My three weeks as a volunteer for JRDT
My name is Elsa Edling, I am 20 years old, from Sweden and am working as a volunteer at JRDT. I arrived the 13th of August in Manampathy Kandigai and am staying with M.P. Arokiaraj and his family until the 31st of August. My major assignment here is to teach English to kids in the local schools but I will also be helping out with whatever that needs to be done.
On my first day I arrived in the morning after a 20 hour long bus trip and I got nicely greeted by Arokiaraj and his family. Luckily enough were I able to use this first day to rest and get settled in. In the evening Arokiaraj showed me around the village and showed me some of JRDT's projects. E.g. we went to visit a family for whom JRDT is building a toilet as part of a project to develop this village by altogether building 10 toilets. This project just got finished within in a couple of days. The family was unbelievably sweet and even offered me to take one of their chickens home for dinner.
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The next day I started by having my very first English lesson here in India. We went to the government owned school Panchyat Primary School. The children were all very sweet and paying very much attention, and tried their best to understand what I was teaching even tough it was hard for them to understand me since their English was not at a very high level. I spent almost three hours teaching them colours, songs and easy sentences.
After a very nice lunch I, Arokiaraj's wife Anita and her sister Angel went to a nearby city to do some shopping. Anita had earlier explained to me how important the dress code is here in India and especially in small villages so I gladly bought some very beautiful Salwars and one beautiful Sari.
The dress code is majorly that you should not show your legs or shoulders and I think that is something you should respect. The easiest thing is to buy Indian clothing cause then also you want draw as much attention when you walk on the streets as you would wearing e.g. a small European dress.
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The 15th of August is India's Day of Independence which of course is properly celebrated in all Indian schools with a lot of dancing, singing and speech holding. I was invited to participate in the celebrations by the local school R.C.M. School . The kids all did amazing dancing numbers and they were much more impressive and magnificent than the once we do in Swedish schools.
We also had an "Opening ceremony" for the toilets JRDT has build to the school, since some people from "Happy Villages" were there. I helped to decorate and also take pictures.
JRDT's Orphanage which is another one of their projects. At the moment is three girls in the ages 10-11, Sheela, Kamachi and Geeta living here.and Arun and Viji, are at the moment visiting for celebrating festival with his family. Also with Sheela, Kamachi and Geeta is the biggest problem that it is hard for them to understand me but through songs, drawings and easy explanation I do my best to improve their English and also help them with their homework. They were all doing their best to understand me. Orphanage is
Sponsored by AS-B,SISTER .
-----
On Thursday I started with going to the Kindergarten where they have about 15 kids in the ages 2-5. These kids does not understand any English and since I do not speak their language we could not communicate at all. But through playing some games and singing at least the kids managed to learn some new words.
In the evening with Orphan's to help the girls with their homework and then also some other kids from the village came and joined us which was very nice since some of them could speak really good English and therefore help me to translate for the other kids.
At the Kindergarten
Learning English through playing with the dinosaur Berndt
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Friday started with us going to the family I visited the first day and I took some pictures of their toilet which now finally is ready!
Afterwards we went to St. Josephs High School in the neighbor village R.N. Kandigai. I got in charge for the English period in the 6th grade. In the beginning the kids were mostly talking and playing with each other, so it was hard for me to get their attention, but after a while came the English teacher Roselin and helped me. She also helped me to translate so I was actually able to teach the kids more advanced English, e.g. some grammar.
Roselin also very nicely invited me to lunch at her home after the lesson.
Then I teached at Panchyat Primary School in the afternoon and in the evening with Orphans.
-----
For the weekend I went to Pundicherry to meet up with some other volunteers and since there was Eid-ul-Fitr (Muslim festivity at the end of Ramadan) on Monday, the Indian schools had holidays so even I had the day off.
-----
I returned to Manampathy Kandigai on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday I spent the morning teaching at St. Josephs High School.
With Roselin helping me to translate it feels like this is the school where I actually manage to teach the kids what they want to know and really help them to improve their English. In both Panchyat Primary School and the Orphanage is the language a big barrier. But through songs and pictures and the kids helping each other I also manage to improve the English of these kids as well, and I am sure that if I would stay for a longer period I woud be able to make a big improvement in their English.
