Setrawa project
January - March 2008
Ms. Karine Tchakerian and Ms. Elisa Warner
Report 3 - Final impressions


After about a month of working at the Setrawa Project we have encountered such a range of both uplifting and disheartening experiences. These experiences relate to both our involvement in the project as well as personal and daily life. We are currently the only volunteers here and will be for the next two months. The project manager, Govind Singh Rathore and everyone else involved with the Sambhali Trust is in Jodhpur, are about a 2 hour drive from here.

Since arriving at Setrawa we have arranged the classes as follows.

Arts and Crafts 11:00-1:00 (Ellie)
Beginners English 11:00 (Karine)
Intermediate English 2:00-3:00 (Karine and Ellie)
Beginners English 4:00-5:00 (Ellie levels 1-7) (Karine levels 8-12)

Beginners English (Karine): The girls in the morning class are between 4-8 years old. It is difficult to know the exact ages of the girls are because many of them don't know themselves. This class is a new addition since we arrived so in the beginning we were just testing it out. In the beginning some of the girls were not comfortable holding pencils and none of them knew any English words aside from "Hello. How are you? What is your name?" When we would answer "I'm fine. How are you?" they would respond by again saying "How are you?" and on and on all the while smiling the most amazingly infectious smiles. The little girls that come are of school age but do not attend school so this is their only structured learning environment that they have at the moment. For the first couple of weeks the class was growing daily. At one point there were 10 students. However, one day an elderly woman came to the class with a deep frown on her face. We were going over the alphabet and vocabulary (ex: A for apple, B for ball, C for cat). She sat through the class and then left. We couldn't understand what she wanted. Reika wasn't available to translate either. After this day a lot of the little girls stopped coming. We are guessing that she may have had something to do with it or it could just be chance. We still have a steady 4 every day: Guddi, Laxmi, Bhakti, and Tampta..

Guddi: Guddi was the inspiration with which to begin this class. She was constantly following us through the village. She was always barefoot and beautifully wild. It's hard not to instantly fall in love with her. She truly has a unique energy (please pardon the hippy sounding lingo). Guddi was the only student the first couple of days that the class was held. We began looking over some picture books and learning animal names and then we played some letter recognition games in which Marion, the previous volunteer, and I hid letters and Guddi had to find them. In her fourth week of attending Sambhali School, Guddi can now recognize colors, count and write numbers up to 10, say and write the alphabet, follow and initiate commands (e.g. sit down, catch the ball, kick the ball, smile, clap etc.), name most major body parts, name many animals, and name all of the nouns on our alphabet board. Her strengths are drawing and writing. She is also a very good dancer and can keep rhythm. I plan on integrating some music into the class using the drum and tambourines that we bought and Ellie's guitar.

Laxmi: Laxmi is, like Guddi, a wild child. She and Guddi roam the village throwing marbles and getting into mischief. Laxmi is very good at naming all of the animals and colors. She has very distinct likes and dislikes and they change all of the time. Sometimes she wants to write, other times only to color, and others to sing. I have to try keep her engaged in her learning and focused at the same time. To keep Laxmi stimulated, she needs some sort of physical activity so I have now lengthened the class by a half hour and we have been learning and acting out action verbs with a ball and jump rope. It's been really fun and the girls love it. Laxmi is constantly testing me and won't give me back the pencils when class is finished. Sometimes she even refuses to participate in class. Most of the time this is when we are doing an activity that she finds challenging. It's evident that she lacks the confidence to attempt the task so I have been working on building her confidence. Telling her she does a good job doesn't necessarily do the trick so I have been choosing her to demonstrate activities that I know she feels comfortable with such as catching, throwing, and kicking the ball as well as naming the colors. We have also started giving each other "high fives" when I feel like she is getting frustrated. I know it may not be conventional teaching style but this really makes her feel good and she smiles and continues with the work.

Bhakti: Bhakti, although younger than Laxmi and Guddi, seems to retain vocabulary faster. She is really bright and has a very good memory. At times when the other older girls would be struggling to remember a word I'd hear this soft voice whispering it correctly. Bhakti has quite a difficult time with writing and drawing and she seems unsure of which hand to hold the pencil with often switching hands between strokes. I believe that she is left handed as she seems stronger with it. It was suggested that maybe due to cultural restraints she may have been discouraged from using the left hand as it is considered unclean.

Tampta: Tampta is Bhakti's little sister and is brought to class because the other girls are caring for her. She is probably around 3 years old and so is too young to learn the more difficult concepts. She has her own book in which she experiments with drawing in and she can repeat most of the alphabet and some numbers along with the other girls.

Laki: Laki is such a sweet girl and was coming almost every day until the start of this week (week 5). She is probably around 8 years old and is very affectionate, always putting her hand on my shoulder or leg as I'm teaching. She is slightly more reserved than Guddi and Laxmi in some ways but she is confident. She likes to draw and to sing. She knows the alphabet and I believe that she may have at one point attended school.

