Field Trip!!

Saturday was a pretty incredible day. We visited a school for children who have been rescued from child labor. These schools are known as bridge schools because they are meant to bridge the gap in education that a child would have had appropriate to their age. The bridge schools are made so children can join their proper grade-level and not have to feel uncomfortable being in a grade far below their age.

We arrived at the school and were surrounded by children who were excited to see us. We quickly learned that they were fascinated by cameras and having their pictures taken and those of us who were willing to surrender our camera into the hands of a child came out with some pretty fun pictures. They enjoyed taking pictures as much as being in them and were quite adept at the whole process, catching on to the details of the cameras very quickly.

We had a little while to just enjoy their company and then we heard a bit from the director about the program itself. Telegu – a regional dialect- is the main language there with smatterings of English and Hindi. The program is amazing and really seems to work. There are a huge number of youth volunteers who go door to door to get children into the program. It is still hard to understand how families can send their children to work but a lot of it has to do with debt and just the customs. The program this GOP has set up is excellent because they train people and then the people they train go out and train other people and so on so that it grows and grows.

We heard a few case studies as children told their stories and had them translated. The stories were about as heart-wrenching as you can get but the happy bit is that all of them have made it to the school. Some of us were discussing after the trip how amazing it is that these children can still smile and laugh and play and go on with their lives. It was extremely powerful to have the experience of being among them and made me almost a little embarrassed that I’ve ever been bothered by anything in my life.

After our lunch we had time to play with the children with balls and Frisbees or just sit with them. A group of the girls decided to give everyone bindis so we all got to go home decorated. My camera battery unfortunately died in the middle of the day which was hard to explain to the kids. I was sitting with one girl for a while and she gave me her bangles to wear. Just how she jammed them on my wrist is still somewhat beyond me. I let her wear my scarf in exchange. The kids discovered that some people were sunburned and so poking their skin made it turn whiter. They tried this with me but shockingly I was not one of the burned people so it didn’t have much affect.

When it was time to leave I was struggling to take off the bangles from my new friend so I could give them back. They were thin glass and to my horror one of them broke when I was taking it off. I managed to get the rest off one arm and was working on the second arm when the girl pushed them back onto my arm. I tried to give them back but she was insistent that I keep them. I didn’t want to take something so nice from her but I was also touched. She was showing my arms off to a few people and there seemed to be some unhappiness with another one of the girls over the bracelets which I didn’t really understand. I couldn’t really figure out what was going on since I had tried to keep giving them back but she wouldn’t let me. In the end I ended up going home with them but looking back over my pictures I see that when we first arrived the girl I got them from was not wearing them and the girl who seemed upset was. So I feel a little guilty because I’m not really sure what happened there because I thought I was getting a gift but I hope I didn’t end up making someone sad.

I’ve included a few pictures from the day including the girl with the bangles and the bangles themselves. The kids actually took some pictures of me that I like, which is quite impressive (maybe because I was genuinely happy?). I see future careers for these kids. Oh and I would totally adopt an Indian child; they are beyond adorable.