Meditation and Playtime: BOSCO Mane

(Journaled March 14, 2012)

            I traveled to BOSCO Mane with my classmate, Ashley, on March 14^th 2012.  When we arrived, the children were transitioning from class time to meditation time.  We joined the children in their meditation and I observed how the different children were reaching different levels of concentration.  I was impressed to see a handful of students that were clearly deep into their meditation.  In fact, I was amused at the fact that I, a grown adult, was unable to concentrate as well as some of these 4-10 year olds.  Luckily, there was also a large portion of the class that was antsy and distracted.  Nonetheless, I was pleasantly surprised that all of the children were very well behaved.  These children have just been rescued from exploitation on the street and I was under the false assumption that children from these conditions would not easily conform to the behavior standards of a structured school environment.

            At first, the adult instructor led the meditation session, but mid-way the instructor discreetly asked one of the students to sit in front of the class and take over.  It was so beautiful to hear the young boy lead the class in chanting.  All of the children’s voices were very beautiful to listen to and I am sure that chanting was therapeutic for the children. 

Outdoor playtime followed immediately after the meditation session.  The walls of the private courtyard were painted with colorful cartoon images of nature and friendly-looking animals.  There was a wide variety of sports and games to play including football, cricket, volley ball, slides, monkey bars, and seesaws.  As soon as the gates were opened the children flooded the playing area grabbing their ball of choice and beginning small games.  I was bombarded with so many options of where to play with the children that I simply stood in the corner dumbfounded until one of the young boys kicked a ball in my direction.  From that point on, I was fully immersed in numerous games with the children.  Unfortunately, I could not remember all of their names, but I definitely recognized and was recognized by about a dozen of the children.  This helped a lot in relieving any shyness that they would have had.  As with most play sessions, the children were playing at 110% energy level for the entirety of the hour while my energy level began to dwindle down after 30-minutes or so.  Overall, it was a blast playing with all of them and I feel that my bubbly and goofy attitude added to their play experience.      

Although I am unaware of the specific nature of the exploitations that each of the children were escaping, I could see the pain written all over the children’s faces.  I was taken aback by how emotional I was during this visit.  There was not an event in particular that struck me as tragic, but it was just the situation in its entirety.  Talking and playing with all of these children made me realize that their laughter was merely masking their underlying wounds.

Singing and Dancing: Sumanahalli HIV Rehabilitation Centre

(Journaled March 6, 2012)

              On March 6^th 2012, I volunteered at the Sumanahalli HIV Rehabilitation Centre with my two classmates, Ashley and Sphoorti.  Being my second visit to the Centre, I felt more comfortable and prepared.  When it came time for the patients’ Family Meeting, I did not hesitate going in and finding a seat for myself within the circle.  One dynamic that I had previously overlooked was that the circle was clearly divided in half by male and female.  Even the two counselors, male and female, were obeying this gender divide.  Since it was not a holiday as it was on my last visit, the family meeting was faster paced and less lively.    My two classmates and I were still encouraged to participate by introducing ourselves by saying our name and where we are from.  Interestingly, the staff and patients were convinced that my classmate, Ashley, was not from the United States but from South Africa.  This miscommunication led to the group pleading with Ashley to sing a religious song.  I found this to be quite intriguing, especially since neither my other classmate nor I was ever asked to sing at our last family meeting. 

            Shortly after the family meeting ended, one of the male employees insisted that we take a trip to visit the neighboring NGO, BOSCO Sumanahalli.  At first, the three of us were hesitant, because we were not sure if we should leave the Sumanahalli HIV Rehabilitation Centre's campus.  But after some persistence by the male employee, we decided to go.  As we made our way by foot down the hot road towards the BOSCO facility, I was constantly thinking about how most of the citizens of India commute to and from work by foot.  The very fact that I was conscious about the sweat on my forehead and the dryness of my mouth made me feel spoiled and unworthy of all of the comforts that I live with.  After about 5 minutes of walking, we arrived at the BOSCO Sumanahalli Centre that housed a leather product production center as well as an elementary school.  

Were introduced to two different faculty members at the school.  This was such a wonderful opportunity, because our escort was introducing us to every person possible.  Although this was overwhelming at the time, I am now comforted knowing that I have so many new contacts within my volunteering social circle.

