MY THIRD STAY IN INDIA - New Experiences in the Schools

Review

Now, being back in Germany many, many memories of India come to my mind all the time.
It has been a great experience and I am glad that I could stay for such a long time, but also do so many different things.

Over the whole time I have not only taught many thing to the students, but also learned a lot and I am sure this six months will have a big influence on my life, a very positive influence.
From the very first minute I left, I started missing the people and could not believe that I would really leave India until I finally landed in London. Over here in Europe, in Germany, many things seem to be very strange and different and I have to say that I miss the Indian way of life. At the beginning many things in this south asian country annoyed me a little, but by the time I got used to it and now, being back in Germany, I really appreciate them and would like to go back to India as soon as possible. I think part of my heart is still over there and I have left with tears in my eyes and a crying heart.

Although it was not always easy, I have had a great time and want to thank everybody who helped to make this very special and wonderful experience possible.

Final days in Navsari and India

After leaving the blindschool I had a few days left in Navsari until my final departure for Germany. There were many things to organize and on the other hand I tried to spend as much time with the children as possible.

Although I had to be in Mumbai on Sunday 22nd I had my farewell in the school on Saturday already due to holiday on Sundays. All the students from both schools and the workshop came and all teachers and most off the staff were present in the prayer hall; even all trustees were there. We had many speeches, all honouring my stay and me. Again I got flowers and some presents as well.
After everybody had finished it was my turn to say a few words. Although I knew signlanguage and even some Gujarati, I did make it in English, to be able to say everything to its full extend. I revised the whole time I had been there and called back many memories and experiences I had made. After finishing I was told to say somthing in Gujarati and sign language as well and thus made everybody happy with a few words each.

It was a very nice farewell ceremony and everybody wished me a good journey. I think I have never been honoured so much as on this day and still feel quite astonished and happy, but also a little proud of it. These speeches were something very special and have a big meaning to me.

Sunday afternoon we finally left for Mumbai, stayed at a friends place for a few hours and then I set of for Germany, flying all night and reaching it 13,5 hours later.
But before we left the school all the students and most of the staff gathered in long lines at the entrance of the school to say good bye to me. It was very moving to see them all standing there and again I had to shake everybodys hand and many of the kids thanked me for staying with them. Touching every single kid again I felt worse the further I went and soon could not stop the tears running down my face.

Farewell in the blindschool

On Sunday 15th I went to the blindschool again to spend some last time with the people there and finally have my farewell.
Although it was quite hot already I enjoyed staying with the kids and staff and practice all the songs again and play a few games. Because it was my final time with everybody my classes were a bit more relaxed but we did also good practice, because the kids were very motivated. Thus we did have a lot of fun and beside singing enjoyed taking and watching photos.

On Wednesday it was finally time to say goodbye and I felt very sad to leave this beautiful place. But before going we had a nice gathering in the hall. The students sang a few prayers, also wishing me good health and luck and praying for a soon return. After a speech of the staff and a student in which they thanked me for coming, spending time with them and teaching them so many things, it was my turn to say something. Because my Gujarati was still not very fluent I had prepared a nice letter in English for the school and then managed to get somoeone in Navsari to translate it for me. Thus I could read it in English first and then in Gujarati, which was quite a surprise for most of the people.
Finally all of us revised all the songs I had taught them and although we had never sung all of them all together it worked quite well. This final music made a good memory for everyone.

It was quite hard to leave the school. Everybody wanted to shake my hand and have a few words with me and would not let me go. Thus I had to shake hands again and again and the students could not stop saying “haudscho” which literally means “come again” but is ususally used as “bye”.

I felt very sorry to leave everybody behind, not knowing when I would meet them again. But I will always keep the time I spend in Dang in the blindschool in good memory and the people over there have got a big place in my heart.

