OBRA MAESTRA

“All know the way, but few actually walk it”

Bodhidharma sixth-century Zen master.

From: The Daily item – THE RECORD, South Lancaster, MA, USA

“Students Help Feed People in India“

From: May 7, 1992 “The Atlantic Union Gleaner,” MA, USA

“Student Study Service Firsthand: May 7, 1992″

by Christa Delcamp Special to the Item, 1992

Passion: Service

Purpose: Empower

Persistence: Beauty of the People

My first trip to India: 16 years ago as a young student in the USA.

As part of Atlantic Union College’s new class, “Psychology and Development of Service for the poor,” *Dr. Shirani de Alwis‘ students flew [from Boston] to India and worked in Mother Theresa’s Missionaries of Charity homes for children, the physically and mentally disabled, and the dying in Calcutta, India. Students also served in Bombay, Jamkhed, New Delhi, and Pune.

De Alwis wrote the course requirements, made arrangements for the trip, and accompanied the group to India. The students kept journals of their daily experiences with the poor and worked on reading assignments that would help them make comparisons between poverty in India and the United States.

Dr. Shirani de Alwis explained that the group’s focus was to serve the poor in a non-patronizing manner to “empower them and give them back their dignity”

EMPOWERING THE POOR

In Jamkhed, De Alwis sought to show her students how to empower the poor through the example of a medical doctor who trained illiterate people in small villages to perform simple medical procedures on their own. “He took them in, trained them, gave them confidence, and sent them back to their own place,” she related.

When it came time for the group to help at Mother Theresa’s homes, they received no job orientation. Junior student Jennifer Sprague explained, “You walk in the door and you’re expected to find your job. You do whatever needs to be done.”

At the Home for the Dying, the group fed people rice, held their hands, washed dishes, and wrung out blankets to dry, or bathed children, while others took to the streets to find people to bring in and care for.

“I would sit on a bed next to some patient and talk to them in English, and they would talk back in hindi,” said Junior student Carmie Mitchel of her experience at the home. “I think the best way of bonding with people is eating with them. The whole thing was about giving back their dignity.”

Joel Bomane, a Senior student from France, had a different perspective on the trip. As the only male in the group he found himself hailing taxis and making travel arrangements. “It’s a patriarchal society. When there’s a male, people are more willing to listen,” Bomane noted.

Bomane was often mistaken for an Indian. In New Delhi he met a poor salesman on the street who tried to persuade him to buy a miniature chess set. The man, who was speaking in English, couldn’t believe Joel was from France.

“When I said I was French, he started talking in French. I said “I know Spanish,’ and we started talking in Spanish.” The two then conversed in German and Italian. “I said, ‘I’ve got to find a language he doesn’t know.’ it was like a game between us. So I finally spoke in Latin. He didn’t speak Latin,” Bomane related.

From that point on, Bomane began to see the poor in a much different light. “You think they don’t know anything and you have to teach them. It’s not so…It was incredible – his pure intelligence of language and amazing memory without any formal education or schooling,” Bomane said.

One of Bomane’s favorite things was meeting volunteers from all over the world at Mother Theresa’s homes in Calcutta. “Every day they’d come from all over -France, England, Germany, Australia, America – Indian people as well. They all came for the same purpose-to volunteer. When you ask ‘Why did you come?’ They’d answer because of the happiness and peace in working, serving, and sharing.’” he said.

THE BEAUTY OF THE PEOPLE

Although this was her fourth venture to India, De Alwis, who has worked with Mother Theresa before, explained that the beauty and happiness of the people continue to draw her. De Alwis organized similar trips for her students while dean of the Graduate School of Education at Spicer Memorial College in Pune, India.

Even though the group went to serve the poor, their teacher also took them to India’s wealthy areas. “I wanted them to see the contrast, to see what it’s like to be poor and live where a mansion stands next door.” she explained.

Both De Alwis and her students said the trip has reinforced their belief that similar needs exist at home. Sprague, for instance, would like to use her skills as nursing major to start service programs in the U.S. De Alwis is opened to ideas for a class project in the United States.

For Bomane, going to India to learn their way of survival wouldn’t be a bad idea for many Americans, given the increased poverty and homelessness in North America. “Indians know how to survive. Their life is full of hope in spite of suffering.” he noted.

——————–

*Dr. Shirani de Alwis-Chand is an educational consultant and speaker whose training and experience has spanned almost 30 years. During this time, she has served as an educator, researcher, educational speaker, and mentor.

She earned a doctoral degree in Educational Psychology and Counseling from Andrews University after which she completed post doctoral training in diagnosis/remediation of Reading Disabilities at Harvard University with Dr. Jeanne Chall.. She has taught various grade levels, from elementary school to university. In addition, she has founded three college/university Teaching and Learning Centers, one of which, the Loma Linda University Teaching & Learning Center, she also directed from 1993 -2003.

The dedication, diligence, and passion Dr. Alwis-Chand has exhibited throughout her career has not gone unnoticed as she has been the recipient of various awards, including The Woman of the Century Award from Andrews University for her contribution to education, The Zapara Teaching Award for excellence in teaching, and recognition in Who’s Who Among American Teachers and Who’s Who Among International Teachers.

Currently, Dr. de Alwis-Chand continues to promote active learning through application of her Brain-Compatible Teaching/Learning Methods as Director/Consultant at the Above The Bar Educational Center, motivating individuals from across the world to engage in life long learning.

© http://abovethebar.com/_wsn/page4.html

Note: Living in an age of anxiety, as Dr. Alwis-Chand calls it, it is easy to incorporate negative thoughts into routine activities. She showed some research results revealing that an average of 40,000 thoughts run through the human brain each day. It is estimated that nearly 80 percent of those thoughts are negative. ” The main thing in life is to not worry,” she emphasized in her presentation. The key to this is to reframe negative thoughts into win-win situations. If you don’t, stress hormones can harm the brain says Dr. Alwis-Chand. These hormones can be responsible for severing connections and inhibiting memory function. She listed other physiological manifestations of stress. Anxious people tend to rely on alcohol more, are more susceptible to colds, suffer more frequent heart attacks, and statistically have more accidents than their calmer counterparts. The good news is that there are steps you can take to ensure a positive outlook. Good stress management is based on a daily commitment.

Dr. Alwis-Chand has experienced personal loss and knows this on an intimate level. She lost her husband of 24 years to liver cancer and has also experienced the loss of three of her children. She notes that the only way she dealt with the situation was to take each day at a time. From it she learned that every crisis has an opportunity.

© http://www.llu.edu/news/today/apr2403/fr.html

N.B: Article dedicated to the children in India

Please check my friend Dr. Mani

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an annual 24-hour blogging marathon to raise awareness about

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To: a fabulous teacher: Dr. Alwis-Chand

Merci! Dr. Sherani for opening my soul

Fiat Lux

Tempus Fugit

Joel.

“All know the way, but few actually walk it” Bodhidharma sixth-century Zen master.