So here I am, now what?

I want to do some volunteer work while I’m here. You’d think a place like India would be desperate for anyone willing to offer their skills. However, it seems that it’s actually quite difficult to find an organization that would/could use you effectively.

After visiting a local school, I started volunteering 2 mornings a week. But even that has been met with some resistance. Currently it’s exam time, so the parents and administration felt that it would be too disruptive for the children if I was pulling out groups. So they told me not to come until the summer school session begins.

The reality of the situation is this…over 60 children crammed together in a pre-primary classroom. There were 5 tables for all those children, you do the math! Children, aged 3-5, were expected to sit quietly while doing absolutely nothing. Clearly resources were more than limited, so 1 teacher was preparing all the work, by hand. She spent the entire morning writing in each child’s notebook. Meanwhile, the children just sat there waiting for their work. Some children fell asleep, some were looking outside, walking around, and playing with each other. The teacher actually yelled at them and asked what they were doing. She hit the ones who weren’t following directions, which was to sit down quietly. The majority of the children sat there with nothing to do until it was time for lunch. Lunch came and they had 15 minutes to eat. Then they returned to the classroom to listen to poems on tape while the teacher was busy writing in the notebooks. It nearly broke my heart!