49th Birthday Event

October 16^th, 2015 was Sangam’s 49^th Birthday! Our birthday event started on the 9^th. We had 12 participants, 7 from Wales and 5 from Australia.  They were a wonderful group of ladies and they got to do some really cool activities!

                                      

I had my first Welcome Ceremony as a staff member. I was wearing the staff sari, and for most of the evening I had the pleats in the skirt portion the wrong way. Fortunately, Sailee noticed and helped me fix them before we took photos, so there is no documented proof!

On October 11^th we celebrated International Day of the Girl Child with Maher. The participants had planned many activities to do with the children, but as such things go, we got there to find that Maher had plans for us. When we arrived the children gave us homemade lays and then some of the girls gave us a performance. There was a skit about being a girl and the discriminations they face. I think one of the most powerful lines was at the beginning when they where talking about aborting girls in utero, because they are girls. “Everyone loves their mother and wants a girlfriend and wife, so why do they not want a daughter?” After the skit there were a couple of dances.  After lunch the participants just had an hour to run activities with the children. They decided it was simpler to just lead the group in some songs. The kids loved it and in the loose structure many of us got to make friends. I made a friend with a girl named Nadina who is probably around 13 or 14. She didn’t speak much English, but she taught me some Marahti and introduced me to her sister. In the evening we played Who Wants to be a Sangam Millionaire? and my team won.

The next session I ran was a campfire a few evenings later. The local staff built the fire for us, and it was pretty tall, so it ended up feeling more like a bonfire. Although, we had trouble lighting it, as there wasn’t much kindling. About 40% of the songs we sang in the campfire weren’t in English. But everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We sang a few French songs from Quebec and some songs in Swahili. When we were teaching the first French song (Rat sur mon toit), everyone was having a lot of trouble understanding us. The participants from Wales said that it didn’t sound like we were even speaking French. Then a staff member pointed out that we were speaking Canadian French, which doesn’t sound like their schoolgirl French. After we explained what the song meant, I think they were able to piece the song together better. They did a great job though!

The next day we trialed Passand, which means choice. We ran 4 sessions at Sangam, and offered 4 packages so the participants could go explore Pune and then let participants choose which activities they wanted to attend. Most of them went out. I ran a session around the World Thinking Day 2016 Theme (Connect!). I really like the activity package again this year. I would really recommend taking a peak at it. You could probably get the badge done in a 1.5 hour meeting.

It is traditional to go to Temple on your birthday here. So on the 16^th we all walked down the street to the Datta Temple. There were around 50 of us, so it was quite a group. A priest performed a small ceremony at the temple. Afterwards we returned and puja was performed to the foundation and opening stone. Jen (the World Centre Manager) got to break the coconut and she did it in one hit. Then she read Lady Olave Baden-Powell’s speech from the opening of Sangam.

In the evening we had our birthday party. We had around 150 people from the community come and we had a big party in the campground. I worked reception, so I greeted people as they arrived and sold raffle tickets. One of the girls I met from my visit to Indian families, was at the party and she was happy to see me. We talked a bit when she came in, and when we closed up reception I hung out with her at the party. She braided my hair again, and she did a great job!

The next day was incredibly exhausting as we had our Community Action Project (CAP) day at Sangam. We had children from 3 of our different community partners come in and the Tare ran programming for them. They did a fantastic job, the kids had a great time! We also had UPS employees volunteering and helping with translation. I think our ratio ended up being close to 1:1. I was in charge of photography, so mainly I wandered from station to station and took far too many photos!

Overall, the event was very busy, but tons of fun! We trialed several things for the 50^th birthday, which I think is going to be quite an experience!