Our Memorable days at Hand-in-Land, Kundapura!
We are Jang Seeun and Daeum Kim from South Korea.
We had an opportunity to visit India, especially Kundapura to do a 2-week work camp at Centre for Experiential Living – FSL India, Shettrakatte. Kundapura is a small town surrounded by the Arabian Sea and backwaters, another side is the Western Ghats and countless temples. It was a peaceful and such a spectacular spot to see!
6th to 19th January – 2 weeks, it was amazing times which we have spent here. Our team leader was Venkatesh; he is a very kind and helpful person. He explained a lot about Indian culture, lifestyle of people, tradition and practice. During our days, we visited many places which are surrounding Kundapura along with Venkatesh and Dinesh like schools, beaches, landscapes, fishing harbour, lighthouse, temples, tiles and cashew factories, heritage village in Manipal, children’s project and eco-friendly shop.
On the first day of the camp we had a warm welcome by FSL staff members, and had an orientation about the camp. We both worked in the Sustainable project; we did different types of work in Agriculture such as nursery work, trenches repair, kitchen garden work, showing the seeds and watering the fruits plants, compost making, and we spent joyful times with Mello (dog) Rani (goat) and walking stars (chicks).
We did a Sea Turtle conservation presentation at a school. It was very interesting and we were so happy to be with the children and we done Korean country presentation at another school.
We visited the Tent School project which is run by FSL India. There we have seen the life of the migrant community people and how they are living with minimum needs. It made us to think and compare with our Korean lifestyle!
We have taken part in the occasion of temple festival at Kota, to create awareness among the public about a plastic-free fest along with FSL co-volunteers and Clean Kundapura Project team.
We had an interaction about Indian culture, festival, family bonding, traditions, marriage systems, and food practices with the Indian family. It was very curious and interesting to know about India and the life of the people, and we had tasty Taj tea and crispy snacks with the family.
Overall, it was an affordable and meaningful time in Kundapura, we wonder about how fast the days went, on the final day of the camp, we felt sorrow to leave. Thank you all of those who have taken care of us as like their relatives! We decided both to visit again, don’t worry we’ll be back soon!!!
