EIL Intercultural Learning

Cathal From Co Mayo shares his is experience of volunteering in the volunteer camps in India

Hey All

I hope everyone is well and Good

Settled here now in Himachal. I left the Lalsot camp on Good Friday and spent the weekend traveling here to new camp here arriving on easter sunday. was a long time traveling and i was glad to get here.

I am now based in a volunteer camp in the village of sungal a few miles outside the town of Palampur in Himachal Pradesh in northern India. it couldn't be more different than the previous area i was based in. it is like a different country. Like I have said on many occasions this is a country full of many contradictions and the differences between these two areas is a big one. The landscape, infrastructure, housing, people etc are all so different it is amazing. But yet in many aspects the underlying problems in India exist just as much here too. SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT

The problems that i come into contact with are education and once again it is the children paying the price of the many problems in the systems here. Teacher ignorance once again been a main problem. While the standard seems a bit better up here, it is still very poor. The children again are under appreciated and not encouraged to progress. It really is a shame

I am not actually teaching in a school anymore. I am working with special needs children. There are 7 of them and they are absolute beautiful kids. They all have differencing needs and are quite varied in age and ability. There is myself, another volunteer, and 2 Indian workers in the class with the children. They are so keen it is unbelievable. everyday, even on the school holidays these kids come in.

The conditions of the center are terrible. we are all in one room about 10 by 12 feet, with a mat on the ground. These kids need one on one special care if they are to develop in ant meaningful way but unfortunately they are not getting it. The centre is privately run as the government doesn't care about these kids. I am not in any way trained to really develop them but we are spending time wit them trying to help where we can. we figured from reading previous volunteers reports and spending time with them that concentrating on the likes of English was a waste of time as they are struggling with their native language of Hindi. We are concentrating on improving their life skills and just trying to make them feel special and important. I am having an absolute blast with these kids. The other day we did half an hour of dancing in the room. stuck on a hindi music tape and danced. it was some of the best fun i've had in a long time. I'm looking forward to building up a relationship with them all over the next few weeks and just having fun with them and dancing. definitely more dancing

The camp as i have said is very different than my last one. i am now living in a concrete block. still no shower but i'm used to the bucket by now. it is a lot more solid than the clay huts i had been living in and we have constant electricity but yet i miss the huts in a way. also here we have native toilets which can be best described as a hole in the ground. The views i have now are just spectacular. I am looking out over the Himilayas and it is breathtaking. I go for a walk every morning and you just cant get used to it enough.

So once again i had one of my crazy experiences last week. before i departed from my old camp i decided it was time for a haircut. simple you would think but than remember this is a big white irish guy in the middle of rural India. Not so straightforward. found a barbers in a nearby village that i deemed suitable. so what to get. Well after meeting the barber, his family, friends and half the village, I finally manage to succeed using a lot of hand signals that I want a blade 1 all over. He takes out the razor. It looks very old and a long time since it was used. I pray that the electricity holds up for however long this takes. So with about 25 people eagerly watching we proceed. All goes according to plan and I am just about to relax when this other big guy appears behind me and grabs hold of my head. I look up to see both men smiling at me in the mirror and the barber holding what appears to be a very sharp blade. Holy shit I say it is a very sharp blade. He then starts tiding up round my head with this blade. I'm seriously sweating now and all around me are these smiling heads. Once again I begin to relax thinking my ordeal must be over by now, but oh no. Would you like a head massage the barber asks. No its all right I reply. Yes he says, no I say. Next thing the big guy is back again at my head and before I have a chance to do anything he is smacking my head around the place. What the F**k I'm thinking and al I can hear is my audience saying tis good tis good and all I'm thinking as I'm unable to say anything is WHAT THE F**K!. But then a strange thing happens and I'm beginning to enjoy this head massage and I'm wondering will Kevin nestor do this for me the next time I'm in for a cut. It ends after about two minutes and I stagger off the chair and out of the barbers. Mad just pure mad and I'm thinking no way will they believe this one when I write about it

Last weekend I visited the city of Armitsrar. Was a 7 hour bus run but well worth it. We went to the border closing ceremony between India and Pakistan on sat evening. Crazy stuff. Few thousand Indians on one side of a gate and the same in Pakistanis on the other all singing and chanting and one very nervous irish guy hoping nothing kicks off. But it was all grand and a very worthwhile experience.

Then on sat night we went ti visit the Golden temple. This is the holiest of sites for the sikh religion and it was amazing. So peaceful/ I just sat by the lake for an hour chilling. Next morning went back to the temple and visited the shrines and spent a few hours there. Really was a great place to experience and watching thousands and thousands of Sikhs visit their holy place was truly inspiring and spiritual

This weekend I am heading to Dhamasala. It is where the dalai lama resides. He hasn't gotten back to me yet to say if he is free but we will see. Looking forward to it

Well take care everyone and keep well

Cathal