Friday 28 September 2012



Hello again from India :) just a quick post today to make use of a computer while I can. Feeling very upbeat about everything at the moment – definitely seem to be getting more into the swing of things and the Indian way of living; when they say twenty minutes, they mean two hours, be laid back about not having found a certain accommodation for us (?!) and when crossing the roads, hesitating will not help you – RUN.
The Indian volunteers have returned to their community as VSO India decided that in order to give opportunities for everyone, using local volunteers is best. This means that we do not live in a host family. Before, it was usually the more privileged young people who volunteered as they had the ability to travel and were more accepting of having international strangers living in their homes. We are all missing them already. They have come out of their shell so much and have such individual characters, despite the language barrier. My Hindi is improving – well I’m learning one new phrase a day, but somehow my pronunciation isn’t quite up to scratch as I seem to have the mick taken out of me quite a lot, but in a nice way. I have also learnt my Hindi name – ‘Jyoti’, so we gave them all their English names – Nigel, Steve, Simon, Rupert, Kevin and Arnold, while Angela and Mary for the girls. I don’t think they were too impressed. They look out for us so much –helping us cross the roads (consisting of grabbing our hands and walking while shouting at the Rickshaw drivers) and one of the girls, Angelie even asked me why I was sad when I had a stomach ache. I have also never been called ‘beautiful’ so many times before, English boys definitely need to take note! So basically, myself and two others will be staying in an apartment in Putna, the capital city while the other 4 will be staying in Nalanda, a rural town about 2 hours away. Each weekend, we will alternate and visit each other so we will still remain a strong team.
Yesterday, we had a mini tour of Putna, including another Rickshaw ride and were shown the hospital, a basic doctor’s ‘surgery’, the chemist, a convenience shop with shampoo etc. We then experienced another Indian speciality of sugar cane juice. This is made on the road in front of you with a machine that squeezes out the juice from the canes, similar to an old fashioned clothes dryer, but motored. They also put lime juice in it for a bit of zing. Seeing as it is 32 degrees here, this was so refreshing.
This morning we went to the Gandhi Maiden area, including a Gandhi museum of which we spent a lot of the time talking to a school group who were adorable. The teacher came up to me after and told me we had made them ‘very happy’. I bought Gandhi’s autobiography for 36 rupees, around 45p, so I plan on coming home very enriched. We then climbed the landmark Golghar, a huge dome shaped granary built by the British army to avoid a repeat of the 1770 famine. (See learning lots of facts already, haha). It has a staircase either side with 250 steps. Even in the heat we climbed it! And it was worth it, the view was incredible – on one side was built up houses and roads etc, while a turn to the right was the Ganges which was enormous.
We are due to start our work placement on Monday so have been given two very detailed information packs to read about the ‘Learning games for girls’ and ‘Women’s sexual and Reproductive health’. These involve a basic script that the ‘animators’ (people delivering the session) use. They each last 30 minutes. This was explained to us that they are only short because most of the women do not have the time to give due to chores, children etc, so Reach India is a very accessible charity, designed to include as many women and adolescent girls as possible. Some of the sessions cover basic things like hand washing and the effects of not doing this properly, while others cover menstruation and pregnancy, designed to inform, reassure and prepare.
Everything is going really well, but it still hasn’t sunk in how long I am here for, it still feels a bit holiday like, but when we start work, I am sure this will all change. Hope everyone is well and look forward to talking to some of you on Skype (internet cafes only 20 rupees an hour). 


P.s sorry no pictures today - computer is even slower than usual!




Wednesday 26 September 2012

Polly and I outside the second biggest mosque in India. 





CURRENT LOCATION: Patna, Bihar, India.

