{"id":14742,"date":"2019-02-01T10:10:14","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T10:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog2\/?p=14742"},"modified":"2019-02-04T06:17:33","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T06:17:33","slug":"11-months-334-days-8016-hours-in-india-thorben-johannes-werner-roth-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/11-months-334-days-8016-hours-in-india-thorben-johannes-werner-roth-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"11 months, 334 days, 8016 hours in India – Thorben Johannes Werner Roth, Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Vanakkam! My name is Thorben Roth and I am a volunteer\nfrom Germany, and I came this year, in April, to India. I am doing a social\nservice, which will last 11 months and I came with a group of people, who are\nalso doing the same. My organisation is AFS-Germany, but the partner organisation\nwhich is the organization I am working with is FSL-India, located in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My project in which I am working is a school for\nspecial children, run by Arvind Foundation: a school for disabled children. I\nmust mention that the school is managed by a group of people who are also\nmanaging 3 more schools around Chennai.The school is located near Poonamallee,\nwhich is a suburb of Chennai. From Poonamallee, it will take around 15 minutes\nby shared auto to reach the village Kolapancheri, where the school is located.\nThe school is surrounded by a beautiful landscape which contains rice fields,\nlakes and colourful houses, with a lot of space between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My project in which I am working is a school for special children, run by Arvind Foundation: a school for disabled children. I must mention that the school is managed by a group of people who are also managing 3 more schools around Chennai.The school is located near Poonamallee, which is a suburb of Chennai. From Poonamallee, it will take around 15 minutes by shared auto to reach the village Kolapancheri, where the school is located. The school is surrounded by a beautiful landscape which contains rice fields, lakes and colourful houses, with a lot of space between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, my village is very familiar and\neverybody knows everybody. First, it was very strange for the people to see\nsomebody like me. But after some weeks, they got used to it the same way as I\nhad to get used to everything at first. Since that time, it always feels like\ncoming home when I enter my village, by getting dropped with the shared auto by\none of the funny and just enjoyable drivers with whom I always like to have a\nchat or a tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everywhere in the village, or in the city\nnearby, I have my small spots where I like to go to have some snacks, just talk\nto the people, improving my Tamil skills, having a tea, or just buy something\nat a shop. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By the way, my favorite snack is mushroom\nmasala, and there is one man in Poonamallee who is preparing the best in the whole\nof India. I swear that because I tried nearly all of them. He is just making it\nfor me every time when I cross the street without asking. Then, he is telling\nme to come and that the best snack in the world is ready. That guy always knows\nwhen I need his snack, and even when we don\u2019t speak very much because of the\nlanguage barrier, he became a friend of mine, and he is just making me happy.\nLike many others, he is showing me infinite concern and the infinite familiar\nrelation between the people in an inner environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, I am drawing more attention than an\nIndian boy, or man of my age, but I can feel how I am accepted by the people\nand how much they are accepting themselves. Especially, in my surroundings, I\ncould explore that the people are just acting out of their heart. The actions\nthey are doing are mostly not because I am a foreigner, I have seen it many\ntimes that they are also doing things like inviting somebody for lunch, or tea,\nor just showing him the family album to each other. Getting to know so many\nlovely people during my time in India fulfills me with satisfaction and\nhappiness and within that fact, I am realising what a big part of the society I\nbecame. In my work, I am feeling the same since the beginning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our school is a very beautiful and huge\nbuilding. I stay in the school itself, with a host family next to my room.\nSecurity, or just the fact that I know that they would stand behind me whatever\nwill happen, makes me feel that they are my second, Indian family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In general, it is possible to divide the school\ninto the back side of the school, where students aren\u2019t allowed to be, and the\nfront part of the school, where you can find the classrooms, and generally\nrooms which are used for everyday school life.There are 3 official classrooms\nwhich are separated by the disability of the student, and their age. The first\nclassroom with the youngest students is the sensory- group, the second one is\nthe educational- group and the third one is the vocational-group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An important fact is that the age of some students is higher than at normal schools, so that they can be up to 25 years. Those older students will be in the vocational class and the main idea of the school is to integrate young adults into society. There are also \u201cnormal\u201d lessons as we would know it in regular schools, but the activities and lessons are generally very practical, to teach the students something usefully after they go off from school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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There are around 30 students, and we are 4\nteachers, including me. Additionally, there are a few drivers which pick up or\nbring back the students in a school van before and after school. Furthermore,\nthere are 2 sisters who are mainly taking care of snacks for the students, tea\nor cleaning and just caring about everything the teachers have no time for, or\nfor what they are not responsible. Every Tuesday and Thursday, one vocational\ntrainer visits, who is teaching the students basic things like computer lesson,\nor woodwork, together with me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am mainly responsible for the vocational\ngroup that means that a normal school day starts with the main lesson.