This summer, for three months I had an incredible learning experience at Association for India’s Development (AID) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. My name is Daniel Gelfer and I’m a U3 Joint Honours student in International Development Studies and Asian Religious Studies. Throughout my academic career I have focused on South Asia, whether it be through Religious Studies, Anthropology, Economics, or Political Science.

After my arrival, the first couple weeks were spent getting accustomed to living in India and working in a foreign environment, while also getting introduced to the programs that AID-INDIA manages and designs. While I greatly dislike the term ‘culture shock’, I did experience quite a heavy blow to the senses when I arrived. The twelve hour time difference, my jetlag, the 45 degree heat, seeing my first slum, experiencing heavy pollution, my first experiences with beggars and street children, and the extremely spicy new food all contributed to a bit of a heady mix, which took a while to dissipate. On top of this, when I went to the office of AID for the first time, I met with Prabha Balaraman, who was supposed to be my internship supervisor. To say the least, I was not treated very kindly by her. She was not at all supportive and said she couldn’t help me find a place to live. I left rather disheartened, and a little bit worried. Thankfully, Prabha turned out to the be the only person at AID who was unkind to me. I have nothing but pleasant things to say about the rest of my colleagues. Needless to say, finding an apartment in Chennai when I was in India for my first time in my life was a great challenge. I eventually found something, but it was extremely expensive, and thus the costs of my internship skyrocketed. I took it because I wanted to get out of the seedy hotel I was staying in and start settling into my new work and life, however if I had known that I wasn’t going to be helped with finding housing, I would’ve started my search via the internet months before I arrived.

At the time of my arrival, it was summer break for elementary schools in Tamilnadu. Thus, my initial project was to create a survey and questionnaire, to assess a variety of questions regarding the progress of AID’s summer camps, in two of AID’s direct blocks, Koovathur and Vembakkam. In Koovathur I faced some difficulties due to the language barrier, but I was able to persevere because the questionnaire was rather short, and didn’t require any external instructions. Thus, I was able to have the interviewees write down their answers in Tamil so that I could have them translated for my understanding back in the office in Chennai. The next block I visited was Vembakkam, and this time I was able to get an even greater response to the survey, after my first experience. I found that although my target was the summer camp teachers, the survey seemed to be invested with a sort of prestige, and therefore all the volunteers wished to fill out their answers. In particular, this field visit made me aware of the intense language barrier I have, because I can only communicate a few phrases in Tamil. In Vembakkam, my colleague Jobee was there to help translate, and this made a great difference, as I was able to learn so much more about the people I was interacting with, and they were too – we could ask each other questions about our customs, way of life, and many other things that led to a much more rewarding experience. While this reflection might sound trivial, I will admit that while I knew the language barrier would be very intense, I didn’t really know how effective it would be at blocking me from having meaningful human interaction until I was on the ground in villages in Tamil Nadu.

Upon my return to Chennai, after meeting with Chandra, one of the executives at AID who would become my new internship supervisor, we deliberated over what exactly my role at AID would be for the next couple of months. We decided that for the rest of the summer, I would pursue two major projects.

My first major project was an evaluation of the library system. In a series of meetings I proposed the questionnaire which I had designed, and based on my colleagues’ feedback, altered it a series of times in attune with their suggestions and advice. The survey/questionnaire is quite extensive. There are some 36 questions addressed to the library volunteer. After that, I asked the library volunteer to point out three children who are very active at the library, and three children who are not so active at the library, and then ask them a series of questions. Finally, three random villagers are questioned to discover the extent of the library’s visibility and impact upon the village.

To be honest, this project took much longer than I expected to get off the ground, but in the end, I was just content to begin the field work component of the evaluation. It took quite some time to work out the questions and kinks in the survey, and then even more time for someone to translate the survey into Tamil for me. For the rest of the summer I was able to do one major field visit per week. It was an incredible learning experience to realize that each successive field visit was the most successful to date. I was accompanied to Bonaveram (Sholingur) where I was able to visit three libraries and Suganthi helped collect the data. I visited Ayal, Katthampakam, and Bonaveram Mugha (a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee camp). The survey is quite lengthy and takes a lot of time to complete, but it is quite extensive, and I was very happy with the results of these villages. Later in the summer I visited some libraries in the Madurai and Sivagangai districts which were not run by AID-India directly, but rather they were operated by other local NGOs. This proved to be a fascinating part of my work, because I was able to assess the difference between how AID operates and how other NGOs operate. It was very intriguing to see how AID’s programs function within the framework of another organization, and to learn that the program can be greatly affected by the competency, infrastructure, and depth of an organization.