"Holi"

On March 10th and 11th people all over India celebrated one of the biggest Hindu festivals, “Holi”. Beside religious procedures old and young throw water bombs and colors at each other and enjoy to totally get messed up.
Due to the fact that the holidays were close to the weekend many students went home and thus there were only few people in the school.
Unfortunately the first 1 ½ days nothing happened, except for a few water bombs that were thrown at us. But because the kids kept telling me that they were celebrating “Holi” soon and seemed to be absolutely excited about it, I was quite eager to see what it was actually about.
Later Wednesday afternoon I finally got my price and ended up totally soaked and covered in colors. Forgetting everything we just threw water and powder or even colored water at each other and enjoyed it for one to two hours.

“A little trip around India”

After the group had left I went with Martyn (Chair of Mamta Welfare Trust in U.K. which sent me over to India and sponsored me), a friend of him and his nephew to several places around India.
We basically traveled to several villages and cities to meet some of hi Indian friends and spend some time with them. Most of the time we stayed in Kosamba, a small village in Gujarat with a Muslim family. It was very nice and peaceful there and gave me the chance to see a bit more of Indian culture, because I had basically lived and spend time with Hindus before.
Besides staying there we met some people in Jambusar and Baroda and did a little bit of sightseeing as well. Thus we got a tour round a boarding school run by Muslim’s, visited a school for deaf to learn English where I met some of my Indian friends again and went to a Gujarati museum which did have, unfortunately, besides some Indian art, loads of European as well. Back in Kosamba we got the chance to see a bit of an inauguration ceremony of a new temple and got special blessings from a very important saint.

The biggest cultural highlight though was our “short” trip to Agra and Delhi. After a whole night and day of traveling we finally reached our primary destination in the evening and set of the next morning to see the world famous Taj Mahal. Although I had seen it on photos many times it was amazing to actually stand in front of it. Fortunately we had a guide with us who could explain all the history and architecture etc. and thus made it possible for us to really understand why it is and deserves to be one of the 7 world wonders.
After spending several hours in and around the tomb we went to see Agra Ford, which was nearby, to then set off for Delhi again. On the way we stopped again and had a look at Sikandara, another tomb of a Mugal king. We spent the night in Delhi and tried to see as many things as possible the next day. Thus we saw ancient places like Qutub Minar, India Gate, the Bhai Temple, Birla Temple, the Indira Gandhi museum and Mahatma Gandhi museum (both were the places where they were assassinated) and then finally went on a night train back to Gujarat again.
All the places we went to were very interesting and fascinating. But unfortunately, due to a lack of time we could only spend little time at each place and all the traveling was quite exhausting and tiring.

Indiability ‘09

On the morning of February 11th I set off for Bombay to pick up the second youth group from England, the Indiabilitygroup ’09. Because we arrive late in the night in Navsari we had a welcoming ceremony the next morning. Like for the group in October all the deaf kids and some disabled gathered in lines and welcomed us (including me) with drums and flower garlands and roli (the red dot and rice on the forehead).
After having been in India for nearly five months I knew well how things in school worked and thus my job this time was a totally different one than in autumn. I did a lot of organizing for the group, showed them around and guided and tried to make them feel as comfortable as possible. Due to a lack of language knowledge I did also have to translate all the time. Although the group was much bigger (10 girls and 5 boys and 4 staff), they did basically the same activities as the last group, which was mainly working with the kids in all three schools. Being in Navsari we split into two groups and worked in both schools parallel. While the others played a lot of games, did sport activities and arts and crafts. My job was basically to translate explain and take photos and videos.
Like the last group we went to the blindschool for a few days and spend a very good time with the kids there. Basic activities were, like in Navsari, sports and games, arts and crafts and even a bit of music. I think all of us enjoyed it and learned a lot and the kids and staff did have a nice change for a few days from their normal school routine.
Again it was very good that I knew a bit of Gujarati and had worked with the kids a lot. Thus they trusted me and it was easier to communicate with them or help some members of the group to get in touch with the students.
After coming back we did spend more time in the schools in Navsari, went to Dandi, went with the mobile ambulance to some nearby villages and visited some hospitals. While going for shopping in Navsari I could test my Gujarati and bargaining skills. One day we had to go to Surat and visit a little school for disabled girls. Through the press conference afterwards we were all in the newspaper the other day and I had to give interviews for two TV channels.Due to some relatives of some group members we got invited to a wedding again which was a nice cultural addition.
After two weeks the Indiability group ’09 left again with a nice farewell and many tears.

