GVD@SOS

had a very tiring but equally interesting and memorable day yesterday....
it was the day out with the SOS kids...
the two months of planning finally culminated in to a wonderful experience..
let me narrate teh entire day's activities.
We reached the place at about 9:00 in the morning..
the kids have already got ready and were eagerly waiting for us to join them..
We started off the day's work by having a quick pre-event talk..
after that, we started off by dividing ourselves in to the respective pre-mediated teams. Which, later assembled in groups and decided their plan of action..
My work, being the project leader, was to coordinate with various teams and the NGO admin and make sure things happen the way we planned to be..

Thanx to the volunteers and harish, we got the nametags ready by the time we reached the place.
While I was going around the houses, the teams went on with their individual tasks.
The event started off with a medical camp, which included two dentists and one general physician. Thanks to these doctors as they actually volunteered to conduct the medical camp :)
Simultaneously, we started off with the games event. The games reps have already planned a plethora of game events for all kids which included things like spoon race, running race, desi version of dodge ball, cricket, shuttle and so on.
The kids really loved the games and had a very good time. We could see them all opening up by themselves and coming to us for playing. Its exactly the same way we feel when our cousins come to our home for playing games.
They all addressed us as 'Annas'(brothers) and 'Akkas' (sisters)...we were all touched by the love and affection they showed us in spite of we being totally strangers for them.
They would come to u just the way your younger brother would come running to you...they would fall on you, jump on you, play with your hair and do what not...
So, there I was, covered up (or shud I say, mobbed by :)) 8 of them, each trying to grab my attention towards them. They told me all sorts of stories, played with me and took to their homes..
Their biggest attraction was the digicam...they just could not understand how one could get the pic immediately...they were so amazed by that, they started posing to the camera like professional models...and it did not stop there. Some of the would-be engineers amongst them questioned me about how it works, what is uses and what is the mechanism behind it...
They also took a few snaps with my digicam and proudly showed their skills to their mothers.
All this went on till about 12:00 in the afternoon... Lunch Time :)
We got the food ready from the caterer and then, cleaned the big room. We arranged the news papers on the floor in about four rows and then, placed the food plates on them..
Then, we got children one after the other, made them sit, pray and then, eat....
The menu was sambar rice, potato chips and curd rice...the food was awesome and the children enjoyed it (btw, we never knew sambar rice was their fav dish until their big mother told us :)))
Post lunch, we took the kids back to their respective homes and then, distributed decoration material to the house volunteers. Along with the kids, the house vols decorated the houses beautifully with streamers and other fancy items and also, with the diyas.
In the evening, we had curry puffs and biscuits for snacks. Later, we conducted musical chairs for the mothers and the volunteers. At first, we thought we would not be able to make this up 'coz first, we didn't have a audio player and second, the mothers were not so keen about this..
Later, we found a tape recorder with the NGO Admin and so, decided we would go for it...believe me..the moment we started the game, there was so much enthu flowing around that all our inhibitions got washed away..
the mothers truly competed with each other to win the game and we all cheered them all through the game to keep their spirits high..
by the time we were done, it was about 6:15 PM and it started getting dark.
So, we sent all the kids and their respective house reps to their homes and asked them to light the diyas..
The grand event of bursting crackers took place at about 6:45 PM. Each house got a pack of crackers and the respective house volunteers were put in charge of the kids safety.
I was going around the place and shouting instructions all the while, just to make sure nothing goes wrong..My only fear was that if something went wrong there( as there is a very high probability of happening), then, all our efforts we have put in right from the morning would go waste..
At one point of time, I even shouted at some volunteers for not having their kids with them...
good that everyone took it in the positive sense and so, there was no friction. and yeah..i later, apologized them for my short temper..
after all the houses were finished with their supplies, we got some fancy items, which everyone enjoyed...
soon after the cracker session, we got the food ready and guess what's for the dinner????
yummy biryani and gulaab jamoon.. :) :)
While we were making arrangements for the dinner, the kids were having a good time dancing to the tunes of the latest telugu and hindi filmi numbers :)
10:00 PM..phew.....it was really late( we planned the event till only 8:30 PM)...I thought I would go for one final round and went to each home for bidding farewell...this was the most memorable one for me...I moment I said bye, I could see tears in their eyes.. truly, they were all weeping. they asked us to stay that night and leave next day...some kids asked us when next we would come?
Even the volunteers became psenti...since they were with the kids right from 9:00 in the morning to about 10:00 in the night, they could not come off easily..
Before leaving, they sat with thier house members, told me all the good things like 'study nicely', 'be good', 'listen to mom' and so on..
Tears rolled in my eyes too....Thank god, they finally found brothers and sisters..
When we planned this event initially, I thought I and couple of others would be the only ones who would return after the GVD event is complete. But now, I'm sure, all the volunteers who came there yesterday would continue their association with the NGO.
This was the most satisfying thought for me and at last, I felt I did some thing good and worth full..
Though physically tired, I was mentally satisfied..
Before leaving, all the volunteers gave bums to me.. :(( 'coz they said that's the tradition with the volunteers. If an event clicks, then, the Project Leaders will have to bear this...
we started off at about 10:30 PM from there and by the time I reached home, it was 11:15.
I changed my clothes and the, fell on my bed and went in to sleep in no time..

So, that was a brief narration of the event..
shall update more about the NGO as we go ahead. Till then
Luv,