A Journey to India

I had the great opportunity to be part of the OCADU India Design Abroad class that travelled to Mumbai to work with the organization called ISSAC.  I had the extraordinary opportunity and experience working with a boy's orphanage to build them their first play ground they have ever encountered.  Our group collaborated with the children to design their dream playground using found materials we acquired around the town.

When I was in India, I was able to use play as a means of crossing the communication and cultural gulf between myself and the children at the playground that our OCADU class built at an orphanage called K.E.S.B.O.  We had no other means at our disposal to accomplish this and it was a natural, almost inadvertent process that seemed to initiate itself.  The orphaned children at the school recognized in us, as a result of our willingness to play with them, a kindred spirit to which they felt they could relate.  In this way, we found common ground for intercultural discourse.  Before this experience, I had never given any thought to what play can mean and the benefits that can be derived from it.