Vanakkam everyone,
I’m writing to you today for the first time from India. We landed in Chennai two months ago now, and so much has already happened that it would be worth writing a separate post about it. As Salome and I are staying together at our placement, our experiences and initial difficulties largely overlap, which is why we try to complement each other’s blog posts and cover different topics, so please do have a read of her post as well.
One major change at the start was definitely the clothing; here, women wear so-called ‘kurtas’ combined with leggings or loose-fitting trousers. It’s also customary to drape a thin scarf over your shoulders, which really enhances the outfit. Wearing long clothes in such warm weather really took some getting used to, but it offers good protection from the sun’s rays and is usually cut in a loose, airy style, so it isn’t too warm either. The food also gave us a bit of a struggle at the start. Of course, there’s the famous Indian spiciness, but the real adjustment for me was that all meals here are served hot. Consequently, breakfast – which usually consists of ‘idli’ – is quite hearty. Otherwise, there’s naturally plenty of rice and other dishes made with rice flour, such as ‘dosa’. Now, however, I’d say I’ve come to cope well with the spiciness and the other adjustments.
The first few weeks were quite a mixed bag; on the one hand, we were really very enthusiastic about Madurai and the school campus where we now live, but on the other hand, there were also issues that preoccupied us greatly. At the start, we had great difficulty establishing ourselves here and finding tasks to do, as we are the first volunteers at the school and the teachers and school management do not yet know exactly what is expected of us. For this reason, we’ve mainly taken it upon ourselves to find tasks; in the mornings we’re usually in the office, mostly doing bookkeeping and helping the staff there. As there’s often new work to be done every day, we’re able to lend a hand with the follow-up tasks. Lots of parents and pupils come into the office throughout the day with various matters to discuss, so we get to know new faces every day and learn how the school system works. After lunch, we usually prepare workshops for the children at the hostel. Twice a week we do crafts with them, which we all really enjoy, and it’s a great way to spend time with the children who don’t speak English. So far we’ve done origami and a bit of drawing; from next week we’re planning to make some Christmas decorations or create gifts for the parents. Another leisure activity we offer is a Christmas choir, with which we want to perform a few songs at a school event before the holidays.
Our normal daily routine was interrupted this week as we were invited by a nursing college to spend a week there. Many of the students are actually learning German too, with a view to working in Germany one day. Not many of them want to move to Germany permanently, but rather to work there for a few years and then eventually return to India. To this end, they attend German lessons several times a week, which we’ve been attending over the last few days. There, we were able to answer quite a few questions about the weather, living conditions in cities, and transport. It’s great to get an insight into further education and to meet more people our own age.
That’s all from me for now… I hope the blog has given you an impression of my life here. I’m definitely looking forward to the time ahead here and to what I’ll have to report in a few weeks, so do pop back by :).
See you soon, Harriet
This text was automatically translated using an AI-powered translation system.
