2011 Rambo Christian School Mela - cues....they just don't understand

Gameday. You’ve been preparing for this moment for months. You’ve heard stories from people who have been there before you. They have offered tips and suggestions on how to calm your nerves and help you to get the most out your experience. All the supplies are in place, the team is assembled and there is nothing left to do, but to go out there and perform. (cue motivational instrumental music)……

Today was the Rambo Christian School Mela. For three scorching hot hours the school yard became a festival that rivaled any great Catholic Church in the states (without the gigantic amount of beer). There were vendor everywhere selling crafts, food and even……….wait for it………vanilla ice cream! Oh yeah, it was the by far the best ice cream I have ever had in my entire life. Along with all of this they had a DJ jamming out a playlist featuring Jay-Z, Rhianna and Kei$ha among others.

We were responsible for the games, well most of them. We were told that we would placed along the far wall of the school yard and consequently in the direct rays of India’s finest 3 o’clock sunshine. We all got our year’s dose of Vitamin K and UV rays for sure! The plan was to have 9 games including a ball toss, a Frisbee toss, a ring toss, a futbol kick and several games from the popular American television show – Minute To Win It. Along with all of this we had a Nintendo Wii featuring Just Dance 2, the Michael Jackson Experience and Mario Kart, set-up in one of the classrooms. There was going to surely be something for everyone.

Our Rambo Christian School Mela forefathers and foresisters who came before us (not as distinct as it sounds, they were just here last year) provided us with much needed intel, tips and suggestions. One of the largest and prominent questions we were told we would have to address was crowd control. The idea of waiting in lines is foreign to most people in India. We even witnessed it in Newark when they started boarding our flight and when they called for only first 5 rows to be seated, a solid 85% of the passengers crowded to the gate. Knowing this and knowing we would be dealing with lots of kids, we knew we had to be prepared.

I spent the days leading up to the festival designing a system of cues that would hopefully prevent a mass rush at each of the game tables, keep some kind of order and ensure that everyone has a great day. The hope was that if we had enough set-up and in place, we wouldn’t have to worry about a thing. WRONG. A full morning of setting up chairs and rope and having a team of volunteers from the hospital in place couldn’t even prepare us for what we were going to experience. One of the other things that we had to plan for was how to handle the prizes. In year’s past they had set up the prize table in the middle of the yard and experienced some pilfering that was simply unavoidable. So as we were setting up and planning for the event later in the day, Shane suggested we have the prizes in one of the classrooms and have the kids come to the window of the classroom and they can pick their prize from there. Genius! We lugged our 3 suitcases full of McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys, Silly Bands, Matchbox cars and every other little toy under the sun over the school and set-up the prize room.

In one of the other classrooms the maintenance team from the hospital set-up the Nintendo Wii that we brought along. If you could have seen the electrical wires and transformers going all over the place….you’d be amazed! Who knew that children from Mungeli would love Just Dance 2? Surprisingly enough though, we didn’t have as many kids that wanted to play it as I expected. It was definitely an example of cultural differences – they have never played anything like this, so they have no comprehension of it or any desire to experience it. Regardless of all this, I think we introduced some people to this technology and they had a great time playing it.

Most of the morning was spent gathering supplies up for the games, setting up the area and trying to get as much information on the Mela as I possibly could. The fair would begin at 3pm and run to 6pm at the latest – mainly because it gets pitch dark at 6pm. Everything else was ready to go. The teachers would be selling crafts and food, there were other vendors there, a dj would be playing music and we would be in charge of all the games. So we decided to go with nine different games: Frisbee Toss, Ball Toss, Soccer Kick (through a tire), ring toss and a number of games from the popular TV Show, Minute-To-Win-It. For the fans of the show, they included Cookie Face, Ped Head, Back Flip, Last Card Standing and others.

Our plan was that each person running a game would have a bunch of raffle tickets at their respective game and when someone won a game they would take a raffle ticket to the prize window. It was fool proof or so we thought. It was moments before the fair started that we were informed that the kids are supposed to pay to play the games. There was a window set-up where the fair goers could turn in rupees for slips of paper that were valued at 5 or 10 rupees. We were then told to charge 5 rupees for each of our games. So we did just that. Before we could even blink the school buses arrived filled with kids, the gates were opened to the community and we were off and running. One of the biggest things we had to deal with besides a language barrier, a disregard for our beautiful ques that we created and the overbearing sound of “Umbrella….ella….ellla….ella” blasting from the DJ’s speakers, our games were set-up along the far wall in the direct line of the 3 o’clock sunshine. Hot was an understatement.

I have to say, the 3 hours of the fair was a complete blur. We had about 11 people helping us with the games, but we could have easily used an extra 5 or 10 people. I spent the entire time supplying each game with raffle tickets and collecting their big piles of rupee slips. I also kept running water to everyone who was helping us out. After awhile our cues were overtaken, my feeble attempt to learn “BACK-UP!” in Hindi failed miserably and we were simply holding out for 6 o’clock. Don’t read this wrong, the Mela was a great time and it was so much fun seeing such joy on the faces of everyone from simple games that we often take for granted in the states. It was also interesting to see what complete joy a simple toy could bring to the face of these children. These were things that American children would probably not be nearly as excited about. We all thoroughly enjoyed our time at the Mela! It was such a change of pace in a community and lifestyle that is so monotonous, that you could really see how important something simple like this is to these people. They could laugh, run around, play games, enjoy treats and forget about everything else for a very brief moment.

After an hour or so in the dark putting all the games away and the chairs and tables back into the classrooms, we returned to the hospital covered in dust and sweat and ready for a nice evening among the company of our new friends. After showers and dinner, we all gathered to chat for some time and eventually got the entire group into a game of Betty Ford. It was a great way to finish off a great day.

We are realizing today that our time in Mungeli is quickly wrapping up. The weekend will go very quickly and it will be back to Raipur for a 9am flight on Monday morning. I hope that our weekend will be a chance to really take in and enjoy our final days in this incredible part of the world. What an opportunity it has been. I will share more on this later. For now…..I need some sleep!

Have a great day!
-Nate