It's Monday afternoon and classes are done for the day. This past weekend I had field placement on both Friday and Saturday. Friday I got to go to 2 home visits with some of the MSW students that go to the agency with me. We needed a signature from the one lady so she can send in her application for the 'old age pension' of 400 Rs/month. The other couple we saw was doing pretty well. The man had just gotten heart surgery but he looked a lot better, I'm not sure how recent the surgery was. We also celebrated one of the ladies birthdays at Vishwas Trust. Merry is in her late eighties. We all sang to her and I learned that they sing Happy Birthday in English which surprised me but they sing 3 verses. The first is like ours but then they continue on with a verse repeating something like 'may God bless you' and the last verse repeats something about having many more birthdays. Then everyone went up to her and wished her a happy birthday and then a few of the elderly people sang a song to her. The celebration was finished off with a little bread refreshment and coffee. Yoga preceded the celebration and I took part in it for the first time on Friday. It was nice to do something with them which doesn't require language and I can just do it along side them.
Saturday was the start of their Festival Month. I still have to figure out exactly what Festival Month is but I think it's just for the elderly. They have 5 competitions throughout February and then maybe a finale at the end? Saturday was singing. I got to listen to about 10-12 elderly people sing songs in whatever language they wanted. It was all acapella and very cool to listen to. Some songs were more upbeat than others and a few used papers to look at the words but they all sang lovely songs even if I couldn't understand any of them. There were 3 judges and after all the contestants went they tallied up the scores. There were about 20-25 elderly people there plus the judges and a few MSW students as well. It took place in a school classroom. They have been advertising these competitions through home visits and I think the newspapers as well. While the scores were being tallied one of the MSW students led them in 2 songs. I was taking pictures for them since I was the only one who had a camera with me and so the song caught me off guard. She started sining 'one two buckle my shoe' in a tune I didnt recognize doing hand motions with the elderly all standing and doing the motions too. Then they sang 'If You're Happy & You Know It, Clap Your Hands'! I was so surprised but I did the hand motions and it was a good time. Who woulda thought I'd be singing those songs in a Kannada-medium school with a bunch of people over the age of 70 in India? No me. :)
Today is the Western Dance competition after school. We were going to try and do a dance for it being Westerners and all but 2 of our girls are at field placement now so we may do it tomorrow. Tomorrow isn't a competition but tomorrow there is no class because it's Student's Day. I'm not really sure what that means because last week was Institution Day and they had a day off of school but Indians love their holidays and I'm not complaining. Friday is a holiday as well although I'm not sure for what, I just know my agency is closed on Friday and so hopefully we'll find something fun to do. Yesterday evening we went to another beach and waded in the water. It's so funny because a lot of people swim but many guys swim in no shirt and their jeans or the girls will swim in their kultas (long-ish type shirts) and long pants. Then to go home we took the bus for the third time that day and it's so interesting riding the bus here. I'm not ready to ride it alone but with Indian friends who know where to get on and where to get off and how much to pay, it's fun :) It can get very crowded and so if you are claustrophobic-warning: dont ride on a bus in India during the busy hours. Also I hear some of the trains can get really crowded and the cars can too because sometimes they like to squeeze as many people as possible into the cars.
In my Weaker Sections class today we discussed some legislation that deals with women and their rights and that was interesting. They have the 'Special Marriage Act' ('54) which states that the minimum age for girls to marry is 18 and for boys it's 21. The difference in ages our lecturers said is because girls mature so much faster than boys and you would know that if you just looked at the boys around. hahahaha There is also a 'Dowery Prohibition Act' ('61) which is exactly what it says it is but it was interesting to hear that the act came in the 60s but you still hear of doweries being given 50 years later. Then to finish off my 9:45 class early in the morning the teacher brought up the 'Medical Termination of Pregnancy' ('71) which states that abortion is illegal. They believe that every kid has the right to live and if the mom can't care for it they should put it up for adoption or the gov't will care for it. She said abortions still happen all the time but technically it is illegal. A debate almost started but she said maybe next time we'll have a debate which I think would be very very interesting to hear since it's illegal here and its a huge controversy in the States. An interesting class to say the least.
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