Pictures at last

I have posted the pictures that were supposed to go with each post! The ones above are just a few of the extra good ones, but the ones below correspond with the posts.

Post # 9: The last few days.

Last Wednesday early evening my family arrived at Pathway at the beginning of the children’s study time. Not the best time in terms of how much of a distraction they were, but nonetheless, everyone was as happy as ever to see them. Haley and Emily were confused when they were suddenly dubbed as “sisters” and my parents even more so when they were called grandma and grandpa. I had to explain that this is what they called every adult when they visited, and it meant that they basically considered them to be family.

The next day my family helped me to prepare for the kids art show that afternoon. I had already cleaned some of the classroom by myself the day before, but there was still a lot to do. How the kids managed to get paint on every single surface down to the last doorknob in that room, I don’t know. I’m glad I had 4 extra sets of hands to help me out. After all of the cleaning was finished and the room set up in an exhibit kind of style, I put up the best of the kids art work, and we all headed to lunch.

This is just a side note, talking about lunch reminded me of it, but Indian tea is honestly the best drink in the world. I had only been drinking the filtered water that they gave me, sometimes with the Gatorade mix that I had brought (but that really only lasted me about 2 days). Being a coffee drinker, I hadn’t had caffeine until a couple of weeks ago when one of the workers offered the tea to me. All it is is boiled and strained milk that has been steeped with tealeaves and about 3 pounds of sugar per cup, but it’s good stuff.

Anyways, after lunch I finished my mural. I had drawn 2 of the children from Pathway on the wall on the entrance to the cafeteria, and I had to finish painting them. They turned out to be a boy who caught a lizard (there are loads of those here) and a girl reading her English book under a tree- who were both in their Pathway uniforms of course.

At 4 o’clock was to be the art show for the kids. Dr. Prasad, Chandra, Sudha and Dhuli would arrive later after they arrived from Special Olympics. One of the workers had insisted that I wore one of my saris for the occasion, and helped me wrap it. It took about 20 minutes, but it’s worth it. They’re fun to wear once you get the hang of walking around in 10 yards of material at a time. The art show was a huge success. All of the 7th and 8th graders came in first to see all of their work hung up and displayed. Their faces lit up- I don’t think they have ever had their work properly displayed for everyone to see like that before. Even they shy kids were proud of their work, and didn’t mind having it on the wall, which was a big change from a couple of weeks ago, when they would take it down if they saw it on display anywhere in the school. After the 7th and 8th graders had taken a good look at their work, the rest of the school and most of the teachers came by to see the work. Later Dr. Prasad and Chandra took a look, and they seemed to like the work, which made me happy. Not only had I worked hard to achieve everything but the kids had done more than they ever expected to do in their arts education. We did a lot more than the average art class in 5 weeks.

After the art show was over, Chandra announced that since my family and I were leaving tomorrow, they would not have study that night, and they could all sit outside with us and play instead. Haley and Emily and I brought out all of the gifts that they had brought from America and distributed them. We brought bubbles, candy, friendship bracelet string, nail polish, and soccer balls for all of the kids. It was like Christmas, but better, because the kids were ten times more grateful than anyone I had ever given anything to.

The next day, after many goodbye hugs to all of the children and the teachers and even some of the cooks and workers we set out on the 2-hour car ride to Chennai.

That Friday afternoon we went to the Pathway center in Chennai. The night before Dr. Prasad and Chandra had invited us to come and see the whole facility as I had mentioned before that I had never been there before. The facility was beautiful, and quite astonishing in terms of how many people a day it served. I was amazed. Chandra served us a beautiful traditional vegetarian lunch, where we all sat down and ate together for the last time. Later while Haley, Emily, my dad, and I toured around the beautiful center, my mother and Sudha went to sort some things out at immigration. We are all very thankful that Sudha could take the time out of her already-busy day to go with my mom. She was very helpful.

Later we said goodbye to everyone, and of course, promised to come back. Pathway is a wonderful place where if you are even just visiting for a day you are able to see the warmth and hard work put into everything that they do for all of the kids. I definitely wish to return at some point, by myself, or hopefully with the rest of my family. It was made an impact on my life, and hopefully after making my contribution I have made at least a smaller one on theirs.

For the next 2 weeks I will be traveling around Northern India with my family, and then return to America. In the beginning of September I will start school in Switzerland.

Post # 8: I should have posted this a week ago...