For me it was nice to have some change and some company from Europe. But it was also very exhausting to have so many people around and to organize all the time. I think I’ve never done so much translations at a time (Gujarati and ISL), but although it was a bit too much sometimes, I did actually quite enjoy it.

Dandi-Walk

Just after returning from the competition a French couple had arrive in Navsari walking all the way from Shabarmati Ashram (Ahmedabad) to Dandi, the way Gandhi walked when he broke the salt law.
To have some company from Europe I stayed with them for the last two days of their walk and joined latter. It was really nice to be out and walk a lot and all the people we met on the way were very friendly and some even invited us to their home or welcomed and honored us with flowers.
Besides walking we saw many places where Gandhi had stayed, slept, done talks etc.
Unfortunately I couldn’t talk much with the French, because they only new little English, but the walk was s a nice interruption and break in my daily routine, but unfortunately made me stay away form the kids for most the two days.

Competition

On February 7th and 8th an art and fashion competition was held in Vinadhjagar. More than 300 deaf students from all over Gujarat came to participate in general knowledge, drawing, henna, hairstyling and mascara, wedding dressings, catwalk and rangoli.
I was so lucky to get the chance to go there with many boys and girls from the school to see all these traditional Indian arts and styling.
In all ways it was a great experience and a lot of fun and with 15 winners our school was very successful. – Apart from some inconveniences according the traveling in the train and the accommodation (all girls and ladies slept together in one big hall, I shared a mattress with two others, and all of us had to take bath in 2 small and dirty bathrooms), I felt very comfortable among all the deaf people. Only few staff could hear and thus nearly everybody was signing. Being the only “white person”, many people took interest in me and this I’ve made many contacts and new friends and could practice my signlanguage. It was a great atmosphere there, everybody was so happy and friendly (and very respectful to me) that we al felt very sad to leave again; but this trip will definitely stay in my mind as one of the greatest experiences and gatherings with deaf.

Working with the deaf

The time after Christmas in the deaf school was dominated by preparations and practices for a competition (chapter ) and “interrupted” by a few events like a kite festival on january14th. Still I managed to bring in a new element into my classes: a unicycle. The kids were really excited and loved seeing me riding it, because they’d probably never seen it before. Theoretically all of them wanted to have a go, but in the end most of them were too scared to actually try it; very often the older students more then the younger ones. The problem was that it was really hard to explain anything to them while riding, because I had to hold but talk with my hands at the same time. In addition to that some of the students didn’t even know how to ride a bicycle and unfortunately I’ve only got one unicycle which makes practicing really hard.
After coming back from the blind school I was confronted with a strange type of boredom and demotivation. Although the students really liked being with me and play with me, they very of the just sat down or started a conversation instead of practicing juggling, Diabolo, etc... Fortunately I finally managed to get their full attention again by introducing new games with everybody playing together.

"Farithi" Dang

After a few days I returned to the blind school to stay there for two weeks. Again it was totally different and I made many new experiences.
Beside music lessons I did also many games and circus activities and a bit of art and crafts with the students. This change helped me to motivate the kids and work against the boredom that had occurred after a few days. But on the other hand it also led to less enthusiasm for music and thus I had to find new ways and methods to make it attractive. Again recordings and English film music helped me, although I never managed to really teach them latter.
Starting new things were not always easy, because often they had never done or seen it before and sometimes just found my practices funny. Especially with the younger kids I started some body percussion. They really liked it, but never managed to really explain it to each other. Thus I had to show it nearly everybody separately (because my Gujarati is still not good enough for big explanations) and this took a long time.

