After all that I've written about, I don't think that I've ever really talked about my internship, which was the whole reason why I wanted to go to India. I figured, why study abroad if you can't witness what's going on in your field of study in that same country and culture. So that's what I'm doing....interning at an orphanage for girls in India. I've been at my internship for about three weeks now and it's been great some days and not so great others. Here's a look back at what I thought about my internship on my very first day as an intern.....
"I've always been fascinated with other cultures. Finding out what traditions, customs and behaviors that other cultures have has always made me want to visit that culture and soak up what they are able to teach me. Being able to have an internship in a culture that has always amazed me is an experience no one could ever put a price on.
One of the behaviors/processes that has always been interesting to me has been international adoption. Being able to see the process up close and see what has to happen in order for a family to adopt a child from another country is what I'm looking to accomplish while I'm at St. Catherine's Home/Orphanage. I realize that helping the staff with daily tasks is part of my job as an intern too. But for me to shadow a case with an MSW is one of my goals this semester. I'm just craaaving that experience!
On my first day of interning, I was so excited to go to the orphanage and see the international adoption process up close and personal. I love interacting with children too so that's an added bonus :) When I got to the orphanage however, they kind of threw me into a classroom with about eight girls and told me to teach them English. These 8 girls had a range of academic levels. Some understood the alphabet and others were busy copying whatever I put on the board.
As a social worker, in any setting that I'm placed in, I try my very best to be at their level and communicate with them. It was very difficult communicating with them when some girls barely understood a word of English. Since I was immediately placed in the classroom with the girls, I had no idea what they knew already, what I was supposed to teach them, etc. It proved very difficult.
Over the course of this semester, I want to be able to learn social work practices that are going on in the orphanage and other social work skills that I know but could improve on. As an intern and also a social worker, there will always be room for improvement. It is difficult for myself to point out what I could improve on, but I know it has to be done. Having a supervisor/MSW there to guide me along or show me what I could improve on would definitely be beneficial to me.
After trying to teach some girls English, I migrated on to the nursery cottage of the orphanage. Here, I expected that I would be feeding, comforting and just being with the babies. During this time, I would also be able to talk to the other people working at the orphanage, and I'm sure, learning from them as well. When I got to the nursery, I was guided to a small room off from the nursery where there were two girls who had some physical and possibly mental/emotional developmental difficulties. I was told to also teach these two 7 & 8 year olds English and teach them songs. When one of the sisters was there, they sang songs, spoke English and were able to recite the alphabet and numbers. After the sister left though, the two girls closed up like clams. Even though they were capable of speaking English, since it wasn't their most comfortable language, they didn't want to speak in English. Instead, they spoke in Marathi (a language spoken in Mumbai and the rest of the state) and Hindi I was told. It became difficult and very frustrating for me to use my social work skills and interact with them.
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