Later I and Carona were sent to a
poor village called “PEDHAMALI” to make photography of the local primary school
children. I and Carona are never afraid to live in poverty so we agreed. But
things were a little out of our imagination. I have really to make a brief
introduction of our background before I started to talk about our life in
“PEDHAMALI” and all the feelings are honest even though it may be a little
offense and the changes of our minds are quite complex and emotional. I and
Caronacome from a small town of Province Zhejiang which is near Shanghai. My
family is middle class and not so rich but my entire life until now I can say is
very comfortable, I get the best education and next year I will go to Britain
to study as an exchange student. I can buy luxury goods like Channel, Gucci or
other famous brands. My house is big, clean and well-furnitured. And although
my grandparents live in countryside, their living standard is almost the same
as us.I have come to poor villages of other province in China to do volunteer
work before and the situation is within my endurance. However the first time we
arrived at Jaldipbhai’s house both of us were shocked. We knew villages might
be poor but unfortunately our definition of being poor seems a bit different. I
don’t want to offend but I have to say the economy of China is much better than
India. And that time my mind was stuck in the faith that it was a punishment
for me and Carona to be sent here maybe because our work in ESI was regard
terrible. At first I was tired of describing the dust and the poor facility of
the house which we found later that Jaldipbhai’s house is the best of the whole
village. The beginning two days I got sick because I was not used to the simple
toilet and sleeping on the floor. My headache was so serious that it prevented
me from thinking what I was doing and then I got a tonsillitis which made me
can’t talk and eat. Now when I think of these days I still want to laugh at
myself with tears. One thing makes me start to like this poor place is the
kindness of Jaldipbhai and his wife Snehalban. And then the kindness of Ajay,
their adopted son, the kids and the villages make us love this village. The
story of Ajay made me cry once. His real mother has passes away and his father
is a drunker who never cares about him. Before Jaldipbhai adopted him, he was a
beggar and struggled for hunger. He got food from neighbors, and once he got
something to eat no matter what it is he ate as much as possible because he
knew the next meal was no guaranteed and even now he have a problem of
controlling intake. In his left arm there was a horrible scar from a dog. At
that time Jaldipbhai himself had no job, no money and lived in the temple, but
he decided to adopt Aja because he wanted to take care of him. Now Ajay is so
happy with full of love. Although our communication is limited by language I
can tell from his bright teeth. And there are so many small things I observed
from which I can see that they really love and care Aja when Snehalben teaches
Aja homework with her hand fondling his head, she combs his hair softly and
even when Jaldipbhai blames him wash clothes too slowly. It is what parents do
to their child. We went to the primary schools with Jaldipbhai and Snehalban to
see the school life of the kids. Here again we received warm welcome not only
by the kids but also by the teachers. The kids poured into us and asked our
names again and again, some of them were shy but always smile to us then run
away like a wind. The primary school system here is quite different from China
since China has only 6 standards but India has 10 and the subjects are not the
same as we study English from the first year but here from the 8th
standard. Now this school has almost 200 students but 7 years ago when
Jaldipbhai first came to this village there were only 80 because at that time
people thought going to school was useless compared with doing farm work to
earn money. Jaldipbhai as well as the teachers made great effort to persuade
parents to send their children to the primary school by going to every family
with child of right age and talk to them patiently about the benefit of getting
education. The villagers were persuaded and now almost every child in the
village goes to school and Jaldipbhai told us the school was supported by the
government so there was no charge for textbooks and meals. It’s really nice. In
China we have a
nine-year-compulsory-education system and government also invested huge
sums of money in the education area, but the fees is not free until now and we
really hope one day Chinese government can achieve this just like Indian
government did. Some days ago there was incidence in this school. Two boys
fought with each other and another boy who wanted to stop the fight was hurt.
The reason caused this quarrel was that in one class two boys wanted to be the
leaders of all the boys, but the rest of the boys did not want to obey their
oders and started to isolate the two. Gradually these two boys felt lonely and
upset and began to make fun of other boys by gossiping them with the girls
which was not true. Finally one boy from the rest group got angry and fought
with one of the two boys. Jaldipbhai knew about this incidence and firstly took
the injured boy (his nose was hurt) to the hospital and we also companied him
to the hospital. The next day Jaldipbhai came to the school and talked with the
teachers to figure out more details. That day afternoon Jaldipbhai called all
the boys of this class out to sit in the playground and said something to them.
I sat beside him and because I didn’t understand the language I just observed
the faces of the boys. They were still young and they listened so carefully, it
reminded me of my primary school time when I also made some mistake the teacher
called me to his office and talked to me as patient as Jaldipbhai, that time I
should have the same face. Later Jaldipbhai translated what he said to me. He
did not blame the boys who had fight but told a story to all the boys that
hundreds years ago Indian people were separated and fought with each other to
win the leader position and then British came and easily controlled the whole
India. Gandhi realized this problem and called for all Indian people to unit as
brothers. Then without any violence British came out their country. At last he
said to the boys that there should not be leaders because they were all
brothers. It makes me think a lot. I always think deep talk is important and
everybody in his whole life needs someone to give them some advice because
nobody is perfect and good at everything. In China competition is very strong
no matter in high school or in college, sometimes grade is everything so
especially in high school teachers put their all energy to teach knowledge and
ignored the most important part: that is to teach how to be a good person. I
think it’s not an issue only existed in China but a problem all of the world.
