Volunteer

 

At the beginning of November 2006 I read on Baha'i news:

Two volunteers are needed to go to India to teach 31 children maths & English for the duration of 2 months of their winter holiday.

I discussed my desire to put my name forward with my wife who agreed for me to go.  It took about four weeks to organize myself in getting things ready for my trip.

It was my first time to visit this fast and very much diverse country.  I travelled with another volunteer from the UK, Annabel Pee. We were met at the airport by the head mistress and another staff member and were taken by car to the capital city of Sikkim, Gangtok, which took about 4 hours. These drivers have great experience in avoiding the cows, monkeys, and the large potholes.

The following day (9 Dec.) we met the 31 children, all clean and dressed in their school uniform.  The children are from two of the Nicobar Islands (Car Nicobar and Katchal). It took only a few minutes for most of them to talk to us, there were no communication problems as they knew English and they did not feel shy with us.

Due to the cold weather in the capital, the school decided to take the children to the south of Sikkim where the weather is milder.  It took about 4 hours by car to reach Jorethang.  Our base was the Nabil Montessori Baha m School. Classrooms were converted to separate bedrooms for boys and girls. In total there were about 40 of us living at the school for about 7 weeks.

Breakfast was at 8.30 am, followed by morning prayers at 10.00 am and then two classes (one for maths and the other for English).  Lunch was at 1.00 pm and after that different activities were organized, such as walks to different beauty sites, football games, arts classes, disco, going out for picnics, and meeting neighbours. Before having meals the children would chant prayers.

For the first 4 weeks all the children attended classes, but after that only those children needing extra help and support in these subjects were attending the classes. The others were given tasks such as washing their cloths, cleaning bedrooms, helping in the kitchen and shopping.

As part of the afternoon activities the children were taken to different places of worship, including a Buddhist monastery, attending mass at the local church on Christmas day, a mosque, and Hindu temple. Annabel & I had the opportunity to go sightseeing to a few surrounding towns. 

The children are very special, very polite, being very helpful to each other and willing to take on different tasks. There are 21 girls and 10 boys. The Nicobar and Andaman Islands were close to the epicentre of the 2004 earthquake and tidal wave. Many lives were lost, school buildings, homes and shops were destroyed and large areas of land were lost to the ocean. The children live and study at the Baha m School in northern Sikkim which is located in the mountainous North-Eastern region of India. They have been here for over a year and are settling very well. They mix with the other 600 students in the school.

The last few days of our stay with the children were very emotional days as the children kept asking Annabel and myself if we were going to forget them. To this we kept saying that we will not forget them and the nice memories will be treasured for ever. I am hoping to keep in touch with them and we did ask them to write to us to tell us about their progress.

We left South Sikkim by fast train to go to Delhi. It took 25 hours to reach the capital. We stayed at the Baha m House for three nights and had the opportunity to meet with some Baha ms. I had the privilege to serve at the Baha m Temple with other volunteers.

Despite a few difficulties due to the change of culture and food, the overall experience has been a marvellous one. It was very pleasant to help the children with English & maths. They are very well behaved and have high standards of mannerism. India and its people in general are very welcoming to travelers, especially those people who live away from the cities and big towns. They chatted to us, invited us to their homes for meals and drinks and looked after us to the best of their limited means of existence.

Before going to India I decided to dedicate this trip in the name of two Baha m youths who passed away at the end of 2005, Ben & Ne al.

I would like to express my thanks to BASED-UK for supporting me financially for the whole of the 8 weeks. I give thanks to His Holiness Baha u llah for giving me this wonderful opportunity to be in India and to meet these children.