Maya: Maya is Laxmi's little sister. She is probably about 5 years old. She has not been coming much and is quite shy. Maya would really benefit from coming more often. I always ask the other girls where she is but they just shake their heads. She is a lot more reserved than the others and seems to hold a sadness inside. It really breaks my heart. When she does come to class I try to make her feel safe and comfortable. She likes to draw and she is creative and I often find her doing her own thing. For example, all of the other girls will be drawing fruits and vegetables (the topic of the day) and she will instead be tracing her hand and then drawing decorations on it.

So far we have been working on the basics: alphabet, numbers, shapes, colors, actions (e.g. running, kicking, catching, jumping), animals, hygiene and fruits and vegetables. This week (4th week) we have been working on vocabulary in our natural surroundings. For example, "This is a rock" to be followed by "What is this?" They answer "This is a rock" and then "What color is it?" to be answered "It is gray". We follow with trees, leaves, sand, water, the sky, the earth etc. Last week in Jodhpur I bought some books about the Earth which has been embraced by all three classes that I teach. The young girls in particular are fascinated with dinosaurs as most children are. We have also been working on writing and drawing. Some of the girls are very comfortable using pencils. However, a couple of the girls are hesitant and I have been focusing on building their confidence in their own abilities. My methods of encouragement include varying the lessons from day to day so that each child can experience an activity that they feel comfortable and confident in. For example, last week we drew pictures of our vocabulary words (Guddi's favorite activity). We also acted out our vocabulary words. For example, "I kick/throw/catch the ball" etc. Laxmi in particular really enjoys any type of physical play so she was giggling uncontrollably. All of the girls really love singing and Guddi and Bhakti love to dance so every day we sing a song at the end of class. They have learned a song about to teach the names of parts of the body and another about hygiene. Ellie will come out of her crafts class occasionally with her guitar and we'll sing "You Are My Sunshine"—The Sambhali Setrawa favorite and our current theme song.

Arts and Crafts (Ellie): While Karine teaches her little girls, I teach the arts and craft class which consists of teenage girls and women. During Edwina's (previous volunteer) time as the teacher, this class seemed to have become a kind of support group in which the women could come for two hours to sew, learn crafts and talk about their problems and joys. Although communication is difficult as I speak about five words of Hindi, we have made connections and can get by with hand gestures and facial expressions. During Edwina's time their main focus was making paper bags from newspapers along with side projects such as embroidery and sewing clothes for family. Similarly, I have chosen to initiate one main project, a painted and embroidered bedsheet. Allowing the women to either take part in the main project or pursue their own projects depending on their mood or interest. This freedom seems to be important considering the women’s purpose for coming to Sambhali. In these two hours the women can escape the rigidity of their domestic duties to pursue something totally unrelated to their chores.

We have spent about two weeks painting this bedsheet that I began by drawing a design of a traditional dancing girl. Three girls helped me measure up the borders of the sheet and ever since about five to ten girls at a time have been adding color with fabric color. It has been a challenge to try to teach painting techniques to vary texture and contrast without any Hindi, but demonstration seems to be working, except when the girls paint hastily and make it look messy! Several times I've tried to explain that "It takes time to make nice things", and I think it's starting to sink in.
The girls seem to be reluctant to draw designs or choose colors to paint themselves. This is a concern to me as I think initiative and individual creativity is the key to 'empowerment' – the aim of Sambhali. I got a drawing pad and asked them to draw sample designs based on anything – patterns on their saris, henna designs etc, and they seemed to open up a little bit by drawing various designs, and one participant, Indu, even took the initiative to draw some her designs onto the bedsheet.
We plan to finish painting and embroidering the bedsheet and then move on to try either twig trivets for pots, greeting cards or this finger painting. For me it's important to find out what the girls actually want to do by discussing this in class rather than simply saying "This is what we're going to do". This approach seems to suit the casual, social atmosphere of the class and decision making, however inconsequential, is in itself a form of empowerment.

Intermediate English (Karine): After our 11am classes we get an hour break which is spent cooking our food for the day, cleaning, and preparing for the next class. At 2:00 we teach English to the older women participants. Aside from song (and dance occasionally) the 2:00 class has been centered on conversational English. I work with the more advanced while Ellie has been teaching phonics and reading skills to Dhapu, a very kind and determined woman. This class is quite small and some of our students may come for a couple of days and then we won't see them for a week. Our two most constant students are Gunjan (also our neighbor who really looks out for us) and Lata (a girl in her upper teens). In English, we have been working on articles, prepositions, adjectives, and pronouns as well as introducing and conjugating more verbs (past, present, and future tenses). We have also been discussing empowered women, our students’ dreams and goals, the world--how big it actually is, and music.

