Volunesia Diaires – When Volunteers Get An A+ In Community Volunesia
Our lovely Volunesian- Ketki Gupte gives you a peek into our Volunesia from last Saturday, where plan-and-execute took a backseat and we found ourselves tuning into the emergence instead!
After a long tiring week of work, comes the Saturday morning, that I have looked forward to throughout the week. A torrent of energy fills me up as I make my way to Brindavan Tent School through the otherwise lull city. After all, I go there to fill myself up with the much-needed energy that gets me going through the week. This Saturday morning was no different!
As I saw it, the school had gotten a total transformation with the painting and repaired flooring. It was hard to recognise the school, so different from what I had seen the last time I was here couple of weeks ago. The bright paintings looked as spectacular as the letters, numbers and animals that adorned the walls. The kids were indeed very happy and it was lovely to hear from the kids, how much they liked the look of the school now!
When Plan A And Plan B Don’t Work
I joined the opening circle with the familiar happy faces of Pranita, Nandini, Kiran Sir, Mamatha, Sayantini, Surya and little Gunita. We were prepping ourselves for the fun activity of making art dedicated to Lord Ganesha, as the festival of Ganesha Chaturthi soon approaches. Some of us started working with creative ideas, drawing intricate drawings of the Lord of knowledge and wisdom, which we thought the kids can colour, stick, etc. Little Gunita was making customised name badges for each one of us, which we all loved so much!
Meanwhile the kids got involved in a colouring competition organised by Broadcomm, who happened to visit the school same time as our pre-planned Volunesia. The colouring activity took longer than we thought it would, and it soon became apparent that we may not find enough time for our activity. Things were not panning out as we planned, but guess what, we were enjoying, nonetheless!
We decided to dive into the fun with the gracious permission of the Broadcomm team and joined the kids to help them with the colouring. The pictures provided to them were quite intricate and took a good amount of effort and concentration on the kids’ part.
But (Un)Plan(ned) Z Is The Best!
It was then that we started appreciating the beauty of the plan that God had for us. As we watched the kids meticulously colouring their masterpieces, a sense of pride and achievement filled us!
The same kids who struggled to keep their strokes within the borders, who scribbled their way through the previous weeks, the same restive bunch were now with equanimity, filling their canvas with the colours of creativity. This was indeed the fruit of the handwork, love and patience of the volunteers who had visited the school tirelessly for past couple of months. The volunteers and all others who have worked hard with the kids deserve a pat on their backs!
Some of our older kids got to draw in addition to colouring and their creativity oozed out as we could see colourful teddy bears in their art work! At the end of the competition the kids got to keep the crayon boxes. The joy on their faces were unmatched, which goes to show how much they cherish little gifts! The competition ended with the best art work taking away the prizes. The kids were then given snacks by the good samaritans of Broadcomm.
Volunteers Experience The Result Of Their Endless Work
The school had organised a programme on Independence Day and some of our kids had prepared speeches for the same. The kids showed us their elocution prowess, as they delivered their speeches fluently in English and Kannada one by one. It was very impressive to hear those words from our little ones.
In the closing circle, we were joined by Manu and CJ (Chiranjeev), and every Volunesian had amazing observations to say about the kids, whose achievements have made them proud and ecstatic.
Kiran Sir beautifully voiced our collective feelings when he said that he felt like the day was like a Volunesia final exam for the volunteers. And the kids performing brilliantly was like an A+ for the volunteers! We couldn’t agree more.
The improvement in the kids over a few months has been impressive and encouraging for all of us. Things did not go as pre-planned, but they went better, so to say! The kids’ achievements have fuelled the fire amongst us all to keep up with the good work and keep on experiencing Volunesia.
Join us! 🙂
Enjoyed reading about this? Then you might like to read KYS Retreat – Catching Values Everywhere In The Temple Town Of Udupi
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