An Indian Education- The girls' project

Jessi has accomplished her task and has gotten Nick and now me (Sierra) to contribute to the blog, although how my descriptive talents compare to hers...we'll find out. I am writing this as Nick and Nick leave to go to the blind school for the last time, and us girls are waiting to find out what we are going to be doing today. Word around the guest house is that I may be going to do some shadowing at the hospital today?! Cross your fingers, it's the last day and I would sure like to get a day in there.
The last two weeks or so, Jessi and I have been out in a suburb-esqe city of Kolkata named Serampore (there are many spellings of it, so I am sure this has to be at least one of them). In this city there is a school that provides free education to kids from the slums, and there is also a clinic run by an adorable lady, Dr. Bonnie, which provides free and/or inexpensive care to the public. We have been lucky enough to experience a small part of the wonderful things both these facilities do.

Serampore.

Sierra, Jessi, Becca, Abby on Jean's roof.

First though, I should tell you about the beautiful, breezy, and wonderful drive we endured twice a day (and when you read that last sentence, go back and re-read it with a lot of sarcasm). Picture: LITTLE red ambassador classic car, 5 girls, 1 driver, freakishly small windows, no A/C, and a 1.5 hour drive...one way. Oh, and a bad driver, bumpy roads, a shifter nob pinching your leg if you sit front middle, large diesel trucks with exhaust pipes basically sticking in your window, and bumper to bumper traffic. Shall I be more specific about the driver? He starts in 3rd gear often. So, if the car doesn't stall it takes a few seconds to get moving after every stop haha. I'm pretty sure he has absolutely no peripheral vision, actually I am positive; he likes to run rickshaws off the road; he LITERALLY ran over a man's entire foot (and then we got stopped in traffic right next to the guy for 10 minutes...talk about awkward); he also clipped the side of a dog with the tire. Keep in mind this is just a brief summary of this man, so needless to say the ride every morning was quite interesting! Don't mean to sound like I'm ranting against him, he was a very nice man however.

The situation.

Bus vs Truck...it was bound to happen.

When in India, do as the Indians do.

Back to volunteering. After arriving in Serampore the first day (sweat stains and all) myself and another girl, Abby, posted up at Dr. Bonnie's clinic (a garage sort of setting on the ground floor of an apartment complex). Dr. Bonnie is an Indian woman who comes from a family of doctors. After finishing her medical training at a very prestigious college in India, she worked for the British government for awhile and then as a doctor in the UAE for 50 years. She now is back in India working with CMM to run this rural clinic free of charge to the public. This woman has so much knowledge; she just seems to "get" India and how to care for the people of the city. She runs a sort of outpatient/ urgent care type facility, treating everything from vitamin deficiencies to psychoses. Abby and I spoke with her about running the rural clinic, and the challenges of doing it in a city with such an extreme level of poverty. We did this one day, and another day we walked to a sort of long term care facility where Dr. Bonnie runs a second outpatient clinic. Abby and I sort of abandoned Dr. Bonnie this day and took a tour of the facility with one of the nurses, visiting with many of the residents along the way. The place reminded me a lot of Prem Dan except these people had far more severe disabilities and impairments. After feeding some of the residents lunch and visiting more Abby and I left.

The rest of the time, Jessi and I spent the days at the school. It was started by Dr. Bonnie and her husband, Robin. After a lot of luck, fate, and networking, the school was given funding and support by CMM, an American couple, and Robin's sister's non-profit organization. One of the stipulations made by the American couple in funding the school was: there needs to be an American teacher there for an entire year to write a curriculum and really get the school off on the right foot. The answer to this request was Jean! She is a teacher from Michigan, who after leaving her own Montessori school, and basically US life, came to Kolkata to live and tackle this daunting task. Talk about an amazing woman with more patience than anyone I know... We worked with her everyday, helping to teach different subjects to different ages of kids. The school has about 55 kids, divided into three age groups: the little ones (ages 3-7ish), the middle ones (ages 7-12), and the big ones (ages 12-17). The middle group however, should really be divided into two separate groups based on knowledge alone...it's a wide range in learning abilities for that group and also attention span.
Teaching is not really my "area" I would say, and teaching little ones is definitely not Jessi's "area" she says, so the thought of working with the two smaller groups was enough to make us break into even more of a sweat than the weather caused. We did it though; and it was really really fun. It was a welcome challenge.

The middle group.

The bigger group.

