August of 2014.
Asha-Kiran gave us the opportunity to work in its projects. Uncertainty, nervousness, excitement, enthusiasm... so many emotions beforehand. The adventure began, India was waiting us and opened its doors to us.
“Namaste”: I know the place where love, peace and goodness resides. I know the place where if you live there in yourself and I live in there in myself, we will both be one.
And from this place, from its homes and Centers, from its women and children, from the office, from the traffic and the rickshaws’ hellish noise... from that place called India, we were able to do what we like, to teach and learn.
Every morning we got to know one of the Day Care Centers. There, we worked early stimulation of babies and offered recreational and cooperative activities so that the teachers could use them in their classrooms in relation to math, reading and morals. Every school, every child, every teacher, every life... awakened more interest in us and we were more eager to continue learning about this unknown and yet neighboring world. If at the same time we could contribute something with our ideas and experience... what more could we ask for?
After some spicy food to raise our spirits and not miss a nap (who would want to waste time sleeping?), we went to the Community Center, an open, living Center where work is done with children and women from the slum. Here our work, our beautiful work, focused on women. We did games, dances and cuisine sessions with them. Sometimes the colors of their saris moved to the rhythm of rumba and smelled like Spanish omelette. Other days, our pale bodies did Bollywood dances and enjoyed the smell of spice.
For a week we also got to know the work at Yashodhara. It is a Home and a school where peasant children live and study, as well as children in situations of extreme vulnerability. In this beautiful place, sheltered by Nori and Nora (two towering mountains), we experienced the monsoon daily.
We worked with students with a Tangram and made several psychomotor sessions, but perhaps, the most important work was the training day for teachers who work here every day. We met with them, we came to know their education system more in depth and we showed them different play strategies to teach mathematical concepts. Without any doubt, the best part of this experience was to live in a beautiful place sharing food, prayers, rain and games with them - hence its beauty.
We are still not sure what we brought to them. However, we have brought everything back from India. Its noise, mayhem, and the enthusiasm they never forget to share. The experience of a calmness unknown to us up no now and unthinkable in the midst of such chaos.
Something binds us to India, something keeps us there. An experience full of life, emotions and heartbeats.
2014 Volunteer Team.
