Christmas Celebrations 2012

On Friday Dec.21st, Neelam (one of the school's directors) invited a few classes from my son Isaac's school to come sing Christmas carols and so a dance presentation for the kids at the MD school.  They also brought muffins and sweets for each of the kids and donations of clothes, books, and toys.  I also brought gifts to pass out to the kids that had been donated by my church and by a generous donation from my friend Caroline and her son Jack.  The kids were so excited to get their very own sparkly parcel and it was also such a good experience for Isaac and his classmates to experience the joy of giving.  The smiles on all of the kids faces were priceless.  

Storytime with Cows and Kids. . .

Storytime with Cows and Kids. . .

Imagine a dusty open field with pigs and dogs wandering around.  Imagine a low brick wall with cows stretching their necks over the top.  Imagine construction projects with women carrying towers of bricks on their heads and men herding donkeys laden with dirt.  Now imagine a school in the middle of all of this. . .Welcome to the Maharishi Dayanand Educational Society School in Gurgaon, India.  The children study while sitting crowded together on several different blankets spread out across a field and the teachers use chalkboards held up with wooden art easels.   Not the ideal learning environment, but amazingly these teachers and students find a way to teach and learn six days a week. 

      I discovered this school through my neighbor Ruchi when I asked her if she knew of any volunteer opportunities close by.  She invited me to come with her to the school and said maybe I could help teach English to the older grades.  My first day at the school, the teacher handed me a government issued text book and after pointing to the lesson number, she let me take charge of the teaching.  I found teaching with the government text awkward though and it was a very dry teaching resource.  I wanted to find something interesting to get the kids excited about learning English, but I wasn’t sure what would work best at this school.  Then I decided to bring a storybook to the class and use the vocabulary in the book as the basis of a mini English lesson.  Bingo.  The kids absorbed the magic of the story like parched desert sand welcoming monsoon rains.  I read them the Hungry Caterpillar, but we didn’t “just” read it.  They interacted with it.  They pretended to eat the apples, strawberries, and oranges like the caterpillar.  They turned themselves into ice cream cones, watermelons, and lollipops and we talked about what foods they liked and didn’t like.  They acted out the caterpillar spinning a cocoon around itself and then they all flew out as colorful butterflies ready to talk about all of the colors of the rainbow in English.  The kids also taught me the Hindi words for vocabulary in the story and the book was the perfect launch pad for a meaningful language exchange. I knew that I had found sweet spot that day and from then on I became the story lady.  With permission from the teachers, I started visiting the different classes so that I could give all of the students at the school the chance to participate in storybook magic.  The kids treat me like a rockstar and I have been addicted to volunteering at the school for months now. 

               On Thanksgiving, my friends Robyn, Claire, and Tulika came to the school with me and we engaged a blanket of thirty pre-k students in a turkey coloring art project.  The kids loved the chance to be creative, trade crayons, and decorate their turkeys with sparkly stickers.  Claire and I also did stories with some of the other classes and Claire put together a small group where each child took a turn reading a page.  I love bringing friends with me to volunteer because I always get new insights and ideas about how to help the school.  Tulika had the idea of doing an “operation smile” at the school and taking school pictures of the kids as well as class photos for them to take home.  The children love having their picture taken but most of them have probably never had a photo of their own.   We decided to put together a team to tackle this project.  

        Being in India, its easy to become overwhelmed with the amount of poverty and need that pervades the surroundings here.  We see encampments made of plastic bags and women walking with their babies from car to car asking for money.  We see construction sites with migrant workers living right next to the buildings in shacks with children running around with ragged clothing and no shoes.  I think that all of us want to do something meaningful to help, but it’s hard to navigate those first steps.  For me finding those first steps to the school has made a huge difference in how I feel here in India.  I love the opportunity to give something meaningful to the community and interact with and learn from these kids.  It’s inspiring to see these children and their zeal for learning in such tough circumstances and it’s empowering to know that there is a small way I can be a force for good instead of just wondering how to help.