I should have posted this a week ago but the blog website was not working. So sorry for the delay, here it is.

I realized that no one (including my family who I email regularly) really knows what I do here on a day-to-day basis. I generally stick to the same rough structure, but I have to say that it changes quite a bit. You never really know what you’ll be doing when you wake up in the morning. Here’s a very rough version of what I do every day.

7:30- Wake up, head to breakfast.
8:30- Wander from classroom to classroom helping kids with their studies… Their actual classes don’t start until 9:30, and until then they just have study hall.
9:10- Prayer/ assembly with the whole school.
9:30- 12:30- Classes start. I usually try and wander around to see what I can do to help, but I’m usually unfortunately just a distraction. During this time before lunch I don’t really have a set thing that I have to be doing. Sometimes I will help with special ed., sometimes I will have a big art class in the after noon that need preparation. I’ll use the Internet every once in a while during this time, too. Sometimes the little kids will play outside and I’ll join them, and recently we have started to fix up some of the old wall murals at the school in the mornings as well. Sometimes there will be nothing that I can do to help, so I will work on my schools summer reading list, but only when its absolutely necessary.
12:30- lunch.
1:00- This is when I usually teach the UKG/LKG girls (ages 2-4) swimming lessons. I offered to take the boys too, but was turned down. I forgot that boys and girls simply do not swim together ever. It takes about 20 minutes to get all of the little girls in swim suits, but its worth it, as they are all adorable, and they love being able to have the chance to use the pool. There are a couple of little wading areas in it which are perfect for them, so I can help one kid at a time while the others sit in the wading area splashing around. They love the water, even if they’re just sitting in it doing nothing. When they’re done I’ll bring them back inside and help them get dressed again and they will either take naps or head back to class.
2:30- I’ll usually end up helping out with special ed. during this time. We sing songs and play games. My favorite is when I draw them things and they color it in. They love that one.
3:30- I will start to lay everything out for the art class at 4. If I finish early, I will go outside and play with the kids for a couple minutes before they have their end of day prayer at 3:45 ish.
4:00- Art class! My favorite part of the day. I have gotten to know all of the 7th and 8th graders in this class really well, and I love all of them. Some of them are really quite funny, and all of them try to do their best every class. It’s going to be very hard to part with them next week. These classes honestly don’t really have a time limit. One day they all finished early, but managed to produce excellent work, so I let them out at 4:30, and just yesterday almost everyone left at 5:30 except for a few boys who stayed later until 6 to finish their work.
?- 6:30- during this time all of the kids have play time outside. We play games and sing songs and just run around. I have also gotten the chance to play soccer with some of the older boys a few times. Once they said that girls don’t play sports, so naturally I had to prove them wrong. It’s all good fun- they’re all good kids through and through. At 6 the older kids go inside the school to study, but the little kids stay outside until 6:30 to keep playing.
6:30- Then I’ll head back to my room. I try to run at this time, as its not quite as hot. After I’ll shower and maybe read for a bit.
7:30- 8:30- dinner.
8:30- ?- After everyone has eaten I’ll spend time with the girls in their dorms. They like to sing and dance a lot, so I usually end up sitting 2 or 3 performances of some sort which is always fun. Sometimes I’ll help the older kids with English homework, or sit with some of the older workers who take care of the kids. They are all so nice and welcoming, they make everyone feel like family. After this I’ll head back to my house and read and then sleep. I’m usually pretty tired by the end of the day.

Saturdays are different, as they have no classes. The song teacher comes in the morning, and in the afternoon they get to watch TV. I usually teach a lot of swimming classes on these days to all of the girls. Sundays are church days. The morning is all church and church school, and the afternoon is devoted to studying. These are very busy kids. They also get up at about 5 every day to do work around Pathway. The 10th graders say they usually only get about 5 or 6 hours of sleep a night, but they don’t mind. They all seem to have infinite amounts of energy. I have no idea where it comes from, but somehow they are always all smiling.

Post # 7

The last week has been excellent. I love it here, other than maybe the temperature. As a Vermonter, I have been brought up to think that 80 degrees Fahrenheit is sweltering hot, and 60 is just about the right climate to live in during the summer… 88 here is normal. After about two weeks here I am almost used to it, but I have realized that unfortunately it is something that I will never fully become acclimated to.

