This is us – the 2 new volunteers from Latvia.
We left home early morning February 10th to commit ourselves to 3 months volunteer work in India. It took us a long time to reach the Valley of Gods. We arrived in Kullu February 12th. It’s been 2 weeks since we’re here though it seems like we came only yesterday. It was for certain that coming to India will be a great cultural shock for both of us. It takes time (longer than you expect) to get used to the crazy traffic, spicy food, staring local people and numerous other things. One must learn to view the world from a different angle. Slowly but surely we learn.
Coming from a country with its highest point of 312 m we both find the Himalayas breathtaking! Hiking in mountains has become one of our favourite activities (accompanied by our project coordinator Ankit). The weather is also very pleasent – sometimes even too hot for us. But then we just get a fresh orange juice (for a price 5 times lower than it would be at home) and live happily again! It’s also amazing how kind and open are the local people here – a stranger would invite you for a cup of chai just like that.
The project itself involves schools and orphanages all over the valley but we have settled down in Kullu and will be working here for most of the time (if we were a larger group we could split and do some work in and around Manali as well as Kullu – it’s definitely better to come in a group more than 2).
Since most of the schools have their exam period now during which they aren’t really keen to collaborate with volunteers, we are now spending most of the time planning and enjoying ourselves. There’s just one school we work with now (O.L.S. School). Our schedule would change when the exams finish (mid March) – then we’ll be visiting three orphanages as well as two schools if we manage to plan our time well.
Apart from continuing what the previous volunteers have started (EXCITE workshops in schools and visits to orphanages) we also hope to make a short documentary about the project. There’s loads we want to do but, as mentioned above, it would have been much more effective if we were more people. We shall hope the word about this project spreads and more volunteers join in the future!
Comments