in Indien und auf den Philippinen

We relocated to the Boys Hostel (BH) several weeks ago.
The BH is the second school building of the St. Joseph school which is located on the Asha Deep campus. Currently, the main school building is expanding, so more and more of the classrooms are becoming unusable. That being said, during the day, two free rooms in the BH host classes for mentally disabled children and physically challenged children. Most of the other rooms are used by us, the boys and one guard, who we don´t see often because he works during the night.

Currently, one of the rooms in the BH is being used as a seminar room for a tailoring class. Merlin and I are living on the upper floor, which is the only floor which has a European toilet. This toilet serves as our bathroom, but in fact it is a small adjoining room containing a toilet and bucket. Instead of showering, people bath here using buckets and small scoops, with which they pour water over their heads.

A few days ago, I found out that there is a hose outside of the BH, which is much more effective, as well as more fun, than using the bucket. Normally, we “shower” after we play football. As Merlin mentioned in his report, the boys are really sporty. They told me that they are looking forward joining a gym as soon as they leave Asha Deep because they want to build up their muscles.

The BH boys separate themselves into two groups, one being the group including the hearing-impaired boys and the other group being those which are physically challenged. Except for a few troublemakers, the boys are very independent and voluntarily help when it comes to spontaneous exercises since there is no written list of names which divides the responsibilities around the BH. Everybody helps as much as their disabilities allow them to.

One of my favorite instances of the teamwork here is that a blind boy pushes another boy in a wheelchair, while the child in the wheelchair guides them around the BH and the rest of the campus.

Most of the boys here are deaf. Merlin and I have been living with the hearing-impaired in Asha Deep at least for three weeks at this point. We started to learn the basic sign language in Kotdwar, which houses the KSSS headquarters, a month ago.

Recently, we recognized that sign language is a very regional language, this being due to there being different sign languages spoken by each individual. For example, there is a teacher in the school who has studied sign language in Dehli for two years and her style of speaking is very different compared to the hearing-impaired children in Asha Deep. Furthermore, I use often a translation app called “Spread the Sign” which shows videos signing vocabulary in sign language in many different regional languages. Most of the time, the boys in the BH don’t know the vocabular themselves since they invent new signs for words as they go along. Merlin told me that deaf children often create their own language if nobody teaches them the “right” language. I think this is the reason for the different ways of signing.

Hello!

My name is Merlin Müller and I am one of 18 volunteers who make up the 12th batch of

volunteers sent to India and the Philippines by the Karl Kübel Stiftung. I, along with twelve other volunteers headed to India, arrived in the Mumbai airport in the early hours of the 7th of August. After some more travel, we ended up in Tamil Nadu, specifically Coimbatore, at the institute which serves as the “Headquarters” of the KKS in India. To start off this report, I’d like to give a summary of our adventure from the landing of our plane onwards.

In Comimbatore, we had a week-long seminar at which we learned the ropes of our time here in India, bought our first clothes (or in the boys’ case Lungis), met the mentors who will supervise us during the project, and learned information firsthand regarding the NGOs. It was also a good experience to begin asking questions and also build our first impressions of the NGOs. Most of us had already spoken to the previous volunteers, and assembled a variety of information concerning our specific locations, however this was the ideal opportunity to hear about changes since the last volunteers were there and ask other questions which we thought of along the way.

On the 14th, at 8 AM, after a lengthy session of goodbyes the night before, we left KKID and began our transit to our NGOs. For Lasse, my co-volunteer, and I, this was quite the lengthy transit. We had to use the bus, fly, and then drive through the Dehli traffic with our director and our two mentors. After an hour of no movement on the main roads, we decided to take a different route, resulting in a bumpy 8 hour drive using unpaved back-roads. At 11:30 PM, we arrived in Kotdwar, which is where the headquarters of the Karuna Social Service Society is based. On the 15th of August, we drove to Asha Deep, the school where the majority of our time will be spent, for a celebration of India’s independence. After being welcomed by a marching band who joined us all the way to the podium, the students were presented in four different groups based on characters of importance, such as Mother Theresa (see photo 1). After a few speeches by our mentor, Father Jackson, and our director, Father Pious, Lasse and I returned to Kotdwar, as we needed to stay there with Father Pious to complete our police registration which is necessary according to Indian law. Some of the other highlights in Kotdwar include meeting Sanjeev, an alumni student from Asha Deep who is hearing-impaired, as he taught us the Indian alphabet in sign language during dinner one night, along with other helpful phrases and words such as “good morning” and “good night”, as well as an assortment of animals. We also got to visit a Badminton tournament in Bijnor, a nearby city, where girls from a variety of schools participated in the first inter-school badminton tournament. Finally, Lasse and I went shopping on our own, to buy things such as shirts, pants, toilet paper, and other necessities for our new home.

