Every morning I would travel to the Jenifer School in Shripur village by bike with a fellow teacher. When we arrived, we would begin teaching our separate classes until around noon. The kids would have a lunch break, after which class would resume again. My classes alternated between English and Art. At least once a week I would meet with the director, Dhirendra Sharma, and talk about ideas and how things are going.
Alumni Spotlight: Ruby Brinkerhoff
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Ruby Brinkerhoff is from Galilee, Pennsylvania and currently goes to school at Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. She lived in Bodhgaya in the spring of 2011. She is studying religion and biology, and hopes to return to India when she graduates.
Describe your day to day activities as a volunteer with the CommonWealGlobal program in India.
Ten years from now, what’s the one thing you think you’ll remember from the trip?
I’ll remember how excited the kids would get every morning when I arrived. Many of them would come up to me, shake my hand, and practice their English with a, “Good morning!” or “Hi, how are you?” I’ll remember how kind and generous the people were to me, as I wouldn’t have made it without their support.
Has your worldview changed as a result of your trip?
Yes. I had to work through a lot of my own strongly held cultural beliefs when I went to live in Bodhgaya and work at the school. There are many things one learns from traveling that can’t be read in books.
What was the most interesting cultural difference you encountered?
The most interesting difference for me was learning how to navigate as a woman. My expectations of how I should be treated or what I should be allowed to do weren’t always what were culturally acceptable or considered normal. I found myself often frustrated by not being allowed to go places or do things by myself. Where I grew up in America, the “independent woman” is something to strive for and be proud of. In Bodhgaya, I had to put that idea on the backburner and accept my dependence on other people.
Tell me about one person you met.
The director of the school, Dhirendra Sharma, is a tall, sharp-minded man, who was crucial to my time at the school. He showed nothing but dedication to his work, not only with the Jenifer School in Shripur Village, but also with students in Gaya, and other projects he had going on at the time.
Dhirendra was very driven, and encouraged me to be that way as well. He was constantly supportive of ideas I wanted to pursue for the school, including a small library for the kids, which we were able to finish before I left.