{"id":16431,"date":"2019-06-20T10:36:57","date_gmt":"2019-06-20T05:06:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/?p=16431"},"modified":"2019-06-20T17:17:38","modified_gmt":"2019-06-20T11:47:38","slug":"canute-john-dsouza-fsl-indias-outbound-volunteer-in-germany-2017-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/canute-john-dsouza-fsl-indias-outbound-volunteer-in-germany-2017-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteering in Germany – an unexpected and unimaginable experience: Canute John D’Souza, FSL-India\u2019s Outbound volunteer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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After having worked at a German language and cultural institute, working\nwith German teachers and interns, while also simultaneously learning the\nlanguage, for a total of close to 4 years, it only made sense for me to go to\nGermany to be in the country that I was working for and also virtually\nsurrounding myself with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The most practical option I found was an international volunteering\nproject. Working for a social cause was something that I was always keen on,\nbut I never really found the right way to go about it. This was my chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Combining the two – going to Germany, and working for a social cause –\nwas the best life could throw at me at that point. Without any hesitation, I\nleaped forward with my applications and flew off to Berlin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My one year in Germany cannot be merely explained with words. It was an\nunexpected and unimaginable experience to say the very least. My time there\nopened up my eyes to things that I had never really bothered to look at in the\npast. My job, colleagues, and clients, the other people around me, including my\nfellow volunteer mates from all over the globe, the old Indian as well as\nGerman friends that I had made through my previous job, the ideologies I\nlearned about from all these and also new people, the places I visited, the\nsocial system, the infrastructure and network, and a lot\nmore of everything else that was crammed into my one year there changed my\nentire outlook on life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Once I was back, however, things did not feel quite the same. Nostalgia\nhit me on the very first day, and 8 months down the line, it still stays\nstrong. Things were not particularly easy upon my return. After being in an\norganised, friendly, and disciplined country, all I could see now was chaos –\nparticularly on the roads, in the infrastructure, while trying to form\nnon-existent queues to place an order for food at restaurants or to pick up my\ntoken number at a bank, the limited open-mindedness of people etc. All these\nthings infuriated me quickly. It made me think of how I lived here for almost all\nof my life, as I was now unable to get myself accustomed to the same old life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As it was quite uneasy being back and looking at things from this newly\ngained perspective, I decided that I should not allow this to bring me down. My\ninitial response was to work on going back to Germany, maybe for a job, or for\nstudies, whichever made it possible. But I started feeling like I am not meant\nto go back to Germany. At least, not immediately. The whole experience made me\na more aware individual in society, only equipping me with the ambition to work\non changing the way my country functioned, in order to make it a better place\nfor everyone living here, and hopefully making it similar to Germany.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Even though at this point, I am unable to channel my ambition in the right\ndirection to make any prominent changes, I wish to accomplish the same soon. As\nlong as my ambition for change fuels my mind, I know I would get there\neventually. For now, all I can do is be the change I wish to see around me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After having worked at a German language and cultural institute, working with German teachers and interns, while also simultaneously learning the language, for a total of close to 4 years, it only made sense for me to go to Germany to be in the country that I was working for and also virtually surrounding myself with. The most practical option I found was an international volunteering project. Working for a social cause was something that I was always keen on,…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":16438,"comment_status":"Closed","ping_status":"Closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[397],"tags":[502,153,488,649,491,750,487,523],"class_list":["post-16431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outbound","tag-intercultural-exchange","tag-international-volunteering","tag-make-new-friends","tag-personal-development","tag-personal-growth","tag-self-awareness","tag-travel","tag-volunteering-in-germany"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16431","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=16431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16444,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16431\/revisions\/16444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fsl-india.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}