Namaste! We have reached the end of week two, and it is a holiday weekend! We celebrated at school with the little children and they told us all about the festival Raksha Bandan, which means bond of protection. Rahki, as it is called by most people, celebrates the love and sense of duty between brothers and sisters. During this festival, the sister ties a rahki, a sacred thread or bracelet, on the wrist of her brother to symbolize her love for him. In return, he gives her a gift, usually a baked good, to symbolize his promise to protect her forever.
The ACE experience has allowed us to practice and improve upon those aspects through team building experiences.
We have loved learning about this festival of friendship and love because it represents an opportunity for us to celebrate our own growing bonds of friendship! These past two weeks we have been in several situations in which we have had to look after each other. Each of our sports has given us the ability to communicate effectively and work well with many different personalities. So far, the ACE experience has allowed us to practice and improve upon those aspects through team building experiences.
When getting on and off the metro, we are intentional about making sure that everyone is accounted for before the doors close. It is important that everyone is ready and has a sense of urgency because the doors close quickly. At the Vidya School where we have been teaching, if a group is trying to find more innovative ways to teach a classroom, the group will collaborate and help that group come up with something. We bounce ideas off of one another and learn from the ways in which other groups have been successful. In addition to the ways in which we grow closer as a team in the community, we have also grown closer internally, especially during meals. Since our meals are family-styled, we use that time to share all of our experiences from the day, whether big or small. In addition to sharing details about our days, each time we are presented with new food that we have never seen before, one person is always willing to take the first bite and describe their experience with the new taste in detail. All of these moments, though seemingly small, have contributed to how close we are as a team.
It is so fitting that Rahki is being celebrated this weekend as we grow closer to this community and to one another!