M.R. School Skill Training Center Inauguration and Camp Starts!

Hello all. The past few weeks have been, well, very busy.
Between the finishing of school, the opening of a new skill training center at the school for the mentally challenged and the start of camp I have had very little time to keep up on my blog. However busy I am, with every new day I am increasingly impressed with the Madurai YMCA. The more I learn about their programs and am able to understand how they function as an organization the more impressed I am. It is amazing to see how much they can do and remain completely self sufficient. All of their programs are funded completely by donation and fund raising as well as income from the International Guest House (my home). If I thought back home at the Keene Family Y everyone was doing two or three peoples' work, here everyone does the work of 10 and always with a smile.

April 13th was my last day for this school year working with the hearing impaired school and it certainly went out with a bang. The longer I am here, the more often I see that giving notice of any kind or establishing a plan in India is a foreign concept so my ability to be flexible and just roll with things has been of quite a lot of help. That being said, much to my surprise rather than having only an hour or two of teaching on the last day, I had the first standard kids the whole afternoon all to myself. We learned all sorts of things like colors, parts of the body, basic greetings and so much more and when I ran out of teaching material had some much needed play time. With only 1/2 hour for lunch during which not only is it too hot to actually play outside, but only the boys are allowed out, by 2:00 the kids turn into caged wild animals. We played soccer, had running races and they even taught me a few games. Overall, it was a great day and I can't wait to start back up again in June.

The Saturday following my last day of school, April 16th, was the inauguration of a new skill training center at the school for the mentally challenged. The event was filled with many speeches and some wonderful dances by the mentally challenged kids as well as one wonderful classical Indian dance performed by one of my students from the hearing impaired school. The event was held to honor the opening not only a new building but the beginning of the future of the mentally challenged program. The Madurai YMCA has purchased a paper cup making machine that allows for up to eight people to work simultaneously in production. This paper cup making machine is to be the basis of the new center in which graduates of as well as the older mentally challenged children will be able to work on to help produce paper cups to be sold so that they may gain some revenue for the center. It was a wonderful event with quite a turn out to show their support for this new program.

April 18th was the official start to camp for the summer. Being blessed with a number of sites not being used during the summer time, the Madurai YMCA is able to run more than 75-80 classes for both children and adults from across the city. Everything from Yoga and Karate, to doll making to keyboard is taught at the various locations. I have been spending most of my time at the Guest House programs as well as at the Boys Home run by the Madurai YMCA. The Boys Home located only a short distance outside the city center provides free living space for up to 65 young boys throughout the school year, most of whom are near orphans (having only one parent or grandparent) and would not be able to attend school if it were not for this space. The families go through an application process in which the YMCA staff chooses the best candidates to fill the spaces and then the boys are able to come and live at the home with three staff members for the length of the school year.

At the Guest House I have been assisting (but mostly practicing) Yoga with a master who teaches at the famous Gandhi Museum in the city. The master is quite an interesting guy who initially studied to become a lawyer and once finishing school realized that he actually wanted to study Yoga instead so he followed his calling and dropped all of his law practice and here we are today. I have also been assisting in a Spoken English class at the Guest House. At around three or four o'clock I head to the Boys Home (my favorite part of the day). The Boys Home is an amazing space. Once just an open lot filled with thorn bushes and roaming livestock, today is a hugely successful sports area with a skating rink, two cricket batting cages, a tennis court, a volleyball court, five badminton courts and space for more growth. Although the thorn bushes have since been cleared, the livestock are still often found grazing in the unused space. In the coming months I hope to start work on a fund raising project to install basketball hoops so if any of you out there are feeling generous, I know a great cause to give to :). Most of my time at the Boys Home is spent mingling with the boys and working with the tennis master but when the sun sets and the camp kids go home, there is always time to get a kick out of teaching the white lady some Tamil! Now I know all of maybe four of five phrases, something I am very excited about!

Next week is the start of yet another camp run by the Madurai YMCA that I will be working with, a Volleyball coaching camp. This will be the first year the camp is being run and we hope to make it a huge success. The Madurai YMCA has been working with the PE Teachers association in Madurai to come together and provide coaches, equipment and the facility for the camp. I have been working with Vincent, a drumming all-star of a YMCA secretary who has me hop on the back of his motorcycle to go out and personally invite schools to attend the camp. The camp will serve up to 60 kids (both boys and girls) who want to work on their Volleyball skills. Vincent has also been the one assisting me in finalizing my registration in India which has been anything but easy and has even included a few cash "payments" to help things along...

I haven't had a chance to take too many picture of camp but here are some of the other things like the hearing impaired school and the M.R. school skill training center inauguration.

