Polly and I outside the second biggest mosque in India.

 

CURRENT LOCATION: Patna, Bihar, India.

It is official – I have arrived for my first real venture. I arrived in Putney at 1oclock for pre-departure training. It was great to see everyone again who I met on the training weekend and there was definitely an atmosphere of excitement and disbelief that we were actually going. Then the VSO workers handed us our tube tickets and sent us on our way to Heathrow. The lady at the check in desk was very confused when we told her we had no trip leader with us. Check in was quick and easy and we all got something to eat before we got onboard. We touched down in Delhi on the 19^th of September after a 7 and a half hour flight, which could have been a lot worse. There was a great choice of films and we got pillows and blankets so I tried to sleep for a lot of the time. As soon as we landed and got off of the plane, the heat hit us all; hot, sticky, humid – but not English rain! We were met by Manish, who happened to be Reach India’s (the team I’m in) Personal Supervisor (PS) – get used to acronyms here! As soon as we saw him we knew he was going to be a character; he was holding the VSO sign upside down with a huge grin on his face. And he hasn’t let us down since.

After taking a bus through Delhi we arrived at our first hotel. When I saw it, I thought the bus driver had misunderstood and taken us to the wrong place. It was clean, decorative and very posh. We later heard that the only reason VSO booked this hotel is because there was a delay which meant they had to book somewhere very short notice. They kept apologizing for this, but seeing as for the next 11 or so weeks we would not exactly be living in luxury, I was not complaining. This first day all in all was a chilled out day – I read some of my Kindle and we went into town to change money and buy local sims. We did try to blend in as best as possible, but this soon failed while we were waiting for the taxi drivers in the town. After being scared to death in the training weekend by the VSO nurse about rabies and animal bites, a stray dog happened to come up to us very gently. The whole group of us (around 20) started moving backwards very quickly making some very odd noises and trying to shoo it away. The locals were wetting themselves. We got back to the hotel, had some amazing food and went to bed.

The next 6 ½ days consisted of In Country Orientation (ICO). We met the Indian volunteers who were amazing; not all of their English was great, but they were friendly, welcoming and hilarious to be with. The two leaders of the ICO were great – upbeat, lively and full of energy which gave us the energy we needed. Most days involved some sort of interactive learning; lack of sewage works in India (essentially a video about poo), the charities we’d be working with, culture, religion, gender, safety and precautions, the logistics of the experience and resolving conflict. One of the best sessions we had was splitting the UK volunteers from the Indian volunteers and each had to write perceptions/advice about us to the other. Ours included things such as; we are out of our comfort zone so be patient, we want to learn your language so help us out etc etc. They definitely took the perceptions at full pace and came out with some crackers; calling us ‘slave drivers’ (my personal fave), ‘heartbreakers’, that we were highly educated, atheists and had ‘bad teeth’ – clearly coming from the American media. We did manage to squeeze a couple of trips into this week – a trip to ‘Old Delhi’ to see the second biggest mosque in India and then a Hindu temple which had real gold from floor to ceiling – amazing! We also were able to go to a posher part of Delhi for some shopping where I bought some fabulous Indian clothes for next to nothing. We drove past Parliament and the Gate of India, a symbol of their independence. We also had a couple of fabulous evenings - watching a Bollywood film and every song, every one of us would get up and dance. Another was where a group of traditional Indian singers came in with drums. This involved a lot of hefty clapping and my hands were very sore afterwards.

We then had a 18 hour train journey, which was such an amazing experience to Putna, where my work placement is based. We are currently having our In Community Orientation. We learnt in detail about our charity. The man in charge mentioned how we should be realistic – we aren’t going to change the world but we can change an aspect of someone’s life, however small. He described that this could even be teaching someone how to wash their hands properly: heartbreaking. Last night was incredible – our first ride on a Rickshaw and our tea consisted of street food – YUM. We should be leaving for our final living accommodation tonight or tomorrow and our work placement should begin on Monday. I will try to get more access to a computer quicker so these posts aren’t quite so long.  I could write for hours, I have experienced so much already. Overall, I’m having a fab time, am safe, missing everyone loads, but looking forward to making some sort of difference to the women of Bihar. Lots of love J

Reach India Team - UK and National Volunteers