The Calcutta Diary: A Volunteer’s Experience
Journal entry from the 18th of November…
Exhausted.
Simply exhausted.
Things at dany Dan have taken a new turn: the head sister has suddenly become very ill and has left several long term volunteers in charge of the upcoming Christmas music concert.
The boys and girls that are able-bodied and are able to participate are all going to be singing and playing instruments fro two hours! They will be performing six times, including at the Motherhouse and for the Governor.
It’s a new experience for the kids, who now have to stand still, follow commands, get up on stage, sing, remember how to play their instuments and so on.
It’s a new experience for the volunteers working with the kids, too. We’ve all been chosen to help out because we are are all there fro a long time, through Christmas.
It’s a new experience for me to have to work with a group, with no particular leader, trying to accomplish what is an awesome task. We all have to get along and do our best.
The head sister who is ill is a lovely woman but she is also very strict, so one of our biggest challenges has been to get the kids to listen to us and do what they are told without acting disruptively.
I constantly have to remind myself that in spite of the expectation of the Sister for these kids to be “normal” and behave “normally” they are special kids with their own set of issues, who aren’t going to always sing on cue or suddenly stop playing the bongos and wander off stage.
I think the main goal I have is to make sure they have fun, and that whatever they accomplish will be enough,that in fact, it will be perfect.
Working with autistic kids all day is a good way to let go of one’s urges towrds perfection–or at least redefine what perfect is.
My additional task is work with Binoy who is quite fantastic at playing the drums. It is hard for him to stop playing once he has started though! So I have had to come up with creative ways to get him to stop playing between sets consistently.
Binoy and I have become very close. We spend alot of one on one time together as I am his main teacher and volunteer. It is getting to the point that I know what Binoy is going to do before he does. It is amzing how when the children have a special individual volunteer they really bloom, begin paying attention, and become more loving and affectionate.
I know it will be very difficult for me to leave him when I go.
The schedule the volunteers–who are in charge of the Christmas program–Â must keep from now until Christmas is actually quite strenuous: we all work our normal shifts, from early morning until afternoon; then we take a break and return to practice fro the concert for many hours. We also have to practice with kids individually. Our only days off from now until Xmas are Thursdays.
I have had to take an additional afternoon off after working in the morning or I am too tired to take care of myself.
Off to bed,
gigi
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