            Our tour of the BOSCO facilities was brief and within fifteen minutes we had already returned to the HIV Rehabilitation Centre.  Once we returned, we immediately walked over to the living quarters of the female patients and began to socialize with them.  Before, I had always felt awkward communicating with people that do not speak English, but interacting with these beautiful women has taught me that common language is not needed to communicate basic human emotions.  After a few minutes of visiting, we gathered 6 of the women in the common area just outside of their bedrooms and conducted a moral-boosting group activity.  The game consisted of passing around a water bottle while we played music on Sphoorti’s cell phone and who ever was holding the bottle when the music stopped would have to sing.  This game was so much fun.  One could read the anticipation off of each-others' faces as they watched the bottle come towards them and then the quickness in which they would pass the bottle, hoping for the music not to stop on them.  Even though the women showed excitement in trying not to get picked to sing, once the women were picked, they did not hesitate to demonstrate their lovely voice in a short verse or two.  After some time playing, every person in the circle had a chance to sing and we decided to alter the rules of the game.  For the next round, we decided that the person would have to dance rather than sing.  This round was even more lively with laughter coming from those dancing and those watching.  There was even a point when one of the older women held onto the bottle in order to ensure that the music stopped while she was holding it.  Finally, after playing the two rounds of pass -the-bottle, we ended with a small dance party where everyone got up and was dancing together.  Unfortunately, one of the younger patients was bullying one of the elderly women and pushed her down while she was dancing.  This ruined the aura of the moment and everyone stopped dancing and refused to participate in any more activities.  It was at this time that Ashley, Sphoorti, and I decided to call it a day and bid our farewells to all of the patients. 

            On the auto ride back to Christ University, the three of us were a bit disappointed in the young patient's behavior.  We could not understand how she cold be so cruel in teasing the older woman and even take it to the level of making her fall onto the ground.  This brief incident gave us a sneak peak into the social dynamics of the HIV patients and it painted a gloomy picture where the strong socially humiliate the weaker.  Although this interaction between patients was painful to witness, it was important for us to see the reality of the lives of the women living in these types of rehabilitation facilities.  I hope that our negative reaction to the young-lady's bullying served as a sanction as to discourage that type of behavior from happening again.

Working Hard: Recycling Centre at Christ University

(Journaled on March 5, 2012)

            I volunteered at Christ University's Recycling Centre for four hours on March 5^th 2012.  I had come to volunteer without any of my fellow classmates, but unlike before, I was instructed to work on a single person task rather than a group task.  One of the full-time employees set up a pile of freshly dried paper sheets, a tub of paint with a paintbrush, and a 4” tall metal box for me to sit on.  My task was to paint the paper sheets an orange color and then place them along the sidewalk to dry. 

            The isolation of the painting task was very uncomfortable and lonely.  In the beginning I had simply been focusing on painting even strokes and making sure that there were not any white spots left on the sheets.  Shortly after that, I was unable to consciously think about the task at hand for it was too mundane.  It was only about 45 minutes into my painting that I began to get back and leg cramps.  I knew that I had more than 3 hours to go, so I put my self on a schedule of adjusting my sitting position every 10 minutes or so. 

            As the time pushed on, I began to feel as though I was getting a tiny taste of the work life of the full-time employees.  The work of the paper center is physically demanding and not intellectually stimulating.  The women working here come from the slums and are dependent on this job to sustain themselves as well as their families.  In other words, they are working here because they have to and not because they are achieving any satisfaction.  It is disheartening to think that these women are unable to pursue any higher aspirations that they may have for themselves, because they are of a low caste and low socio-economic status.  I can only imagine what the women would prefer to do other than the repetitive tasks assigned to them here.  Regardless of whether or not the women would prefer to be in another field of work or study; however, all three of the full-time employees perform their job with accuracy and efficiency.  They do not let the discomfort impact their performance on any level. It was this realization on my part that made me admire these women on a whole new level.  I had only worked for four consecutive hours and was already allowing the discomfort to negatively impact my work performance.  I began painting at a much slower pace and was constantly leaving the hunched-over body position to straighten my back.  By all means, I do not even compare to the full-time employees at the paper center.

            During my four hours, all of the employees took their 30-minute lunch break.  I continued painting the paper sheets as I observed the 5 women share their lunch break together.  There was a lot of joking and laughing amongst them and they all seemed to have cheery personalities.  One of the women that were not part of the paper center team stood out to me.  She had a small frame with defined muscles on her arms and hands.  Her face, neck, and arms were covered in burn scars.  Her scarring reminded me of what I had learned in my Indian Women's Issues course about honor killings.  In traditional honor killings women are burned alive by her family if her husband dies, if she marries a man that is outside of her caste, if she “dishonors” her family in any way, or even if a male in her family dishonors the family.  Although I do not know the story behind the severely burned woman, I can only imagine under what circumstances that she was burned.   

Making Paper: Recycling Centre at Christ University

(Journaled on February 28, 2012)

           On February 28^th 2012, I went by myself to volunteer at the Recycling Center on the campus of Christ University for a total of two hours.  The first thing that I realized when volunteering here was that I was going to have to learn how to follow non-verbal instructions, because the employees did not speak English.  There are three full-time female employees that run the entire paper center of the recycling process.  Essentially, they are the ones that take the recycled matter and make paper and in turn make products out of said paper. 

