Volunesia Diaries – Our Weekly Dose Of ‘All Things Beautiful’
Sneha Shekhar, our volunteer and Volunesia Organising Committee member, shares her Volunesia experience from last Saturday by pouring her heart into words.
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.”
This famous quote by J.M.Barrie pretty much sums up our experience with Volunesia last Saturday. We were back in Brindavan Tent School and this time, we sure were lesser in number than our previous weeks but what we lacked in numbers we made up in spirit and enthusiasm. We had Manu, Nandini, Sayantani, Nivethitha, Swathi, Kiran Sir and our youngest volunteer, Gunathi, with us and couldn’t wait to get started.
The Opening Circle
– Invoking the universe’s abundant energy and spirit
All our Volunesia events start with the circle. This incredible ritual helps us clear our mind and focus all our love and positivity into the next 3 hours. The bond that we create with the other volunteers during the circle carries us not only through the entire session but until the next weekend where we all meet again. In that moment, we become one family.
Activities For The Day
– All children are born artists, but some more artistic than the others!
During our previous weeks, we had a series of colouring sessions for the students. So this time we wanted to introduce the concept of ‘healthy competition’ and what better way to start than a colouring competition for all of them. The students were divided into groups of 5-6 with one volunteer per group. Each student in the group was then asked to colour an identical drawing and the volunteers would have to choose the first and second best ones from each of their teams. The students loved the idea of having a competition and were eager to put in their very best.
The first thing that blew us away was how the children immediately recalled their previous colouring sessions with us. One of our students, Krishna, even recited (for the benefit of all of us in the group) the thumb rule of colouring – Horage hogabaradhu (Should not colour outside the lines). How long did we take to take to learn that when we were kids!
Each of them, started colouring slowly and neatly, asking for the colours they wanted, sourcing the colours their volunteers didn’t have from the other teams, and oftentimes, even discussing with the other students in the group on how to go about using various shades. We even taught them all about the various animals and birds they were colouring – their habitat, food habits, etc. Once they were done with the colouring, the students were very eager to show their handiwork to all the volunteers and teachers.
Our next activity for the day was making greeting cards. As soon as we took out the chart papers the students started asking for glue and scissors. They are happy to let us draw the shapes they want but are in-charge of all cutting and sticking. And mind you, they do have very specific instructions – big hearts and not the small ones, five-pointed stars and not the six-pointed ones! After all the hullabaloo, we were left with some really beautiful hand-made greeting cards.
Once we were finished, we assembled all the students together to announce the winners of the colouring competition. We were all so proud of all their drawings, which made choosing the winners so very difficult. With a lot of deliberation and help from Sarala Ma’am we finally chose the winners from each group and awarded them colouring books that Krishna Sir had graciously offered. Luckily for us, we had enough notebooks and other handmade goodies made during our earlier Volunesia events that we could distribute to the other children since we wanted to gift each student for their marked improvement. All the children loved their gifts but the ones who did not receive the colouring books have vowed to try harder next time. Why settle for good, when they can be best!
The Closing Circle
– Time for reflections and soaking in all the love!
What makes the closing circle so important is the fact that it helps each of us to truly assimilate all the happenings of the session. All our emotions, pieces of trivia and the little incidents that each of us narrate then get stitched into our agenda for the coming weeks before settling down finally in little nooks and corners of our hearts. And as always, we were left with awe and wonder at how we have learnt far more than what we came to teach.
We learnt sharpeners can be used to scrape off excess colour when using crayons, we learnt a house could look just as beautiful with ten colours instead of two and we learnt it was okay to help the others finish their colouring even though you haven’t completed yours.
When we asked our volunteer, 8 year old Gunathi how was this school different from the one she studies in, she just said ‘Nothing’. This was profound – the fact that to a little girl in third standard, the size of the school, benches, tables, uniforms, all of this didn’t matter. What alone mattered was whether they were having fun while also being able to learn. Truly something for us to think about!
And with that, each of us leave with hungry stomachs and happy hearts. Until next week, we wait for our turns to take yet another tiny step towards touching more lives. And why not, because isn’t that the true essence of Volunesia!
This sense of community, love and support is quite contagious and we would love for you to experience that as well. Do join us at Brindavan Tent School this Saturday on the 22nd of July, 2017 for your weekly dose of ‘all things beautiful’!
Liked reading this? Then you might also like to read Volunesia Diaries – Taking Management Lessons From First Graders!
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