On February 2th there was a big function
held in the school. All the children and teachers prepared for this for a long
time. We also accompanied Snehalben to the school to help decoration. Wewove
the big leaves into curtains and hanged them on every doors and halls. The most
attracting part of the preparation is the rehearsal. I thought I was in a
dramatic movie! The boys and girls dressed so beautiful costumes and practiced
the dances with so excited songs. I used to hear that Indians were born with
good dance and rhythm and now I knew it was true.When they were dancing their
bodys were as soft as water, I blink and they flew away. There were so many
beautiful girls with big eyes, prominent noses and small lips, they are just
like elegant princesses wearing the noble sarees and shining jewelries. They
even asked me to put up the orange saree and dance with them. You can imagine
how excited but shy as well I was because I never dressed traditional Indian
costumes before, not say to dance an Indian dance. To be honest, the saree was
too tight for me, or rather, I was too fat for the dramatic cloth designed
specially for slimgirls. But fortunately I became brassy and learned the
enthusiastic dance from the girls. It was not easy and I always made mistake
steps but I thought I was cool because all the people around me were busy at
taking photos. The function was excellent. It was a ceremony for appreciating
one rich people donating money for the school. Then shows were amazing and what
was more amazing was that I and Carona also got an honor to receive flowers o
the stages and we even got a chance to say something to all the children and
guests. We felt we were respected by them even though we did only a little.
These days we also followed
Jaldipbhai to visit the women of the near villages. Once there was an activity
for pregnant women to appreciate their delivery. Carona got a chance to deliver
a short speech and she did say well. That is her words: “Hello everyone, we are
very honored to be here and to speak something to you. We know that in India
the status of women were much lower than men and this was a situation happened
in China fifty or sixty years ago. Now things are totally different. Women also
work outside to support the families. What males do, females also can and even
do much better. The status of male and female are equal! You are doing amazing
work to deliver your child and feed them, it is for the whole society. Every
child should thank your mother! So ladies, please protect yourself well and
regard yourself as important as your husband. If he fights you, please do not
hesitate to fight him back!”Jaldipbhai translated Carona’s words to all the
people presented and they clapped warmly. Later there was a little interlude
that in this ceremony every woman got a brunch of flower but one woman was
forgotten, so she went home immediately with anger. Jaldipbhai knew this and
also went to this woman’s house and comforted her. He told her no one had
forgotten her on purpose and everyone loved her so much because she was one of
the most amazing women. This little incidence ended with a happy ending and she
even treat us a delicious lunch. There were a lot of little things Jaldipbhai
had done like this one. I always thought he was an amazing social worker with
no pay but help people to live a happy life. I used to think amazing was just a
pet phrase of western people until I know him even though he never thinks
himself is amazing. There are lots of rich people donating money to the poor
areas, they are so nice. But how many people live in a poor villages himself
and every day helps deal with the tiny social works? Year after year numerous
tiny things make a big difference. There is an old saying in China that “Teach
one how to fish rather than give him fish.” The poor can never get out of poor
by getting money from the rich, they need somebody to teach them skills. More
importantly, they need someone to build them rich spirit. Jaldipbhai is this
person as he is so rich in mind. Now he is doing another work for the village.
With the help of ESI 50 toilets will be created in this village and Jaldipbhai
are investigating the whole villages and pick up 50 suitable families. We
followed him to go to the village everyday talked with the situation. He told
me that in past people here never use toilets because they think nature is much
better and just go for the road side, even now there are not very many families
have toilets. And in past they provided toilets to the villagers they just
rejected. So he and ESI did a lot of work to spread sanitation knowledge to the
whole village and now people started to realize the benefit of using toilets.
It is a huge progress. Sometimes Jaldipbhai go inside the village not for
specific reasons but just to understand the life of the villagers. For example,
if someone is sick he can know it right away and take him to the hospital if
necessary. What he was doing impressed us so much. I started to think about
what ‘volunteer’ really means. I once said to Jaldipbhai that I was too young
and my capacity was so limited, I felt guilty I can do so little thing for the
village. He said to me that my presence here helps so much for the village and
I bring the faith to the villagers that people from all over the world are
caring them. His words mean a lot to me. I always think I am selfish because I
love myself much more than others and I can’t be so nice to every stranger,
that’s why I choose to do volunteer work in India. Before I came here my
parents and friends told me India was dangerous and poor, I said that was
exactly what I want to experience, the poorer, the more I could do. When I
arrive here for the first 2 weeks I felt I upset because I found myself helped
nothing and I think I was a terrible volunteer. Now I realize that it doesn’t
matter how much you’ve down to others. Volunteer is not an action, it’s the
faith and emotion. People can read your love if you really love them from your
heart.
CLEANLINESS, He who is truly clean within, cannot remain unclean without.- Gandhiji