It is official – I have arrived for my first real venture. I arrived in Putney at 1oclock for pre-departure training. It was great to see everyone again who I met on the training weekend and there was definitely an atmosphere of excitement and disbelief that we were actually going. Then the VSO workers handed us our tube tickets and sent us on our way to Heathrow. The lady at the check in desk was very confused when we told her we had no trip leader with us. Check in was quick and easy and we all got something to eat before we got onboard. We touched down in Delhi on the 19th of September after a 7 and a half hour flight, which could have been a lot worse. There was a great choice of films and we got pillows and blankets so I tried to sleep for a lot of the time. As soon as we landed and got off of the plane, the heat hit us all; hot, sticky, humid – but not English rain! We were met by Manish, who happened to be Reach India’s (the team I’m in) Personal Supervisor (PS) – get used to acronyms here! As soon as we saw him we knew he was going to be a character; he was holding the VSO sign upside down with a huge grin on his face. And he hasn’t let us down since.
After taking a bus through Delhi we arrived at our first hotel. When I saw it, I thought the bus driver had misunderstood and taken us to the wrong place. It was clean, decorative and very posh. We later heard that the only reason VSO booked this hotel is because there was a delay which meant they had to book somewhere very short notice. They kept apologizing for this, but seeing as for the next 11 or so weeks we would not exactly be living in luxury, I was not complaining. This first day all in all was a chilled out day – I read some of my Kindle and we went into town to change money and buy local sims. We did try to blend in as best as possible, but this soon failed while we were waiting for the taxi drivers in the town. After being scared to death in the training weekend by the VSO nurse about rabies and animal bites, a stray dog happened to come up to us very gently. The whole group of us (around 20) started moving backwards very quickly making some very odd noises and trying to shoo it away. The locals were wetting themselves. We got back to the hotel, had some amazing food and went to bed.
The next 6 ½ days consisted of In Country Orientation (ICO). We met the Indian volunteers who were amazing; not all of their English was great, but they were friendly, welcoming and hilarious to be with. The two leaders of the ICO were great – upbeat, lively and full of energy which gave us the energy we needed. Most days involved some sort of interactive learning; lack of sewage works in India (essentially a video about poo), the charities we’d be working with, culture, religion, gender, safety and precautions, the logistics of the experience and resolving conflict. One of the best sessions we had was splitting the UK volunteers from the Indian volunteers and each had to write perceptions/advice about us to the other. Ours included things such as; we are out of our comfort zone so be patient, we want to learn your language so help us out etc etc. They definitely took the perceptions at full pace and came out with some crackers; calling us ‘slave drivers’ (my personal fave), ‘heartbreakers’, that we were highly educated, atheists and had ‘bad teeth’ – clearly coming from the American media. We did manage to squeeze a couple of trips into this week – a trip to ‘Old Delhi’ to see the second biggest mosque in India and then a Hindu temple which had real gold from floor to ceiling – amazing! We also were able to go to a posher part of Delhi for some shopping where I bought some fabulous Indian clothes for next to nothing. We drove past Parliament and the Gate of India, a symbol of their independence. We also had a couple of fabulous evenings - watching a Bollywood film and every song, every one of us would get up and dance. Another was where a group of traditional Indian singers came in with drums. This involved a lot of hefty clapping and my hands were very sore afterwards.
We then had a 18 hour train journey, which was such an amazing experience to Putna, where my work placement is based. We are currently having our In Community Orientation. We learnt in detail about our charity. The man in charge mentioned how we should be realistic – we aren’t going to change the world but we can change an aspect of someone’s life, however small. He described that this could even be teaching someone how to wash their hands properly: heartbreaking. Last night was incredible – our first ride on a Rickshaw and our tea consisted of street food – YUM. We should be leaving for our final living accommodation tonight or tomorrow and our work placement should begin on Monday. I will try to get more access to a computer quicker so these posts aren’t quite so long.  I could write for hours, I have experienced so much already. Overall, I’m having a fab time, am safe, missing everyone loads, but looking forward to making some sort of difference to the women of Bihar. Lots of love J

Reach India Team - UK and National Volunteers



Tuesday 4 September 2012

And so the adventures begin! I've set up this blog just in case anyone wants to hear that I'm alive and staying safe (we hope). But as I will be away for weeks at a time and won't always have access to a computer, it means I can let you all know how much fun I'm having while you're all stuck missing me loads.

As of 18th September I shall be jetting off to India with VSO, which is stop number 1. I shall be there for 3 months. The first couple of weeks I'll be staying in Delhi, getting a feel for the country, meeting the 'in country volunteers' (volunteers from India) and having our 'in country orientation' and bits of training they couldn't do back here in the UK. Then I'll be off to Jharkhand (don't worry I hadn't heard of it either) which is where I'll be living and working for the remainding time of the trip. In Jharkhand I will have a home counter part and a working counter part. These are two Indian volunteers that I will have been matched with to spend the majority of my time with. The home counter part, I will live with and will stay with them in our host home - the host home is an Indian family who are part of the scheme who house us, feed us and basically be a surrogate family for us. The working counter part will be a partner who will be with me when completing the volunteer placement. So fingers crossed I am matched with someone friendly, or it may be a long 3 months....

I recently found out that the volunteer scheme in Jharkhand is Reach India, which is excellent because it gives me chance to bring out my feminist side. It aims to educate women and promote equality for disadvantaged women. It covers different areas, such as sexual health, education and livelihood.

Here is the link for their website if you want a bit more detail about possible projects I may be completing:

http://www.reach-india.net/

And here is the link for VSO:

http://www.vso.org.uk/

Preparation for the trip has been exciting but also a little stressful. I completed my Indian Visa application the day before yesterday which I thought was going really well...then I made the treacherous mistake of pressing the 'back button' and lost everything that I had filled out. So I had to start all over again. This blog is another part of my preparation and I have also set up Skype, plus bought some headphones and a microphone because I don't think the computers will be quite up to scratch. (josie.gallop is my Skype name). Have also been busy fundraising my £800 target (http://www.justgiving.com/Josian-Gallop if you fancy leaving a few pennies) and trawling carboots and charity shops for light, but cover-your-shoulders-and-most-of-your-legs clothes. I'm getting there! :D


(This is a nice pic of some of my fundraising)
 
 
Anyway, I just thought i'd give my first blog post a go so it didn't look so empty. My next post will probably be written from my first destination so be sure to check up on here every now and again if you fancy seeing what I'm up to (: