GapBreakers arrive in India

COUNTRY: India
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Phoebe Laing

After 24 hours of travel, which included losing Fiz in Mumbai International Airport and finding her again in the domestic terminal, we arrived, exhausted, at the small airport in Udaipur. There we found our group leader, Pankaj, waiting for us with a big smile and a small van (without seatbelts, obviously). Initially we were surprised by every cow wandering across the road, but now they've become as normal as hair-raising overtakes and casually driving on the wrong side of the road. The share house is a small three storey block of flats (including an open roof with an amazing view of the sun setting over the hills) with bunk beds in each room; so far we've shared the house with four English girls, an Austrian, and most recently a girl from Switzerland.

Our first week was largely spent in orientation, getting to know the city, the school and the boys' home where we teach. Now, after just two weeks we know our way around the markets, and have figured out how to squash ourselves into public rickshaws- just 10 rupees or 20 cents for a twenty-minute ride! The markets have a great variety of shops, with lots of hippy pants, long skirts, leather-bound books and tempting silver jewellery. One of the best parts about India is the way that there's always something happening on the streets, whether it's donkeys fighting, a group of people chatting as they sell their vegetables, or an elephant standing in the middle of an alleyway.

We were all quite impressed by the tribal village of our school - despite very basic conditions, such as one-roomed houses with rocks covering the floor and no running water, the people are almost always smiling. The children are ridiculously cute, from the very first day they were running up to hold our hands and calling us Didi (big sister). Coming up with lessons to keep them interested has been a bit of a challenge, as 5-year-olds get distracted very easily, but the Hindi we've learnt during our lessons, such as "don't be naughty", "come here" and "be quiet" has been very useful!

At the orphanage we teach slightly older boys, and play 20 minutes of games with them at the end. The boys are lots of fun, although it is difficult to maintain discipline when you can't help laughing at their cheekiness. Our greatest success in games so far has been Fiz, who fell facedown in the dirt while trying to catch one of the boys during tag.

We've all settled in well, and in a way it's hard to believe it's only been two weeks. Watching the sun set from the roof, the rain fall on the impressively lush green fields, and the locals playing volleyball just across the road is a very peaceful way to pass the time - we've all been doing a lot more reading and much less phone time! Even yoga at 5:45am is bearable when the view of the surrounds is so beautiful. We're very excited to see what more India has in store for us, especially as this weekend we're off to Pushkar and travelling to the Taj Mahal next week for Shoumyaa and Annie's birthday!

Phoebe