In the afternoon Arokiaraj together with his brother, wife and two-year old son Alfred, took me to Kanchipuram where I got to see some truly beautiful (and extremly expensive) silk Saris, a 1400 year old Hindu temple and also how the fabric for Lunghis (special kind skirts men wear) and the silk for Saris are made. I even got to try out myself how to weave silk! It was very interesting to see it be made by hand and not in a big factory like everything is made in Sweden.
-----
Wednesday morning I spent at St. Josephs High School. In the afternoon I looked for more songs and exercises I could do with the kids on the Internet to improve their English and I actually found a lot! So that is something I highly recommend if you also find it hard to teach English without having a language in comment.
Here in India is the power not to be trusted. In this village it is always at least two power cuts a day and you can even have days where the power is gone for hours. This is something that would never be accepted in an European country, but here it is part of everyday life, but that does not make it less inconvenient and also annoying for the people.
----
We left early on Thursday morning to visit Arokiaraj's brother, who works as a priest in Ongole. There we visited two of the schools where he works and I was also given 30 min at Auxilium school to teach. At this school was the level of English very high and the kids easily understood me and I could easily understand them.
Afterwards we went down to the beach and actually helped some fisherman to pull their boat ashore. As a reward we got some fishes from them which made a lovely dinner later in the evening that we had together with Arokiaraj and his brother's Uncle, who also works as a priest.
We also went to visit an Orphanage where Arokiaraj's brother helps out at Ongole
------
On Friday we went to Nellore, an nearby village, that was celebrating the 100th anniversary of their church. It was a very nice celebrating and I met a lot of priests and nuns with whom I talked about the state of India and it's children and how they are doing their best to try to improve this.
-----
After a 8 hour long journey with train and bus in the middle of the night we arrived home at 2 am on Saturday. Unluckily enough I had some bad food on the train and therefore spent the whole day in bed. But after rest and a lot of water I felt better and in the end of the day I was fine once again.
Getting sick is something many people warned me about before I went here to India and it is something that happen to most people who visit India. For the simple reason that our stomachs are not used to the Indian standard off the food. But I do not think that this should stop you from eating and trying out the wonderful food that is offered here. Lot of it is worth a day of sickness, and honestly if you never get sick when you have been to India you did not truly visit India.
On my first day I arrived in the morning after a 20 hour long bus trip and I got nicely greeted by Arokiaraj and his family. Luckily enough were I able to use this first day to rest and get settled in. In the evening Arokiaraj showed me around the village and showed me some of JRDT's projects. E.g. we went to visit a family for whom JRDT is building a toilet as part of a project to develop this village by altogether building 10 toilets. This project just got finished within in a couple of days. The family was unbelievably sweet and even offered me to take one of their chickens home for dinner.
------
The next day I started by having my very first English lesson here in India. We went to the government owned school Panchyat Primary School. The children were all very sweet and paying very much attention, and tried their best to understand what I was teaching even tough it was hard for them to understand me since their English was not at a very high level. I spent almost three hours teaching them colours, songs and easy sentences.
After a very nice lunch I, Arokiaraj's wife Anita and her sister Angel went to a nearby city to do some shopping. Anita had earlier explained to me how important the dress code is here in India and especially in small villages so I gladly bought some very beautiful Salwars and one beautiful Sari.
The dress code is majorly that you should not show your legs or shoulders and I think that is something you should respect. The easiest thing is to buy Indian clothing cause then also you want draw as much attention when you walk on the streets as you would wearing e.g. a small European dress.
-----
The 15th of August is India's Day of Independence which of course is properly celebrated in all Indian schools with a lot of dancing, singing and speech holding. I was invited to participate in the celebrations by the local school R.C.M. School . The kids all did amazing dancing numbers and they were much more impressive and magnificent than the once we do in Swedish schools.
We also had an "Opening ceremony" for the toilets JRDT has build to the school, since some people from "Happy Villages" were there. I helped to decorate and also take pictures.
JRDT's Orphanage which is another one of their projects. At the moment is three girls in the ages 10-11, Sheela, Kamachi and Geeta living here.and Arun and Viji, are at the moment visiting for celebrating festival with his family. Also with Sheela, Kamachi and Geeta is the biggest problem that it is hard for them to understand me but through songs, drawings and easy explanation I do my best to improve their English and also help them with their homework. They were all doing their best to understand me. Orphanage is
Sponsored by AS-B,SISTER .
