Namaste! Or hello shall I say… I have recently returned from a trip of a life time to India with Platform2. I went for ten weeks from August until October 2009.
 
Following a flight into Delhi airport, a three day home stay with a host family in Jaipur and a sixteen hour train journey we arrived at our destination ‘the IDEX house’. This house was what I can only describe as boasting similarities with the Big Brother house; catering for forty five strangers from all backgrounds and different walks of life as well as varying parts of the country. Situated in the foothills of the Himalayas, the idyllic surroundings coupled with the sound of the river in the valley below meant that there was always a reason to get out of bed! The constant shrieks of my fellow volunteers as yet another monkey trespassed into their room to raid food or to borrow another top never ceased to leave me giggling on the forty five minute walk to work across the five waterfalls and a mountain.
 
The most prevalent thing that I have learned from this whole experience is something that cannot be taught nor preached, to see it with your own eyes is to feel it and not feel the same again. This lesson is to understand that people who have nothing and are truly happy are in fact the wealthiest people in the world. Whereas in the consumer culture in Western society we strive to have more, in India, they do not. They would give you their last piece of food even if they could not afford to.
 
I think something that I totally underestimated is the bond that I formed with the children. I remember on one of the first days at the day care centre our project executive said to us ‘when the children are here you are their parents’. That was a pretty scary prospect when faced with eight children under five years old, sitting cross legged and wide eyed waiting for you to start the class. On some occasions the children did not want to participate in the set lesson plan, but wanted to run round and not sit still. So on one of these days we decided to make paper boats, waterproof them with sellotape and race them in the stream… now that is what you call using your initiative! India is very much a place where nothing is rushed and plans deviate, which is a stark contrast to the UK with diaries and allocated time slots for everything. They are two well oiled machines that run well, but very differently.
 
Having seen first hand what a difference can be made by the simplest things in these poor areas of India, I am continuing with charity work. With a marathon later this year and most definitely more hands on work with children in less economically developed countries.