My Name is Ida, I am 19 years old and I live in India in a small village called Heskuthuru since five months. I work in a Primary School near to my home where I teach children who are 9 to 13 years old. In India there is a difference between Kannada Medium Schools, where the teacher teach subjects in Kannda, the local language in the State Karnataka, and English Medium Schools, where children learn all subjects in English. To study on an English Medium School is quite expensive so the most village people have no money to send their children to a school like this. But in India it is important to speak English very well so it is a great chance for them, when volunteers from other countries come to improve their English knowledge. So of course my main subject is English but I also do drawing lessons to improve the creativity of my pupils. It needs some time to get use to your new role as a teacher especially when you don’t know the local language, but every day I have Kannada lesson in my school so after some time I understood the first words and now I also try to explain things in Kannada when children don’t understand me.

From the beginning I really like my project. All teachers are really nice and to spend time with all the children every day is a lot of fun. It is very nice to see that the children enjoy spending time with me. They learn more about the German culture and I learn more about the Indian culture, especially when I spend a lot of time with my host family. I live together with my host parents and my three host brothers and sisters, Rohith, Puneeth and Sancheetha, who are 14, 11 and 9 years old. Together we got to the Temple, we visit the grandparents or we go to functions like marriages or birthdays. Nearly every day I learn more things about the Indian culture and I really esteem that my host father tries to explain me all things I want to know. It needs some time to get use to your new life standard, to the different food or the different clothes, but now, after five months, I can not imagine to go outside without wearing long trousers or a scarf.

In my free time I can meet other volunteers who don’t live that far away from me. We enjoy the day on the beach or do weekend travels to great places like Mysore, Hampi or Kochi. To do a volunteer service is a great opportunity to get to know a different culture and to see a different country. I am very happy about taking this decision and I am sure that the next months in India will be as exciting as the first.