Renuka.

I must pause my story and progress with my service learning and update you on a really incredible person I met.

Her name is Renuka.  She is one of the Indian students we are working with during the second portion of our trip.  The first day I was struck by her presence.  She told us two interesting things about her because she chose two pieces of candy (it was part of a game we were playing as a large group).  She said I am from Mumbai but am staying in Dharwad to attend University and I speak 12 languages.  Now most people in India speak at least three languages.  The educated people anyway.  Hindi, the national language, English, the educational language and their native tongue, which differs depending on what state you are from.  Most the people in the group were awestruck by the fact that she could speak 12 languages.

Turns out she is only 17 years old and she has taught her self most of these languages on her own.  Her dad is a sailor for an American company.  He is the captain of the ship with carries exports across the water to the United States.  Usually his journey's take anywhere from eight to ten months to complete.  Her and her sister have had the opportunity to travel many places to meet their father at his different locations.  Renuka was telling us about all the places she has traveled to and my whole body filled with the softest feeling.  It was the first time I had talked to an Indian with so much opportunity and it was a great change of pace.  Usually people only dream of being able to travel out of the country and most time that dream is so far away they rarely think about it.  But here is a girl, who has been to Seattle, CA, Singapore, Spain, and Korea.  She has been many more place I just can not list of them right now.

The other interesting thing about Renuka is she is a child born from a love marriage.  In India, the caste system is a very important and popular thing.  Love marriages are rarely spoken of, especially in the South because people are usually set up in arranged marriages.  This topic is something I have really enjoyed learning about since I have been here.  In India, most people believe that you fall in love after marriage so they see arranged marriages as a good thing.  People adapt to their partners.  In Renuka's case, her parents fell in love during college and married shortly after.  A similar thing happened to her grandparents and her sister as well.  Her sister just got engaged to a man she has been dating for the past nine years and now they will be tying the knot.  I asked Renuka if she thinks she will have a love marriage and she said, "I don't know.  I have not found a guy yet and I trust my parents to pick a nice man.  I would be fine with either."  I guess we will see what happens in the life of Renuka.

Last night, Renuka invited me and two friends over for a slumber, as they call them in India.  It was so much fun.  When Renuka is in Dharwad she stays with her aunt and uncle, who she calls mamma.  Mamma is the coolest, nicest, cutest guy I have ever met.  He is 70 years old and acts like he is 40.  He treated us like we were princesses.  All night he kept repeating, "You girls are like my daughters, what can I get for you."  He showed us his arms and he had goosebumps running up them because he was so excited to have us over.  The night was so fun.  We ate an Indian snack, then some cake.  An hour later he cooked us an amazing meal and then we ate more cake.  It was a feast, to say the least.  At night, he made us sleep in bed nets because he wanted us to be extra cautious when sleeping around the mosquitos.  It was the first time I had seen a bed net since being in India.  I loved it.  It was like sleeping in a tent.

Renuka and Mamma are two wonderful people.  They have incredible stories, smiles and personalities.  My two friends and I are traveling to Mumbai in about three weeks!  Guess who we will be staying with... That's right, Renuka!

Look out for an update about Renuka and the girls in the big city.

Learning Experiences

Learning Experiences

As I have learned throughout my college years in my Human Services classes, it is very important to be flexible, open-minded, and eager when working with non-profit organizations and NGO’s.  This point was reinforced on my Dialogue of Civilizations trip to Mexico in 2008 and it was also brought up in our pre-departure classes for India.  Flexibility is key to being successful. 

An Anecdote:  After our group was finally settled into our respective schools and finally had a consistent group of students attend our lectures and activities everyday, it was time to go on our mini trip to Delhi.  Indians celebrate many festivals and each festival has different meaning and traditions to go along with it.  The Indian Festivals can be slightly compared to holidays in the United States.  We had the honor of being in India for Diwali, the Festival of Lights.  Our group flew to Delhi for the weekend and had an amazing time strolling around the metropolis city.  It was very comparable to cities in the United States.  At night fire crackers, also known as fireworks, filled the sky.  For about six hours straight fire crackers were lit off from all parts of the city and the country for that matter so there was a bright display of color eluding over the country.  It was brilliant.  And much cooler than the fire works we light off on the fourth of July. 

The day before we left for Delhi we planned our lesson to be about holidays and festivals.  We had each student draw a picture of their favorite festival and had them come to the front of the room and describe the festival and their picture.  It was so fun to here the different traditions that are celebrated within families in India.  In our class there were 3 Christians and the rest were Hindi so it was very fun to here about how Christmas was celebrated in India.  It also gave me a warm fuzzy feeling when they talked about Christmas because I thought of home and my family and how much I love the holiday season and snow.  O home. 

