We are nearing the end of our fourth week in India and the students are in the middle of their first video projects. The projects are personal narratives focused on the students’ identities, hobbies, goals and concerns. We have completed much of the pre-production and are now starting the filming and recording stage (much to the students’ joy). Within a couple weeks, we hope to have these first video projects up on the blog for you all to enjoy!

At the Nalgonda boy’s school, we are clearing up some confusion with the roster of students. It took some time to establish exactly who was in our class and that we could only have about 15 students. Initially, we were having some problems with different boys coming each time and with very curious students (who were not in the class) coming into the class and acting as if they were! This is encouraging in a way as it shows that many boys at the Nalgonda school are interested in the Modern Story project and that our current students have many eager peers ready to take in their knowledge once the class is completed. To those students that can’t be with the class for this session, we are making it clear that we will try to plan out some out of class work for them to do and we are stressing to our students that they should share what they know with the other boys at the school.

At the Vijayanagar Colony co-ed school, we were surprised to find the students all in the midst of play when we arrived on Wednesday. This week was an extended holiday called “children’s day” and the students were able to play games like cricket, coco, and gabardie in the place of their usual class routine. On the final day there were speeches, dancing , singing and prizes awarded to the winners of the previous days’ games. We came to each of the children’s days but were unable to do much actual work, as the school was essentially on holiday. We were, however, able to show the kids some aspects of the video camera and sneak in a quick lesson on the three aspects of video production.

opening ceremony to children

some dancing at children

Our High School friend, Prithvi, who has been helping us at the Vijayanagar school came with us for two of the children’s days and filmed some of the action on Friday with one of our video cameras. It was his first time using a video camera, so he was able to get his feet wet with the basics like zooming and framing of shots. We are encouraging Prithvi to make his own digital story at some point in the next couple weeks. It will be something like the digital stories Mona and I previously posted on the blog. During our next few meetings with Prithvi we hope to get him filming and also possibly composing music for the project (as he’s expressed interest in learning the blues, and specifically the harmonica

The kids in both classes have been able to do some work with the OLPC XO. They have recorded greetings to each other on the “Record” program. We asked them to all say hello and give their names. Some of the students at Vijayangar were shy when asked to introduce themselves while the boys at Nalgonda tested the poor little XO microphone’s limits. In the future we’ll progress the dialogue with the XO and get the students to engage each other more with specific questions and details about their lives.

In both schools the students are becoming more comfortable with us and more willing to open up to us as we respond in kind. At Vijayanagar, the students love to teach us Telugu and show us the dances they know. This past Friday after the final Children’s Day, we found ourselves in the middle of a circle of staring children as a couple older students showed us how they get down on the dance floor. At Nalgonda, the boys were excited to show us to the canal outside of their school grounds, where we did some swimming and much picture taking. Mona has acquired a satellite at this school, the bright little Tabrez, who will eagerly ask for more responsibilities and personal projects each class. I am finding that because I’m a male, many of the older boys at Nalgonda get excited when they see me and seem to want to impress me; there is a definite spirit of brotherhood there. Some of the kids have said to Mona and I “you’re my brother?” or “you’re my sister?” I shook hands to seal the deal with several of the kids, so I’ve now acquired two new Indian relatives.

After one of our classes at Nalgonda, an older studet was talking to me about his family and plans for the future. At one point, he said that I was “lucky” to be from the United States because of the relative ease of living there and the surplus of resources. I easily agreed with him. Americans are blessed with much that is often taken for granted. But here, despite the difference in standard of living, the spirit and morale of the students is strong and they are very resourceful and generous with what they do have. It seems that children here grow up faster and are wise to many realities of the world that are easily hidden in other countries. For this, they will certainly be stronger and more intelligent adults. Mona and I are learning from them every day.