My second major project was to observe and report on Activity Based Learning (ABL), a brand new curriculum introduced by the government of Tamil Nadu. The plan was to write a report on the positives and negatives of this new curriculum, which the government is making mandatory throughout Tamilnadu. In total, I visited four separate schools, many times each. Within Chennai, I visited one school in Teynampet, and another in West Saidapet. Later, I visited a school in Bonaveram and was able to quickly interview the teacher about the implementation of ABL there, as they are one of the schools implementing the program for the first time. Finally, I had the chance to make a visit to a government-aided school in Kotta Mangalam, in the Chettinad area, when I was on a personal trip there. This was particularly interesting, because the experience provided quite a contrast to the schools which I had already visited.

Unfortunately though, my progress on this project hit a few barriers. The main school which I was supposed to study the ABL curriculum is in West Saidapet. The teacher there was welcoming and happy to explain my queries and questions. However, the first two weeks of the school year were abnormal because attendance was not full, and the children were not yet divided into standards. In my further attempts to visit, each time I would call, the teacher had another reason why I should postpone my visit, whether she was away for training, or they had a special program at school, or other reasons. In the end, it seemed that it was the government itself which was halting progress at the school. Because the school was part of the pilot project, the government kept changing their minds on how they wanted the classes divided up, so progress was very slow, not to mention that the children were rather distraught at having switched teachers more than four times in six weeks.

Finally, I did not do field work the entire time. In between all my field projects, I had lots of time to work on projects in the office. I was doing a lot of work for the resource production team – AID produces all their own learning materials and curriculum, so I have edited the English of many books, and helped members of the team design other books. I worked on science materials by editing a large manual of science experiments. On top of this has been all the office work related to my major field work projects, including translation, typing, designing the surveys, and having meetings with various people to discuss the projects.

While my internship differed in many respects from what I predicted it would be like, my experience there was incredible, and I am so thankful I had the opportunity to go there. The highlights of my internship were things I would have never foreseen. For example, just the experience of working in a multicultural office environment in a foreign language, was very good for me. After mastering that situation, I feel that I can tackle almost any new working environment. Most importantly, was the fieldwork. The opportunity to interact with rural peoples, and experience living in their living conditions, eating their food, and learning about farming, for a few days every week – well, that was an opportunity which most foreigners who travel to India will never be able to experience. I learned how to interview people, how to collect data, how to interact with children beyond the language barrier, how to order meals in Tamil, how to eat with my right hand effectively, and how to enjoy taking 3 hour bus rides while standing up crushed against hundreds of warm bodies on a very hot day whilst being next to the outrageously loud horn which the driver honks every two seconds. All of these were experiences which I didn’t know or expect I would’ve had.

While my academic background certainly prepared me for my internship theoretically and intellectually, I don’t think you can ever really be prepared for what life is going to be like in a developing country, unless you have been there before. No matter how many books you read, authors you study, and guidebooks you read thoroughly, you will never be prepared for working in the field because there is nothing you have done in your life which comes close. At least that’s how I felt. Upon return to McGill, I will be getting academic credit for writing a paper on an aspect relating to my internship. Professor Narendra Subramanian from the Political Science department, will be supervising my paper on Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in Tamil Nadu and refugee politics in India at large. This was a subject which related to a small part of my internship, but a subject which I am fascinated by and rather excited to explore in an academic paper.

Finally, I had the honour of being given the Allan A. Hodgson Arts Internship Award. Without the financial support of this incredible award, I would never have been able to travel to India and have the experience that I had working for Association for India’s Development. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Hodgson for his generosity and kindheartedness in supporting McGill students in their efforts to do internships. This is an immensely important element of any undergraduate degree at McGill University. I believe that my experience at AID will help me in my job search once I graduate. I think that many NGOs will value my volunteerism and experience, and hopefully that will lead me to an entry-level position in the field.

Sincerely,
Daniel Gelfer