Bridging Worlds Volunteer Journals

Sarah Whitcomb Online Journal
Sarah Whitcomb Wisconsin, USA Nirnaya - Secunderabad, India

June 10, 2004

Since the last time I posted, the erratic attendance in my English classes has settled down significantly. Slowly but surely, the members of my old batch are trickling back in (after our two week break) and attending regularly, and my new batch is up and running.

The past few days with my old batch have been heartening. They really have gained a lot of confidence and fluency since I arrived in April. We are able to joke around a lot and I am able to do more and more interesting activities because they are getting to the point where they can understand the directions needed to set up such activities. On most days it is an absolute pleasure to work with them.

My new batch is wonderful too, but in its own way. Unlike the old batch where there are several students who are very serious and focused, the new batch is full of girls who seem to want to laugh and joke for the entire hour. They enjoy communicating in English, but their accuracy does not seem to concern them at all. I am just going with the flow though, and I am happy that my presence is giving them an opportunity to get out of the house, away from their housework routine, and to have a social experience with other girls their own age (something that I know I took for granted before meeting the girls in this slum!).

I have also added a daily, private, English grammar tutorial session for one of the teachers at Vikasani School for Girls, a free school supported by Nirnaya. The school's goal is to intervene early in these girls lives to make sure they are given the opportunity to develop naturally as children and not forced to work away their childhood. Without the intervention of a school like this, most of these girls would slide into being domestic workers with their mothers or would be doing piecework in their homes from early childhood. Without literacy or other basic education, these really are just about the only "good" futures for these slum girls, but in India, being able to speak English opens up more doors than just about anything else. So, much of the instruction at Vikasani is being done in English. However, one of the principal teachers needs a lot of help with her English structure. She can communicate decently well, and I can understand her with some effort, but unless her poor grammar and structure improves quickly it will be absorbed by the kids and be hard wired in their brains, making it very difficult to correct later. I have less than a month left here, but hopefully daily classes focused on her needs will make a substantive difference in her English, and the English of her students!

Well, the monsoon (something that I had been waiting for with great anticipation and trepidation) finally "broke" on Tuesday, but so far the season has not been nearly as dramatic as I expected. Indian literature and travel writing I had read described India in the monsoon as being like a whole different country. From such accounts I was expecting horrors and inconveniences like snakes invading homes to get away from the rising waters, extremely sporadic telephone and electricity service, swarms of mosquitoes, and everything being covered with mold and mildew because of the oppressive humidity. But I was looking forward to seeing for myself what is described as an infusion of positive energy into the people. (After months of oven like temperatures, just the dramatic temperature drop would probably be enough to significantly lift people's spirits, but also something like 70% of the population earns their living in agriculture, and in many regions the only rain they get all year is during the monsoon. A good monsoon gives farmers a reason to be hopeful for a year ahead with food on the table.). If I were living in a coastal region like Kerala or Karnataka I might be experiencing the monsoon's transformation as I had read about it, but here in Secunderabad up on the Deccan plateau the monsoon is not nearly as dramatic. In the past few days we have had some impressive thunderstorms (although nothing I hadn't experienced in Wisconsin), and some minor flooding, but nothing exceptional. However, the temperatures are down in the low 90s these days (what a relief!) and for some reason the sky and air seem pristinely clean- as if the rains had washed away all the smog. It looks like a different city.

Friday, May 28 2004

This was my first week back in Hyderabad after a two-week "break" traveling around South India with my parents and sister. I thought so much about my students while I was gone, and told their stories to my family. I was feeling so mentally engaged with my class and my teaching even while far away from Hyderabad, that it has been somewhat of a disappointing shock that attendance has been so poor this week. I can't help but feel like in those 2 weeks our work together had been forgotten and a priority (getting out of their homes to practice their English) had vanished for them. I am trying not to take this too personally, but it is difficult for me, because I always take my work very personally. But things operate differently here, I know. Apparently many of the students didn't even know I was back in town. Before I left we discussed on numerous occasions the date for resumption of class, but maybe they didn't put too much stock in these dates because they have gotten used to having no expectations for people investing in them. And the fact that the students don't have phones in their homes had made it even more difficult for me to "rally the troops" and inform them of my return. Hopefully things are getting rolling again, albeit slowly. By early next week I should have a much more realistic idea of how much momentum we lost by my taking a family vacation.