As you can tell I was beginning to get pretty attached to my students.  Each of them brought a different quality and energy to our class.  There was little Nitish, who when standing was as tall as the kids sitting down, who would raise his little hand for every question and just smile his full faced grin.  There was Pragati, who had an intellectual answer for many questions but was so shy to answer in front of her peers.  She would put her head down and just peak over her arms.  And who could forget my favorite, Kavya.  She didn’t say a word but she wrote and decorated my name about ten different times and all of those pictures will be hanging in my room when I get home.

When we left our class on Thursday, we left and promised we would be back next week to learn about world issues.  They were so excited and we left the class with a 20 high pitched voices cheering, “HAPPY DIWALI.”  I was so happy.

After our amazing trip to Delhi, we arrived in Hubli with some interesting news.  Angelina, our contact at Akshara, said she found us a new school.  Our whole group was so confused, Does the Kendriya Vidyalala school in Dharwad know we are not coming back?, Why do we have to start all over?, Do we get to say good-bye to our students?  It didn’t matter, the eight of us packed in our mini van and were hauled to the next school.  The feeling in most of our minds was frustration.  We were down and overall our group had a pretty negative vibe.  Flexibility, is all I kept repeating in my head.  Flexibility.  You have to be ready for anything. 

After a semi unsuccessful day at our new school St. Joseph, we were all feeling a little depleted and pretty nervous about how we were going to put together a project to improve the education systems in the next three days….

It was time for some major break storming and group bonding.  The best is yet to come.

My New Friends.

The classroom where all the teaching takes place.  This is a very well equipped.  It is supported in part by the government.

Three of my favorite girls.  Shreya, Aparna, and Chandryka

A poster hanging on the classroom wall educating students about AIDS... Very interesting I thought.  My favorite is the Mickey and Minnie illustration.

Happy Students.  They love to have their picture taken.

Say HELLO!

Peace Games

After spending our first night in Hubli, we woke up still a little jet-lagged but eager to get to our service learning sight.  We met with our contact person, Angelina, who you will hear about a lot throughout this journey, and were informed about what the plan would be for the day.  As we sat on the freshly swept steps of the Desphande Foundation Auditorium, the eight people in our group tentatively listened to her speak.  She gave a brief overview of the Akshara Foundations and told us a little bit about herself and then she said, “First you will be working in two school and then next week, I will find you four more schools.”  All eight of  us had our heads spinning and eyes trying hard to make eye contact with someone else.  My first thought was, ‘What? Six schools, how will we ever have time to complete the curriculum in all six schools?”  After Angelina was done speaking we tried to clear things up with her letting her know that two schools would make up a large enough group for us to teach.  After we thought the confusion was cleared up we headed out as one big group to a school in Hubli called Kendriya Vidyalala.  We decided that once we got there we would split into two smaller groups of four and each group of four would take a class of 20 to teach. 

When we first arrived at the Kendriya Vidyalala School we were greeted by a schoolyard of excited, wide-eyed children and enthusiastic teachers.  We walked to the principal’s office with children tapping us on all sides, wide smiles spread across their faces.  “What is your name? From where you come?, How are you mam?”  Little voices were echoing everywhere and it was difficult to tell which child was asking what question.  When we finally arrived at the principal’s office, she seemed to have little time for chatting. We had a small cup of tea with her, introduced ourselves briefly and were placed into the classrooms.  She kept saying, “The students will be very excited to see you.  We’ll give you as much time with them as you need.”  It seemed odd to me that she seemed to have no interest in why we were there and was so eager to have us placed in the rooms.  Nonetheless, we were excited and very nervous, and we followed along to our respected classrooms.  The students were just as excited and maybe a little more than I had anticipated!  All the students stood as we entered the classroom and a grin filled all of their faces.  It was very different than any other classroom I had ever entered. 

The first day’s lesson was a little shaky.  The children were very intuitive and obedient, which was wonderful but the teachers were very eager to speak for the students.  It was also our first day so we were a bit nervous and all of us were very new to the curriculum! 

