been arranged yesterday by Stephen during our orientation. It seems less chaotic to give us assignments lasting this first week.

Cindy and I volunteers our morning shift at Grace School and Shirley covers the afternoon period. Stephen introduced us to Appavu, Correspondent, Esther, Principal and Daughter, Rudy an upper grade teacher was also present in Appavu’s office. Scheduling was finalized, Cindy taught kindergarten, first and second grade. I started with grade 5 then 4 and finished with grade 3. With all 3 classes, I had the children write their first names, and their grade assignments on a bottom of a 5 by 7 card. It was interesting to learn that how many students actually listen and follow these directions. I then practiced the correct pronunciation of each name asking for their assistance.

In introduced myself, that iam from New York state in the US just as they live in Tamil Nadu state in India. I then showed them 2 puzzles of the United States, Each state a different color. Could they count the states and tell me just how many make up the United States? The difficulty of doing so is that two of the New England state on the puzzle was of the same color, yet divided by a line in the two newest states were pictured at the bottom of the puzzle. If they would like, we might put the puzzles together at the end of the week.

A discussion of the days of the week and what the children enjoy doing most on Saturdays took some skills in putting sentences together. In turns out that most enjoyed eating food!

Classes were small, the smallest being 4 forth graders, 6 third graders and 9 fifth graders, who were the most receptive and totally engaging group. Perhaps their English language abilities were also the most practiced.

I asked the classes their patience in learning how to pronounce their first names. 3^rd grader keerthana, bless her heart would leave her seat quickly to come as close to my face as possibleand ever so slowly show me over and over again, just how to get the last 5 letter of her name correctly spoken. She is a natural born teacher, with her tendency to help a slower child get this name straight. She was most patient with me. I will have to practice her name.

All 3 classes spent some time with conversation – days of the week, favorite subject in school and why. Didn’t find time today for songs, but then again we will have the rest of the week.

The children salute as they greeted us, looking rather ‘spiffy’ dressed in white and navy and white ties.

At noon, the students have lunch and we came back for ours. Shirley classes run from 1 PM to 3.30 PM.

I briefly joined a decompression session with Shirley asking Cindy about her day teaching her school with the younger set, a large energetic group of first graders – always a challenge worldwide.

Following lunch with 2 deliciously sweet oranges, I came back to my room to start today’s journal and caught a lovely nap as well.

We left for Seam’s at 5PM and met individually with 20 min each speaking with 3 students. I shared a boys dorm room with Shirley and her children. As a group, my 3 youngsters were not very verbal as compared to Shirleys first lad – who seemingly was chattering away. Several conversations with all 3 of my children needed translations rendered by Shirley’s students. I received many confused looks from my children so I became even more aware of speaking slow of being understood. It was not as successful as I would have hoped. There is always tomorrow, isn’t their?

I would like to try the following exercise before I leave Grace School – Maybe with that alert 5^th grade class. It has to do with the famous Casey Stengel’s quote “All right everybody, line up alphabetically according to your height”

I once tried it with 5^th graders who were about to leave my library. Just watching their facial expressions as the joke dawned on them was priceless

Anita

Sunday, February 12, 2012

    

“Be doers of the word not hearers only.”  St. John

Our team of five represents three of the four corners of the United States, the Northwest, Northeast, and Southwest.  Together we hope to achieve our goals to be positive ambassadors for the US in India, to get to know and appreciate the culture and people of India.  To bring joy to the young people we work with as we encourage their use and knowledge of English and good health habits. We’re even going to help the construction workers as they work to complete the library at SEAM.  By accomplishing our goals we hope we’ll be of service to India.

Our experience is special since our team leader, Stephen, his wife, Sheeba, and son, Roshan, share their home us.   

Our senses were bombarded the minute we left the airport with the hurry and scurry of traffic; cars and many motor bikes weaving in and out of lanes, constantly honking to protect themselves and others, leaving only inches to spare in front back and on both sides.  Literally breathtaking!  The beauty of the people, the gorgeous colors, designs and textures of the saris and the smells of flowers and food in homes and along the streets delight the eyes and nose.  Food in the south of India is spicy, but there is always a balance in the dishes served to complement the spicy, cool watermelon or other fruit, yogurt and onions which was something new for us.

We met the students, principal and one staff member at SEAM and they welcomed us   with smiles, songs and great joy.  We’re anxious to return tomorrow evening. 

Shirley