Double-Double

We were sitting in our maroon Tata Sumo musing on what we had seen.

2 days of visits to summer camps in Sitamarhi District in the state of Bihar and what had we seen? 7 villages, almost 30 teachers, and hundreds of children.

Now at Jainagar, a village on the Nepalese border, we had arrived just a few minutes late and the camp was just letting out. There were 6 of us and a driver in our team. While half our team had stepped out to talk with the teachers at the camp, Dr. Rukmini Banerji, I, and Manoj of the Pratham Bihar team reflected one our travels.

"They're too much like regular classes," Rukmini, Pratham's North India Director said. "They're not energized enough." I was confused by this statement as I had been overwhelmed by the success of the Bihar camps; there were more children in these camps than any I had seen (90 children were at the Dhostia camp we visited, and they were well-organized and had been split into 5 separate groups based on their comprehension levels)-- but here was Rukmini focusing on how to improve the camps. "We need to spend more time on training our volunteers with summer camp specific activities, so they don't slip into the habit of just teaching a class-- it's summer, this should be fun!"

And just then a thin, 8 year-old boy with books in his hands ran passed our car.

"Want to play a game?" Rukmini asked in Hindi.

The boy stopped, stood up very straight, and looked up at her confusedly. Another boy, running out of the camp, stopped beside his peer and stared up at Rukmini.

"It's called double-double. I'll say a number, then you double it. Ok? Ok: one."

"Two!" the boys shouted out.

"Now double that."

"Four!"

"And next?"

"Eight," the boys said in unison.

By now more children had stopped and joined the game.

"Sixteen!" the group called out.

"After that?"

"Thirty-two!"

A crowd was growing outside Rukmini's open car door, as the number of children double-doubled exponentially faster than the numbers in the game. Taking one of the children's mini-blackboards and chalk, she began to lead another game. Parents and school teachers soon joined the crowd and the laughter as she interacted with the children.

Only minutes after arriving at a summer camp that had already ended for the day, I watched as Pratham's North India Director charmed an entire group of children-- and their community; getting them to stay on passed the end of their scheduled day, while at the same time demonstrating to local teachers how a summer camp could be magnetic, fun, and still educational.

And me? I soaked up the scene. And then with a big smile on my face, I shot this video to share the moment with you all.




After about 30 minutes, we began to pack up to leave, but the children wouldn't let us be. They wanted more games, more questions, more fun! And then as we finally began to drive away, the kids did something that I'd only seen in movies before-- they ran behind our car yelling, laughing, waving to us in pure joy. As we drove off, leaving the tidal wave of Jainagar's children in our wake, I sat back in my chair and was reminded of why I work for Pratham.

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