After the 6-hours flight from Hong Kong, we finally stepped on this mysterious, yet incredible land of India, Bangalore.

                     We started our work camp with a sweet and warm welcoming ceremony from fellow FSL members.

The 4-days work camp was a series of cultural exchanging experience. We immersed ourselves into Indian culture and lived like a local. We had our first lesson in India from a group of local students. When we shared with them the traditions of Lunar New Year in Hong Kong, they were especially concentrated. They were able to adapt to the manner quickly and wished us a fruitful and happy new year in Chinese manner. We could feel their curiosity and fondness to a culture they could hardly be in touch with.

On the next day, we visited an orphanage established by “Need Base India”. The orphanage provides ongoing care and guidance to children until they are fully capable of taking care of themselves. They give them both emotional and academic support.

Our camp leader, Rahul gave us a challenge by not doing translations for us to the kids, which made our tasks playing with the children extra hard. Luckily, our work campers are very used to dealing with kids. We communicated with body languages, whistles and some simple English.

But somehow, we lost control of the situation. Rahul encouraged us with one sentence “it is okay to fail,” giving us sustainable support to our work, our life journey.

We came back to the same place on the next day to renovate the wall of the building with white paint. Rahul challenged us to finish the task within a short time limit. We were able to coordinate as a team to complete the work well on time.

During these 4 days, this team of 1 Indian and 16 Hongkongers accomplished and gained so much. We were fully absorbed in the kindness of Indians. We tasted South Indian cuisine with our right hands. We crossed the crazy street of Bangalore. We sang and created our own theme song during the traffic. This journey was one little dot in our life, but it contained much happiness and memories. Every night before we went to bed, we sat down and reflected on what we experienced. We all agreed that the happy moments spent with the children were the best memory we had.

We would like to thank every Indian we encountered, especially our great camp leader, Rahul, for showing us the beauty of India. We hope the children will live to realize the beauty of the world and enjoy their life journeys.