This time I was again confronted with planning problems and sometimes there were no classes available for me, which is obvious when having six classes (standard 1 and 2 and standard 3 and 4 combined) and eight people who do all at least a little bit of teaching. In the end I had an average of 6-7 periods a day, which was absolutely fine and enough. Because other teachers had to give me their classes it happened in the end (especially in the second week) that I had some classes very often and others hardly ever and it made it for me even harder, because I was again and again confronted with all the young students, big classes and sometimes very little concentration and discipline. Especially standard 1-4 had some problems to understand the small differences in melody and words and to remember the text of the songs.

It was very interesting to see how blind students managed to learn juggling. All of them acted very differently and had more or less problems, according to their blindness. Some partially blind children manage to learn the first steps very very fast, while some, who where totally blind even had problems in simply throwing a ball. Fortunately some of the students were very cooperative and helped me explaining. Still I had to make sure that everybody was involved and participated and nobody was left out due to their grade of disability.

Afterwards I have to say that I have had a very good time in Dang in the blind school. I have made good connections and relationships with the people up there and my Gujarati has improved a lot.
Due to lucky circumstances I’ve got my own coconut tree now which will help them to remember me and I’m really looking forward to see all of the kids and staff again. Although it was and will be hard sometimes, the joy of everybody while having me there and their eagerness to play, sing or talk with me has a good effect on me.

Trip to Shirdi

Just one week after my stay in Mumbai I got again the chance to see an important place in India. All the blind children were sponsored a trip to Shirdi, a spiritual place for Sai Baba and the second most important temple in India.
We set off from the school n Saturday morning, staring with a “farewell procedure” which I basically had to perform. It meant among other things breaking a coconut and spilling its water on the bus, but also some sacred signs were painted on it and incense sticks burned. – it took us nearly seven hours to reach Shirdi and for me it was a surprise how calm and patient all of the students were. Although traveling in two buses there was not much space and comfort, but with singing Indian and (some) English songs, listening to music and few stops, time passed (and no one complained). Again and again slogans like “Jey sai nadki”, “Sai babaki” and others could be heard as well in the bus as on the temple complex. No matter who it cried, whether it was a small girl or an old man, it was always enthusiastically responded with “jey” by everybody, very often several times after another. I’ve never seen such a passion before.
After dinner all of us drove with the bus from our accommodation to the temple itsel. On a small stage the kids and two teachers presented a few religious songs. It was followed by a speech which introduced me to the crowd as well. Everything was fimed and photographed and appeared in the newspaper a few days later.and thus our group got a lot of attention.
Due to its importance and popularity the temple was as always very crowded. Fortunately we didn’t have to stand in the cue and got to all the important places in relatively little time. But although being treated differently than the other visitors there was a lot of rush and hurry and especially for me who doesn’t know a lot about Sai Baba (who is fur Hindus probably like Jesus for Christians), it was hard to find peace and the right spiritual mood.
The next day we traveled back, after having an interesting and uncommon night for me, sleeping close together on one room with approximately 50 girls and ladies. On our way we stopped in Saputara and the children got the chance to do some nice activities like a boat trip or a ride on a “rollercoaster”.

I stayed about four days with the blind and much more important than the trip to Shirdi was that it gave me the chance to get to know the kids better and improve our relationship. Unfortunately language is still the biggest barrier and sometimes avoids good communication and interaction. But at least I could help the staff and also do some teachings.

Christmas vacation

This year my Christmastime and New Year were totally different. First of all I had never spent these days having an average temperature of 30 degrees Celsius instead of cold weather and hopefully snow. On the other hand the religious aspect played an important role. More than 80 % of the Indian population is Hindus directly followed by Muslims. Only a few are Christians and thus Christmas is not much celebrated. Only 25th is a national holiday and most of the schools don’t give vacations, so the one where I’m staying. But because of my faith and due to the fact that I had never seen Mumbai, this was the perfect time. It was there when I saw the first Christmas decorations.
I stayed in this metropolitan city for 8 days at two families’ homes. Because they never celebrated Christmas or New Year I didn’t have it either, but I got the chance to see many things and get to know another part of India and Indian life. On 25th I went to see Mount Mary Church and had at least a little bit of Christmas atmosphere. Afterwards I went for some shopping to Linking Road. The next days consisted basically of sightseeing, combined with a lot of traveling through Mumbai. Thus I visited most of the places where the terror attacks had taken place like Tajmahal Hotel, Oberoi, Trident and the Gateway of India. Unfortunately there was a lot of security so we couldn’t get very close. Furthermore I visited the Elephanta Caves, a world heritage site, the Wankele Stadium, Helen-Keller-Institute for deaf and deafblind, went to Juhu Beach, and a handloom exhibition and a special dome-cinema. I also got the chance to visit a laughter club once and had a very nice and funny experience there. Starting in the early morning it was a mixture of physical exercises interrupted by different laughingmethods and -versions.

