Students find their groove in Goa

COUNTRY: India
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Teaching & Care Work
WRITTEN BY: Mei Turnbul

adaptability

a·dapt·a·ble [uh-dap-tuh-buh l]

adjective
1. capable of being adapted.
2. able to adjust oneself readily to different conditions: an adaptable person.
3. crucial skill to possess when working in India

If our first two weeks in India have taught me and the other volunteers anything, it is that you can’t take anything for granted – ensure that you have a plan B, just in case. That said, our second week of placement was much better than the first.

The initial few days saw some of the volunteer group playing ‘musical placements’ as they swapped to projects that are more suited to their personal strengths and experiences. Some were forced to change as local political conflicts resulted in the demolition of housing in a placement area. Fortunately, we’re an adaptable bunch and settled quickly into our new work areas. We are now more familiar with the competence of our students, and are teaching them in ways that are more suited to their intellectual capacities. As such, we have become much more settled at our work places and are starting to notice changes: changes that illustrate that our presence is making an impact, and that we truly are contributing to making a difference here in Goa.

In Monte Hill, a slum not too far from the camp, there is a Day Care Centre where some of our volunteering girls work with the children aged anywhere between two and seven years old. Upon arrival, they found that the children did not know how to introduce themselves. They invented the ‘my name is’ game, to help the students with this and play it every morning when class begins. Everyone stands in a circle, claps and sings “my name is” three times, one of the girls will then point to a student who has to say “my name is _____” to the class. Not only can the little ones now introduce themselves, the girls have also noticed an improvement in the students’ confidence in public speaking.

In the Adolescent Girls class, we were trying to teach them to identify past, present, and future tense. They grasped the model quite quickly, but when asked to construct their own sentences we found a greater problem that needed to be addressed when sentences like “I ate a apple” started to arise. Our international volunteers then focused the weeks lessons on teaching the girls the difference between vowels and consonants, and when to use ‘a’ or ‘an’ in front of a noun. Consequently, the girls are now constructing much more grammatically correct and fluent sentences; we are so proud of them!

We are all now very happy with our placement areas, and the fact that our week now feels clearly defined as ‘work’ and ‘weekend’ is testament to just how settled we are into our new lives doing volunteer work. From Monday to Friday, we dedicate ourselves wholeheartedly to preparing and delivering the best classes we can to our students; and thoroughly enjoy winding down with a beverage (or two) on a Friday night.