Yong Leng, A city boy living in a suburb India for 6 weeks.

Place: School for Deaf and Mute, Ahmedabad

Date: 1^st July – 16^th August

Organised by:  AIESEC Ahmedabad

I was getting down from guy hostel, a narrow and dark stairway that joined to the playground. The kids were in the playground, a little girl was riding on swing, playing herself. The boys in a big group stand on the right position, waiting for the cricket game to start, while the unplayed group stand at the side watching it. I saw some kids run to me, waving hand with their lovely smile. They were not spoken, or should say, they couldn’t spoke. This is how I experienced in the first day I am here, in the School of Deaf and Mute in Navarangpura, Ahmedabad.

First of all, I would like to express my thanks to the following people for their support and assistance with the internship. First from the School of Deaf and Mute, I would like to acknowledge the chief minister, Mr. Y.P Desai for giving fully support on every work that I carried out, besides providing free food and accommodation. Next, I would like to express much of my gratitude to all the school staff, including the students who welcome me with pleasure, treating me like the special guest. From School for deaf and mute, the best gratitude goes to Mr Jayesh Gadhvi, for always providing assistance and cultural heritage explanation to me. I must not forget to thank to all the foreign interns that joined me, pushed my internship to a succeed. Last but no least, from AIESEC Ahmedabad, Mr. Rishabh Patel for his many contributions to this internship and for being my very responsible manager picking me go and back from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport.

I took a flight to India in the 1^st July 2012. When I walked out from the airport, the local time is 10.00 pm, approximately 3 hours late behind the Malaysia clock. The crowded residents were standing outside the airport, I found my local TN manager, Mr. Rishabh Patel in the crowds. I was took to a house, where I meet the other foreign interns. Only one was participating in my project. Then we move to Mr. Patel house, to stayed overnight.

The next day, I have my very first local meal in Rishabh’s house. Onion with lemon as the appetizer; plain capati with Indian tea as the main course. Then, me with the other interns departed to the School for Deaf and Mute, where we will be staying over for the rest of internship period. The school located at Navarangpura, opposite the Times of India, in West Ahmedabad.

The moment I entered the institution, I knew I should throw away my pride if I want to mix well with every single person in the school. I think myself as a deaf person so the students do not reject me. They maybe hearing impaired, but they have no different like normal people.

Living in school is something unexpected. The life I experienced here was simple. The kids attended class for 6 days a week. The afternoon class starts at 11.30am to 5pm, while the morning class begins at 7.30am to 11am, only for Saturday and certain State events. The hostel residents shifted to canteen at 7am for breakfast, 10am for lunch and 6 pm for dinner. Girls in the hostel need to wake up in very early morning, perhaps 6 am for daily clean work; the guy could wake up anytime they like, but not as late as 8 am. During school day, you would not find any boy hiding under sheet. The early bird would walked to canteen for some light breakfast. Then the playground began to fill with boys. The girls were on eye watching by the hostel supervisor, they only allowed to come down from the hostel during the lunch time.

This institution is not only for the hostel residents, some of the pupils took public transportation to school every day. I see some difference between hostel and home stay kids. The boys who stayed in the hostel were majority were from poor family while most of the homestay boys owned a mobile phone. These students may financially different, but yet there were mixing very well with each other. The better would share their electronic gadgets to the poor, while the poor feed the better with snacks.

The institution equipped with facilities that required to train the handicapped child. Education from pre-school until secondary twelve standard is impart with no charge. Each student will be given text books regarding to different subjects of normal school. They study their mother tongue, Gujarati, Mathematics, English, Geography and History. Few classes were set specifically provide intensive training in handicrafts to the student. The selected children stand chance to learn to printing, binding book, tailoring and drawing. For somehow, I feel the institution was weak in infrastructure management. Indeed, a desktop was set up in every class but some had already broken. Teaching materials failed to present to students graphically from the monitor which then lead to dull and boring teaching session.

I would say, I was treated pleasantly by the local people during the period I stayed in India. I am deeply touch by the effort made by the school stuff to provide a convenience environment for me and the other interns to stay. While preparing food for the hostel kids, the chef also prepared non spicy dishes for treating interns. They tried to fulfill requirement demanded by us, even if we asked for a long journey trip. If we were late hanging out after 10pm, at least a call we will receive from the school stuff. They said, this is part of their duty and responsible to take good care of us. I always have a great conversations and learnt a lot about the festivals in India. Again, I would like to thank them, sincerely from my heart.

 Every student was taking me and the other interns as special guests of the school. They prepared everything they could to provide a comfortable environment for me to stay. Every night, hostel will be cleaned by students themselves before we go to sleep. They asked me to join them for every meal, make sure my stomach always full. Then they cleaned up my plate. They rarely say ‘no’ to me even it is against their religion and culture. I could understand they are trying not to make me disappointed or upset. I am glad that these students taking me as part of the student even we could not speak orally.

In the first day of school, I was taught some basic local sign language. It was not as tough as I thought. At least until the day I left India, I was able to say goodbye to them with the sign patterns I learned. These deaf children were talkative like normal person. They would sat in a big group after shower, one will start expressing his ideas with sign patterns while the others were looking silently. Sometimes, they talked never end until they were asked to sleep forcely by the hostel supervisor. They may silly but yet they turned serious if they were asked. The elder student he told me, they enjoyed to be deaf person even they don’t spoke. These students love to talk with me individually, treating me like their big brother. They think I made their conversation funnier, but they never know they made the talk itself interesting. I could feel that the deaf children have strongly faith in me. They made me feel I was needing to them. Sometimes they shared their feeling, love to see me becoming part of them. So, one day I put on their school uniform attend for their class. Everywhere I walked, the people were looking at me with a welcoming smile and gave me a thumb up.

School of Deaf and Mute is an institution recognized by the State Government social defense department. I was glad to be part of the drawing competition organized by the social defense department. The students were equipped with plain paper with crayon provided by the social defense. They could draw anything as they like. These students were gifted with creativeness, I was impressed by every pieces of creation they made. Then, I went with the students to other state in Gujarat for a handicap community event. I see students actively participate in the event, they worked hard for chasing glory. They bravely compete with students from other states, same like a normal person. Once again, I acknowledge their abilities as a part of community, they may not speak but they are same like normal person.

Special education for deaf and mute children is a complex field which requires endless interest and spirit. Living with deaf and mute children makes me realize that the need to change bad perception on them. Undeniable, they are categorized as disable community, but they can involve in all curricular activities like normal person does. All we can do is to help them feel more confident with themselves and their ability to communicate with others. This is also one of the reasons I came for this project. I never regret to spend my internship with this special community.

With the students.