Time here is strange, as days are slow, I feel like I have been here for years, but also I feel like Mother dropped me off yesterday. Maybe that has to do with the heat, too? This week was fun. In the art class we started and finished our unit on shape and sculpture. We learned about proportions, shapes, size, distance, vanishing points, and how to apply all of this to our own work. The kids seemed bored with it at first, and stared at me with blank faces. I was worried. Maybe I was speaking in English too fast. After me asking them what was wrong about, one of the boys in 8th grade, Vignesh, informed me that half of the words I was using were ones that they had never heard of. Words like scheme, and proportion. 3-D. 2-D. I decided to steal something from my 2nd grade learning experience, and created a word wall. We now have all of the new English words that we are learning on a poster board hanging front and center in the classroom.

Their favorite class this week was inevitably the one where I introduced them to model magic. I couldn’t use clay with them, as there is no kiln, and plaster was just a messy idea. Needless to say, they loved it. I loved it. Together the class produced snowmen, cobras, cakes, little men, houses, hearts, and much more. We used all of the six huge containers, and they still asked for more. Crayola should start selling in India.

In addition to my art class each day, I teach swimming, help in the special education department, and help out in other classes. I basically offer to do whatever they need me to do. I’m here to help!

Post # 6: PATHWAY!

In a word, the Internet access here is almost nonexistent. The school is lucky enough as it is to have about 10 computers (Dell laptops) that are used for English and math projects, but only one of these is able to connect to the Internet. It’s nice to not have to check my email or facebook every day. I now have an excuse to stay offline. I will try to put pictures up here as well as write a few words, but I will tell you that its definitely not going to happen every day. Sorry to the few who actually do read this through all the way. 

I arrived at Pathway on Wednesday with my mother. We were immediately greeted by the principal, and were sent on a tour with the geography teacher. He introduced me to all of the children at the orphanage (there are about 150 of them or so, grades kindergarten to 10th). They are the most beautiful people I have ever seen, I swear. All of them were smiling and all of them wanted to shake our hands. I loved it. Since the whole school is Mormon (save the few Hindi teachers), I am always referred to as sister, and constantly get the question “are you LDS??” I have to say no every time, but they keep asking, hoping that my answer has changed. I think some of them are convinced that I will be converted by the end of my time here. Later that day I met Dr. Prasad and Chandra who were lovely and welcoming, just like all of their kids. We discussed my idea of art classes, and decided that I would teach the 7th and 8th grade classes from 4 to 5:30 every day, and on Saturdays I will teach anyone who wants to come learn a little bit. Sundays are to be kept free, as they are church days.

Mother left Thursday afternoon, and immediately afterwards I had my first class. None of the kids here have ever actually had an art class before. They didn’t know what the word “art” meant… I’m not kidding. They just drew things for classes occasionally. I therefore had to start with the basics, starting with color. I taught them all the color wheel, how colors mix, ext. It’s nice that I get to work with the older group, as they all can speak English. Later in the class we made name tag type things that will hang under there work when it is displayed. They had to use a certain color scheme for each nametag. This was a very confusing concept to explain. I have no idea how to explain the word scheme, and they had never heard it before. We eventually got it, but I saw then that every class was definitely going to be an adventure.

There is a large American group here that are staying until Thursday, and yesterday (Sunday) I was lucky enough to tag along with them to go sightseeing all around Chennai after church had finished. We saw all of the cities monuments, a crocodile farm, a few temples (which were beautiful- I didn’t want to leave) and we even went to the beach. It was a great day. Of course we were covered in a thick layer of salt water and sweat once we got back to Pathway at 10 at night after the 3-hour bus ride, but it was worth it. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to finally get to see Chennai.

Post #5: FabIndia

Left: Salwars (casual for girls) laid out for show
Right: Yards of stacked cotton fabrics ready to be bought

I was told that at the orphanage I should wear traditional indian clothing, as everyone else there would be, so today my mother and I decided to do a bit of shopping. We took advantage of one of my fathers old friendships from when he was traveling around India after college, and called the owners of FabIndia, who gave us the number for Ms. Belle, the director of the South East portion of the chain. FabIndia is a very popular clothing store known all over India for its beautiful cloths. The pictures I took above are from their largest shop in Chennai. When we arrived at the store Ms. Cheru Belle spent about an hour helping me find exactly what I needed. Her help along with Mrs. Benac's notes from earlier made it all a lot easier than expected.