Blogs

We have completed yet another successful GRO delegation! GRO-India 2011
concluded on Thursday and everyone has arrived home safely, we already miss
them! I still remember when the American delegates arrived at 4AM with
their excitement and jitters from the long trip to India; it was the first
time for many of them to travel overseas or to a developing country. Their
excitement turned into determination when they met the Indian delegates and
learned about their lives here in India as Deaf individuals. Read more »

Today, we taught the Indian delegates more about what they wanted to know
after learning for the last two weeks.

We taught the delegates how to run the Gravity club (NISH's deaf club).
There are six important things for the club to become successful: 1. Get
together a core group with four people who are voted to be President, Vice
President, Secretary, and Treasurer 2. Set a regular meeting time and date
for the Gravity club with core group 3. Advertise Gravity club- the best
advertising is often word of mouth, or make flyers 4. Read more »

Check out Isabella's vlog about our trip to the tip of India!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pouZnf2vWxI&feature=youtu.be

Check out the journey of GRO-India 2011 at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDZ1lHTMNx4

January 6, 2012

This morning, two American delegates and one Indian delegate admitted they
were sick with a cold so they felt lousy, but they were able to keep their
energy up for today. Today was a big day. We visited the pre-schoolers and
saw the set up of how they do speech therapy. The student and teacher ratio
is 4:1. All of us Americans said hi to each kid and they had a smile on
their face when they saw us. When we headed back to prepare for the
workshops, we got to work. We prepared for the workshops this afternoon and
the open house tomorrow. Read more »

The open house yesterday was a great success! More than 250 students,
teachers and families showed their support. Deaf and hearing both. I
thoroughly enjoyed voicing English for the event. Contributing a real
skill of mine that was greatly needed. My whole life I’ve been told I speak
too quickly. Even in my interpreting life, people have asked me to slow
down or repeat. This was the perfect opportunity for me to practice slowing
down and think about word choices, the pace, to make sure that the
non-native English speakers could understand me. The nods of the president Read more »

Check out our videos about the Art Department at NISH!

http://youtu.be/SAKAXSmeGeE

http://youtu.be/z0LByPR50uc

http://youtu.be/PclfJRSQ9xc

Today was an interesting day to say the least. The deaf Indian delegates taught us their own culture¹s icebreaker games, one of which entails pinpointing the bindi (red dot on an Indian woman's forehead) of a large drawing of a woman's face correctly while being blindfolded. (similar to Pin the Tail on the Donkey game in America) Afterwards, the American and Indian deaf delegates collaborated on forming clay figures. American and Indian delegates alike impressed me with their clay artworks of turtles, elephants, and other figures. Read more »

Watch the Indian delegates teaching the American delegates their local
Kerala language Malayalam at http://youtu.be/MTExwXyj-no

Today at NISH the American delegates hosted two workshops for the Indian delegates that we created last night. The morning focused on leadership: what is a leader? How can the delegates be leaders within their communities? What Deaf organizations exist in India and America? What are leadership positions within an organization? The Indians were all excited to start selecting leaders for the Gravity Club (NISH’s deaf club). Read more »