On a more positive note, word seems to have gotten out in the slum about my class, and a few girls a week stop by the school hoping to join in. I have told them it would be too disruptive for them to stay, but there seems to be enough interest now to open up a new section. If we start on Monday that would give us a full month of daily class before I head back to the States. A month seems like no time at all!, but there is no doubt that the girls and women in my current class have undergone a transformation in the 5 weeks we' ve had together. A month is not nearly enough time to give them fluency in English, but I think it will be enough time to give them a competency and confidence in their spoken English and maybe shift their outlook a bit.

May 6, 2004 Telling your story

Nirnaya is actually a very young organization (she turned 6 years old just a few weeks ago), but her founder, Indira Jena, has been involved with women's development work in India for 25 years. In the the late 1990s she became increasingly frustrated with the methods of development and structure of aid organizations. From what she observed, almost invariably the decisions about what needed to change and how it should be changed were being made by people far away from the realities of these women's lives. And more often than not, these decisions were being made by men. She felt that even the women's development movement, whose stated purpose was to empower women, was infected with the myths that women cannot make independent decision or manage large sums of money on their own. Even the development movement didn't trust local women enough to give them responsibility for their own development!

Indira decided that what was really needed was a different type of funding organization: an organization that would trust the local women to be the decision makers in their own development and would cultivate and develop the raw leadership potential in local women. And so, Nirnaya was founded 6 years ago to try and meet the inadequacies of the more mainstream, male dominated, internationally funded and directed women's movement. And since its founding Nirnaya has insisted on investing in women directly, not indirectly. Women are not only trusted to manage money, but Nirnaya also helps train them to find their own sources of funding so that in the long run their self-development initiatives can become self sustaining. Nirnaya is a special organization because it believes in getting women access to the resources they need to help themselves. And unlike other development funding organizations, Nirnaya avoids making decisions and plans on their behalf. I cannot say enough about the wisdom underlying the vision of this organization.

I joined Nirnaya just a week before her anniversary celebration, and one of the things that really struck me at the event was how the focus was almost entirely on the work that women in villages, in slums, were doing to improve their own lives and not on Nirnaya directly. Such grassroots work was funded and supported by Nirnaya, but it is the grassroots groups themselves that are fighting the most difficult battles. And their courage and persistance were rightfully honored at the function. Nirnaya's role in grantee group's successes feels very similar to my role in the development of my students. When I go to teach every day I know that I am making a contribution, but when I hear about the opposition these girls face at home to their learning and becoming more independent, I am humbled.

May 2, 2004

The girls and I finished our third week of class and things are really starting to roll. I admit that at the beginning I had my doubts about how well we were going to be able to relate to each other, but given how comfortable we are with each other now, it is hard to remember how I could have felt that way. On Friday one of the girls brought in her wedding album to share (in English) and they all decided that they wanted to dress me up in a wedding sari. I am not so keen on this idea because in general I keep myself pretty unadorned and I like to dress simply, but they seemed so excited about sharing this with me that I just couldn't say no.

I feel like they have really adopted me. Sometimes one of the girls will take my arm and walk with me back to the car. They lean in so close when I am correcting their papers. I am so relieved that my differentness and my teaching style didn't put them off. True, we've lost a few students along the way (15 are now 11), but those that are left are really making great progress and are genuinely excited about the class.

These three weeks have really flown.

April 13, 2004

Well, day two with Nirnaya is over and I can say that things are going well so far. Everyone at Nirnaya has been very helpful and warm. Things have been busy, which is good! I have started teaching a daily spoken English class for dalit (untouchable) girls. The response so far has been great, even though they are a bit confused by my teaching method (I refuse to give a grammar lecture, and I insist that they move around the classroom and practice structures and vocabulary with their classmates, as well as with me.) They are adapting well and seem to be enjoying my method. I have been in India for over two months now, and I can honestly say that the cultural barrier I am facing with these girls feels higher than anything I have experienced so far. I am sure that it is going to be very rewarding and eye opening as the students and I work through this.

Nirnaya is celebrating her 6th anniversary next week, and I have been put in charge of writing the script for the function. I think this is a big help for them because they are all very busy with other projects at the moment. I am glad to help, but it is also a great opportunity for me to get a close look at the structure and goals of the organization, as well as gain an appreciation from the beginning of the 'big picture.'