One Handful of Rice » 2007 posts

Pictures of Rodrick and Neetu’s wedding

janpierce — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:47:56 +0000

Some of you wanted to see pictures of Rodrick and Neetu’s wedding and of course us in our indian garb. Here they are!

janpierce — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:47:25 +0000

In our Indian duds

janpierce — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 04:46:15 +0000

janpierce — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:38:51 +0000

Living Large in the Golden Years

janpierce — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:35:52 +0000

As I have now entered into my long-awaited retirement I am convinced that this is a terrific time to begin a new phase of service and important life work. Our (Roger and my) travels in India have opened up a number of doors for service and my heart has been especially drawn to the children. Years of experience in school classrooms and especially working with children from many other countries has given me a foundation for teaching English to Indian children. Thus far my in-country teaching experience has been about 45 minutes of playing a matching game with several groups of four and five year olds. They were like little sponges soaking up the fun.

Classrooms in India are generally a lot of rote memory and a lot of sitting in rows with arms crossed. The children aren’t used to American-style teaching in groups of varying sizes, having several activities going on at once or the concept of free choice. I will have my hands full in trying out some language experience activities. I tried to send over the most useful and practical teaching tools from the mountain of donated items. You just can’t teach about the seasons (they are different there), European fairy tales, (they don’t know about them), family life, (most of them are orphans or semi-orphans). So many things we see as part of everyday life here are not part of these children’s backgrounds. I’m inviting you to come along via the blog and share my experiences as I try to navigate the cultural barriers and get some teaching time with groups of children at Dayanilayam.

The children greet visitors

janpierce — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:29:36 +0000

The New Year in India

janpierce — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:26:43 +0000

This January Roger and I will be traveling to Jangaon, in Andhra Pradesh and will stay at the Dayanilayam Hostel for two months. While Roger works with local pastors and leaders of house churches, my goal as a retired school teacher is to work with children in reading and writing of English. Some of the children will be from the Muslim community surrounding the Christian compound.

Becoming fluent in English is a valuable skill to have in India and will enable those who learn it to earn a much better income as adults. Many of the orphan children come from dalit (untouchable) castes or are tribal people and have very little chance of becoming self-supporting without some skill whether it be a trade, a small business, a service such as nursing skills or computer literacy. Learning English will help them to find jobs in the larger cities and enable them to support themselves.

Through the generous donations of used educational materials many teachers in the Vancouver, WA area have become partners in my work in India. I have shipped many books and other resources to Jangaon and have been able to purchase a listening center to take with me. I am eager to see what I can accomplish with a group of these children in a relatively short time in terms of English literacy. Their native tongue is either Telugu or one of many tribal languages. They study Hindi, Telugu and English in school. Most of the children speak at least a little English and are so eager to learn. Their world is very narrow and they have been offered so little compared to the abundance we give our American children. Still, they are happy to be safe, fed and clothed and most importantly loved by their caregivers. I will share my teaching experiences via this blog, the good, bad and the “challenging.”

November 28, 2007

janpierce — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:19:05 +0000

After visiting an orphanage in southern A.P. India, I began to research the issue of childhood malnutrition in India. I found that the problem is staggering and that more than 400 million children suffer from lack of adequate food in India daily. India has the greatest population of malnourished children in the world, even worse than sub-Saharan Africa. There are many reasons for the problem besides the obvious problem of poverty. There is also a lack of understanding of general health practices, inadequate housing, lack of clean water supplies, virtually no prenatal care for women, etc.
As I grew more fond of the children and as I began to see their needs more clearly I determined to raise some funds to augment the daily diet of the orphans. My One Handful of Rice project was the result. (see link)

Orphanage children eating rice with dal

janpierce — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:17:57 +0000