The Top 5 Things I Got Out of My Antipodeans Abroad Experience

PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Health
WRITTEN BY: Sarah Piplica

My Antipodeans journey has been one of the best things I've done in my life so far. Volunteering in another country, especially one as beautiful and geographically and culturally diverse as India is a truly remarkable experience with much to gain. I thought that.

1. I had come here to add breadth to my learning in my health degree, but my expectations have been far exceeded...

2. Personally, I have been able to visit and experience some amazing places such as the awe-inspiring Taj Mahal - the workmanship of which can only really be appreciated up close; trekking the Himalayas to reach some of the most incredible views in the world, and our camping site, where the stars are so bright and in different patterns than what I know living in a different hemisphere of the globe; and certainly not least, the experience of living in a completely different culture than my own, and one that I will always have a special place in my heart for.

3. Professionally, I have experienced first-hand so much of what I have learnt in my degree about health in the developing world. I have observed and witnessed not only what goes on in a variety of professional health settings such as a hospital, an Ayervedic medicine facility, a child care and a school for children with disability; but also, living here for the time that I have, I have been able to see the health behaviours of the community at large and draw parallels between health problems and determinants of health.

4. Socially, I have gained some of the best friends in this diverse group of students. Something about working together for a common goal immediately brings you together. And the beautiful and hospitable people of Palampur have given me a new appreciation for travel and seeing and understanding how other people live.

5. Finally, emotionally, I truly feel as though I have made some small difference in this big wide world. Which is something I think we all, as humans, crave to feel. This trip has certainly been fulfilling.