After about a half hour into the lesson, the principal ran into the room, asking for Krupa. Krupa is a student at Northeastern who is doing her co-op in Bangalore, Karnataka, India right now.  She took the 8 hour train ride to Hubli to give us a brief training on Peace Games.  Thank goodness she was there.  The principal was inquiring about Krupa because she wanted her to write a brief article for the paper.  It was frustrating because after only two days in the country, the staring and gawking from local Indians was already getting to me and now we come to a primary school where the principal and teachers are only interested in having us there because we are American.  Krupa ended up writing the article and as we were leaving the principal said, “Now be sure to send us some pictures of you teaching the students.”  We all just fake smiled and walked out the door.  Upon exiting the classroom, we were bombarded by students asking for our autographs… I just want to say, I NEVER WANT TO BE FAMOUS.  All the attention was really starting to wear on me.

All in all the day was a success because the joy on the student’s faces and their timid emotions were priceless.  I felt like they did really enjoy the curriculum and had a lot to offer especially to their community.   When they were asked who they considered Peacemakers to be, most of them replied, Gandhi, some Nehru.  Then one little boy stood up and said Barrack Obama.  I grinned and thought of the day he was elected.  That little boys comment reinforced to me how lucky I felt to be an American and I knew that aside from all the grabbing, questioning and annoyances from the teachers, this was going to be a rewarding experience.

SERVICE LEARNING INTRODUCDTION

The Goal: To learn capacity building skills and implement a project within an existing organization.

We were sitting in class when Lori, our professor, first passed out the list of NGO’s we would be working with.  The list had three different organizations listed on it.  RAPID, a non-profit organization that helps bring widowed and abandoned women back into society by helping them gain the necessary skills that one needs to function in the job market.  This organization sounded amazing and the thought of helping women gain power in a society where they were often a bit more oppressed sounded delightful.  The second organization, BAIF, was an NGO that worked in the agricultural sector and this organization also wanted students to work with women and farmers in rural villages.  In many of the villages in India where many of the occupants live under a dollar a day, malnutrition and reproduction is a huge problem.  On one hand many of the women are not educated on how to properly take care of themselves during pregnancy and on the other hand, the villagers do not know how to care for the large families they are creating.  What BAIF wanted help with was making educational slideshows and flipbooks to educate pregnant women and villagers on how to live a healthy nutritious life.  Akshara,  the third organization on the list was a non-profit organization that worked in the school sector in India.  This organization focused mainly on bettering the pre-school and primary level schools in India.  When I first read the description of Akshara I thought blah, ‘please do not put me there.’  I have been working in elementary schools since before I can remember and I was ready for something new.  The goal of the education group was to implement a curriculum called Peace Games within a couple of primary schools in Dharwad and Hubli.  Peace Games is an organization started by a group of Harvard students which aims to promote building peace within a community and works with groups of students to identify issues within a community and find positive, peaceful solutions to solve those issues.  The idea of Peace Games is wonderful and a very positive curriculum especially for school systems likes India where the government has so much control over the primary and secondary level syllabuses. 

When I opened the email that listed the names of the students that would be working in each student group I was not surprised but a little bummed that I was placed with Akshara.  I decided to think positively because I was going to be blessed with working with so many awesome students and kids are my favorite.  That was some of the best advice I ever gave my self because I must say, the day our service learning ended, last Wednesday, I shed many tears because I could not believe the amazing people I met through this adventure and how much I learned about the Primary education system in India.  It definitely changed my life.  Thank you Lori  and our TA Julie for giving me that experience.

The following blogs with illustrate my wonderful journey detailing the frustrations, highlights and learning experiences I faced.  Enjoy the pictures.

Mumbai in Pictures

Homes on the side of the road.

Laundry is a big profession in Mumbai.  You can drop your clothes at the front desk of your hotel in the morning and they will be picked up and brought to this wash basin location.  They are very accurate with labeling and returning clothing.  Only 1 in 1000 pieces of clothing gets lost.

A little boy I met on a morning walk.

 Cricket is one of the most popular games played in India.  Here children are playing cricket on the Beach.

Hubli, Karnataka

Hubli. Many people in India have never heard of the city.  It is a smaller city in India with about one million residents.  It is quiet, traditional and a bit rural.  It is also our place of residence for the next five weeks.  My blog, as you can see, has not been updated for sometime and that is due to the lack of accessible internet for the last week.

We arrived in Hubli six days ago.  As I stepped off the plane I was reminded of home.  Farms and fields covered the rolling hills and a gentle breeze was blowing.  It was wonderful.  Definitely more relaxing and cleaner than Mumbai. 

