On the first of September I will be setting off for Southern India to start what will be the biggest adventure of my life so far! I cant believe how close it is now. For as long as I can remember I have always wanted a gap year. I have a friend who went out to India with Project Trust to teach English a couple of years ago and I thought it seemed a great thing to do. To have the opportunity to go to a country for a year sounded really worthwhile and just the adventure I wanted. On the selection course for Project Trust last autumn, I couldnt single out a particular country I wanted to go to, as so many sounded exciting. After much deliberation, I picked India as one of my choices along with several others.
When I got my letter saying I had been selected and that I had been chosen to go to India I was so thrilled and I couldnt be more happy with the choice. In May I got my placement letter explaining that I will be working in a small village called Karkambadi near the town of Tirupati. I will be working with an Indian NGO called RASS. The main emphasis of RASS is the development of women and childrens quality of life in disadvantaged and rural communities, especially in the development of education. Most of the week I will be teaching English in a government primary and secondary school. Once a week I will be helping in a local pre-school run by RASS, playing games and teaching basic English with the children, allowing their mothers to go to work. I am told there will be opportunities for me to start extra-curricular activities such as drama or craft. I may also be able to contribute to some of RASSs other local activities such as their HIV/AIDs awareness project, but this depends on how well I pick up the local language, Telegu! I have been looking at the alphabet and I am already boggled and struggling to distinguish between ta and tha amongst their many other vowels! I am so pleased with this project.
Since my placement letter in May, life has been a bit of a blur, I had to put my excitement on hold while focusing on my A levels and prevent myself from googling Tirupati when avoiding revision! I have discovered that I will most probably be staying in the girls university accommodation of Tirupati. It should be fun to be in a social environment with girls of my own age. Tirupati is the nearest city to the Venkateswara Temple, a Hindu temple in Tirumala which I have heard is the busiest pilgrimage centre in the world and is the most visited holy place in the worldl! It will be interesting to find out more about peoples beliefs as my current knowledge of many religions is pretty poor.
Last week I went back up to the Isle of Coll for my training where I was taught how to teach and prepared for all the other aspects of the year ahead. I also met my partner who I have been paired with in my project who is really lovely and I am sure we will get on well. On training we also got to practise eating a curry with our hand and being left handed I am going to have to be careful to use my right hand when eating! We had good fun trying on saris, which we will wear when working and I cant wait to start wearing one. I hope by the time I return home, I will be able to pleat a sari a lot smoother and eat with my hands more politely! I returned from training even more excited and each day it gets more and more real and yet I still cant quite believe I am going in 23 days! At home I have dug out all the song and game books we had when we were young which should be helpful when teaching certain words in English. I am nervous about what I am going to teach for a whole year and how to make it interesting! I do get scared about the prospect of teaching classes of 40 children as I am not the most confident person in front of crowd, but that is also a key reason why I am going to do this and to face my fears. I hope I make an adequate teacher! Indias culture looks so vibrant and rich and importantly very different to the English culture I am used to. The more I read up on India the more it seems like such an amazing place to go. Being there for a whole year means I can experience many different festivals and all the different seasons from the rainy monsoon to the extreme heat. I hope to make some long lasting friends and to really get to know the community I am in and perhaps even start calling it my home.
