Happy Diwali 2007!
Sambhali:
Oh God, sooo quick, soo much happening, I don't know how to handel all of it on my own (I was saying one man's army since few days now I know what it means). Now Sophie in Jodhpur and Amanda in Setrawa are helping me a lot. Many people are interested in our NGO work and are coming forward to support us in every possible way. We will have more volunteers come through Global experiance and world wide helpers. We are in serious need of volunteers.
Here is a report from Setrawa by Amanda:
7/11/07, Wednesday
2nd visit to Setrawa,
confirmation visit, moving day part 1
We left at 9 am with an abundance of living goods. The car held Mukta dressed immaculately like a princess in aqua and pink, Mumy, Govind, Ayush, Sophie, myself and Virendra.
When we arrived we met Govind’s uncle and the moving truck and unloaded all of the goods. We seemed to be equipped with everything. Pillows, mattresses, canisters, 4 sewing tables and machines, cook top and gas cylinders, even a fridge.
The aim of the day was to bless the house and get things moving along quickly before I commence teaching on the 11th. I had the option of moving to Setrawa today, but felt that is way too soon. I need every last minute with access to a computer, so I can plan classes, draw up question sheets and admin forms, talk ideas through with Govind and Sophie.
I also have to get food supplies and pack up my luggage. I also want to spend more time with the Sambhali Jodhpur girls. That’s the main downside of moving to the village: I have only just started to settle here getting to know more about each girl attending and the children in the afternoons, and I have to go. I hope there are no feelings of abandonment from their part, however as last week they were absent, that created a separation in the bonding process at such an early stage that any relationships starting to develop between me and the girls were at a very basic level. It will be harder for me to leave the little ones though. They attended all last week without fail. They even came on Sunday!
Elka, who we are making slow progress with, Ekta who when you don’t understand enough hindi to decipher her swearing, is more adorable then what I was told to anticipate, Subvesh, who’s so smart, neat and recovering from a harsh dog attack (learning about how to treat a wound also), little Rikkas, he tries so hard and doesn’t copy the others when he starts making mistakes or is stuck….such an admirable quality, it shows he really wants to learn, not just get credit for having the right (but copied) answers. Anita, who shined the other day when there were only 4 children in the entire class, she knew most of the alphabet when I held up capital and small letters out of sequence. “f, x, c, y” were difficult and we revised them over and over. Little Salu is so sweet in nature, she likes the attention, so keep in mind when teaching to use a more praising approach, smile lots. She’ll copy what you say if you hold her gaze, and repeat it, hopefully starting to commit pieces to memory. She knew only the letters of her own name at this stage. Elka, did not know many more, but she gives up easily when she makes one or two mistakes. Then she gets impatient. With elka, u have to be persistent, very firm but gentle in your approach. She is a smart girl, but stubborn and refuses to try. Then when you make her follow what you are saying, step by step repeating slowly, repeating again and again patiently and demonstrating what the exercise requires, giving clues, cognitively leading answers etc, she sometimes, after a long and tiresome while starts to concentrate, even if only to get you off her back. When she starts seeing the reward in actually following the lesson and having knowledge, being part and keeping up, she might start concentrating for her own sake. Ajit is also one that tries hard and Suraj stands out as more confidence (like Subvesh.
Nisa is also getting there. She tries. Angelique, Tina and the other little one Cusu (?) are only new and often learn the ABC with Sophie when I start the lesson with the older group. They do try too. Asha is accomplished and older than the others, ive noticed she also needs reassurance and credit when she has done something right. She does not like being told ‘no’ when she wants a sticker. When they all understand that a sticker means top marks that will be great! Cormal is such a gorgeous girl…always bright an smiling/shining! She is quick with her answers too and naturally witty. Confidence is one word you could use to describe her. Vandana also joins in from time to time (sometimes she skips school and comes to the day class). She is a bright kid and has a strong and confident voice.
Anyway as much as I’ll miss them, I will have 20 more kids to get to know and who also will benefit from my company and help. I have to wait to weigh up who is more in need of this project. Even though I instantly thought the village would be less advanced in education, it seems I was wrong. I asked Rekha (I will introduce her to the report later) a little about the village statistics (I need more info by the way at this stage) she said 90% of boys go to school and 80%of girls go to school. That is amazing figure. And It was definitely not expected. Help is always welcome though and we can add to their schooling with some different qualities from overseas at the very least. I am .looking forward to doing arts and craft activities with them. This will be a handy area to teach in particularly at the start, as it requires little language to communicate and therefore will be non discriminative. It is also a tactile medium, and sensory, so it will open up an instant communication means among us. Plus its fun! And once I start getting to the stage of showing and teaching them about famous artists it will be like showing them different views of the world. It will be a great means to teach them ways of expressing themselves too, outside of language barriers and dangers. Sometimes it is too risky too say or write outloud your thoughts. Art gives you a safe and harmless way of therapy too, if need be.
