Hello and welcome to this blog post!

I am Merit, 20 years old and have been in India for six months now and have five more months to go.

It is so crazy to think that half my time is already over and I can’t really believe it. I feel like there is so much more that I still want to do and experience and I definitely do not feel ready to leave yet, thankfully I still have five more months. Before I will start talking about those now let’s go back to the beginning and my start in India.

I arrived in the beginning of May even though I was supposed to come in March, but because of visa issues I had a two-month delay. After my arrival and my first week in Kundapura, I got onto the sleeper bus and took off to Mysore where I reached early the next morning. My first day in Mysore was overall pretty relaxed. I got picked up by my coordinator from FSL India and together we went to my host family and later to my project.

I work at People for Animals or short PFA, which is a mixture of an animal shelter, a vet and rehabilitation all at once. It is a big facility (bigger than I expected) and has space for lots of animals. Besides the typical ones you would expect like cats and dogs there are also many others. For example: rabbits, monkeys, horses, donkeys and some birds. Most of the time I help with preparing food, feeding and socializing the puppies and kittens, taking sick or injured animals to the doctor and comforting them there. Oftentimes we also have really young kittens and puppies which need to be bottle-fed which I then do every two hours. Overall, I really enjoy my project and my work there and I am really happy being able to socialize the young animals so that they can be adopted.

My host family consists of my host mom, host dad, host sister and her family. My host sister is living in Bangalore with her husband and her small daughter and my host dad is working in Bangalore most of the time. So, the majority of the time it is my host mom and me. We get along really well and I’m incredibly happy to be living here with her. I also did a few things with her, went out a few times in Mysore and we also traveled to Bangalore together to my host sister’s place as well as once for a half saree function for her niece. We have also cooked a bit together a few times and I cooked some German food or food that I would have at home for us which was also really nice.

My city: I live in Mysore which is an awesome city. It is definitely smaller than Bangalore and bigger than Kundapura. I feel like it has the perfect size and I really love it here. I am also not the only volunteer here which makes it really nice, so in my free time I’m able to meet up with other volunteers and do some stuff with them. There are a few lakes where you can chill out really well as well as some good cafes and restaurants. The volunteers (especially from Germany) love “Sapa” which is a German bakery. They do have amazing pastries and bread and through them I was also able to share some cakes from home with my host family.

A recap of six months: The first few weeks were hard, which is to be expected. The climate, the food, the people, the language. Everything was and is still to some degree different. And there I was. Being thrown into a completely different world, different reality and having to adjust myself and live with it. Well, that was my goal and I definitely did achieve that. I was here – in India, away from my family, friends, food and everything I know. After a few weeks of many adjustments and hours on call with my mom and dad at home I was finally able to get into a routine and figure myself out.

And now?

I am living here. I have a life here. I am happy. And I am scared about the day that I have to leave. Even though I might still get sick from food or something more often than in Germany I don’t mind it as much and I love the life that I am able to live here. I am enjoying it and would not want to trade it for anything. I love my project, my host family and the friends that I made here, Indian, international and German.

It is crazy to think that half of my time is over and I try to not think as often about the day that I have to leave, but I know that day will come and I also don’t know when I will be able to come back. So now I am trying to live fully in every moment and really embrace the time that I am here and that I have left and to just make the most out of it.

One thing that I still want to do a bit more is to travel. So far, I have only been to Hampi, Mangalore and Bangalore. Soon I will go on a two-week trip to a few places in Rajasthan with three other volunteers and I have a few more trips planned like Kochi-Alleppey, Madurai, Gokarna and Goa.

I will see what happens and what I’m able to do, but I think I will definitely enjoy the next five months in India and it will be a time that I will always treasure and keep close to my heart, I already do.