Leadership Collective 2016

Last year I posted a single blog at the end of what I described as  one of the most amazing trips of my life. This year I have decided to post  bite size pieces of my observations as I travel through India with 15 US teenagers who are part of the Leadership Collective 2016. The selection  of this year’s group -12 girls and 3 boys- was consistent with 360Plus’s philosophy of providing opportunities for Learning through Travel to specific demographics in the US.

So after a three day Orientation at the University of Chicago the 15, including one returning from last year, made their way to Bangalore India to begin their exposure to and experience of a country which they knew little about and definitely did not expect to visit this early in their life. While I had interacted with the group over WhatsApp since they were selected and had met with two of them in the Bay Area, seeing them together for the first time at Bangalore Airport  was special. I knew in some way they will change my life for ever and I was equally determined that  this trip should change them.

Orientation in Bangalore began with the group discussing and deciding the values they wished to imbibe and agreeing the rules of engagement from blogs to lights out.

Over the next few days the group bonded a bit more, played Kabbadi (an Indian tag game), tried and retried Indian food, went shopping for clothes and generally prepared themselves for the assignments in Madurai.

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In Madurai the group was hosted by SITA (South India Term Abroad) a group currently headed by Ted Samuels himself a 360Plus member. SITA working with 360Plus put together the 10 day program including the trip to the jungle resort of Thekkady tomorrow. We used the SITA facilities for our sessions and the ladies in the kitchen whipped up some great food for us each day. Our special thanks to SITA for all their help.

Unfortunately I had to leave them for a few days to attend to something and caught up with them on their second day in Madurai. On the first day they had visited the famous Meenakshi Amman temple after being given a brief presentation on Hinduism and its structure and tenets. The visit unfortunately was marred by the refusal of the gate authorities to allow a Muslim member of the group to enter the temple  because she was dressed in her traditional hijab. That incident was still being discussed the next morning when I rejoined the group.

On to another temple, this time the Pandi Kovil built on the location where a statue had been buried for years and apparently found through the dreams of a local inhabitant. A visit to the Temple is thought to grant the visitor the gift/wish of wellness. On the day we went there were the usual devotees who were very taken by the appearance of a predominantly non Indian group among their midst.

The next few days have seen the Group (in smaller groups of 3/4) deep into researching, visiting location, planning and executing on their assignment to produce a short video of their subject matter ranging from the sorry state of the Vagai River, the Farmers Market, Pudo Mandapam the bazaar in the historic building across from the Temple and the richness of Carnatic music and dance. Through translators they spoke to and filmed multiple stakeholders  involved with each one of these topics, picked out those which best represented the points they wished to emphasize, wrote a script to go with their video, helped edit it and are currently preparing to present it to the whole group for discussion and debate. The final videos will be shared with a wider audience in our website www.360plus.org.

The highlight of this part of the trip is however the opportunity given to the students to experience Homestays with host families in Madurai. It was really interesting to see the first meetings between the students and their respective host families. For me as they left it was like being an empty nester all over again. From all accounts this has been of great value to the students. One host family even dressed up their charges each day in different Indian clothes.

Today was “Serve” day under the Study-Serve-Share theme of the 360Plus Leadership Collective. The group spent half a day interacting with a rural school of 3 to 7 year olds from marginalized tribal /orphan backgrounds or single parent families. Coincidentally the school was housed in premises built with support from the Methodist Churches in Wisconsin. Activities initiated by the students to keep the children engaged and entertained included making paper masks, drawing/Painting, playing games, learning English phrases etc. All in all a very fulfilling day for all.

So this first week in India has been both eventful and engaging. We the leaders watch each day as the students under our care learn and absorb new information, get more comfortable with people and an environment totally alien to them just the week before and start appreciating the alternate narratives which co-exist with their own perceptions of the world.

Next week will I am sure bring more learnings for all of us.