Our moving day to Asha Deep, August 22nd, was so late due to circumstances with the room, and the organizational process involved in clearing out a room for the first two males volunteers to stay at the school. Even then, we had to stay in a temporary room for three days while the room was being finalized, due to painting, which was not an ideal situation, as we still had not had the chance to fully unpack our bags. When we finally got to move in, we made ourselves at home very quickly, and within the first 3 hours of having the room, we hung up our pictures from home along the wall by our desks. These pictures will serve as both motivation during days where it may be needed, as well as subtle reminders that our families will be waiting with open arms when we return. Our official room is located in the boys hostel (BH) on the campus, which houses over 30 boys with differing disabilities, although the majority are only hearing-impaired.

There were three things which struck me regarding the boys from the BH, the first of which was how each boy wanted to help in whatever way he could. Whether it be carrying a bed, cleaning the floor before we moved in, or helping us unpack, everyone offered a helping hand. I don’t believe it was just because we were “The Europeans”, but rather that we were new people moving into their home, and they wanted to help us, all-the-while integrating us into the family they have built here. Another thing which I believe is a common misconception of deaf children is that they are unintelligent, however after spending an hour talking with them, anyone could see just how far off this misconception really is. The children in the BH (some seen in photo 3) have the same dreams as normal children, ranging from athletics to sciences to politics. The third observation I made is how physically fit the boys from the BH are. Some of them wake up at 4:30 or 5 o’clock in the morning to go for a run before school, then help out with the chores on the campus after school, and then play football (soccer) every day for an hour at minimum at around 6 PM. (see photo 4) One of my favorite memories this far was watching the boys run around on the field after a day of heaving rain, splashing water at each other without a care in the world.

The school is divided into two sets of classes, all in one building, the Hindi-medium and the English-medium. Regarding the daily school life, we finally received timetables on the 24th, and were allowed to choose which classes we wanted to help with, and at what time they would take place. Seeing as I have no knowledge of Hindi, I chose only the classes from the English medium, however will have another look at the classes in a month or so and decide whether I want to brave the Hindimedium classes. In the classes, we will try and bring new ideas and energy into each class which we are assisting, which can be done through projects and activities, as well as learning methods which we were taught during the 10 preparatory seminar days we had in Germany. Our first two days in the school were mostly observational, and were used to see which classes, or more specifically age groups, we could see ourselves helping in. Lasse and I decided to do a variety of ages, ranging from 2.5 years old all the way the 3rd grade. One of my primary tasks in the school will revolve around sports, as there is a prestigious inter-school sports competition (ISSC) being held in Asha Deep in October, where schools from the area are invited to participate in several different track and field competitions, including sprints, jumps, throwing, and basketball.

Some of the other challenges for us included mosquitoes, food, and attending church in the big church in the center of the campus. Mosquitoes are a constant problem as everywhere you go has at least three waiting for someone to turn the corner. No amount of mosquito spray can stop the mosquitoes here, which is something I personally learned very quickly after maybe the 30th bite. Food is a challenge for me, as sometimes, there is nothing I’d rather have than a traditional German breakfast. Rice and a sauce for almost every meal can become very tiresome very quickly, however some of the boys from the BH have taught us a few tricks to keep things interesting. Finally, we attended a mass in the church on the 25th of August. Sitting cross-legged for two hours in a room, listening to someone speak in a language which you don’t understand is quite the challenge. However, it must be said that mass in the Asha Deep church s something like a concert with short breaks. Those who can sing are fully involved in the whole ceremony. Some parts were also accompanied by a sign language translator for those who spoke sign language. Our experiences here have been very positive, and as the integration phase of our time here comes to an end, we get into the “real” aspect of our stay as volunteers. There will continue to be things which surprise us as well as things which we may already have been prepared for, however the positive experiences here far outweigh the negative ones.

Thank you for reading and greetings from Asha Deep,

Merlin

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