Childrens' Camps Continued

Days two and three of our Children's Camp were indeed much more successful! We rearranged the schedule to accommodate the heat and energy levels of the children and things ran much more smoothly... The children from Tara Mobile Creche were amazing! During our biscuits and juice two of the older girls sang a beautiful (albeit long!) song for us in Marathi. Then, it was on to the games. At our Sports station we decided to finish with playing on the playground and this was definitely the highlight for me. Their shouts of 'Didi, Didi!', which means Auntie in Marathi, filled me with joy as we all played together. The children from Mobile Creche rarely leave the construction sites where they live and go to school; so a playground, something which we may take for granted, was a real treat for them.

Adri joining in the see saw fun.

The merry-go-round was a popular choice -- even for Alison!

I enjoyed hanging out on the monkey bars with this character!

On our last day we welcome the children from Door Step School and Deep Griha. Door Step School provides non formal education and study classes for children who would otherwise miss this opportunity. Deep Griha is an organization that provides various programs from health to education for adults and children living in the slums of Pune.

This day was much different from our day with both Anand Gram and Tara Mobile Creche -- it was easy to notice that these children had had less exposure to structured activities. However, despite the challenges of organizing this group and maintaining some sense of order it was still a great day. These children, too, were experiencing many things for the first time and the smiles they left with were even bigger than the ones they arrived with.

Bollywood dancing was a fantastic end to each day!

Children's Camp --Day 1

Today we had the first of three Children's Camps with some of our Community Partner Organizations. This morning 40 kids arrived from Anand Gram (my placement) for a day of games, songs, and crafts.

It's been awhile since I've helped lead a day camp and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't a challenge! The language barrier also added to the challenge of the whole day. Here are some photos of the kids and what they did at our "Sports" station. Boy, do they LOVE cricket -- I actually learned a thing or two from them, when they were willing to let me have a turn, of course.

All in all, it was a great day. Some kinks were ironed out during our debrief this afternoon and tomorrow we get ready to welcome 40 more kids from Tara Mobile Creche.

Parachute Games -- they loved playing Cat and Mouse!

Cricket!!

Washing up for lunch

Enjoying a delicious meal together...it was spicier than usual today.

Community Partners Visit

This week we set off to visit our Community Partners for the first time. Myself and Elly from England are placed at Anand Gram, which means Village of Joy. Initially this organization was established to provide a community for Lepers and their children where they could become self sufficient and educated, despite being ostracized from the mainstream community. Now, Anand Gram's primary focus is on education of their students, as well as those of the nearby village.

It was certainly an eye-opening experience as we were given a tour of the site and met some of the older residents and children who live there. I realized that my Western self will indeed be learning a lot, which is a good thing. The quality of living there is unlike anything I am used to, yet the people have all their needs met and appeared truly happy.

The school at Anand Gram has approximately 300 students (maybe more) and there are six teachers, which means each class has anywhere from 30 -50 students.

This is a typical classroom at the school. There are no smart boards or even whiteboards, just a chalkboard. No space for centres or storytime, just bench tables. The style of teaching in India is primarily rote, which will be a shift for me. However, I can appreciate this style in a situation

where you have 40 students. Hopefully I will be able to learn from the teachers at the school and also share with them some other strategies.

These are the on time students lined up to start their day with an assembly. School starts at 11:30am here. This teacher is reprimanding the students for not having the stage swept and being late and out of uniform. The amazing thing is that he just came out and calmly started talking and they all fell into line and were attentive. Would this happen at home? Not so sure...

After their assembly where they recited school rules, said prayers, and other stuff (all in Marati) some of the students went off to class and the younger children stayed with us to play games. We had a great time teaching them the hokey pokey (0r the hokey cokey as it's called in England) and Duck, Duck, Goose, which they loved. I'm sure we could have played for hours as these kids seemed to never tire. But, as I was 'goosed' many times, I was somewhat relieved when it was time for us to say our good byes and head back to Sangam.

There will certainly be more posts and pics to come as I get to know the students and teachers at Anand Gram.

Really Awesome Rally

On Wedneday, January 4 we all had the MOST amazing opportunity to visit a Scout and Guide Jamboree just outside of Pune. The Bharat Scouts and Guides is the national organization here in India and the Maharashtra state puts on a massive rally every four years -- there were over 10,000 Scouts and Guides from around the state camping at this event. The fact that it was happening during our own program at Sangam is amazing.

So, mid-morning 17 of us piled in a bus and drove for just over an hour up into the hills outside of Pune. We knew we had reached our destination when we saw the rows and rows of canvas tents with uniformed children roaming about.

Knots, just like home -- except for the Marati writing, of course.

This began our day's adventure.... We met our tour Guider and it was soon announced over the loud speaker that "foreigners are visiting the rally today." We certainly felt like celebrities with all these people following us around. If we stood in one place for more than 10seconds, we were swarmed! "Picture please, Madam!" "What's your name, Madam?" "Madam, where you from?"

