Day 3: Sunday, May 22

Sunday morning dawned clear and, thankfully, with lights. The kids, true to their word, quickly got ready and into their groups from the previous evening to finish their presentations about what children's groups can do. After breakfast everyone repaired to the PWD hall above the TRC where Guddu led the group in some more games to get them warmed up. We were joined this morning by a few local children from Pithoragarh, who were quickly assimilated into the group and games.

Sudhir officially started the session with a game of ducks-lake-eagles in which the smallest children, the "ducks," were put into the center of the "lake," which consisted of a group of children tightly linking their arms. On the very outside were the "eagles," whose purpose was to break through the barrier of the lake and snatch the ducks. It was a wild game, with the children of the "lake" trying desperately to hold together as the "eagles" descended from all sides. Eventually the eagles broke through and snatched away some of the ducks. Using this metaphor, Sudhir began the conversation with a discussion of how a single weak point could make a whole chain, or an entire MCF group, weak. He said the responsibility lay with the stronger children to help and support the weaker ones. The participants were again divided into two groups and asked to work out ways to make their MCF chapters strong and to reactivate chapters that were losing momentum.

After considerable discussion, the participants returned to share their conclusions, which included doing work and activities that involved all the children, creating unity in the groups, building self confidence among the children, getting support from the village, setting aside time for the chapter, etc.

The presentations were followed by an activity called the "MCF Tree." In this, a picture of a tree was put up and there were paper cutouts of fruit with words such as "equity," "infighting," "disregard for the views of others," "regular meetings," etc. The children came forward one at a time and picked up a fruit and then the group discussed whether it belonged on the MCF tree.

After lunch, we played the toffee game, which led into a lively discussion of how distribution of resources is so often unequal, with Sudhir bringing up the example of the 1991 Uttarkashi earthquake, when, during the relief operations, some families didn't have a single blanket to cover with while others had collected and stashed away dozens. Renu Thakur, head of the MCF's partner organization in Pithoragarh, ARPAN, expanded the discussion further to how the people with the most knowledge and information were able to get the most resources while the poorest people continued to be left out.

Then Dr. R.K. Choudhary, a history instructor at the local Intercollege (high school) and the regional coordinator for the Scouts and Girl Guides program, was so taken by the workshop that he asked to give a short talk about the scouting program. Since several of the participants were already active in the Scouts, the group listened attentively to his lecture.

It was another long day and approaching 6:30 when we finally wrapped up for the day. The children organized another cultural evening, this time making use of the big hall and its stage for their performances.

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