FSL India Blog

We are staying in the Rain Water Harvesting for about one month and enjoy our work there a lot. We are supporting the work of our project-leader, who is also our guest father in terms of preparing presentations or writing proposals for harvesting concepts. We are also joining our boss Mr. Masagi on his surveys so that we get to see as much of the city and interact with people as possible. On our third week, we even spent the entire weekend with our guest family in Coimbatore where we visited a project site, went for sightseeing and could taste the special food of Tamil Nadu. The greatest thing was a refreshing bath in the Monkey Falls with a small picnic afterwards. Our guest family consists of three sisters and one brother, who are very kindly trying to introduce us to the Indian culture. The premises in which we are living are basic but completely sufficient. We are sharing one room in the third floor right under the rooftop which we do not only use for drying our clothes, but also for enjoying the great view there. Once or twice a week we meet with other volunteers who staying in Bangalore to explore the city or just to share our experiences with them. At the weekends we visit some of the places around Bangalore, either by bus or by train. Mysore, Mangalore or Dharamshala are just some of the places we visited already. Some days ago our housedog Pinky gave birth to 5 puppies. One of them is very weak, so at the moment we are trying to save it.

Jakob & Johan

FSL India Volunteers from Germany

An intense sound of drums, music and song were welcoming us when we reached the tent where a show was performed for an excited crowd. The air under the roof where we sat was hot and humid and you could feel the excitement in the air. Every year a competition takes place between different classes of Sri Lakshmi Bangera college in Kota where the classes perform a 30 minutes show each to win the first prize. In front of us the students performed dances in beautiful dresses. Some dances were traditional and typical for Karnataka, like the dance with sticks which they were clapping together and some dances were performed to popular dance music. There was also different dramas played; a popular theme was to show a united India where all different people and religions stand up together against terrorism.

Another popular play was the “Yakshagana”, a play that is very popular in coastal Karnataka. The actor in the Yakshagana wears a colorful costume and a masks and were dancing and singing. An important thing seems to be the special mimic that the actor show which was also sometimes very entertaining! After a whole day of entertainment we were impressed by all the costumes, creations and performances that must have taken a long time to prepare and practice and half deaf (because of the loud music) and happy we went back.

 Maria, LTV in Eco Tourism

On Monday I walked through Udupi. I looked around and suddenly I stand in between of ten tigers and they danced around me. But I was not in kind of danger because the tigers were just painted men who were part of the Lord Krishna Festival.

For thousands of people these tigers and other painted people were a big attraction. Screaming and drumming they walked through Udupi and took the crowd to the stage. Some local musicians played music and the tigers did their dancing performance in front of the crowd. Although I was half deaf after this show I enjoyed it very much to groove to the music.

Earlier on the day there were different competitions. For example there was a very large oiled coconut tree which has to be climbed. One man after the other thought he may get the prize on the top of the tree. But as long as I watched them everybody failed. The oil was too slippy.

The temple was hanged with lots of flowers and looked very beautiful. Many, many people came to celebrate the festival and we had to be careful not to get lost in the crowd. Sometimes the crowd took us automatically to another place. That was not really bad because everybody we met was very friendly and helpful.

In the end of the day I felt tiredly in the seat of the bus to Kundapur. After all these people and all this noise it was good to calm down.                                                                 Morten Luchtmann, LTV in Eco Tourism Project

I have worked in a primary school at Kanchugodu from September 2010 till July 2011 for 11 months. Kanchugodu school is giving education to local children, specially economically weak background children.

The school has less than minimum number of teachers and lacking of computer education facilities.

So to get computer facility, I have organized a charity event at former High School in Germany. The amount of money collected was 1741 € or 110.000 Indian Rupees – enough money to make recognizable improvement, for a quite poorly equipped and funded government school.

 This donation money enabled the school to provide basic computer education to its students. These fundamental computer skills are crucial to qualify the students in a way that makes them fit for either higher education or to compete at the labor market. To ensure proper computer lessons, the school employed a qualified teacher for one year, who is also being paid from the donated money.

Besides this, the teachers have the benefit to be able to scan, print and copy documents at the school itself, for example to distribute worksheets in their classes. Thanks for donation money and to the school.

Regards,

Daniel

Miss. Christine Dyrsting and Karoline Westen Noer, the two volunteers worked in “De Mecerde orphanage and Baptist projects”. Here the volunteers expressing their experience in India!

