Adventures in India: Servant Leadership is Alive and Well at Darlington
Wendell Barnes | July 8, 2013 | 430 views
This is the fourth and final installment of a running journal that I kept during our servant leadership trip to India. This blog covers June 28-30.
Click hereto read the first installment. Click hereto read the second installment. Click here to read the third installment.
Friday, June 28
(New Delhi)
Again, an early start with breakfast at the hotel before leaving for our last day at Sulabh Public School at8:15 a.m. We arrived at8:45and the kids, as usual, were very excited to see us, already warming themselves up playing cricket and sports. At9, they lined up in their usual lines by standards (grades) and Nic led the icebreaker, with a long game of "Simon Says," assisted by one of the students who happened to really be named Simon! Most of the kids knew how to play the game already, but still got tricked anyway. Near the end, all that were left were Ali, Vraj, Natalie and Brad. Brad and Ali were the final two but they also got eliminated when Simon (Nic) said, "ballroom dance" but didn't tell them to stop!
We then all went upstairs to the music room, and pulled out the 50 T-shirts we had brought with us (donated by Jamie Morris and Cedarstream) as well as the 75 we purchased here, and called the groups up one by one by standard and each of us autographed each shirt. It didn't seem to matter to the children that we had some odd T-shirts which Anju had found for us, or that they all weren't white and didn't all have our Darlington School Servant Leadership in India logos on the front and back -- they were just excited about our autographs in colorful Sharpie pens.
We had a fun morning greeting each student individually as we signed their shirts, shaking hands, and then they immediately put them on and went back outside to play after a group photo of each standard group. Following this, my friend Swati, who is normally a physics teacher at the school and had volunteered with us all week to help out with the kids, read a very touching summary of our week and what it meant to them all, written by the principal. Then the kids entertained us with some native dances in their new T-shirts, and even included some of us in the mix! We then had a group photo taken with all of the Sulabh students and staff and all of us. We had a very hard time leaving as they all wanted photos with us, plus we were having a hard time saying goodbye to these wonderful children. We wanted to pack several of them in our suitcases and bring them home with us!
We then returned to the Hilton to have lunch and to begin real packing and resting for the long journey ahead. Amar had arranged for a late checkout for us since we did not have to be at the airport until9 p.m., so we met downstairs at6 with our bags, and then had one last dinner in India at the Hilton's Twenty-Nine Restaurant (we never did figure out why they called it that.) We took a final group photo in the lobby near the huge Dale Chihuly chandelier over the reservation desk, and boarded our mostly faithful bus at8 p.m. for the trip to the airport.
Anju and Antikia met us at the airport, and unfortunately learned that they would not be able to go inside because they were not ticketed, so we said a hasty goodbye before going in. Ava's flight to Pennsylvania (she was headed for a workshop at the University of Pennsylvania) and Brad's flight back to Beijing were near the times of our departure. But we learned that Ali could not go in either because his flight to Istanbul was not scheduled to leave until6:30 a.m., and they would not admit him this early. So Anju planned to take him back to her house and have her driver bring him back to the airport the next morning.
When we got to the Air France desk to check in, we learned that our12:30 a.m.flight had been delayed until5:30 a.m., so we found an open coffee shop to begin our wait. Not only that, but they had to change our itinerary to connect to Boston and then to Atlanta instead of straight to Atlanta as we had planned. All but Daniel and I got their boarding passes, and no one at the Delhi desk of Air France could explain why. They also gave us a hassle about using a credit card for paying for extra baggage, giving us the impression that Air France must have affiliated with Delta because there is a tremendous lack of AF trained personnel in Delhi.
While enjoying our refreshments, Ali walked up! Turned out they allowed him into another waiting area and he sweet talked them into letting him join us at the nearby coffee shop. We were also at gates near each other, so we all spent the waiting time together (minus Ava and Brad!)
Saturday, June 29
(Delhi, Paris, Boston)
We took off at the new time at5:30 a.m.local time (that's 9 p.m. on Friday Rome time) and arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris for our next connection around8:30 a.m.local time (that's2:30 a.m.Rome time). Some had dozed and many had watched movies and played games on the flight, as we had done on both legs of the flight over. After a brief layover in Paris, with tempting designer shops which the girls really enjoyed, we took off for Boston around11:30 a.m.local time (that's5:30 a.m.Rome time). Again, dozing and movie watching was less prevalent on this leg, and we arrived in Boston barely in time to make our5:30 p.m.local time connection to Atlanta that Air France Delhi had so graciously arranged for us.
