Gabriel Lau -- Hong Kong

My Simple Times in Cheo

I volunteered for Dakshinayan back in the spring 2003, it seems a long time ago but I am just as eager to talk about my experience as the day I left that memorable place. Arriving in Roldih from Delhi with other volunteers, I was assigned to Cheo Village up on a small hill. Cheo is only separated from Roldih by a 45minutes trek, but it felt far more remote than that at the time.

Going through my first week of a real

rural lifestyle is hard; without a TV or computer to occupied my mind and no longer having endless places to rush to and things to be busy about, I thought I would go crazy if I stare at the mango trees any longer. However, before we knew it, we have already sunk comfortably to this new lifestyle.

I still remember all those daily routines that was my source of fun, beginning my day with a run around the villages, collecting water from the hand pump, chopping up firewood, taking a shower in the mountain stream, grinding up the turmeric for dinner, helping the villagers in the harvest and finishing my day off staring into the clearest star night I ever saw.

Of course, teaching was what we were there for and we started that duty also with a lack of grace. We couldn't even communicate with most of younger kids and with the older ones it was hard to tell where had the last batch of volunteers left off. Though my impression with the Cheo kids was that they were never shy, full of energy, had unlimited capacity to laugh and most importantly eager to learn. And once we came up with a few games and songs to catch their attention while teaching them a bit of English the interactive teaching ideas just keep rolling in. In the end the lessons became a real joy. The older kids are more serious learners and we taught them pronunciation, they improved from reading singles words to longer and longer sentences, there were real encouraging progress in the 2 months that I stayed.

Life can be much simpler and we will still be able to have a good laugh

Looking back at this fulfilling experience years afterward, it still means so much to me. And if I am just to share one thing that it has taught me, it would be that: Life can be much simpler and we will still be able to have a good laugh, just like the Cheo kids entertaining themselves day after day with probably the only two games that they seem to know.

- by Gabriel Lau, Hong Kong