“Sorry, because you are under age, we need copies of both of your parents’ passports. We need the real signatures of both of your parents instead scanned ones. We need a copy of your birth certificate. We need a money order rather than credit card for paying visa fees.”
After contacting the Indian Embassy, I felt that getting a visa to travel to India was extremely complicated for an international student who is in America and who is under age. Crying on my bed, I could not focus on this exciting service opportunity because the process of applying for my visa was so intricate. However, even though it was painstaking, I worked hard on it thanks to my enthusiasm and finally got the “costly” visa. It all paid off because right now I am on the servant leadership journey and today is the second day of service!
Sitting on the air-conditioned bus looking outside, I felt that all kinds of facilities here are not that desirable. Some buildings along the street seem like they might fall down in a short time and cows roam around, eating rubbish on the sidewalks. The environment here is so different from the one that I am familiar with.
The name of the place that we serve is Sulabh School. Our mission here is to play with students in grades 6 and 7. Before I came here, I prepared bunch of tricks and games with my partner, Natalie Collins. We all stood in the front of the playground, sweating and sweating. More than 70 kids lined up in front of us. When we tried to play an icebreaker game, they were too shy to move around and join the game. The atmosphere was nervous and embarrassing at first.
“All right, kids. Let’s get into four groups and go to the classrooms,” we said. I was nervous about whether I would be able to enliven them and get them more involved. “Hello, everybody, tell me, what will happen if I poke this balloon with this stick?” I asked. “Explosion!” they shouted in unison. “All right, look at me,” I said as I started to twist the stick on the balloon. Twenty pairs of eyes stared at me and the stick. Their mouths hung open when they saw that I twisted the stick through the balloon without exploding it. “Since there is space between molecules, the balloon won’t explode when you twist a stick through it. Who wants to try this?” I asked. Everybody put their hands up and said, "I want, I want! Give a balloon.”
I am so glad that the atmosphere got livelier and the students wanted to get involved in our games. At first, standing in the front of the playground, we were more like strangers to these kids. However, right now, I believe we have already blended together and become one of them.
Things got better and better. The kids are now very energetic. We played invisible ink, we tried paper folding, and we worked together to make headbands. Time passed so fast. After three hours, it was time for a break. All kids crowded to the front of the classroom to talk with Natalie and me. I am so glad that they were talkative!
One student said, “Can we teach you Hindi?” and I answered, “Of course, yes, I would love to learn.” They told me that "dangyavade’ means thank you. I repeated “dangyavade” and they laughed at my pronunciation and tried to correct me. I repeated it again and again as we all laughed together.
The students are so lovely. The smiles on their faces are like sunshine in my life. I am really enjoying this time with them. They told me their stories and showed me stuff that they consider important to them. It's easy to have fun with them. It doesn’t matter to me that there is no air conditioner in the classroom. It doesn’t matter that I sweat so much that sweat soaks my T-shirt. It doesn’t that I stand for so long that my legs hurt. It doesn’t matter that dust floats in the air because boys play soccer on the playground.
When I see the difference I am making in these kids' lives and am able to help make them smile, I feel extremely pleasant and think that all the efforts that I went through to go on this trip were completely worth it.