Becca teaching the kids art:)

Teaching these kids though isn't like teaching kids in the US obviously. Besides the ever-present language barrier, these kids (especially the older ones) have to overcome so many personal challenges that so often hinder achieving an education. These are kids who live under tarps in alleys, with 7 other siblings, an over-worked mother, and often an alcoholic father (if their father is even around). Just getting the kids to actually come to school was a challenge, but keeping them in school will be the ongoing struggle, especially the boys. Jean says that they have already lost a boy or two to the streets (not as in death, but in the sense of losing them to the allure of street life and adolescence).

Before Jean came, the students would be sitting in rows on the floor, all day, listening to the teachers ramble on about topics. I don't know about you, but I can't sit still for more than 15 minutes before I start picking at my fingers, and staring into space...and I'm 23; how do they expect 7-12 year olds to do this and retain any information? Jean is working on finding the best way to get these kids' attention and maintain it for the day. As a Montessori educated teacher, she does a lot of hands-on activities in education, and uses the philosophy of "just letting the children go with it". Jessi might be the better one to explain this, so sorry if I am a little off on my teaching technique references. But anyways, she is using these methods with the kids at Monimala (the school) and so far it really seems to be working well. Of course challenges such as: learning disabilities, shortage of teachers, lack of space, and disorganization within the organization will continue to be issues long after we are gone. I don't mean to sound cynical, because the two weeks at this school were amazing, but there are just so many challenges and so many possible solutions that could be implemented but won't because of cultural tradition and disorganization. It's hard to step back and just let things happen when we want our "American" ways to come save the day. I want the school to succeed and the kids to get an education that they can use, but it is hard for me to not see both possible outcomes for the school when Jean leaves. Will it continue to flourish, or will the teachers go right back to sitting the kids in rows, lecturing, and losing one kid at a time?? I can only hope that it will succeed and these kids will learn to embrace their education..

Jean doing her thing.


As an ending to this blog, I will leave you with just a few of my never-ending "Oh so random thoughts in Kolkata" most of which happen on the drive to Serampore everyday:

-I can't truthfully say if happy cows come from California, but I CAN honestly say
they don't come from India....
-If the horn on a car doesn't work here, does if fail safety inspection?
-If there was a world cup of dog-flea scratching, the dogs from India would take it,
hands down (you should see the positions these dogs can scratch from)
-There are more round-abouts in Kolkata than in all of UT, maybe the entire west, but
only ONE is actually used as a round-about...hmmmm
-Is it necessary to turn your car off in traffic only to turn it back on 2 seconds
later, inch forward (or if starting in 3rd gear jolt forward) 3 feet, turn the car
back off, turn back on 3 seconds later, creep forward 2 feet, turn it off, turn back
on 3 seconds later, oh wait false alarm, traffic isn't moving, turn the car back off,
etc,... only to end up moving 7 feet and having turned your car off and on 22 times?
I know there is a grrrreat reason for this, I just can't seem to place my finger on
it...
-Were the traffic lines on the streets ever used at one time?
-Does wearing your motorcycle helmet around the market keep the "new market hustlers"
away?
-Would using "it is possible and it's not possible" in replacement of "yes and no"
in America catch on?
-If only there were more goats in America to stop traffic like here, Urban herding...
again they are on to something.
-If only there were more sheep in America to stop traffic like here, Urban herding...
-How many waiters does it take to serve one person?

A random pic for random thoughts

I could go on forever...well I am off to the hospital! Will post pics tonight. Tomorrow we fly up north to Sikkim to do a 5 day trek, sorry Nick, a hike, in the mountains. If all goes right, and the weather cooperates we should be able to see the 3rd highest mountain in the world! We are also going to be headed to over 13,000 feet so keep your fingers crossed the Jessi and I actually make it to the top. It is supposed to be a 8 day hike that we are basically doing in 4, so yikes??