India has been a great deal of surprises, challenges, experiences and amazing experiences. The Indian people are like no other people in the world. They can be hard to communicate with, and even though both of you speak English, it’s sometimes still difficult to understand each other. And this is not only because of the accent, but also because of the way the Indian speaks. They shake their head, they don’t say “please” or “thank you”, and they think you understand when you really don’t! But still, they really want you to understand them, and they really want to communicate, even though they only speak Kannada, and maybe only know a few word in English. The Indians are very curious too. So when you walk down the street, eg. in a city like Gangavati, it is not possible to walk more the 100-200 meters without being asked: “hello, what’s your name? What country are you from? Hwy foreigner” or something like that. It can be quit irritating at times, when you just need a little time away from you host family, and just want to take a walk. But you have to think about, that they probably haven’t seen a “white” person before, so of cause they are curious. But it take some getting used to, and on a bad day it can be really irritating.

But still the Indian people are great, there are so much hospitality and they are so friendly and interested in you and your country.

The transportation in India is a chapter on its own. We were a bit surprised about how easy it is to get around, there are lot of buses, and also good train departures. But sometime it is like all of India has decided to take the same bus all at once, which makes the bus a little bit crowded. But of course, on longer trips, when you go with private bus companies, and you have your own seat, it is no problem.

It has been challenging from time to time to handle all the differences, especially at the project, where the physical punishment has been very difficult to observe. Here the handling of the children is much more physical, and it can be very hard to understand how you can raise a child like that.

But India is still an amazing country! The nature is incredible, the contrast between city and modern life and the more rural traditional life, the people and their hospitality, the weather with great thunder storms and burning sun, and just how different everything are, and at the same time, how similar it is to the life we live in Denmark.

India IS incredible!

One of the FSL volunteer Romina, is captured in newspaper article while reading daily Kannada newspaper. Miss Romina is working in The Kishkinda Trust as a part of FSL India’s LTV program. She is interested in learning Kannada and she practices regularly.

Hello, my name is Filiz and since March 2011 I am working in the Nittur Primary School. Right after the beginning of my year, the school celebrated the School Day.

Yet the two weeks before the whole school practiced singing and dancing. All children were excited and very motivated to present the school in a good light! Also the other German volunteer Melanie and me had to practice our speeches..

26th of March 2011: School Day!
My host sister helped me to put on my first Saree in the morning. Wow, what a procedure to put 5 meters of material around the body! Then I went to school. We were sitting on stage as guests of honor next to very important and famous persons and then we had to hold our speeches. Melanie did in Canada - and for that she really has got my whole respect After a long time of giving presents to everyone and speeches, the morning program finished.

At home: one Saree out, another on. Flower in the hair, Bindi on the forehead, earrings not to forget, necklaces and..uff, did i forget anything? oh yes, bangles !!! - yes, yes, yes, veeery important for Indian children! When I arrived at school directly a child told me that I forgot the bangles on the feet

It was a paradise for me! The whole school was decorated with many colors, Indian music was played loudly, all children were running around with glittered and colorful costumes and the program was filled with all dances and songs. Wonderful! Also Melanie and me were enjoying the lively atmosphere … up to one moment… one teacher was coming to tell us that we were the next. WHAT??? Yes, we had really to sing “My heart will go on” without practice before. After 3 minutes we found ourselves on stage and started to sing ..And suddenly they played an absolutely other melody in the background! Horrible! After 2 minutes we gave up - but well, the children were happy!

It was really on one hand a funny experience but I also have to say that I was very surprised of myself. I never would have sang a song in front of 500 people without practicing it before, in Germany. But here I just did it. Well it was not perfect, but we did it and we were proud of ourselves. Now I know, that I am able to do things like that and that it is so unimportant to give so much of your own energy in such banal situations. It was really a great day!
Ah, and two weeks after the School Day we were in the TV.

I am very excited what the year will bring and teach me!
Filiz

My name is Annika and I am volunteer in Shanthi Ashram for one year. Having stayed in the project for 8 months up to now I try to give you a short overview of my project.

Shanthi Ashram is an orphanage situated in the village Vijayadka midst of the Indian forest. Our village consists of a high school, a primary school, a hospital, a church, a convent, a post office, few shops and the orphanage. Otherwise there are just mountains and lots of palm trees! Reaching this place means traveling two hours by bus from Mangalore.

At the moment there are 45 children in the age of 4 - 15 staying in the orphanage. Some of them have no parents at all anymore but most of the kids have a single parent who is not able to take care of the child on account of different reasons. The orphans are raised by Sister Luciana, having a strict daily schedule which involves several prayers before meals and a long evening prayer as well as duties like gardening and cleaning.

My daily schedule looks like this:
I get up at 7:30 and serve breakfast to the children. They eat rice and Sambaar three times a day. After having breakfast with the staff, I wash clothes and cut vegetables for lunch and dinner. Every day I am looking for work by asking my colleagues. Sometimes we have to harvest vegetables or fruits, weed the garden, cut wood for the fire or a bag full of chillies - there is always something to do!