While this aspect was certainly overwhelming, I felt extremely fortunate to be able to witness this giant event. Everyone we met was extremely friendly and seemed like they really wanted to get to know us and hear about our own Guiding experiences back home, as well as what we do when we are not "Guiding". The director of the camp came and spoke with us and shared a bit about how such an event is organized. It reminded me a lot of SOAR -- just on a much bigger scale. Aside from meeting all the Guides and Scouts, the best part of the day was when all of us were presented (in an impromptu ceremony of sorts) with the official necker and woggle of the event.

It's opportunities like this that make me really proud to be a Guide.

The crowds following us -- everywhere!!

Rules of the Road

The realities of this trip came upon me rather suddenly over the Christmas weekend. Only 3 more days left till I boarded a plane to India. Despite my careful planning, it still seemed like I had so much left to do, never mind all that Christmas stuff. I'm pretty sure I covered all the important things, but only time will tell.... aack.

Flash forward a few days and here I am sitting in the courtyard garden at Sangam World Centre. It is certainly an oasis in the bustling Pune city. All around me is the caucophony of new sounds...strange birds, voices of the local staff going about their dailie duties, bollywood music in the background, and the chaotic honking on the streets outside.

I knew to expect all the horn honking, but it really is quite something. It seems that this is how they communicate with each other, as there are no apparent rules of the road. I also haven't seen very many traffic lights. My first introduction to Indian driving came with the ride from the Mumbai airport a few days ago where I discovered that seat belts are merely for decorative purposes. Cars have belts only there is nowhere to buckle them in. Then there was the drive itself. Unlike at home where we have lanes we stay in, here they are merely guidelines of where to drive but everyone just weaves in an out of each other, always honking, sometimes signaling. This would not work in Canada but it sure seems to work here.

I tried to capture that first ride with a video, but it doesn't really do the trip justice. Just try to imagine moderate speeds with lots of weaving, honking, and sudden braking. There were many times where I could have stuck my arm out the window and shaken hands with someone in the vehicle beside us.

Last night we all piled into a few rickshaws to go out and celebrate the birthday of another Tare on the team. Another adventure of road travel in Pune.

One day soon I also hope to be able to cross the street without my blood pressure rising quite so much. Huge adventures are just around the corner on this Indian journey and I can't wait!

17 Days and Counting

The last few weeks for me have been insanely busy, so it came as a bit of a shock when I consulted my calendar and realized that I will be heading to India in less than 3 weeks! This realization fills me with equal parts excitement and anxiety. I know that I am going to have an amazing time and my life will be changed forever, but this is unlike any travelling I have done before...

Since I am entering the almost final countdown it’s time to make a list of what I still need to do. I’m finished being jabbed in the arm (opted against the rabies immunizations, if anyone was wondering...) and my fees have all been paid. Those are the big ticket items; now it’s on to the little things like figuring out what to pack. I don’t even know where to begin!!

I have also just found out the Community Partner I’ll be working with, which I’m super excited about. I’ve been placed at Anand Gram, which means ‘village of joy’. This institution started in 1964 by Dr. Indutai Patwardhan to reach out to the victims of leprosy. As I’m sure we all can imagine, leprosy has a huge social stigma and those affected often are feared and ostracised by their own family members. According to the information I’ve been given, all of Anand Gram’s residents are healthy and those that were affected have been cured. As leprosy declines, Anand Gram’s focus is shifting to the support of children who have been stigmatized unfairly for having a family member with the disease. Anand Gram runs a school and home for about 300 of these children, none of whom have leprosy.

Along with another participant, I will be working at the school teaching English classes and other things. I’m looking forward to putting my teaching qualifications to good use in a new situation.

If you want to find out more about Anand Gram, check out their website: http://www.anandgram.org/

Be Prepared...

Most people recognize these two words of the Girl Guide Motto. I have known them since I was nine years old and whether you are a Girl Guide or not, those two words just make good sense -- especially when you are planning a trip.
It is just over a month now until I leave for India and I am in the midst of my preparations. I don’t think I realized how much prepping I would have to do! Not that I’m complaining, of course, but I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t a bit overwhelmed. This is particularly true with regards to immunizations (refer to an earlier post to see my initial thoughts on this process). In the last four weeks I have been jabbed more times than in the rest of my whole life. Perhaps I’m exaggerating a bit, but I’ve lost count of the different vaccines I’ve needed in order to travel safely in India for 3 months; and I’m not even done yet. It looks like I’m also going to need shots for Rabies and Japanese Encephalitis A (which both come at a very significant cost!) – just to be safe, you see.
This is where I start to wonder if I’ve taken our lovely Girl Guide Motto and twisted it into something much less wholesome. When does “Be Prepared” go too far and become “Be Paranoid”? Is it when I’m considering the likelihood of encountering a rabid dog or monkey? Or perhaps the odds that I will be bitten by mosquitoes carrying horrible diseases? I generally do well in mosquito season out here, with only a token number of bites, but perhaps my foreign blood will be more appealing to the mozzies over there.
So, I have one week to do some reconnaissance regarding these final jabs in my arms to see if I can justify the costs. (Can I put a price on my life? I think I hear a MasterCard commercial playing in the background of my brain...) If I end up going ahead with these shots I may have to seek out a rabid monkey just to even things out. Just kidding.