Actually I had expected big celebrations and fireworks on New Years Eve, but due to the bomb blast nearly al the parties etc. were closed and most of the open shops and restaurants were shut down by the police right after 12 o clock. Thus, and also because of some cultural and family reasons, I had a very quiet start into 2009, although being in one of the biggest cities of the world.

Attraction and joy

The constant changes between the two schools give me a good relieve in teaching because the students start each time with new energy and enthusiasm. They seem to be so happy to have me here and to learn totally new things, to have new equipment and games and to get to know them, that my teaching is combined with even more joy. Watching the photos in the evenings encourages me in doing the right thing and having made the right decision to come here.
Meanwhile we are working with several different tools and all of them are also very attractive to people working here or passing by and thus I usually have a few more “students”. It is great to see how people of all age groups are working together and learning the same things. – But because my activities are so attractive to all the kids I’m sometimes having several classes together, meaning 30-40 students for me and free time for the other teacher if he likes, but I suppose that is part of India – be flexible and learn to handle new situations, many things don’t go their strict way.

A totally different world

The blind school is located in Dang-district, 2-3 hours drive from Navsari. It is a forestry mountain area, also called “Jungle” by Indians, with nothing more than small villages. Thus staying at this school was totally different from my time in Navsari. Because the school doesn’t have its proper buildings yet and in general only very basic and simple things I had to stay in a tent. The only people were the students and staff and except for a lot of traffic going to the far away hill station and some locals and wild animals there is nothing around. Thus it’s not very odd that also school life was more flexible and spontaneous than it already was in Navsari. And when I finally managed to get a fixed schedule for the deaf school, I had to realize that this was impossible for Dang and the easiest was to adjust. No matter how often I asked about the program for me and which classes and lessons I would have, the answers were always different and in the end reality as well;. Thus I always go to know the class right at the beginning of the lessons which left me no time for specific preparations or planning. I had to decide immediately what to do and be present to give the class structure and be a good teacher. This was even harder because of my lack of Gujarati and since language is the most important thing in communicating with blind it left not many opportunities for me. But fortunately the children were very happy to have me with them and very keen to learn new western – especially English - songs.

The first day I was having standard 1-4 all the time and had to bring out everything I know. Starting with drawing for the partially blind and arts & crafts for the totally blind children I continued with music and finally games. Fortunately I had two teachers with me which supported me a little, especially when it came to explaining things. Although not everybody did always sing correctly and they did not always understand my instructions we managed quite well and at the end of the day most of the students already new a new German song.

The following days were always different but generally I was teaching alone, having one or two classes (7-25 children, sometimes also about 30). Every day I was surprised by new changes in schedule, timing and program occurring and after a while and having some real problems with it at the beginning I managed to become more flexible and accept their system. For example it was very likely to happen that I had one class for more than one hour instead of 35 minutes (= one period). Sometimes lessons never took place and usually I had to pick the right information out of several about what classes I would have, what made it even more flexible. Sometimes there were days when I was ready to go to a lesson but actually no school was going on because of a national holiday or some work the students had to do in the ground. But after a while I found out how to handle it best and very often just asked the kids whether they wanted to do drawing or music, because both things were new to them in a way and the best I could offer them to do.

