Day 3: Women’s healthcare project Volunteering at Surya Bharti: An Enlightening Experience

Day 3: Women’s healthcare project

On the third day, we were given the opportunity to experience something altogether different. We visited a village near one of the Surya Bharti alumnus’s homes, where gathered around the porch of a building were a crowd of women, young children, and babies. This was our first glimpse of the women’s healthcare project that Yuki-san leads in a few different rural villages. Maternal education lacks in these villages and mothers are often unaware of whether their babies are growing healthily.

This project seeks to both educate and provide resources for these mothers; it involves measuring babies’ weight and length over a series of months and keeping a close eye on whether they are losing weight. A loss of weight from one month to the next signals a deeper issue in the baby’s health, as it often results from a lack of proper nutrition, dysentery, or other causes.

Getting to take part in this critical process was both touching and eye-opening. It was clear the village community found it valuable; many locals even joined to help. Two older women from the village lifted each baby onto the scale –for the newly born, holding them carefully while the women themselves stepped onto the scale – and called out their weight, which was diligently recorded by the head nurse (a staff member at Surya Bharti). The babies were tranquil during this step of the process, either completely asleep or watching with interest. The women then hoisted the babies onto a wooden platform used to measure their length, holding the babies’ legs straight to get an accurate measurement. The babies didn’t like this less-than-comfortable step and often began to cry, but as a reward for all their hard work and undoubtedly very confusing moments, candy awaited them. Their cries subsided quickly.

A most poignant memory from this experience was seeing the young village children watch with curiosity the process taking place, a once-a-month spectacle that gave them something to look forward to. Many of them used to be in the place of today’s babies – crying after being placed on the wooden platform – but are now healthy and smiling young children. Dusty and bare-footed, but healthy and smiling.

Days 2 & 3: Student home visits Volunteering at Surya Bharti: An Enlightening Experience

Days 2 & 3: Student home visits

Aside from teaching, our first two days in Bodh Gaya were spent visiting student and alumni homes. These visits are gems of memories that will certainly stay with us the rest of our lives.

The van chugged along the narrow dirt road as we made our way to Karan’s village, the first of the five we visited. As the bustle and concrete of the city fell away to the countryside, with its open fields of rice, grain, and grazing cows, the change in air quality was palpable. The village air was dewy and fresh. We inhaled deeply.

Karan greeted us when we arrived and led us down the dirt road toward his home. As we made our way, gingerly skirting the fresh piles of cow dung, we could feel the gaze of the curious villagers on us. We must have looked completely foreign, taking in the scenes of goats, chickens, stray pups, women in sarees, and overall, the lifestyle of subsistence farming surrounding us. Casually, Karan explained to us that one of the homes had been invaded by locusts.

One thing was clear, especially as Karan proudly explained to us how his extended and nuclear family all live near one another in a cluster of homes: family and community are indispensable elements of the villagers’ lives. This is in striking contrast to the U.S., where we often forego proximity to family in pursuit of personal and individualized goals. Though neither way of life is necessarily the be-all end-all, seeing these tight family units inspired me to be more intentional in my life choices that will impact proximity to loved ones.

We entered Karan’s home. Four generations of his family were present, from his grandmother to his niece. Karan led us to his study room, which doubles as his family’s prayer room. In the corner stood a yellow lamp. We learned over the course of the house visits that this yellow lamp is government-issued and solar-powered. It helps many of the students study, as electricity in their homes is unreliable at best, and non-existent at worst. I couldn’t help but think about a Skype lesson I had with Karan and Ravi (both my students over the past six months) on the topic of “dream homes.” They had described their dream homes as having windows, curtains, and lush gardens. Polished floors, beautiful bathrooms, and bright lighting. I could now better understand the mesmerized ring to their voices when they described these dreams, elements that are so far from their reality.

It would be a shame not to also mention the delicious and vibrant foods we had the privilege of eating at each of the student’s homes. There was the sweet and milky masala chai, which we drank so often that we began to crave it at the end of each meal. There were the soan papdi and the rasmalai. The toasted rice. The fresh papaya. The list goes on.

Suffice it to say that, by the end of these visits, both our hearts and our stomachs were full.

Day 2: First day of teaching Volunteering at Surya Bharti: An Enlightening Experience

Day 2: First day of teaching

The following morning, we loaded into the van and made our way to Surya Bharti school. We weren’t quite sure what to expect, but knew that the few YouTube videos we had seen on the NGO Children Aid channel couldn’t fully prepare us for what was to come.

As the van approached the schoolyard, we could see five even rows of blurry maroon-colored dots next to the school building. As we came closer, these dots crystallized into figures of the schoolkids wearing their maroon-colored sweater uniforms. They were chanting their morning greeting, right hands raised as they repeated the captains’ calls. 

We hopped out of the van as the students finished their routine and walked up to face them. Slightly nervous, we introduced ourselves in front of the group in the Hindi words we had learned just that morning: “Mera naam Erica…” “…Mera naam Megumi,” we awkwardly fumbled as the kids stared back at us with expectant expressions. We quickly had to revert back to English, and can only hope that our sincere gratitude for their welcoming us to their school was properly conveyed.

After the kids dispersed to their various classrooms, we visited the smaller groups and re-introduced ourselves. We were then ushered into the newly-built library, where we commenced teaching for the day. We taught four grades, with students’ ages ranging from 13 to 16 years old. One thing that struck me immediately was the rapt attention with which we were greeted. I couldn’t help but contrast this respectfulness with American students, who tend to disengage in the classroom, or, in the worst case scenarios, torment substitute teachers with endless chatter and paper airplanes.

It was fun to get a glimpse of what the students were learning in class, whether they were reading stories about pet bears, or poems by Silvia Plath. We tried to plug into their curriculum in order to strike a balance for them between the familiar and the new and to establish a sense of continuity with their current lessons and exam schedules.

The most rewarding moments that first day were when the students asked questions, thirsty for knowledge of English vocabulary and pop culture. And, of course, when we sidetracked a little to listen to Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror,” with the kids singing unabashedly along. In those moments, we couldn’t help but smile cheek-to-cheek – especially when one of the alumni showed off his Michael Jackson moon walk.