\nMathematics, English, computers or just any actual topic is being taught, just\nto give the students something basic, but sustainable in their life. In the main\nlesson, I am supporting the students however it is possible. Because of the\nfact that the students all have different disabilities, they know how to\ncommunicate to each other without many words, and they are way more talented in\nexplaining and understanding something that the opposite tries to commit. But\nof course, it got a lot easier for me to understand and to talk to students or\nstaff by learning some Tamil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why I am able to explain to them simple\nmath tasks, English or Tamil also. Within the time I could get to know the\nstrengths and weaknesses of the students very well, and I knew more and more\nwhere to help and teach. The class teacher of the vocational group is\nexplaining the subject to the students and I am clarifying it by some additions\nand mainly by solving the tasks, together with the students. To the question\nhow my work schedule in my project is, I am usually answering, \u201cEveryday it is\ndifferent.\u201d Because of that, I will point out the main activities I am doing in\nmy school now, and what experience or improvement for the students I can gain\nthrough it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My main activities or lessons that I am\nperforming are woodwork, computer and English lessons, and drums\/music lessons.\nFurthermore, there are many activities like preparing for festivals, making\nplates out of banana leaves with a special machine, dancing, making candles,\nmaking incense sticks, cutting clothes and recycling them, making friendship\nbracelets for the students\u2019 families (which ideas I got out of a book from\nGermany), gym and outdoor activities, gardening, cooking, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In woodwork, we are doing small keychains, or\nproducts like spoons out of coconuts, or small houses for birds. For me, the\nmain achievement is\/was that every student is able to make their own keychain\nfrom cutting the wood, up to applying wood polish and sticking a steel strap on\nit. I am trying out new designs and ideas with the students, and we are just\nworking on it together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In English, I am teaching them basics like\nconversations, or also to learn the time, directions or just numbers, or weekdays.\nEverything is on a basic level and depends from student to student. But I am\ntrying to teach something very basic and useful, practical and also\ninteresting. In computers, I am following also just basics and adapting my\nlessons to each and every student. Drums, or music lessons mainly contain\nindividual time with one student, which will end up in one song or rhythm with\nthe whole school. My principles are always to be patient, to be creative and\nnever force them to learn something. Their interest will show you exactly what\nthey want to learn. That is something I really could learn: disabled people\nbring more passion in something they like, than most Indians have for cricket. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In all activities, we are a team. Everything is\nso familiar in the school and the students, the teachers or anybody else is\nbehaving like this. We are helping each other in every way, the students know\nhow to communicate to each other, although some of them can\u2019t speak or hear\nproperly. Every time somebody needs help, he or she will ask somebody to help,\nand she will get help. It is like a big family, and each person has the feeling\nto be accommodated by the others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if I really have many aims and plans to achieve with my lessons, I know that in my school something very accurate and important happens. The disabled children are part of the school like they are going to be a part of the society, they get accepted how they are, they are making jokes, we are making jokes. They don\u2019t take everything too seriously, we play with them, or just laugh with them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Admittedly, they are making us angry or each other angry in some moments, but we consider each one of us like our own. Like our friends, family, beloved people, or just people to have a chat, or to work with. Whatever. Disabled children or disabled adults are a part of the society like everybody else. And I can feel that in my project there is something which is very unique in India, and it might be unique at every other place in the world, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Vanakkam! My name is Thorben Roth and I am a volunteer from Germany, and I came this year, in April, to India. I am doing a social service, which will last 11 months and I came with a group of people, who are also doing the same. My organisation is AFS-Germany, but the partner organisation which is the organization I am working with is FSL-India, located in India. My project in which I am working is a school for special…<\/p>\n

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