Hearing Impaired Kids, Elephants Adventures, and More

Since we last spoke, so much has happened. It feels as though I have been here for so long when in fact it hasn't even been three weeks yet! Currently I am still residing at the luxurious A/C equipped YMCA guest house in Madurai center. It seems as though I will be staying here at least until the end of June due to the programs that I am working in and the outrageous heat that is plaguing Madurai. It has been between 40-45 C everyday (about 105-115 F).

For the past few weeks I have been work at the school for hearing impaired children mostly just observing and learning some Tamil sign language. I have chosen to spend most of my time with the preschool/kindergartners because they are so stinkin' cute, but starting Thursday I will begin to teach a bit of English to the first grade class in the afternoons! I am extremely excited about this because the children are always wanting to learn new things and learning a bit of English is going to be undoubtedly helpful for them as they grow older. I have also been coaching a few of the children in football (soccer for us Americans ha) and badminton which has been a pretty cool experience since they speak no English and are hearing impaired and I speak no Tamil and know very few signs. Typically I leave school drenched in sweat, but hey, what can you do? I have also managed to navigate the local bus system - something the natives are very impressed by and has saved me a ton of Rupees!

Starting in a few weeks school will be over and camp will begin! I am very excited about this because for those of you who know me, i LOVE camp! For camp I will be teaching a variety of things, some of which I know well such as English, and others such as cricket and chess I am well, less experienced in. I will also be assisting in a Yoga class everyday at 6am which will be amazing!

Last weekend I took my first adventure outside the city! I decided that because of the heat it was best to try and go somewhere uphill, somewhere cooler, so I decided to go to Kumily. Kumily is a small city a 4-5 hour bus ride outside of Madurai that attracts a lot of tourism due to the Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary that is located just 1km from the city center. Kumily is also known for its spice and tea plantations, neither of which I had the chance to go to but hopefully I will get a chance to go back there soon. It is here in the Periyar Sanctuary that the Indian government has made movements to pass legislation on this protected land to allow for wildlife such as tigers, elephants, bison, etc. to roam free.

The park is more than 750 Sq. Km and is home to over 800 known elephants and about 50 tigers. Though I did not have the change to spot a wild tiger, my trekking group did have quite a unique experience with a wild elephant. Exploring the park alone is strictly prohibited by the government for reasons I am sure you will understand later so I chose to go on a full day tour of the park which consisted of a 3-4 hour trek and about 3-4 hours riding on bamboo boats across the large lake situated at the center of the park that attracts wildlife in the dry season. After about 6 hours into the day and not an animal in sight I had all but given up hope of seeing any wildlife when our guides abruptly stopped myself and the 9 others members of our group. Without communicating anything other than to keep very quiet, the guides began to re-route our trek. Walking towards the back of the group I had really no idea what was ahead and it wasn't until I saw the others take out their cameras and begin snapping photos that I realized there might actually be some wildlife there!

At that point I was excited just to see a wild pig, but as I turned the corner I saw what everyone was looking at. A huge wild elephant. A huge wild angry female elephant to be exact. I was so excited by the sight that I had completely forgotten that this was a wild animal that may pose potential threat to my personal safety so I began to take photos just as the others were. Snap, snap, ooh look at that, snap snap oh wow shes making a lot of noise, snap snap, oh wow shes coming towards us, BANG gun shot fired. In an attempt to try and keep her from coming any closer the gunman guide had fired a shot into the air. It was then that I realized that this huge angry female elephant was in fact charging towards our group. Still stunned by the sight I continued to watch in wonder as I realized that this huge angry female elephant was not backing down. She was pissed and wanted us gone. As the guides began to shout prayers in the native language towards to elephant telling her that we are friends and we are here to protect here there it was again, BANG, again, still nothing, still coming full steam ahead. It was then that I looked over towards the guides politely telling us "um, excuse me, please go. NOW" and we took off sprinting full speed into the woods out of her sight. Five minutes of bush whacking our way through the brush we could still hear her in the distance blowing her trunk, still pissed as hell.

In retrospect I wish the event hadn't happened. I wish we had been able to see the wildlife from afar and take nice set photos. Instead, we disturbed the wildlife and only got a few rushed pictures but I do feel as though it was a chance event that could not have been avoided. So chance in fact that one of our guides who had been working for the park for more than 10 years had NEVER been charged at before. Pretty exciting. So hearts pounding with smiles on our faces we returned to the park base safe and sound.

The next day I decided I still hadn't had my fill of elephants so I decided to take a different perspective, I went to visit the elephant park. It was there that I had the chance to do all the touristy things like ride on an elephant and I even got a chance to have her give me a bath!