Media Centre for Volunteer in Ghana

Sidse Ehmsen

The different countries and cultures have always fascinated me. I was looking for an opportunity to travel to India but unlike a normal tourist, I wanted to see the Indian culture and its different aspects as a whole, like the festivals, rituals and I also had a wish to help the poor communities of India.

The program provided me with an opportunity to stay with an Indian family. It was a nice experience with an Indian middle class family. It was nice to see the way people worship and their strange customs. I was amazed to see that how three generations of a family live together. I used to have my breakfast and dinner with the family, as after breakfast I had to move for the orientation. We often had different discussions on the dinner table and it was nice to know their point of views about different International and local issues. I think it's a great Idea for the volunteers to experience the family stay and the Indian hospitality.

Apart from the family stay our orientation consisted of Introduction to organization, staff and work area, lectures on Indian history and culture, religion and caste system, workshop on teaching techniques and aids and above all mock lessons in teaching which was of enormous help for me in teaching. After the orientation in the office we also went for sightseeing and we saw different famous monuments and also an Indian movie. The last day of orientation was visit to our work sites that is schools. The first two days were really challenging as it was a different environment for us to teach in such type of school and it was also a very different environment for the kids as well. But with the help of the local coordinator and my own ability, I was, very soon, able to fill the gap that was between me and the kids. We were accommodated in a nice and clean apartment which had a lot of open space. We used to dine together. I must mention that the in house phone and internet facility was of great help. We had home made Indian food cooked by efficient cooking staff. Initially it was difficult to get used to of a different kind of food but now I can say that I miss the taste of few of my favorite dishes specially Dal Bati, staple food of Rajasthan.

We had an Excursion in-between the program. We first traveled to Jaisalmer, and took the pleasure in the highlights of the city, camel safari and a night stay in a desert village with the local folk dance and music. It was a great fun to stay in desert and I think camel safari was the best part of my trip. It was so beautiful to see the sunset and sunrise with the camel safari on sand dunes. We also visited Jodhpur and I was mesmerized to see the beautiful Mehrangarh fort.

There were regular Hindi language lessons for us that helped us a lot to communicate with children better. Though we were not fluent in Hindi, knowing few words and sentences helped a lot. We also had workshop on cooking and learnt a lot of Spicy Indian recipes. There was another workshop twice a day, which was yoga workshop. We had it early morning and in the evening as well. It was not easy to get up early in the morning but the workshop was so well thought-out and so interesting that we continued it on our own even after yoga workshop was finished. Finally I can say that these two months passed off very fast. The volunteer program was designed, flawlessly, we enjoyed every portion of it; teaching, workshops, lectures, accommodation, food, excursion, every thing. There were few problems but they were negligible. Of course the best part was spending time with the kids and I am going to miss my kids a lot. I wish to come to India again and visit my new home and school kids.