Another bright, promising Sunday drew the bright little ones to the ‘Together We Can‘ Sunday Camp held at their Government Higher Primary School in M.R.S Palya. This week’s camp was hosted by Akshara Foundation with ample help from the Jeevanotsava team (run by AVAS and DRRT). Though Sunday started unusually early for me, I had the ultimate kickstart to my day.
The small playground just inside the main gate was deceptively quiet. But as soon as I crossed it and entered the main quadrangle, I stepped straight into a whirlpool of action. Amidst much singing, shouting and laughter, I was greeted with shouts of “Hi, akka!” which was a pleasant surprise as some kids remembered me from the previous Sunday camp. Thus began an action-packed day.
Though the turnout this Sunday on the 4th of May, ’14, was slightly less than that of the previous Camp, we did not lack in energy and enthusiasm. The hundred odd kids more than made up for their absentee friends.
Our host NGO, Akshara Foundation, ensured that the kids participated in the various activities that were being held by the different NGOs. Baale Mane had games organised, Jeevanotsava had children dancing to the beats of the tabla, Akshara brought out the engineer in kids and adults alike with legos, Sunaadh had children singing and Pratham Books fueled their imagination with stories. I had chosen a few of my personal favourite titles; ‘Samira’s Awful Lunch’, ‘Chulbul’s Tail’ and the evergreen ‘Annual Haircut Day’.
The kids sided with Dr. Bombo and thought Chulbul rather silly. In the second story, they could relate with Samira as most kids said they had the same dislike for some foods. And at the end of the third story, they felt extremely sorry for Sringeri Srinivas. One child actually enquired after the elephant who had fever! (‘Elephant’s Fever’ was read at the previous Sunday Camp.)
A skit on ‘Annual Haircut Day’ had a hilarious climax as the kid playing the tiger chickened out at the last minute and refused to roar. Sringeri Srinivas had to first prompt then coax him to roar which had the other children roaring with laughter. Srinivas then got a fright of his life when the audience roared collectively on behalf of the tiger! Long live the tiger 🙂
A fun-filled, children-filled (hence needless to say) action-packed Sunday was a day well spent, when ‘Together We Can’ became ‘Together We Did’.
