On the 11^th and 12^th December , FSL- India organised a Get together for the long term volunteers living around Kundapur. There are 10 volunteers participated, accompanied by 5 FSL staff members. This month’s GTG was held at Simha Farms. Simha Farms is located in the Western Ghats mountain range and is surrounded by the Ghats’ evergreen forests. Its remote location makes for a perfect place to relax from everyday life and enjoy the nature.

 

The Get Together (GTG) is a way of meeting other volunteers from the region but also to reflect on the volunteers’ life in India. This means assessing if the volunteer is happy, how s/he likes his/her work in the project and the challenges s/he faces as well has the challenges that the volunteer has overcome.

For the first session, four groups of three people were made. One person was shown a picture. He/she then had to re-enact what was on the picture for the next person. This person then had to describe what was acted by the first person. With this description, the third person had to draw the picture. The results were surprisingly accurate and sometimes even very artistic. This rather entertaining session was followed by “sweet and spicy”. Volunteers were asked to tell about the experiences they made in their host families and projects. For every good experience they should take a son pappadi (sweet) and a crisp for every bad experience (spicy). In the end, the box of son pappadi was significantly emptier than the bag of crisps. After the session volunteers and staff went to the nearby river and ended the day with a campfire.