My 11 days in Dang were very different each. Sometimes it mad a lot of fun to teach and make music together with the kids, but sometimes it was also very exhausting and difficult because of above mentioned problems. With hardly speaking the language it made it hard to start initiatives. Music lessons sometimes became very long for me, because I had to sing all the time and the students basically copied me and hardly any explanations or interactions were possible. But I learned to do different things with them, let them listen to western music, did some recordings and used a few percussion instruments to accompany our singing. Latter usually led to a mix of western and Indian music bit it was quite alright because with giving the drums etc. to musically talented students their rhythms usually suited. And if not, it was not always a big problem because even the singing was sometimes quite mixed up. Some of the kids didn’t seem to have a feeling for the tunes at all and just sang enthusiastically the wrong melody, but because of usually big groups the others were very often able to cover them. The main problem for all of them was to understand little differences in our western music scale.
Although it was not always easy and I was confronted with many other problems I had a nice and intensive time in Dang. Besides teaching the students I did also learn to make rotis and finally sing an Indian song and as I found out later also improved my Gujarat. In the end the students and me got to know each other better and I think next time will definitely be easier because I do basically know how everything goes. And in the end the students and staff let me know that they are looking forward for me to come again soon.

Time goes on...

India is a country which differs to Germany in nearly everything. Now that I have really started teaching everyday, I’m also confronted with timing and organizing a lot. Because I’m a person usually needing and having a lot of structure, the Indian spontaneity and flexibility is even more challenging.
After several hours of discussion I finally managed to get a fixed schedule. And although it took some days to find out everything and fix it and still changes always happen (and always will) I do now have a plan what to do every day and when I have to be where.
The fact that I’m sometimes whole days or weeks teaching classes on my own and sometimes together with other teachers, especially the drawing teacher whose schedule I’ve got, has become quite normal and beside showing the students different circus skills – especially juggling – and games I do also learn a way of giving drawing classes.
Sometimes it’s very difficult to explain juggling. On one hand there is the language barrier – because although learning sign language quite fast I’m still far away of being fluent in it – and on the other hand for the children juggling and all sorts of circus activities have a totally different meaning then I got to know it in Germany. Very often it’s more like a game then a special skill. Thus it’s not always easy to bring structure in the groups. But by just letting it go and working with each student separately I could see a good progress. I’ve begun to learn new ways and methods of teaching and explaining and after practicing a little and having a break for a few days suddenly many students seem to have understood the process and are very successful now. It is always a great pleasure to be able to tell them that they have got it and see them smile, see their joy and their new efforts to improve.
One other thing I had to learn to deal with in the right way was the age. Especially for drawing age mattered a lot, while for games it often played a less important role. Concerning juggling etc. I had to make a huge difference in explaining on one hand, but on the other hand age finally didn’t matter at all. In all age-groups were students that understood and learned very fast, sometimes the younger even faster than the older, and others who needed more explanations and help. But no matter how long it took, in the end all students who succeeded at some point were very keen to continue practicing. Thus it will be very interesting to see how they continue after my return from the blind school.