The 23 of us, piled in a mini bus, and I mean smushed into a bus and took off towards our new home.  There were many differences in the driving done in the United States and that of Hubli.  First, the people in India drive on the opposite side of the street than us.  That is always difficult when I cross the street because I ALWAYS look the wrong direction.  Second, the driver drives on the right side of the car.... it may not seem crazy but it took a little getting used to.  Beyond the opposites, people here have no rules when it comes to driving.  There are no lanes, hardly any speed limits and well it is a free for all on the road, which can be a little nerve racking!  Drivers use their horns to let cars know if they are approaching behind them and if you are a pedestrian, well you just better watch out because you definitely do not have the right of way.  AND. I don't think Indian officials care if you have a lawyer.

Upon arriving at the guest house I was presently surprised with our living quarters.  Each room is equipped with it's own bathroom and we were supplied with beds and sheets.  The room even has a fan so we have a nice breeze while we sleep.

I must say, Hubli made a great first impression on me and much of the group!  We are really getting used to the simple life.

first impressions

Mumbai: also known as the city of dreams.  To those in the United States it may not look like a city of dreams but to the people of India it is filled with opportunity and hope.  Bollywood is popular, jobs are available but rare and many people travel here is search of accomplishing a dream.  It is a modern city with an estimated 17 million people thriving in the streets daily.  During the daytime people are out and about selling crafts, working, eating the rich Indian food and embracing the rich cultures of many.  At night the scene is completing different.  We arrived in Mumbai at 2am on Sunday morning.  As I watched out the window of the bus my heart immediately began to melt.  My mind was racing and all I could think about was how lucky I was.  There were children curled up in balls on the streets.  Their pillow, the nearest rock next to them.  Stray dogs roaming the street, goats and cows on leashes... At night Mumbai literally becomes a hotel.  Not like the five star hotel American tourists are used to staying in but the Motel 8 with the blinking lights and bug infested beds.  Until you see Mumbai, I don't think you can really grasp the reality.

Now although I just described some of the blue news... Mumbai is a metropolis.  A city thriving with growth and industry.  While many people are becoming rich with the booming economy, many people are being left behind.  The gap between the rich and the poor is growing rapidly.  Mumbai is home to the biggest slums in India.  When I say slums, I do not mean like the poor ghetto in American, but tin boards covered with plastics sheets and no running water or electricity.  Today we drove by the slums where the movie Slumdog Millionaire was taped.  Although many people love the movie in the U.S. It was very controversial in India because most Indians do not like the way the country was portrayed.  The reality is though the movie was very accurate.  There are many parts of India that have yet to be developed but also many parts that are prospering daily.

India thus far has been one big learning experience and it is only day 2... Much more to come!  And now I must catch the bus cause off to rural India we go!

Politics

An article in the New York Times... Indian Politics

Three days until reality sets in.  I'm still in surreal mode and living through articles printed about India.

Enjoy.

Democracy?

When you hear the word democracy, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?  My first thoughts were United States of America, freedom, and voting.  When I think of a democracy, it is hard to get my mind off the U.S. because that is where we live, isn’t it? Yes.

After reading and reading and literally shoving my head in books to finish the endless amounts of reading that have been assigned this past month, I have learned so much more about what life can be like living in a democracy.  India, the biggest democracy in the world, is so much different than that of the United States.  It was established differently, is at times run differently and to a certain extent is more successful than certain aspects of the American democracy.

In a lecture last week focused on talking about Indian politics, we learned about the history of Indians democratic system and several leaders who have shaped and contributed to the Indian government.  One thing that surprised me was how involved the citizens of India are in electing officials, and getting involved in elections.  In India, elections take place in five phases and at five different locations around the country because so many people come out to the polls and for safety reasons they have the entire Indian army present at the poll booths.  Besides the voter turnout, the other aspect I found unique about India’s democracy was the political parties. Unlike the United States, India has multiple political parties, not just two.  India does not elect officials based on a majority but plurality instead.  In the United States we usually identify as a Republican or Democrat and if you’re independent you probably have views of both parties but in India they vote for a candidate. I wonder what the United States would be like, how our government would be, if we had multiple political parties? hmm…. It would be interesting to view the United States in that environment.

India seems like a spectacular country. I love it a little more each time I read something about it.  I am going into this trip with a completely open mind because I know the entire experience with be different than anything I have ever experiences and it will be completely different than life in the U.S. I am excited. Excited to wear their clothing, practice some of their beliefs, learn a bit of the language and last but not least observe their politics. 11 days.

The title for my blog, Namaste, was chosen with careful meaning. In case you cannot read the above definition it says, "I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells. I honor the place in you which is of love, of truth, of light and of peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are one." I think this is the perfect start to my adventure to India. Namaste everyone.