Tata:)

(Ironically this is the name of the Indian company that makes everything from salt to satellites and everything in between...including luxury cars. Too bad they don't make beer)

Blind School -Nick and Nick's Project

New writer, everyone get excited! But not too excited this is not my forte. I want to tell you about the work that Nick M. and I have been doing at the blind school. Well, first I think you have heard that we are working on building a library for the students. The library will be full of braille books from which the kids will be able to read from. We started here, with a building that needs a roof, but don't think roofing is the type of work that we were needed to do. Our Bengali is non-existent, making it hard to communicate, and our large strong Mer'ican bodies are of better use elsewhere- cutting and screwing down metal roofing material was far too complex for the work we needed to do.We quickly took on the role of being the laborers, for the laborers if you know what I mean. Doing things like demolition, mixing cement by hand and moving materials from one place to the next. We became the human equivalent to a skid loader, dump truck, jackhammer, and cement mixer in the states. Nick and I joked often about how just one of these tools would blow minds over here.
One of our first projects was to move three truck loads of rubble into the library to raise the floor up about eight inches to protect it from the flooding monsoon season. The rubble consisted of broken bits of brick and plaster that must have came from the demolition of a building. Once the rubble was moved in, it needed to be crushed and made into gravel. Both of these things took over a week to do. This tray on Nick's head is the preferred tool to carry things for these people, I also used them in Africa...must be a third world thing. About five days of carrying rubble and sand with these trays we discovered a better method, it was to fill up these large bags that the sand and cement was delivered in and move those. This way was much more effective to say the least. We also found a real shovel about five days in and that sped up the moving progress a ton.
I think one of the biggest challenges for Nick and I was the constant struggle to stay hydrated. For us, we found drinking water just wasn't enough for our bodies to cool down and and run well in the intense heat and humidity we were working in. We started mixing glucose (sugar) and hydration salts in with our water. We named these concoctions "Super Drinks" because they aloud us to stay hydrated and work hard the whole day. As you can see from the pictures our bodies are drenched with sweat from head to toe.
Despite the language barrier we were able to build a relationship with the workers. They're great, happy people, whom we have a large amount of respect for. We had the opportunity to eat with them a couple times and each time it was a treat. The second time we did, Sabrotu took us to a restaurant that he eats at regularly. There was no menus so he ordered for us. What came out was a typical Indian dish. It had a large portion of rice in the center and three different Indian concoctions to mix with the rice on the sides. The first was Dhal which is like a lentil soup, second was a veggie medley in a sauce, and the last was a potato dish also in a sauce. All of them have a unique and delicious taste that we enjoyed with our hands in traditional Indian style. My good friend Matt Hay always talks about food in regards of whether it's from flavor country or not. Well Matt, you can't even imagine flavor country until you have been to India. I've eaten the most flavor-filled food of my life here, and some of the best stuff has been at little places like this one. The meal only cost each of us 20 Rps which is the American equivalent to about 50 cents and it was all you can eat!
There were two workers that work for the school on a regular basis there names are Mudu, and Sabrotu. Mudu spoke no English at all but we seamed to communicate efficiently with hand signals and doing things which he would either allow or stop depending on whether it was correct or not. He always was smiling though, and most of the time when we asked him something he replies with the classic Indian side head nod. To this day we haven't figured out what is meant by this common gesture. It is like a mix between what we thought the universal head gestures for yes and no, up and down for yes, and side to side for no. In this gesture though, they cock their head usually to the left side in the direction of ear to shoulder, and if done fast it looks like they have Tourette's says Sierra. Interestingly we've seen this gesture in every city we have been in, from a range of different people as well. Everyone from taxi drivers to the people in the hospital in Kolkata do it. I want to know what it means! Despite not knowing we have all adopted it in our regular communication with everyone.
Subrotu is our go to man, he is a strong and happy 5'3" man we look to for most of our instruction. He communicates with us through broken English that we love. Sometimes we have no idea what the another is trying to communicate and we just end up laughing and letting it go. Despite the communication barrier with both these men we've loved working with them and enjoy their company. As you can see there was a lot of brick work we helped out with as well. We were able to lay some block- as Nick and I like to say. After the block was laid, plastering is done, which is basically throwing cement on the freshly made wall. After the technical work begins. So, as you can guess, we didn't do much of it. The plaster is smoothed out with a strait edge and finished with wooden floats to make it smooth. I was able to do a section under the close supervision of Subrotu. Mudu on the left and Subrotu on the right.I like this one.The guysDoin' work!Finishing the floor.
These four or so photos were take last Friday when we were pouring the cement for the floor. This was the biggest work day of the project and it all started with a taxi driver that gave the run around so to speak on our way there. With our frustration we dove right in to work, working hard moving sand, rocks and cement, mixing it constantly until the floor was finished at about 9 PM. We were tied and ready to get some sleep when we were invited to eat with some of the faculty of the school. We excepted and had another great Indian meal. We plan to work on the library until we leave on Wednesday. It won't not be finished by then, but the large part of the project is behind us now. All that is left is paint and some other finishing work. Nick and I are very satisfied with the work that we've done and plan to see the project on our lay-over on our way to Thailand.
Thanks for reading, Nick.