Also I’ve had the advantage of reports from the other volunteers and their teaching methods. I will start with the abc, seeing how popular and effective a learning tool this will be in future more difficult English lessons.
Today I met two women who were interested in the teaching assistant position with me at Setrawa. Rekha as I mentioned earlier, was one of the two women and we chose her to take the job. Although she didn’t know as much English and wasn’t going to college (like Jyoti the other candidate) she was easier to communicate with, funnily enough. We both figured out what the other was saying/intending by body language, more or less (and of course Mukta’s translating help) but Jyoti, even though she knows English she cant understand my accent, nor me hers, and her facial expressions and body language were not telling me anything. Her strong, proud nature would be fitting for the girls in some ways, particularly with the aims of the project in mind. However I believe and I stick by it in many ways, more feminine qualities of warmth, care and generosity are much stronger qualities and I would like to promote positive more feminine qualities like these when aiming to empower women. And that they should embrace these qualities. A balance is necessary, of course, but im sure the women and girls we will be working with will have the more quieter natures to start with and there is no point making them more shy by being proud and dominating. Sometimes how a woman endures hardship is an invisible form of power, a quiet and loving form of power that lets a man feel like he is reigning and lets the woman be, content enough with herself not to have constant reassurance that she is bigger and better than others, a belief that some men (and women I guess) seem to fool themselves into.
I feel very excited about the whole Setrawa project. At this stage my only fears are that I don’t have as many as I should before embarking on a new project. I always take time to weigh up the pros and cons of things, but with Govind I think it seems thinking of the cons is forbidden and we are in a rush to do things due to the positive time on the calendar (also funding deadlines). Today is a very special day in Hindu, before Diwali. I’ll go with that method as this is his project and he is more aware of the situation of the village and India as a whole in general and religion brings out some beautiful positive qualities in people.. Mukta seems happy too…I need to have assurance from her that she agrees with the project, I have so much respect for her and her opinion matters. Govind will do well with this project. His connections with the village give it a special purpose and seem to influence a positive response from the villagers all round.
I know some basic language tools, and have navigated my way around the streets with a degree of ease…I know how to catch the bus (in theory) and where to catch it, the chemist, veg store, police station are all on my mind map. I will move in on the 11th November 07 after Diwali.
2nd visit to Setrawa,
confirmation visit, moving day part 1
We left at 9 am with an abundance of living goods. The car held Mukta dressed immaculately like a princess in aqua and pink, Mumy, Govind, Ayush, Sophie, myself and Virendra.
When we arrived we met Govind’s uncle and the moving truck and unloaded all of the goods. We seemed to be equipped with everything. Pillows, mattresses, canisters, 4 sewing tables and machines, cook top and gas cylinders, even a fridge.
The aim of the day was to bless the house and get things moving along quickly before I commence teaching on the 11th. I had the option of moving to Setrawa today, but felt that is way too soon. I need every last minute with access to a computer, so I can plan classes, draw up question sheets and admin forms, talk ideas through with Govind and Sophie.
I also have to get food supplies and pack up my luggage. I also want to spend more time with the Sambhali Jodhpur girls. That’s the main downside of moving to the village: I have only just started to settle here getting to know more about each girl attending and the children in the afternoons, and I have to go. I hope there are no feelings of abandonment from their part, however as last week they were absent, that created a separation in the bonding process at such an early stage that any relationships starting to develop between me and the girls were at a very basic level. It will be harder for me to leave the little ones though. They attended all last week without fail. They even came on Sunday!
Elka, who we are making slow progress with, Ekta who when you don’t understand enough hindi to decipher her swearing, is more adorable then what I was told to anticipate, Subvesh, who’s so smart, neat and recovering from a harsh dog attack (learning about how to treat a wound also), little Rikkas, he tries so hard and doesn’t copy the others when he starts making mistakes or is stuck….such an admirable quality, it shows he really wants to learn, not just get credit for having the right (but copied) answers. Anita, who shined the other day when there were only 4 children in the entire class, she knew most of the alphabet when I held up capital and small letters out of sequence. “f, x, c, y” were difficult and we revised them over and over. Little Salu is so sweet in nature, she likes the attention, so keep in mind when teaching to use a more praising approach, smile lots. She’ll copy what you say if you hold her gaze, and repeat it, hopefully starting to commit pieces to memory. She knew only the letters of her own name at this stage. Elka, did not know many more, but she gives up easily when she makes one or two mistakes. Then she gets impatient. With elka, u have to be persistent, very firm but gentle in your approach. She is a smart girl, but stubborn and refuses to try. Then when you make her follow what you are saying, step by step repeating slowly, repeating again and again patiently and demonstrating what the exercise requires, giving clues, cognitively leading answers etc, she sometimes, after a long and tiresome while starts to concentrate, even if only to get you off her back. When she starts seeing the reward in actually following the lesson and having knowledge, being part and keeping up, she might start concentrating for her own sake. Ajit is also one that tries hard and Suraj stands out as more confidence (like Subvesh.
