{"id":15176,"date":"2019-02-20T06:02:48","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T06:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog2\/?p=15176"},"modified":"2019-02-20T06:02:48","modified_gmt":"2019-02-20T06:02:48","slug":"my-volunteering-after-6-months-chantal-steckroth-germany","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/my-volunteering-after-6-months-chantal-steckroth-germany\/","title":{"rendered":"My volunteering after 6 months \u2013 Chantal Steckroth, Germany"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While\nI am writing this report, I start realising that already more than half of the\ntime in my project is over. The past 3 months were passing by incredibly fast. In\nthis report I will talk about the new aspects in my daily life, my challenges\nand in addition, I will explain my work at school.
\n
\nSo\nwhat changed in my daily life? Firstly, I am feeling at home in Anagalli. After\na weekend of travelling and then coming back to my little village, I get the\nfeeling of coming home to a place that I know and where I can relax because\neverything is very routine. Furthermore, I am going to a dancing class in\nUdupi. Wednesday and Friday, I joined together with another volunteer a western\nstyle dance class, with Bollywood and Kannada songs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I was dancing throughout my childhood (and of course, I always loved it) I\u2019m really enjoying the lessons. The teachers and the other students are just amazing people, all very open-minded and caring. When I go to the dancing class, I am always home a little late, that\u2019s why I take an autorickshaw to get home and to make my host family and me feel safe. After 2 months of dancing, they already asked Elly (the other volunteer and now a close friend of mine) and me to join the group for a dancing performance on stage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

First,\nit seemed impossible for us to face it, but in the end, we did it and it was so\nmuch fun.
\nAnother\nsignificant point in the everyday life is the language. I start to understand\nmore and more Kannada, but still, I\u2019m not really able to communicate properly.\nThe Kannada lessons provided by the school kids weren\u2019t that much improving my\nskills. So, from now on, Bharathi, my hostsister, will teach me some Kannada,\nand I hope that there will be more motivation from my side to learn the new\nlanguage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nBesides,\nI realised that even though during winter time the temperature will rise up at\ndaytime, but still, it can sink at night. That means that we have about 20 to\n25 degrees during the nights. I adjusted really well to the Indian temperatures,\nso that I\u2018m freezing sometimes in the mornings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Another thing that changed during the past 3 months was the amount of travelling I did. I got more and more used to the Indian transport system. I love the fact that you can get sleeper buses from every city to the next, which is a really comfortable and also, safe way of travelling. Besides, in my experience, the buses are highly on time. Also, the trains are really affordable and an easy way to travel. For example, people are always walking through the train and selling chai, snacks and proper meals. In my eyes, you feel a little like in the train to Hogwarts, without the fear of purchasing disgusting sweets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My last trips led me to Gokarna, Mysore, Goa, Kerala, Mangalore and the North of India. Therefore, I can say that I spent much time outside of my new home, and got around. Gokarna was a really nice trip with some other volunteers, some beach time and western food (which I really miss from time to time), same was Goa at New Year\u2019s Eve. In Kerala, I spent my last week of 2018, and enjoyed some tea plantations in Munnar and an amazing backwater tour in Alleppey. Cochin, the capital of Kerala was not really our favourite place, because it was very crowded by tourists. In Mangalore, I was visiting my host brother Vishwa and his wife Ashwini, which is always really nice and much time full of talking about Indian and German culture, and eating delicious food. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\none weekend I travelled to Mysore to visit my volunteer friend Merle. With her,\nI had some nice talks and we planned our trip (after the volunteering ends) to\nthe north of India. I already saw some places in the north at the end of\nNovember\/beginning of December, with my mum. The different cities in the north\nwere fascinating and it was so much fun to visit the places with my mum. When\nyou stay such a long time apart from your family, you start realising how much\nyou love them, and also how much you take the time you had together for granted.\nThat\u2019s why I was really happy to spend 2 wonderful weeks with my mum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nThere,\nwe come to one challenging aspect of the last 3 months – saying \u201cGoodbye\u201d to my\nmother and missing my family and friends from time to time. Just meeting your\nfriends in the evening, talking about daily stuff and not caring about the time\nwhen you have to go home. Because you\u2019re living very close to each other and\nyou have the flexibility to get home safe during night time. That\u2018\u2019s something\nI value more now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another\naspect, which was challenging was a little low due to some cultural\ndifferences, which came all at the same time. For example, in my host family,\nthere are special rules when women have their periods. At these moments I felt\nreally different with my mindset and I missed Germany and my friends and family.\nWhat helped me were talks with other volunteers and my friends at home. So now\nI can say that I have overcome the low, I am enjoying the Indian culture again\nand I know how to behave when I am feeling different.
\n
\nIn\nthe past weeks and months, I was attending many functions like weddings, Roce and\nMehndi functions. These are Christian and Hindu festivals celebrated along with\nweddings. In addition, I joined my host family when they were going to the\ntemple, which sometimes felt very long, but it\u2019s still always an interesting\nexperience. Also, with the school kids, we sometimes went to the temple to get\nlunch. Everybody, especially the children, were really happy about the tasty\ntemple food and the (mostly) longer lunch breaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nAt\nthe first month at school, it was difficult to adapt to the flexible Indian\nstyle of teaching, but I feel like now I got used to it, and it\u2018s not\nchallenging any more if classes are dropped or changed somehow out of the blue.\nFurthermore, I am getting along way better with the younger students. This\ndevelopment came with a project I started. I told them the story of \u201cThe very\nhungry caterpillar\u201d. Meanwhile, they learned the names of the days of the week,\nand some fruits in English. Another project was about the \u201cRainbow fish\u201d and 4th to 7th Standards performed a drama in front of the other\nstudents about it. In combination with some crafting to the topic, I would call\nthe projects a success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At\nChristmas time, I couldn\u2019t resist and I did some traditional Christmas songs\nwith the kids. But most of the songs and information I shared they already knew\nfrom former volunteers, nevertheless it was quite funny. In addition, I organised\nwith FSL-India some \u201cbag gardening\u201d to create awareness about\nnature and recycling. For that special project, some volunteers from FSL-India\ncame to the GHPS, Anagalli and they planted vegetables and spices in some\nrecycled plastic bags. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Afterwards, Manjesh the coordinator of this gardening project explained everything to the children. Now, the students water the plants every morning. Although there was some confusion with the bags in that we are not quite sure any more in which bag we put which seed, everybody liked the project and the new faces from all over the world at school. In the next months I am planning to do some projects about a new story, on healthy teeth and sexual education. With Nallikali, I will do some more drawing because they really enjoyed it in the past, and maybe, we will talk about the body parts in English.

To conclude, I can say that in the past 3 months, I found some real new friends (who told me that I gained a fantastic Indian English pronunciation by the way), a second home in Anagalli and I really bonded with my students. That\u2019s the reason why I am not looking forward to the end of my stay, nevertheless I will be happy when I can see my family and friends again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While I am writing this report, I start realising that already more than half of the time in my project is over. The past 3 months were passing by incredibly fast. In this report I will talk about the new aspects in my daily life, my challenges and in addition, I will explain my work at school. So what changed in my daily life? Firstly, I am feeling at home in Anagalli. After a weekend of travelling and then coming…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":15178,"comment_status":"Closed","ping_status":"Closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[430,444],"tags":[502,600,488,464,290,538,276],"class_list":["post-15176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ltv-kundapur","category-volunteer-voice-ltv-kundapur","tag-intercultural-exchange","tag-learn-a-new-language","tag-make-new-friends","tag-self-development","tag-teaching-in-india","tag-travel-in-india","tag-volunteering-in-india"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15183,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15176\/revisions\/15183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}