Schoolstart

On Monday, November 17th, the school finally started again after 3 weeks vacation. In connection with that I was supposed to give my first proper lessons, but because in India reliability is not always a big thing, everything started slowly and the students even continued coming back on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thus my lessons started slowly as well and on the first two days I only had a few hours to teach and less students.
On Monday I started with juggling, having a group of nine boys. They all participated well and were quite keen to learn it. After a while, though, it became clear that it was not always easy for me to explain everything to them in sign language and for some of them it became a bit hard to hold concentration. But because of showing them different versions of juggling we managed to do good training for at least 40 minutes, until many other students came as well having finished their lessons. For this matter we had to quit and just start playing games.
On Tuesday and Wednesday a beekeeping-seminar was being hold in the school and affected my teaching again. On Tuesday I was just able to play with the children, because all the lessons were canceled after the early morning. I brought out some material again and suggested games. It was very interesting to watch them play and see how they learned differently, picked up my ideas and brought in theirs. They were very happy about having me and the balls etc. there and for me it was a pleasure see them smile and very warming to hear their nice and clear laughter.
Wednesday was my first day of proper teaching and I immediately got a full schedule which meant being busy from at least 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., the normal school time. Actually I was meant to be with the sports and drawing teacher, but because he was busy this day I was on my own all the time. Just a few minutes after 11 o clock, I got my timetable and had to start teaching immediately. But everything went very well and the fascination, interest and joy of the students made it a lot easier for me. According to the age group and number of class members I had to vary and improvise the program every time.
Finally I can say I tried my best and had a very successful day with many different lessons, classes, students games and circus activities.
The rest of the week I kept teaching and introducing different versions of juggling and games to the students. Sometimes I was together with the teacher, sometimes on my own and sometimes it was easy to explain, but sometimes it was also very hard for the students to hold concentration and to understand the complexity of dealing with two or three balls at one time.
Beside teaching I got the chance to watch an English class and do some Yoga; And all the time it were not only the students who were learning but also me. Over the week I got to know some new games and new versions and I also realized the big difference of older and younger children in understanding and picking up new and foreign ideas. Unfortunately I’m not fluent in sign language which made it very often even harder to explain juggling and new games and will always be an additional difficulty.

The whole week I kept taking out playing equipment after school finished and thus made the students very happy. They usually never had so many things to play with but thanks to the group from the UK they are now very happy and satisfied and also thankful.
Because I’m living on school premises I’m together with the students nearly all the time and could play day and night with them if I wanted to. Thus the end of school time doesn’t mean that I’m out of everything. Usually I keep playing with them a little, go to their hostel in the evenings and talk to them, learn sign language or even learn some Indian cooking. My position here is very special, because I’m a foreigner and the only person doing this kind of job. That also means that the students are very interested and happy in having me around and really want to play with me all the time or be at least somewhere near. On the other hand it makes it a lot easier for me to get integrated and participate.

Divali vacation

During the three weeks Divali vacation (Indian Christmas) I travelled a lot around, saw many places and went to many peoples homes.

The first days I mainly stayed at families homes to celebrate Divali with them, which basically meant a big relativemeeting. According to the festival people were preparing special dishes and especially snacs and although New Year was a few days after Christmas, people were bursting firecrackers day and night.

Divali is the festival of lights and so little candles and lights could be seen every evening.

Rangoli - making pictures out of coloured glasspowder - belongs to Divali in the same way the candles do. The can be found at almost every door or in every court during the five days of the festival and make the homes look very nicely.

This is a picture seen in a special exhibition

After a few days I went to Daman to stay in a hotel at the sea for 2 1/2 days. Although it is known as a tourist place i could hardly find any foreigners and especially staying on the beach was sometimes very exhausting and annoying because my simple appearance seemed to be a big attraction, even more than in Navsari; and actually I had thought tha I was used to people staring and gazing at me all the time without any hesitation.

After coming back I went to Ahmedabad the next day. I had been invited to stay with an elderly couple which spends most of the day in an Ashram and lives very close to it, in the outscirts of the city.

I had a great time during those 12 days and especially during the first days I was mostly accompanied by some people in my age which made it even nicer. It gave me the chance to improve my knowledge about the Indian culture and gave me the chance to get to know the young peoples view. - Beside amusing activities like shopping I saw many ancient places and learned a lot about Jainreligion (the religion practised in the Ashram). I was confronted with a lot of spirituality and went to important places like Akshardam, Adalaj, centre for Dada Bhagwan and Gandhis Ashram.

Temple for Dada Bhagwan

Adalaj

Mobile hospital

From the very first beginning I was invited to accompany a new project the Manav Kalyan Trust had just started. Because of very bad health conditions and no medical support in nearby villages, people decided to provide the villagers with free medications. They also want to change minds and make the villagers more aware of food, health and hygiene, because most of them were suffering from lack of vitamins. Many of those people we went to had never been to a doctor, just because they couldn’t afford it to pay fourty rupees to got to a hospital etc.

