Classes: Day Two (Tuesday May 25th)

Well, another sleepless night. I’m starting to wonder if jet lag will EVER wear off. I hope so, because I got out of bed, wide awake at 4:30 am. I cleaned, and finished my collage sample for classes. At least I was ready for the day…? Afterwards, exhaustion hit me like a ton of bricks, so I had to go back to sleep for a little while. I was running a little late when I woke up, and rushed up four flights of stairs of the school to set up, only to find out all the children were eating a late breakfast. What can I say, India is unpredictable. Everyday is a new adventure.

I’m not going to lie, today’s classes were kind of a nightmare. For the first half of class I didn’t have a translator, so I tried with little success to explain the project to them. I delayed for as long as possible, passed out pens, paper, scissors, glue, etc. Worst decision ever. They started cutting each other’s paper (and fingers), so I just tried demonstrated what we would be doing. I had a station set up for supplies and I called two kids up at a time, but everyone was afraid they wouldn’t get what they wanted, so they all flooded to the scene I couldn’t get them to make a line. Haha. It’s funny looking back on it. But the wind was horrible, and kept blowing their paper, pens, pencils, and materials off the tables, across the room, all over the floor. It was chaos. Kids running everywhere to pick up their stuff. Kalai came into my class to help out after a little while, he was extremely helpful! On the positive side, the kids produced some beautiful work. In the end, the amount of pictures I took for the day was slender: pretty much none.

After classes I felt a little like falling apart. I went straight to my room to rest. I was pretty drained. I attempted to journal but failed. On the bright side, I met Mr. Mari Anand today (the painting teacher), and he gave me a small booklet of his paintings. He is an absolutely incredible artist. The Sevalaya has such an amazing staff of individuals pouring into the students day after day. I think he will be a great addition to their team. I also met the sculpture teacher Mr. M. Surndaranath, Ms. V. Lavanya (music teacher), and Ms. Vijayalakshmi (dance). I cannot wait to hear updates of their impact. They fit perfectly into the midst of the Sevalaya.

We had another guest lecturer, Mr. G. Ram Mohan, a retired Indian railway commissioner, about Mahatma Gandhi (Gandhiji). He was an adorable older man, and actually looked a lot like Gandhi, without the specs. I was really exhausted so I almost nodded off once (but not because the lecture was boring…the man was extremely passionate and interesting). I had to keep pounding cookies to wake me up. After the lecture, over dinner we heard some really exciting news, the Sevalaya and art camp would be on the news tonight at 10:00pm! I didn’t end up seeing the report, but hopefully it was recorded. Oh, and three different newspapers wrote articles about the camp, including one of the main papers in the area, The Hindu. Pretty darn cool.



Mehendi by Divya!