I travelled to India on a whim, without much information or knowledge of the
culture or even my own itinerary. It was a loose plan and one that I was ready to take
on with my Aunt, Susan as my traveling partner. She told me that we would be
staying in small, rural town in Uttarakand, doing some sort of service while living with a host family. Aside from looking around on the ROSE Kanda website, that was all the information that I had received before travelling, but my experience and time being here has been worth so much more. I couldn’t ask for a better family to be staying with. I was immediately immersed within the culture and experienced everyday life in India first hand. The Verma family, though only few of them spoke English were incredibly helpful and supportive of me during my stay here. For the last 3 weeks of my stay in India I was “on my own” without Susan and I was very nervous about being here without someone who I felt comfortable with. Now, the majority of the time I am hardly thinking about how much I miss home and my family because I am living in a home away from home with who I can now call my second family.
The service aspect was the main purpose of my trip, as I am to complete a Senior project revolving around service learning as part of a school requirement. My passion for service learning and travel is something that has developed ove the years so I felt that having my project revolve around the two would be both enjoyable and fulfilling and thus far it most definitely has. Before travelling I raised $300 to donate to ROSE and during my time here that donation has built and plastered a wall and put up new windows in the school room, but there is still more to be done. The school is one room made of concrete, with little decoration or color, but it is made up for by those sweet, sweet smiling faces greeting me with a “good morning, miss” each day. I have so much fun with all of theses kidos. They range in age and are all at different levels in school which makes it a challenge for one teacher to handle so I was at the school every day, Monday to Saturday, assisting as best I could. In doing so I also picked up on some Hindi words and phrases and can recite the entire Hindi alphabet. There are definitely different teaching tactics that I was not accustom to, some of which I picked up on and some I chose to let the main teacher handle, but very interesting to observe how other schools around the world operate.
I am amazed every time I wake up and see the gorgeous mountains, flowers and blue sky outside my window. It is a sight that none of my photos could quite capture and has to be seen first hand. I love to watch all of the vibrant reds and blues of the saris as the women wearing them are scattered about the bright green fields. There seem to be endless amounts of flowers, birds and other little critters that I am not too fond of, but my fear of spiders has definitely decreased. After school I will walk to the market, spend time with the Verma family or simply take a rest. It is a very relaxed environment and the Verma family is very accommodating with any needs that a may have, which as a 17-year-old travelling on my own for the first time I have had a few, and I am so grateful that I have had the support that I have! It is truly a lovely place, with lovely people and while there were a few spots of homesickness, they didn’t even compare to the amazing experience that I have had. I have grown so much since I first arrived. My patience has been tested time and time again and I can appreciate everything that I have so much more than I did before. I hope to return someday in the future and see all of the progress that the organization has made with all of the help of it’s volunteers. I will miss this place dearly, especially those sweet children and this amazing family, but while I am taking physical self home I am leaving a part of me with India.
Rhaine Clarke
rhaine.clarke@gmail.com
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Eneko Dorronsoro
R.O.S.E. Kanda 