Finally our last class is open and usually consists of girls ranging from 6 to 18 years old. This class has been particularly challenging because we have such a wide range of knowledge levels. There are some girls who don't know the alphabet and there are others who can participate in a casual conversation. We have now split the class into two with Karine teaching the older girls (Class 8-12) and Ellie teaching the little ones (Class 1-7).

Beginners English (Ellie):The younger girls are very enthusiastic and eager to engage in class but unfortunately they arrive at all times during class as different schools finish at different times. This has made determining what to teach slightly difficult because different girls are present each day and they all have varying levels of knowledge. Some can read fairly well, but don't seem to be advanced enough to be in Karine's class and others are still trying to sound out words. On the first day I asked them to individually sing the ABCs to assess their levels – however everybody can sing the ABCs and it takes more observation to determine how much they actually know. They learned how to say their age and their favorite color and I had them ask someone next to them: "How old are you?" and "What is your favorite color?" I soon learned that the question is the most difficult aspect to a conversation.

The first week we studied shapes and colors. I had various objects and asked them "What is this?" "What shape is it?" "What color is it?” I had them answer by snapping their fingers on each syllable which really helped them slow down and pronounce the words properly. For example "THIS (snap) IS (snap) A (snap) RECT (snap) TAN (snap) GLE (snap) !"

We have also been slowly but surely learning the song "You are my Sunshine". Songs seem to be useful because they really enjoy singing and they get a feel for pronouncing the syllables of words. We also spent a lesson reviewing colors and learning clothes vocabulary by having various students stand up and having the others describe what she was wearing.

Recently we began learning about Family. I had the girls draw their own family tree but didn't realize that it would be such a long process to write their family members' names in English letters! Because of that the activity ended up taking up much more time than I had imagined. We then wrote fill in the blank descriptions about their families eg. "I have ( ) brothers and ( ) sisters." I showed them pictures about my family and told them about my 11 year old brother, and they have now started writing letters to him, describing themselves and their families.

Intermediate English (Karine): This class consists of the girls that the previous volunteers (Marion, Edwina, and Stanley) nicknamed "The Duffers". These girls are not 'duffers' (a term that was new to me but apparently means someone who is incompetent or useless). Here is a quote from Marion's report. She states that these girls are, "A dismal lot. They have no spoken English at all. They took 45 minutes to understand the difference and use of I – YOU – SHE and were just about able to say and write sentences about themselves using the verbs SPEAK PLAY EAT DRINK LIKE." These statements and presumptions could not be further from the truth. These girls come to class every day and they are genuinely interested in the lessons. I have to say that I am extremely disappointed by Marion's lack of faith in these girls. Her attitude that these girls were incapable of learning must have been reflected in her actions and felt by the girls so they may have been behaving according to her expectations. I also am confused that after 30 years of teaching experience, she would put down her students. Even more bewildering is that she would do so in this kind of environment - one in which the aim is to empower and build the self confidence of the girls.

In this class I have above all tried to build the confidence of the girls in the context of teaching English in order to prepare them for their board exams. So far in the lessons I have covered parts of speech, articles, pronouns, prepositions and prepositional phrases, verb conjugation, opposites, and building vocabulary. We've also been discussing the earth and they have learned the continents and the oceans. We have learned about different biomes and the corresponding vocabulary. We have mapped out our solar system. They now know that the earth revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around the earth. The world now seems a lot bigger to these girls. I have introduced these concepts to the girls because I plan on incorporating in our lessons the environmental problems that we are now facing globally, regionally in Rajasthan and locally in Setrawa.

At the close of our teaching day we usually go to the market to buy our vegetables for the next day. Along the way we are trailed by kids, goats and puppies. It's really a different experience living in such a small village. Everyone knows about everything that we do. We can't step outside our bedroom, which is attached to the school room, without seeing little heads and eyes peering over our low wall "Hello Ellie. Hello Karine. Hee hee hee hee"

We enjoy the peace of the village, whether it be watching peacocks fly one by one from the top of our water tank into the Neem tree to settle for the night, or enjoying the simple meditation of preparing vegetables for dinner.

Admittedly, from time to time we feel the urge to let go and rock out to music (with all the doors and windows shut to our bedroom of course) or, at other times we have needed to wind down after a busy day. On such days we may treat ourselves and wash our hair (an act we do at most twice a week). Cleanliness has truly become a luxury that we enjoy whenever possible.

Govind has told us that some villagers have expressed concerns that those involved in the Trust are missionaries and that the Sambhali Project's aim is to convert their religion. They have more recently claimed that we are trying to change their culture. Hearing this was very disheartening as we both are strongly opposed to influencing anyone's religious beliefs, and while we hope to share our culture, we would never want to influence their regard for their own culture. Rather, we would like them to teach us about it. This represents a wonderful aspect of Sambhali – that while we teach the participants, they teach us as well – whether it be Marwari or Hindi phrases, or an embroidery stitch. The underlying purpose of Sambhali is to empower women, but we the volunteers are also being empowered.