Volunteering with IEI allowed me to not only contribute to community development but also learn from the people and culture of Chipursan valley. Through writing exercises and journal-keeping, we explored and worked with the students’ narrative and expression. Each class was an interactive session which often included activities like nature walks, dialogue, and story-reading.
To culminate the program and gauge progress, I got students from 9th and 10th grades to translate a Wakhi folk tale into English. It took us two days to pick a story and translate it, and the results exceeded all my expectations.
The students had a strong sense of plot and character development, and a distinct expression that withstood translation. Writing as a group for a month not only strengthened their language skills, but brought us all together as a closely knit creative community.