Nisa is also getting there. She tries. Angelique, Tina and the other little one Cusu (?) are only new and often learn the ABC with Sophie when I start the lesson with the older group. They do try too. Asha is accomplished and older than the others, ive noticed she also needs reassurance and credit when she has done something right. She does not like being told ‘no’ when she wants a sticker. When they all understand that a sticker means top marks that will be great! Cormal is such a gorgeous girl…always bright an smiling/shining! She is quick with her answers too and naturally witty. Confidence is one word you could use to describe her. Vandana also joins in from time to time (sometimes she skips school and comes to the day class). She is a bright kid and has a strong and confident voice.
Anyway as much as I’ll miss them, I will have 20 more kids to get to know and who also will benefit from my company and help. I have to wait to weigh up who is more in need of this project. Even though I instantly thought the village would be less advanced in education, it seems I was wrong. I asked Rekha (I will introduce her to the report later) a little about the village statistics (I need more info by the way at this stage) she said 90% of boys go to school and 80%of girls go to school. That is amazing figure. And It was definitely not expected. Help is always welcome though and we can add to their schooling with some different qualities from overseas at the very least. I am .looking forward to doing arts and craft activities with them. This will be a handy area to teach in particularly at the start, as it requires little language to communicate and therefore will be non discriminative. It is also a tactile medium, and sensory, so it will open up an instant communication means among us. Plus its fun! And once I start getting to the stage of showing and teaching them about famous artists it will be like showing them different views of the world. It will be a great means to teach them ways of expressing themselves too, outside of language barriers and dangers. Sometimes it is too risky too say or write outloud your thoughts. Art gives you a safe and harmless way of therapy too, if need be.
Also I’ve had the advantage of reports from the other volunteers and their teaching methods. I will start with the abc, seeing how popular and effective a learning tool this will be in future more difficult English lessons.
Today I met two women who were interested in the teaching assistant position with me at Setrawa. Rekha as I mentioned earlier, was one of the two women and we chose her to take the job. Although she didn’t know as much English and wasn’t going to college (like Jyoti the other candidate) she was easier to communicate with, funnily enough. We both figured out what the other was saying/intending by body language, more or less (and of course Mukta’s translating help) but Jyoti, even though she knows English she cant understand my accent, nor me hers, and her facial expressions and body language were not telling me anything. Her strong, proud nature would be fitting for the girls in some ways, particularly with the aims of the project in mind. However I believe and I stick by it in many ways, more feminine qualities of warmth, care and generosity are much stronger qualities and I would like to promote positive more feminine qualities like these when aiming to empower women. And that they should embrace these qualities. A balance is necessary, of course, but im sure the women and girls we will be working with will have the more quieter natures to start with and there is no point making them more shy by being proud and dominating. Sometimes how a woman endures hardship is an invisible form of power, a quiet and loving form of power that lets a man feel like he is reigning and lets the woman be, content enough with herself not to have constant reassurance that she is bigger and better than others, a belief that some men (and women I guess) seem to fool themselves into.
I feel very excited about the whole Setrawa project. At this stage my only fears are that I don’t have as many as I should before embarking on a new project. I always take time to weigh up the pros and cons of things, but with Govind I think it seems thinking of the cons is forbidden and we are in a rush to do things due to the positive time on the calendar (also funding deadlines). Today is a very special day in Hindu, before Diwali. I’ll go with that method as this is his project and he is more aware of the situation of the village and India as a whole in general and religion brings out some beautiful positive qualities in people.. Mukta seems happy too…I need to have assurance from her that she agrees with the project, I have so much respect for her and her opinion matters. Govind will do well with this project. His connections with the village give it a special purpose and seem to influence a positive response from the villagers all round.
I know some basic language tools, and have navigated my way around the streets with a degree of ease…I know how to catch the bus (in theory) and where to catch it, the chemist, veg store, police station are all on my mind map. I will move in on the 11th November 07 after Diwali.
Diwali 2007:
Mukta and other guests in traditional costumes praying Godess Laxmi (Godess of wealth)
Randgoli (pattern on the floor by Amanda)
Guests dancing in the courtyard
Maharaja_m2k_4u@hotmail.com
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