            The technology of the facility is very manual and basic, allowing for untrained individuals, such as myself, to be quickly put into production.  I found this trend to be true for most things in India.  Unlike the United States, where everything is assisted by technologically advanced equipment, India functions manually with all construction being conducted by hand and concession stands being carts that are pushed by hand from place to place.  While standing in the paper center I looked around at the folders and cases being cut, folded, and glued by hand and I could not help but to picture the American version of this same facility being 10 times the square footage and being filled with unmanned machinery producing hundreds of folders per minute.

            Since I had come to volunteer by myself, I had the opportunity to work directly with the full-time employees.  They were making paper.  This process consists of scooping the “slop” recycled paper mixture into a rectangle frame with a screen for a base that is submerged in water; then the frame is slowly raised, leaving the slop evenly spread across the rectangle screen; the screen is then pressed onto a damp cloth, where the slop is transferred and retains it's rectangular flat shape; once a large number of sheets have been formed, they are hung on a line outside to dry. 

            The system of making the paper was meant to work with three people, each doing a specific action in the slop transfer process.  Therefore, I was working with two of the full-time employees.  At first, they put in charge of pressing the screen onto the damp cloth, but I was re-stationed to a less-involved position after messing up the rectangular shape twice.  Having to be re-stationed was somewhat embarrassing and I had the urge to tell them that I could improve if they gave me a chance to “get the hang of it”.  But then I had an epiphany; they could not allow me to continue messing up just so that I “have a chance to learn”, because this is their job and their lively-hood.  Any hiccup in productivity reflects onto them and they will ultimately have to work over in order to meet their quotas.  After I had this epiphany, I felt a bit remorseful for intruding into their work place expecting them to alter their routine in order to train mer and allow me to participate. 

            This experience of volunteering left me feeling conflicted about my role and contribution.  I had truly enjoyed my two hours working along side of the women, but I felt that I was being a burden on their job and they probably prefer to not have to be correcting a temporary volunteer's mistakes.  Despite this, I wanted to believe that the soreness in my arms was “proof” of sorts that I had been helpful and contributive.                

First Visit to BOSCO Mane

Below is my account of my first experience volunteering for BOSCO.  Here is an excerpt from BOSCO's website, www.boscoban.org, describing what their organization does.

"Bangalore Oniyavara Seva Coota (BOSCO) is a voluntary organization working with street and working children in Bangalore city for the last thirty years, we derive our inspiration from BOSCO the priest Don Bosco of Turin (1815 - 1888), an educationalist who worked tirelessly for the betterment of destitute and needy youth who lived on the streets during his lifetime."

(Journaled on March 8, 2012)

              The journey to BOSCO was made with two of my classmates in an auto rickshaw.  We initially arrived at the BOSCO headquarters, housing the main Human Resources department.  We were under the impression that we were to formally sign up as volunteers at this location and then travel to BOSCO Mane in order to volunteer with the children. This visit began on a slightly confusing note, because the only HR person was on leave for Holi celebrations.  Fortunately, Mr. Arun Thomas at BOSCO headquarters was very accommodating and referred us directly to BOSCO Mane in order to both register and volunteer.  We simply had to catch an auto to the Mane location. 

            After riding in two auto rickshaws as well as consulting with numerous pedestrians, traveling to BOSCO Mane proved to be more difficult than anticipated.  We eventually ended up finding the location on foot.  Slightly overheated from the walk, we asked the friendly receptionist for the Human Resource Representative, Ms. Kavita.  Once the Ms. Kavita was informed that we had arrived, we were directed to wait, sitting on the floor, in a side hallway.  We only had a waiting period of about five minutes before being welcomed into the Kavita’s small and organized office and completed the mandatory paperwork for new volunteers.  Ms. Kavita then introduced us to the general purpose of BOSCO and informed us that our first volunteering experience would be with the newly enrolled/rescued children.

            Throughout the entire process of traveling to the different BOSCO offices and then going through the paperwork process, I was a bit anxious to start actually volunteering.  The moment that we were introduced to the children all of my anxiety floated away and I knew that all of the stress was well worth it.  The first thing that the three of us did was just stand in the small room as all of the 15 children sat patiently.  Then one of the Sisters, whom had been supervising the children before we came in, recommended that we play carrom with the children.  The children hurriedly placed the playing boards around the floor and began distributing the playing chips to each board. 

            The three of us split up and played at different ends of the room with different groups of children.  The two children that I was playing with were incredibly sweet and caring. They helped me score by placing the white chip in at the proper angle and instructing me to either flick it softly or “fast fast”.  I was surprised by the amount of English that the two boys spoke.  I could not help but to imagine what horrible exploitation these boys were escaping on the street. 

            Interacting with the BOSCO children was extremely influential to me, because I was able to bond and connect with individuals that are overcoming the worst of conditions.  I am definitely going to continue volunteering with BOSCO for the remainder of my time here in India.  

Coorg