DukeEngage | Duke Center for Civic Engagement

In my last blog entry, I discussed how finally working with children has infused my work with a newfound optimism and hope. Well, the organization I’m working for, Akanksha, runs schools for underprivileged children, many of whom reside in slum dwellings. As a volunteer in the classroom, I’m supposed to be a “bhaiyya,” essentially helping out with whatever the instructor needs help with. For the last week, we’ve been working at a center at the Xavier’s School. The center is a Beyond School Center, meaning that it is catered for high school age children. The goal of the program is to sharpen the reading and math skills of the students while helping them grapple with the sensitive issues of adolescence. Our expectations going into the center were minimal; we knew we would be involved with the kids, making presentations on occasion, commenting on their work, and helping out when the kids broke into small groups. And in essence, our predictions as to our classroom roles were met, although I could never have fathomed how invested I would become in not just the educational progress of these kids, but their lives as well.

It has only been a few days, but I feel like I’ve known these kids for so long. This is a testament to the teacher’s ability (Anjali “didi” is how we refer to her) to seamlessly incorporate us into the natural flow of the classroom routine, which has essentially rendered “transitional friction” a complete non-factor. So for much of the first few days, we’ve been doing individual readings with the kids. We would pull each of the kids aside one at a time, ask them to a read a passage to us followed by comprehension questions about the reading and finally meanings of difficult words in the excerpt. This was an excellent way to get to know the kids. Naturally, one can quickly get an idea of the child’s verbal and reading skills, but I made it a point to get much more out of it. Although we’re not supposed to speak Hindi with them, as soon as they finished reading, I’d break out a lame Hindi joke with them, just to put them at ease. The key in my mind, was to make the curiosity two-way; obviously, I was curious about their backgrounds and their experiences, but I wanted them to be equally as curious about mine. So showing that I knew a little Hindi was a great conversation starter for them, as it would lead to discussions about my family, about Bollywood, and about life in general. So our one-on-one meetings were extremely casual, consisting of as much chit-chat as substantive evaluation. Thus, the “evaluations” were an opportunity for me to show that while I’m technically there to advance their English fluency, I’m their friend before anything else.

In my next entry, I will chronicle the specific children who have made an impact on me, as well as their wonderful teacher, Anjali. But in considering the kids as a whole, they are absolutely amazing. The first day we went to the center, Anjali showed us a book with their pictures and stories. Some of the circumstances these children have to face are absolutely horrific. It’s sad enough when we macroscopically study “poverty” and the resultant social, political, and economic consequences. But as soon as that becomes personalized, and we have the opportunity to know actual people who deal with similar circumstances on a day-to-day basis, especially children, it becomes all the more potent. But these kids are resilient. So resilient. Despite difficulties at home, they manage to go to primary school from 7a-2:30p, these supplemental centers run by Akanksha from 2:30p-5:30p, AND earn money for their families somehow. Not to mention, they have to commute over an hour to and from their homes each day. But what impresses me most is not that these kids can trudge through their days; but they do so with such cheerfulness, such optimism, and such energy that you can’t help but be stunned. And after seeing this kind of hope emanating from these children, how can I help but not feel hopeful myself?
 

Looking back on the first couple of weeks of my stay and work in Mumbai, I am pretty satisfied. However, there was definitely a period during the first two weeks, when I seriously doubted several aspects of my trip to the city. First, within the first two days of arriving, I had to grapple with a simple fact that I had not quite digested despite the preparation I had undertaken. I was going to be here for TWO months. That amount of time and the harshness of that realization were exacerbated by the fact that I was in a completely different environment, with only one person I knew, having to get by in a language (Hindi) in which I was not completely proficient. The second aspect of doubt was the work I would be doing here. My project, as planned, involved teaching at a school and helping elementary school children sharpen their math and English skills. Specifically, my partner (Donnie Allison) and I would be volunteers in the classroom, running mini workshops to complement the children’s primary education. We would be working through an NGO called the Akanksha Foundation, which works exclusively with less privileged children, many of whom reside in slum areas. This was the plan…

However, my first week was quite different than expected. The contact through whom I’d made most of my preparations, Purvi Vora, encouraged us to attend the education convention intended for the organization’s employed teachers. So for the first week, we attended this convention, which consisted of a series of workshops, many which were not remotely applicable to volunteers such as us. But some were extremely useful in helping me truly understand the demographic with which we were working and tailoring my mind to specific strategies and ideas that would be effective with this group of children. Yet I was still anxious to actually see and interact with these children.

We were told to report to the main office the Monday morning following the convention. Obviously, we were under the impression that we’d be assigned to a specific classroom or location at this point. However, when we met with the president of the organization, she envisioned a radically different role for us, at least over the next two weeks. She wanted us to revamp the organization’s website, revising certain pages and updating information. As far as I was concerned, this was ridiculous. We had come several thousand miles to a foreign country to… update a website? Despite my internal outrage, I acquiesced and for the next 8 days diligently worked on the website. Yet, we made it clear that our long term plan was to work with the children (aka doing work that actually demanded our presence in the nation).

But for the last three days, we’ve been working at the “office” in the morning and then at an education center with the children in the afternoon. These afternoons, however, have been absolutely fantastic, making up for the rather mundane and disappointing first couple of weeks of work. In my next entry, I will discuss precisely the beauty of the classroom, our work with the children, and how this has completely changed my perspective on my trip to India. However, I first wanted to chronicle the expectations, doubts, and disappointments of my first two weeks (however trivial they may be) before I turn my attention to how promising and positive the outlook is right now.