Close Encounters - Part 2
I have currently been at my City of Child teaching placement for almost 6 days now and my opinion of the place has changed greatly since first arriving here.
It is strange when you first arrive at somewhere new, such as your first day at school, university or coming to India on your gap year; your initial impressions are sometimes of shock and anxiety. "What am I letting myself in for", "I want to leave". But, gradually as you get used to this new setting and settle in, all these negative thoughts seem to flow away leaving you in a positive mindset. To put it simply, you feel right at home. It was like this when I changed my placement to City of Child.
I left Deep Griha at Tadiwala road after receiving notice of a placement at City of Child and overcoming the fear of being left behind for a week for the possibility of missing the only bus (!)
I then went to my accommodation to pack my belongings and leave the place I had only just started to settle in to.
After an hour long journey from Pune we (me, Duncan and David) arrived at City of Child and were brought into one of the volunteer housing. We were led into a room with bare walls and bars across the window, and after the jokes for the resemblance to a prison (which was vaguely how I felt) we had a laugh choosing the thin mattress which was stained the least. We also had to figure out the squatting toilet.
A few hours after overcoming boredom by playing with the children, things began to change for the better very quickly. From playing with the children we rediscovered the reason for being at this placement and after the supervisor finally found the key for the extra room at the end the hall, the place did not seem so bad. Especially after finding clean, raised beds, a flushing toilet, teaching equipment and a ceiling fan!
We also started to find more things to do around the placement, such as greater interaction with the children and a shop that sells delicious biscuits as a treat.
Finally six days on we are all relishing our time at this placement. The kids seem great, good food, a lot to fill the day with and as a contradiction from the first day-instead of seeming like a prison, there is an invaluable sense of freedom from the surrounding scenery that I'm sure the kids will benefit from.
-Roy Walker
It is strange when you first arrive at somewhere new, such as your first day at school, university or coming to India on your gap year; your initial impressions are sometimes of shock and anxiety. "What am I letting myself in for", "I want to leave". But, gradually as you get used to this new setting and settle in, all these negative thoughts seem to flow away leaving you in a positive mindset. To put it simply, you feel right at home. It was like this when I changed my placement to City of Child.
I left Deep Griha at Tadiwala road after receiving notice of a placement at City of Child and overcoming the fear of being left behind for a week for the possibility of missing the only bus (!)
I then went to my accommodation to pack my belongings and leave the place I had only just started to settle in to.
After an hour long journey from Pune we (me, Duncan and David) arrived at City of Child and were brought into one of the volunteer housing. We were led into a room with bare walls and bars across the window, and after the jokes for the resemblance to a prison (which was vaguely how I felt) we had a laugh choosing the thin mattress which was stained the least. We also had to figure out the squatting toilet.
A few hours after overcoming boredom by playing with the children, things began to change for the better very quickly. From playing with the children we rediscovered the reason for being at this placement and after the supervisor finally found the key for the extra room at the end the hall, the place did not seem so bad. Especially after finding clean, raised beds, a flushing toilet, teaching equipment and a ceiling fan!
We also started to find more things to do around the placement, such as greater interaction with the children and a shop that sells delicious biscuits as a treat.
Finally six days on we are all relishing our time at this placement. The kids seem great, good food, a lot to fill the day with and as a contradiction from the first day-instead of seeming like a prison, there is an invaluable sense of freedom from the surrounding scenery that I'm sure the kids will benefit from.
-Roy Walker
posted by Volunteer at 1:07 am
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