Volunteering

It has been so long since I have posted anything. Part of it is because I have not been on the computer and the other part is because I am trying to convince someone else to write. Alas, neither has been realized. So, here I am writing about what is going on. Don't get my wrong, I like writing, but I am think ya'll might want to get someone else perspective on the whole shinnanigans of India.
We have been in Kolkata for almost 2 weeks now work with Calcutta Mercy Ministries, www.butain.org. Fran, the address is
Cummings at Volunteer House
Mercy Hospital
125/1 Park Street
Calcutta 700017, India

We toured the hospital. The hospital provides free and low cost surgeries and medical care to children. The also operate a nursing school that is free of cost to girls from the region. The nursing school is interesting. We have been told that the nurses are highly sought after because their training is so good. After a 2-year paid commitment to Mercy Hospital many of these girls are recruited by other hospitals that pay them more. Some go and some stay. The thing that has been hard for me to watch is the religious thing. The nursing graduation was full of thanks to God, the Christian god. Lots of songs, prayer, talks. Most, if not all, of these girls come from a Hindu or Muslin background. They come to the school and are converted, or so I think, into Christians. Christ is an integral part of the curriculum. Don't get me wrong it is people with a Christian background paying for these girls and they want them exposed, but what God would you believe in? The one who is giving you food, clothing, shelter, and college? Or the one who has you living in a slum living the exact same life as your parents? The candle ceremony at graduation.


The organization has been a happy surprise. Most of what they do is run without volunteer help. . The feeding program. . . All done. This is great because they do not need volunteers to get through the day. We saw a stark contrast to this when we went to Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity. We worked here for three days. Here, the organizations is run almost entirely by volunteers. We went to Prem Dan, a house for adults with disabilities. The men and women are separated and cared for. Many of the women were once prostitutes. This does not surprise me considering 80% of people with mental disabilities in the states have had some form of sexual abuse. These women were deemed less then other women and as such did the lowest job. (I still want to see the Red Light District, not sure if it will happen though.)
Anywho, at the facility, which was a couple large buildings and a garden area, we did laundry in the morning, hung out with the ladies, had tea, and served lunch. None of this would be possible with out volunteers. We happened to come during one of the busiest times of the year, so there was actually less to do. The week before there was 9 women volunteers and out week there was 36. Laundry is all done by hand. You put it in boiling soapy water, warm soapy water, less warm water, 3 rinse sinks, then wring in out, and hang it on the roof. It took us about 2 hours to do bedding, clothes, and cleaning rags for the 90 women living there. The awesome thing is that some of the women living there are running the show. They are barking orders in Bengali, the language of the region, or silently mouthing something in your general direction. Either way you eventually get the point or they come over and move you and your hands until you do. It isn't mean, just forceful and loving. We came to laugh with the women by our lack of understanding.
After laundry we would hang out with the women as they took their tea. Massaging of the hands with lotion, or simply holding their hand was a favorite. There is a huge communication barrier, but you learn to get by with the natural language of love and affection.
Next the volunteers have their tea together and we all talk about our experiences. I met some cool people from Spain who have invited me to come see the running o the bulls.
After we serve lunch, do dishes, and head home.
We did this for 3 days and is was wonderful. In the afternoon we headed to the School for children who are blind or partially blind. This was for sure a highlight. When we got their we went on a tour of the school. The kids were in their classes learning to read and write English braille. . Learning braille. .The kids returning from class. I met a kid names Sanjay who has no eyes, so he is fully blind. He has two laterally placed scars on his cheek, probably from a machete. But, he lights up when you say his name. He showed me what he was working on and sang me the alphabet. The next day when we came he and some other kids were banging on the parked bus we took there. (This was something they loved. They enjoyed making rhythmic noises on the bus. Many of them would pound on it for hours.) I saw him doing this and yelled "Sanjay", his little ears perked but he kept pounding possibly thinking he heard wrong. So I called him again "Sanjay", this time his unmistakable smile shinned through and he looked around to see where the voice was coming through. I said it again "Sanjay", now he started walking towards where I was sitting all the time I kept saying his name and he kept smiling bigger each time. He finally reached me and took my hands, felt them and did not let go until we left. He walked everywhere with me, feeling my arms and back, touching my hair, and when we sat down he kept running his hand down my bristly legs. I loved being with him. So much that, mom...you wanna adopt him? . Friends, lots of friends!
The School for the Blind was awesome. . . Touch and feel are obviously important. However many of the children are not blind. Some are having surgery to correct their vision. Some could possibly be corrected with really strong glasses. So my question is...is teaching reading and writing Braille really the best thing? I suppose it is here, but in the states don't we only do that for people who are truly blind? I don't know. What I do know is it is hard for me because I know there are resources out there, but these resources are expensive so they go untouched and these kids futures are up in the air. What will happen to them when they turn 18? Will they be the beggars I say no to? Prostitutes? Shop owners? Waiters? Taxi drivers? I sure hope not taxi drivers, that would be dangerous on a lot of levels! . Always trying to get names.
. Teaching "American" hang gestures.
Alright I am off to bed, I'll write more later about the volunteering we are doing now. Brother promised to update and I'll see if I can't get some others to do the same. Sorry for no pictures. We were not aloud to take them at Prem Dan, but I will post some from the School for the Blind later.