From 10:30 - 16:00 I am teaching in the Primary School which is nearby. I am teacher of UKG and LKG (Upper and Lower Kindergarten) which momentarily consists of 7 children. Since it is an English Medium class, the kids are used to the English lessons. Nevertheless there are often communication problems because of their limited vocabulary. Although it was challenging I managed to adapt my lessons to their age after some time by involving games and creative tasks.

After school I am opening and grinding coconuts for the next day. Moreover I help to shower the small children which is always a little fight but lots of fun! In the evening there are 1 1/2 hours of study time for all the children. During these hours I am teaching, helping with homework or simply sitting and talking to the kids. Later we serve and have dinner, wash the dishes and clean the kitchen. The day ends about 9pm.

My daily schedule changed from time to time. There were times when I was working from morning to evening without any break and times when there was not enough to do. In general I can say that I learned and did a lot of things I didn`t do ever before. For example milking the cows or cleaning the cow`s stable - by hand!

I also learn a lot of things about nature: Just now I came to know how cashew nuts grow or how a pineapple plant looks like. Moreover I am impressed how we can use our environment without wasting too much - for instance all parts of our banana trees are used for cooking, leftovers feed our cows.

In the orphanage I am part of a team which at the moment consists of three female Indian colleagues, Sistser Luciana and another German volunteer. We come along well although there are sometimes language barriers since not everybody is educated in English and my Kannada is not the best either. But even though I am accommodated in the project, it feels like living in a huge host family because of a very familiar atmosphere.

The other volunteer and me share a nice room which has an attached bathroom and is actually quite new since the orphanage was renovated lately.

Although living here is very nice there are also some difficulties to face. It can be challenging to teach children and create lessons without a lot of material. Most of the kids own just a slate, chalk, a book for notes and a pencil - if you are lucky. That`s why it is helpful to bring some music, pictures, colours, books or material to do handicrafts. Anyway, I experienced that if you make a plan for a lesson, it never works out, so you have to be creative and improvise!

Something I won`t ever accept or get used to is the beating of children in school as well as in the orphanage. In the beginning it was very difficult for me to get to know their method of teaching and especially realizing that there isn`t anything I can do about it which was quite frustrating. I can`t see any good in violence against children but I also came to understand that I can`t change people`s minds.

Despite these difficulties I feel well in Shanthi Ashram! What I like most in my project are the children who I came to see as my little siblings. Although they don`t possess much they are so creative in inventing games and they are always friendly, funny and smiling! I still have 4 months to go but when leaving the project the experience I gained while living and working with these kids is something I`ll always remember.

Lots of greets from
Annika

(German volunteer, August 2010 - July 2011)

Hi, my name is Gaia, I`m from Italy, and i did two months as volunteer for FSL India. My project was the Baptist Welfare Society in Gangavathi, a small town in North Karnataka. I was teaching in a school for slum children. At the beginning the situation was not simple, all is new: family and a new house to stay, a project to follow and sometimes some cultural differences… But after the first week, the host family begin your family and you can start to see some development in your project. There are always difficulties to be faced, but the smiles of children and the gratitude and enthusiasm of local people, made me forget fatigue and especially diversity.

During the project I established a good relationship with the host family and with the children too, so that in the school they used to call me “akka teacher”. During the week I was teaching english in the school in collaboration with the regular teachers, trying especially through games and songs to teach how to stay together and collaborate, helping the other with your own possibilities, using the imagination instead of the simple memory. And during the weekends I could have some free time to visit some places as a tourist: Hampi, Gokarna, Mysore…

It is an experience I will never forget , and I’m taking home with me all smiles and new friends, hoping to return one day in my new small Indian town and meet the people who helped me during these two months .

About the NGO

People’s Action For Development (PAD) is an NGO operating in the Gulf of Mannar region of southern Tamil Nadu. The organization is committed to improve the coastal people’s livelihood by various means such as micro credits, community organization, resource management, consultancy, and education opportunities. It is a crucial part of the organization’s philosophy to promote self-governance and sustainable development. Hence, PAD considers itself as a facilitator that functions as a catalyst in the development process.

PAD, which is supported by international donors, maintains three offices along the coast. That way, the 60 staff members can reach the 14,000 families who live in the 133 villages that PAD is working in.

PAD’s target group mostly consists of fishers and palmyrah tappers, which belong to the poorest communities of the state, having an average income of ca. 25,000 RS per family per year.

For more information about PAD visit www.padgom.org

As a volunteer

PAD offers a wide range of activities to get involved in as a volunteer. Most important to them is that the volunteers find their own field of interest, create their project, and set their own goal. I ended up taking lots of pictures of PAD activities that are needed to document PAD’s work, teaching some spoken English as well doing different kinds of IT projects including for example rebuilding the NGO’s webpage.

- Stefan Meinecke