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)