Dehli, Agra, and Varanasi Photos

Give me money! This lady is picking grass outside of a national monument that we paid money to get into. Sierra took a picture of her...the lady said "Give me money."


Peace



This dude asked to have a picture with Nick because he is so big. In Hindi, Nek (sounds like Nick) means short. Apparently that is really funny! The guy told him that he was his hero!


In Dehli, we went to a Mosque. This was a very old Mosque that apparently has healing powers. This pool of water is in the middle and is heals one person a day. You take the water with your right hand, touch it to your forehead, and if you are the chosen one your wish/thing that needs to be healed will be. We were not the chosen ones.


The Mosque is home to a family who has kept Allah's sandal, a hair from his beard, and a footprint for thousands of years. Nick M. is touching the footprint.


High kicks are very important! Nick M. is the best at them...but Nick C. for sure tries to get his as high. Nick C. has yet to kick a door frame while standing...Nick M. well lets say he has been there and done that a whole lot of times! Oh and this was at some important building.


We were touring the Red Fort when a guard asked if we would like to see the kings chambers. We followed him through closed off sections to the chamber. When we got there he wanted to take photos with Sierra and I. He pulled us real real close and gave us some deedle-doos.


This is the Lotus Temple. It was constructed for the Bahai faith. It is possibly one of the most beautiful buildings in Dehli.


4 people, 4 bags, traveling in a tuk-tuk that is made to sit maybe 2 1/2 indians comfortably. Please keep in mind they are much smaller then us. Oh..but they never put 2-3 in them. They put like 10. So, we figured- When in India do as the Indians do!


This is a pretty good depiction of how many people live. This photo was taken in Agra about 5-minutes walk from our hotel. People live right next to this and often have this area as part of their home.


Kids love having their photo taken.


Monkeys everywhere!


We ended up spending Friday wandering around and went to the Taj Mahal at 6 on Saturday.


Taj- the sky is a whole lot bluer and the grass is a whole lot greener in the photos you see in books!


Yay! Woo! 2 Thumbs way up!


You have to walk about 2km to exit the Taj. We decided to take a bike rikshaw, figuring this was the safest place to do so. About 20 seconds into the ride the Nicks wanted to peddle. They convinced the drivers to let them. Nick M. was cranking his chain and he thought it might break. When we got to the end of the road they drivers charged us double even though they didn't do any of the work.


Ya, we are hippies. Ya we wear chacos. At the same time! And we take photos to document! So what?


It is interesting that a tourist attraction is taking a boat down the Ganga to watch people bathe. It is ritual that cleanses the body and purifies the soul. It was peaceful and intimate to watch.


Typical. People love having their pictures with us fair-skinned bunch. They also try to secretly snap photos of us!


Our night boat guide, Raj, he knew a ton about the Ganga. He even drank the water from the Ganga. Did you know there are dead bodies in there? And lots of poop? And pee? Not to mention actual sewage? Guess not!


Epic Nick M.! Pondering life's questions on the Ganga shore.


Sunset on the Ganga. Raj took us to the opposite side of the river. During high water season this part is covered with water.



Nick and Sierra watching the night ceremony. The ceremony honors Mother Ganga and happens every night.