I’ve not come across it on team trips to any other country
but here in India it definitely feels like we are on the receiving end of a
celebrity culture.
From when we arrive to when we leave each day, the children
are pushing to high-5 us as we walk around the school, and once high-5’d they
run off with an excited look in their eyes, and calling to their friends.
I guess in a way that is similar to the cheers and
excitement shown on many of the trips, when the team first arrives at the
project and the children get to see that the promised visitors have really
arrived.
You would have thought it would wear off after the first day
but not a chance. From Monday to Wednesday it has been high-5’s everywhere, and
then today reached a new level of ‘celebrityism’. On this the penultimate day
at the school, the children have now started running around with paper and
pencil / pen, asking for signatures from everyone. They also wanted phone
numbers, but when we explained that we don’t give those out, some of them just
accept signatures, whilst others choose to ask us for parents first names, or
siblings etc. It’s all a bit strange, and feels so wrong as we feel so far from
being celebrities.
I realize that in deep rural india, the presence of a team
of 30 white people is unusual – and we come expecting to be stared at with our
strange way of speaking, our odd hairstyles, our pale skin, and our non-curry
smell! But to be doing signatures for so many in the school is just bizarre.
Just to add to the whole celebrity thing, today we had 3 TV
stations and 3 newspapers visit the school to do interviews and take photos.
Admittedly they are local stations, but it’s still so much more than we tend to
get anywhere else.
However, despite all this, the team carries on teaching
great lessons, running fun activities, being the valiant loser in endless games
of cricket, and showing incredible team spirit, as they support each other through
hot times, tired times, bumpy journeys, and times of dealing with lots of
tireless children.
The school children might be thinking we are celebrities,
and the media might be wanting some coverage, but at the end of the day we are
doing what we came to do – to make a difference in the lives of the children,
to input teaching ideas and resources to the school, and along the way to
provide opportunities for our young people to discover that they can achieve
way beyond their wildest dreams.