After hurrying to make the connection, we learned upon arrival at the gate that a part was missing from the plane and we had to delay the flight until10:30 p.m.! Juliann tried to make a flight connection to Jacksonville that her parents arranged for her, on her way to a cheer camp, insisting that she could do it alone and that Mrs. Barnes did not need to go with her after they got directions from a friendly terminal employee. However, she returned an hour later to wait with us because she could not make the connection in time.
We were given $25 vouchers for a meal at7 p.m., but unfortunately all of the restaurants in the terminal closed at7 when the last planned flight took off. Seems that no one told the food vendors that there was a plane full of Atlanta travelers waiting in the terminal at dinner time. Fortunately, Mrs. Barnes had already taken our weary travelers to the food court, and they got the last meals served before closing at a few vendors who were still open. So we used our vouchers for gifts, books and magazines at the news stand which was still open, since they were only good for 24 hours!
We finally took off for Atlanta and arrived on red clay (underneath the runway, of course) around 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning. A disclaimer: Changing time zones is still very confusing so these times listed above may not be exactly right!
Sunday, June 30
(Atlanta, Rome)
Arriving at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, we were met by the Singhs, the Bakers, the Patels and the Collins family to pick up their weary travelers and take them home. Daniel, Nic, Chandler and Jay joined Reba and I to meet Donna Watford on the Dar Bus. However, as if we had not experienced enough trauma getting home already, Delta could not find Nic's bag, so we spent about two hours trying to locate that! We finally left the airport at about3 a.m.without Nic's bag and headed for Rome.
We arrived at Darlington around4:30 a.m.after regaling Donna and keeping her entertained with some of our stories. We were met on campus by the Morris family, Carmen Johnson and Susan Scoccimaro, and finally got into our apartment at4:45 a.m.Of course we could not go to sleep immediately, so we unpacked, showered and finally hit the bed and zoned out about9 a.m., I did not wake up again until7 p.m. and Reba stuck with it a little longer until9 p.m.What happened to Sunday?!?
Reflections on aMondayafter this experience:
First of all, spending time with these amazing Darlington students and Dr. Jay made us realize how lucky we are to belong to this wonderful school. I wish you could all have seen them in action, and you can if you visit the galleries and blogs that have been posted on the school website. (Check back again during the summer to see even more blogs, photos and videos!) Sulabh International even provided a photographer who gave us three CDs of photos he had taken, and Mrs. Barnes is in the process of adding those.
But besides our wonderful kids, I have reflected most on the people of India whom we met. The staff at Sulabh was most gracious, caring and sharing. Anju and her family were amazing helps in implementing so many of our logistical items, even accompanying us on many of our adventures. But what has been stored in my heart most indelibly is the women of Nai Disha in Alwar, and the children of Sulabh Public School.
The women are formerly scavengers, women who were a member of the "untouchable" caste when that system was in place, the lowest members of Indian society, who were charged with cleaning toilets out at night and carrying human waste on their heads to dumping grounds, and who were accepting of their place and responsibility with no apparent way to change. But through sheer determination and will, they have chosen to accept the challenge and opportunity offered to them by Sulabh International, and now walk miles each day out of their villages to attend classes, seeking a better life for themselves. And they now are not only elevating themselves, but those in Delhi have also sent their children to Sulabh Public School, so that they can receive a better education and elevate themselves above their former caste.
Forty percent of the children we met at the school were the children of former scavengers, but because the school provides them with uniforms, materials and a free education, they are given new opportunities heretofore not available to them. Many of the women bring their children to the school each day, or they walk themselves. And you can never be able to tell which children belong to those families and which are from the other 60% of the students who come from middle class families.
I could feel that we were in the presence of greatness when Dr. Pathak walked into the room our first day at Sulabh -- he was so humbled that he would not let me rise from my chair to shake his hand. Sulabh is the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi that Dr. Pathak has created -- a legacy of societal change that is the future hope of an overpopulated country in need of social reform even today. What a privilege to be able to meet and work alongside these inspiring people. None of us will ever forget the faces and smiles of all we came in contact with -- even those people who passed us alongside in crowded buses on impassable streets.
And thanks once again to Dr. Amar Singh and his family, who made all of this possible (and who checked on us every single day, sometimes more than once, and who even made changes as we went along and needs popped up.) Our school is blessed to have them as a part of our ever-expanding Dar World.
Servant Leadership is alive and well at Darlington School not only locally, but also globally thanks to our students from Taiwan and now India. And did I mention that I am married to an amazing woman who carried off all of these plans by herself? Honey, will you have me for another 35 years? I love you.
