When my alarm goes off at 7 o clock in the morning, I feel
lazy and try to snooze it as many times as I can. When I do force myself to get
up and get ready for the day, I have a zillion thoughts in my mind. I miss my
family, I miss Delhi, but then I think about meeting the girls and I feel a
little better, in the hope that maybe something good is coming out of our
efforts, and that their smiles make everything worth it.
With Computers, I believe we’re moving at a good speed.
We’ve finished Microsoft Word, and are hoping to finish Microsoft Excel by
Friday. The manual is taking shape day by day and Shruti and I give each other
a *hi-5* each time we finish a topic in it!
The communication skills classes are what I look forward to the most.
We try to make it fun, and something that they would want to attend as much as we do. By playing games, we try and come up with indirect observations that they might use in everyday life. Since they don’t interact with the world outside their academy much, they feel nervous when it comes to talking to a stranger. It is this lacking confidence that we want to build up.
Yesterday we came up with a scenario, when Shruti became a shopkeeper and everyone had to come and buy something from her. In the initial round everyone was a little apprehensive, but when we conversed in front of them as an example, they were On-The-Go! We changed the shopkeeper to one of the girls and soon the little room was filled with laughter when everyone started broken-English bargaining for things like ice creams and soaps. They learned about greetings and the importance of asking everything about the product that they intend to buy.
I asked one of the girls to make a conversation to buy a pen; the witty one that she is, she asked to try it out before buying, something that really impressed us. When Shruti handed her the imaginary pen, she pretended to try it and returned it saying that it didn’t work properly and demanded a new piece.
It is an absolute joy to watch these girls open up, laugh and joke with us. When they enter the class, they all look nervous and shy, but within 20 minutes most of them have a bright smile on their faces, something that makes us feel proud.
Once in a while when one or two of them are quiet and don’t interact in class, we get worried. They still get a little afraid when we talk to them individually rather than in a group. We hope that this is something that wouldn’t be bothering us by the time we leave.
The communication skills classes are what I look forward to the most.
We try to make it fun, and something that they would want to attend as much as we do. By playing games, we try and come up with indirect observations that they might use in everyday life. Since they don’t interact with the world outside their academy much, they feel nervous when it comes to talking to a stranger. It is this lacking confidence that we want to build up.
Yesterday we came up with a scenario, when Shruti became a shopkeeper and everyone had to come and buy something from her. In the initial round everyone was a little apprehensive, but when we conversed in front of them as an example, they were On-The-Go! We changed the shopkeeper to one of the girls and soon the little room was filled with laughter when everyone started broken-English bargaining for things like ice creams and soaps. They learned about greetings and the importance of asking everything about the product that they intend to buy.
I asked one of the girls to make a conversation to buy a pen; the witty one that she is, she asked to try it out before buying, something that really impressed us. When Shruti handed her the imaginary pen, she pretended to try it and returned it saying that it didn’t work properly and demanded a new piece.
It is an absolute joy to watch these girls open up, laugh and joke with us. When they enter the class, they all look nervous and shy, but within 20 minutes most of them have a bright smile on their faces, something that makes us feel proud.
Once in a while when one or two of them are quiet and don’t interact in class, we get worried. They still get a little afraid when we talk to them individually rather than in a group. We hope that this is something that wouldn’t be bothering us by the time we leave.
As I was climbing the stairs at my hostel yesterday evening,
the power went off. In a moment, there
was pitch darkness around me. I tried to find the railing but was just moving
about my hands in thin air without any success. I tried climbing the stairs but
almost fell off and decided to stay still in the hope that the lights would be
back!
When they did come back after a minute I could hear myself thank God as I quickly came back to my room.
That one minute was horrifying. I felt helpless and even scared. But that one minute gave me a tiny taste of the girls’ world.
Today, when my alarm went off for 7 o clock, I was out of my bed within a minute.
When they did come back after a minute I could hear myself thank God as I quickly came back to my room.
That one minute was horrifying. I felt helpless and even scared. But that one minute gave me a tiny taste of the girls’ world.
Today, when my alarm went off for 7 o clock, I was out of my bed within a minute.
“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.”
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