Hello, and welcome to my final blog post from India!
It’s crazy how quickly time flies, but we’re actually heading back to Germany in just two weeks. For my final update, I thought I’d reflect a little on my time here. Lots of friends have asked me what I’ll miss most about India and Capron Hall, and my answer is always the chai you can get here anytime, anywhere. We also eat a sweet pastry called ‘appam’ every morning, which really gives me the motivation to get up. I’ll also miss the weather, which here means warm temperatures and sunshine even in winter.
Although I must say that it can be quite exhausting in the height of summer due to the high temperatures. Above all, though, I’ll probably remember the people I’ve got to know over the year. People from whom I’ve learnt a lot, with whom I’ve been able to laugh, and of course with whom I’ve been able to talk openly through the long, difficult phases of the year. Over time, I’ve also grown very close to my fellow volunteer – I mean, it’s bound to happen when you share a room for a year. That friendship definitely gave me a real boost and made the tough times more bearable. Of course, there are a thousand other things I could list when I think about what I’ll miss, but these are the things that spring to mind straight away.
As I naturally don’t just want to talk about the positive aspects, but want to provide a realistic insight into my life at the moment, it’s also important to me to mention what weighed on me most throughout the year. At first, I thought homesickness would be my biggest concern, but on the whole that wasn’t a problem. We settled into the new situation here quite quickly, though I often missed the food in Germany and, above all, the culinary variety. What we really found difficult, right up until the end, was that we never had a clearly defined role here. There is no precise job description or set of expectations, and even with a great deal of initiative on our part, we didn’t get very far. Consequently, we weren’t always able to make the most of the free time this created. This meant that even in our free time, we had to show a great deal of initiative to keep ourselves occupied throughout the day, which was sometimes the hardest task of all.
Overall, the year was a real mixed bag, but I can honestly say that I’ve never experienced as much in my life as I have in the last 10 months. I’m incredibly grateful for the experiences I’ve been able to gain and for seeing so much of this fascinating country.
I’m glad you’ve read my posts and hope you’ve been able to get a better idea of my daily life here.
Bye for now, Harriet!
This text was automatically translated using an AI-powered translation system.