-----
On Thursday I started with going to the Kindergarten where they have about 15 kids in the ages 2-5. These kids does not understand any English and since I do not speak their language we could not communicate at all. But through playing some games and singing at least the kids managed to learn some new words.
In the evening with Orphan's to help the girls with their homework and then also some other kids from the village came and joined us which was very nice since some of them could speak really good English and therefore help me to translate for the other kids.
At the Kindergarten
Learning English through playing with the dinosaur Berndt
-----
Friday started with us going to the family I visited the first day and I took some pictures of their toilet which now finally is ready!
Afterwards we went to St. Josephs High School in the neighbor village R.N. Kandigai. I got in charge for the English period in the 6th grade. In the beginning the kids were mostly talking and playing with each other, so it was hard for me to get their attention, but after a while came the English teacher Roselin and helped me. She also helped me to translate so I was actually able to teach the kids more advanced English, e.g. some grammar.
Roselin also very nicely invited me to lunch at her home after the lesson.
Then I teached at Panchyat Primary School in the afternoon and in the evening with Orphans.
-----
For the weekend I went to Pundicherry to meet up with some other volunteers and since there was Eid-ul-Fitr (Muslim festivity at the end of Ramadan) on Monday, the Indian schools had holidays so even I had the day off.
-----
I returned to Manampathy Kandigai on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday I spent the morning teaching at St. Josephs High School.
With Roselin helping me to translate it feels like this is the school where I actually manage to teach the kids what they want to know and really help them to improve their English. In both Panchyat Primary School and the Orphanage is the language a big barrier. But through songs and pictures and the kids helping each other I also manage to improve the English of these kids as well, and I am sure that if I would stay for a longer period I woud be able to make a big improvement in their English.
In the afternoon Arokiaraj together with his brother, wife and two-year old son Alfred, took me to Kanchipuram where I got to see some truly beautiful (and extremly expensive) silk Saris, a 1400 year old Hindu temple and also how the fabric for Lunghis (special kind skirts men wear) and the silk for Saris are made. I even got to try out myself how to weave silk! It was very interesting to see it be made by hand and not in a big factory like everything is made in Sweden.
-----
Wednesday morning I spent at St. Josephs High School. In the afternoon I looked for more songs and exercises I could do with the kids on the Internet to improve their English and I actually found a lot! So that is something I highly recommend if you also find it hard to teach English without having a language in comment.
Here in India is the power not to be trusted. In this village it is always at least two power cuts a day and you can even have days where the power is gone for hours. This is something that would never be accepted in an European country, but here it is part of everyday life, but that does not make it less inconvenient and also annoying for the people.
----
We left early on Thursday morning to visit Arokiaraj's brother, who works as a priest in Ongole. There we visited two of the schools where he works and I was also given 30 min at Auxilium school to teach. At this school was the level of English very high and the kids easily understood me and I could easily understand them.
Afterwards we went down to the beach and actually helped some fisherman to pull their boat ashore. As a reward we got some fishes from them which made a lovely dinner later in the evening that we had together with Arokiaraj and his brother's Uncle, who also works as a priest.
We also went to visit an Orphanage where Arokiaraj's brother helps out at Ongole
------
On Friday we went to Nellore, an nearby village, that was celebrating the 100th anniversary of their church. It was a very nice celebrating and I met a lot of priests and nuns with whom I talked about the state of India and it's children and how they are doing their best to try to improve this.
-----
After a 8 hour long journey with train and bus in the middle of the night we arrived home at 2 am on Saturday. Unluckily enough I had some bad food on the train and therefore spent the whole day in bed. But after rest and a lot of water I felt better and in the end of the day I was fine once again.
Getting sick is something many people warned me about before I went here to India and it is something that happen to most people who visit India. For the simple reason that our stomachs are not used to the Indian standard off the food. But I do not think that this should stop you from eating and trying out the wonderful food that is offered here. Lot of it is worth a day of sickness, and honestly if you never get sick when you have been to India you did not truly visit India.
posted by jrdtindia.blogspot.com at 8:55 AM
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