My mind was kind of occupied than usual when I was nearing Pollachi in the bus on Saturday morning. I wanted to make one thing for sure, when I leave Topslip by Sunday evening, the imprints that our team was going to leave behind in the school should be fulfilling to us. May be the imprint is not a tree, but atleast a seed and a few drops of water to it.
Met Karthik, Aruna and Haritha for the first time, accompanied by Sekar. We were all strangers to each other but the ice was broken in few minutes, thanks to our common intention for the trip.
A camp elephant welcomed us to Topslip by noon.
“Its time, we go straight to the school, no checking in to the dormitory now!” claimed Velavan, one of the finest teachers to my knowledge, whom I took with our team and Manoj,one of our good friends ,who works with the Education department.
But we settled down and walked towards the school in few minutes.
“Are you like the people who came last week?” asked Shivanesh, one of the toppers in the school, from Std 6.
“Oh ya.. how many of you are there?”
“A lots.. wait I’ll go get the classroom keys” Shivanesh ran away. He was not actually running, but jumping and moving with joy.
Smile was the only answer from most of the girls, on what ever we asked.
“heyy vaanga vaanga vaanga..” howled one little girl on the ground, pulling in people to the classroom. Vow, what a way to communicate, no mailing, no pinging, just a shout, and they are all there.
We came to know that few of the kids in the lower grade were struggling in counting numbers, in English, just one to ten. We started off with a song, one little stanza for every number up to ten. Not just singing but dancing for every English word they pronounced. They were told about meaning of each and every word.
“Five is Sky.. skyalaka skyalaka skyalaka sky”, the plesant noise hit the whole class. The way each and every kid sprouted out, opened up themselves and sang and dance was worth the watch a thousand time
After a bit of some more classroom work, we hit the ground for seven stones. We couldn’t match their energy level, while we were gasping after a game, one of them smiled on us and his look said “How about one more round?”.
“Sorry buddy, we are done!”
The next day started with the Mathematics session. A 7th std kid was struggling on a basic two digit addition. At a point I realized, temporary workshops like these will help them in the short run. Let us all come up with a well planned structure, a plan based on their current level of exposure, which would make a sustainable impact on their lives.
Visiting them every week would certainly help them in a way, but we are capable of touching their lives even deeper and stronger. Ain’t we?
Separate session went on for girls, about basic hygiene, and the good touch and bad touch. A lot of myths were cleared. Courtesy: Haritha and Aruna
Kids asked our signatures on their notebooks!! Truly embarrassing for me but such a joy.
Looking forward to strengthening ourselves in the way we approach the project. Let’s make a sustainable impact on their lives. We owe those kids a lot; they are making us to introspect
Met Karthik, Aruna and Haritha for the first time, accompanied by Sekar. We were all strangers to each other but the ice was broken in few minutes, thanks to our common intention for the trip.
A camp elephant welcomed us to Topslip by noon.
“Its time, we go straight to the school, no checking in to the dormitory now!” claimed Velavan, one of the finest teachers to my knowledge, whom I took with our team and Manoj,one of our good friends ,who works with the Education department.
But we settled down and walked towards the school in few minutes.
“Are you like the people who came last week?” asked Shivanesh, one of the toppers in the school, from Std 6.
“Oh ya.. how many of you are there?”
“A lots.. wait I’ll go get the classroom keys” Shivanesh ran away. He was not actually running, but jumping and moving with joy.
Smile was the only answer from most of the girls, on what ever we asked.
“heyy vaanga vaanga vaanga..” howled one little girl on the ground, pulling in people to the classroom. Vow, what a way to communicate, no mailing, no pinging, just a shout, and they are all there.
One of our volunteer interacting with the students
“Five is Sky.. skyalaka skyalaka skyalaka sky”, the plesant noise hit the whole class. The way each and every kid sprouted out, opened up themselves and sang and dance was worth the watch a thousand time
A session on English
After a bit of some more classroom work, we hit the ground for seven stones. We couldn’t match their energy level, while we were gasping after a game, one of them smiled on us and his look said “How about one more round?”.
“Sorry buddy, we are done!”
Kids enjoying after a classroom session
Enthusiastic responses
Visiting them every week would certainly help them in a way, but we are capable of touching their lives even deeper and stronger. Ain’t we?
Separate session went on for girls, about basic hygiene, and the good touch and bad touch. A lot of myths were cleared. Courtesy: Haritha and Aruna
Kids asked our signatures on their notebooks!! Truly embarrassing for me but such a joy.
Looking forward to strengthening ourselves in the way we approach the project. Let’s make a sustainable impact on their lives. We owe those kids a lot; they are making us to introspect
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