At the moment I’ve been with the ambulance three times. First we went to some villages to see if medical support was welcome and to introduce the project to the people. The second time I went with the group from the U.K. and we saw in what poor conditions some of the people really were and watched the doctor providing them with medications. One of the villagers has had such a bad cancer for two years already that he’ll soon die of it and no doctor is able to help him anymore. – But most of the deceases were caused because of a lack of health awareness and nutrition.

Visitors from England

After one and a half weeks a group of young people from the England came over to do some activities with the children, meet some people, get to know India and to build bridges from the UK to India and overcome the gap the Indian and Pakistani Government always create.

The group, consisting of seven students of different heritage and all boys between 15-18 and four staff, stayed for two weeks and I was always with them. It was a really interesting, hard working, exhausting, but also happy and funny time and meant a good break for me and gave me good company.

At the blind school in Dang

The main aim of the group was to spend time with the children in the schools. Therefore we stayed in Dang at the blind school for about tree days and did a lot of activities. We had tree main groups: music, arts & crafts and sports. I was mainly involved in music, because this is what I’ll be mainly doing for the next few months. On the first day we brought many different rhythmic instruments and showed the children how to use them. They started playing immediately and hardly ever stopped. It was hard to give it a structure, also because they didn’t know western music and didn’t seem to have the same feeling for beats rhythms as we have. On the second day we chose to do some singing and began to teach them and easy African song, because the melody was very easy to understand and the words always the same. The song had only four lines and the last was the same as the first one. Still it was not quite easy to explain the song, because the always copied us and it seemed as if they’d never heard anything about an ostinato (a simple second melody, parallel going) or a round. Thus we split the group and I went practicing with the girls, while Don, the music teacher from the U.K., had the boys. The girls did really well and because of ‘my personal translator’ and one of the girls who was very good in singing, we finally managed to sing it in a round with two groups. For the boys the song seemed to be much harder and as soon as we put both groups together, it was hard to see any structure. The few percussion instruments we tried to use, made it even worse, but still the sound was great.

The children really enjoyed us staying at their school and did, beside music, a lot of arts & crafts like painting, paper chain making, fan making, scoobies, ballgames etc. and especially the boys loved to play cricket.

It was a great time for me and the group and we made a lot of experiences, but it was also very exhausting, because we had to stay at a different place, because of the lack of proper buildings, which was each ¾ hours drive away. In addition to that it was very hot and dusty with only few sheltered places, but the excitement of the children and their joy were of great importance to us. Unfortunately it was not as easy as in the deaf school to get in contact with the children. I never really knew how much they could actually see and sometimes a smile was answered but sometimes only words could help and unfortunately I’m still not able to speak Gujarati, except for some words and sentences.

Back in Navsari

As soon we got back, we tried to spend as much time as possible with the children in the deaf school and the school for mentally challenged children. They really liked our activities which were basically the same as at the blind school, except for music. Very interesting and nearly shocking was the first day for me, when we took out all sports equipment and games the group from England had brought. The children immediately grabbed things and started playing with such a passion that it became really hard for some to share and also fur us sometimes impossible to show them the actual purpose, because many times they didn’t know how to use the equipment properly.

When the children first saw me unicycling they hardly could even shut their mouths again. It was a big attraction but impossible to teach any of the students, because it was just too much. The students were grabbing it and everybody wanted to have a go first, but didn’t give others a proper chance. Finally some girls decided it would be better to put the unicycle away again, because it caused a lot of trouble. I hope I can get a small group of people to teach and show them some circus skills after the holidays.

Beside these activities, the group and I had to give interviews for TV and newspapers and we went to many different places like a hospital and a Muslim wedding, for which we extra bought Indian dresses.

Before the group left, the children did a big dancing performance and finally made a leaving ceremony with speeches and flower chains… for this occasion we had to do again a little press conference and now I’ve been in the newspapers so many times that visitors and people on the street already recognize me and know my name, before I’ve even met them.

Today was the last day in school for the children and all of them went on holidays. It’s Diwali – Indian Christmas and new-year – and the schools will be closed for three weeks.