Monday was unusual because we split up into 2 smaller groups we could work at two different sites of Makkala Jagriti. Makkala Jagriti is a NGO dedicated to facilitating holistic development of children who live in the slums of Babgalore. Their web site is www.makkalajagriti.org. Their name literally means "Children Awakening". Morgan and Kaelene were in separate groups:
After a good night of sleep, we all woke up and had breakfast and talked for a little while. We left Visthar and had lunch at A2B, and then headed out to the school and community center. At lunch, Susan let us order Coke, which was incredible because we all needed the caffeine by then. I went to the elementary school, with my group, and we had such a great time playing with the kids. It was amazing learning with the kids and trying to teach them some english words. They would always ask us, "What is your name?" because that is all they knew how to say. The entire experience was life changing because the children were really trying their best to communicate with us, and they spoke the little bit of english they knew in order to talk to us. The little kids were always wanting to shake our hands and learn our names. I will never forget the little girl who said, "Miss, Miss, you're hair looks super." I thought that was the kindest thing, and it was known that they enjoyed our presence as much as we loved being with them. They taught us some of the games that they play and we taught them the macarena, Little Sally Walker (which we played 100+ times), and the hokey pokey. We were sweeping the trash off the playground, but after about a minute of us sweeping, the children came and took our brooms and did the cleaning for themselves. They wanted to help us as much as we wanted to help them. That night, when we got back to Visthar, everyone was really moved by the children, and felt an emotional connection to them. We had dinner, ANCHOR, and then we got to sleep around 9:00. At dinner, one of the ladies at Visthar showed us her figurines, that she made herself, with yarn and other materials. Each figure had a story and it was incredible learning the history behind each one and also, I noticed how much time she put into making them. She was very passionate about what she did. This entire day was amazing and we are all excited about the experiences that we will have moving forward on this trip. (P.S. the chai tea here is INCREDIBLE!!! I love it!)
Morgan
After braving the organized chaos of Indian traffic, my group (Kaelene, Maggie M, Maggie Z, Audrey, Crosslin, Lillie, Katherine, Marco, Elliot, Ms. Chan, Mr. Eubanks and Maddy) made it to the community center. Once we arrived, we meet a group of about ten to fifteen teenagers from the community center. Then each group picked a game for everyone to play. They taught us a game that was similar to the chicken dance and we taught them how to play four corners. After the ice breakers, we got in groups and tried to talk and get to know the teenagers from the center. Even though not all of them spoke English we were able to community through hand gestures and when we couldn't understand them, the ones who understood English helped translate. Once we finished introductions, we got to ask them questions about India and their daily lives, and they asked us questions about our lives and America. We then split into three groups and each group got to paint a part of the wall with the students. One group painted the centers name on the wall in their language and in English, one group finished painted pictures that the students drew on the walls of the stairs, and the final group painted the walls of their computer lab. It was such a wonderful experience to work with the students, and even though we couldn't always understand each other, we were able to laugh, have fun and finish the work. After we finished painting, we said goodbye to the teenagers and went into the classroom with the younger kids The younger kids were so excited to see us. They would come up to us and ask our names and touch our hair. We all sat down with them and they all wanted us to write down our names and tell them how to pronounce them. It was such an amazing experience. After they all had our autographs, some of the girls showed us a dance they had learned and then we had to say goodbye. Saying goodbye was extremely hard. All the kids would come up and shake our hands or give us hugs or touch our faces and ask when we are coming back. We all wanted to stay longer. After the teachers forced us on the bus, Maddy asked us if we wanted ice cream and we all enthusiastically said yes. We made it back to Visthar and had dinner and had ANCHOR and then we all passed out. We had such a wonderful time at the center, we are all excited to head out to Timbuktu and work with more kids. We all send our love.
Kaelene
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