I'm 21 years old, and I've been to 7 countries and territories. It may seems many to many people, but I don't think so. Sometimes I just feel like the world is so big, and the places I could reach are so little. This is a little thought of mine.
Today is generally a good day, having two sessions with kids in a village. The kids are very easy to satisfy. I've to admit that the program isn't so good, but they can just have fun and enjoy. I wouldn't see this in my own country. The kids are spoiled.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
12.05.2010
I have been in India for two weeks already.
My volunteering job goes well, for now I'm not only conduct AIDS/HIV awareness program to women, but also conduct awareness programs on all health related issues, and have some sessions with children, playing with them and teach them something useful.
Start from yesterday, I'm not working alone in the NGO anymore. A French girl arrived 2 days ago and start going to work with me on yesterday. Although she's not working on the same project with me, but it's always nice to have company.
My volunteering job goes well, for now I'm not only conduct AIDS/HIV awareness program to women, but also conduct awareness programs on all health related issues, and have some sessions with children, playing with them and teach them something useful.
Start from yesterday, I'm not working alone in the NGO anymore. A French girl arrived 2 days ago and start going to work with me on yesterday. Although she's not working on the same project with me, but it's always nice to have company.
Monday, May 10, 2010
09.05.2010
Mamallapuram, India
I'm having a short weekend retreat at Mamallapuram, around 100km, 2 hours from Pondicherry. It's really a great place, not too big, not too busy, not too noisy...
Mamallapuram has two UNESCO world heritage sites and many other historical sites. I'm visited almost all of them in just one day. It's not really impressive, I can't always expect everything to be impressive anyway.
Sadly, Indian people seem like don't know the importance of these sites, and how precious they are. They just climb, seat, stand, touch the structures or reliefs without feeling anything wrong. Sooner or later these sites sure will damage bad enough beyond repair if Indian people still don't aware about the damage they cause.
I actually saw fortune tellers using parrots to do their fortune telling. I don't know how it works. But isn't it weird that people believe their future can be told by a parrot? It's really funny.
Anyway, today is a nice day after all. Actually I'm watching sunset at this moment. Really relax and nice to write blog in this surroundings.
I'm having a short weekend retreat at Mamallapuram, around 100km, 2 hours from Pondicherry. It's really a great place, not too big, not too busy, not too noisy...
Mamallapuram has two UNESCO world heritage sites and many other historical sites. I'm visited almost all of them in just one day. It's not really impressive, I can't always expect everything to be impressive anyway.
Sadly, Indian people seem like don't know the importance of these sites, and how precious they are. They just climb, seat, stand, touch the structures or reliefs without feeling anything wrong. Sooner or later these sites sure will damage bad enough beyond repair if Indian people still don't aware about the damage they cause.
I actually saw fortune tellers using parrots to do their fortune telling. I don't know how it works. But isn't it weird that people believe their future can be told by a parrot? It's really funny.
Anyway, today is a nice day after all. Actually I'm watching sunset at this moment. Really relax and nice to write blog in this surroundings.
Saturday, May 8, 2010
08.05.2010
Indian people really good in utilize the sources they have, not wasting every bit of it. I actually discovered two more uses of cow dung today. First, dried cow dung can be used as fuel tablet for cooking. Second, used cow dung tablet (ash) can be used as detergent/soap to wash the dishes. How does it sound? I'd never think of using cow dung to wash my dishes by the way.
Actually my workload is light, light enough that I’ve a lot of free time. Without wasting the time, I’d learned how to make the flower hair band Indian women used to tie on their hair yesterday. It’s really a difficult task, one has to be very skilful to make a nice one. Since I did it on the first time, I think I had done a great job.
The ride home is always scenic, though not comfortable. I can see what Indian people doing for a living, how their live goes on. People harvesting paddy, herding cows or lambs, children and teenagers playing cricket… Today I even saw people herding a group of ducks. I did saw people herding group of small ducks in the town days ago, but this is the first time I saw people herding a group of adult ducks, some 150-200 of them.
There will be another new volunteer or intern arrives on Monday, she's a girl from France, and by that time I won't be 'new' anymore. The happy time to have people fetch me to work and back to home will also come to an end following her arrival, I'm going to take the bus to the project site with the girl and a staff from the NGO I work with.
I will leave the town for two days, spending my weekend in Mamallapuram, a small seaside village famous with its historical sites (temples, caves, bas-reliefs, rathas) and carvings.
Actually my workload is light, light enough that I’ve a lot of free time. Without wasting the time, I’d learned how to make the flower hair band Indian women used to tie on their hair yesterday. It’s really a difficult task, one has to be very skilful to make a nice one. Since I did it on the first time, I think I had done a great job.
The ride home is always scenic, though not comfortable. I can see what Indian people doing for a living, how their live goes on. People harvesting paddy, herding cows or lambs, children and teenagers playing cricket… Today I even saw people herding a group of ducks. I did saw people herding group of small ducks in the town days ago, but this is the first time I saw people herding a group of adult ducks, some 150-200 of them.
There will be another new volunteer or intern arrives on Monday, she's a girl from France, and by that time I won't be 'new' anymore. The happy time to have people fetch me to work and back to home will also come to an end following her arrival, I'm going to take the bus to the project site with the girl and a staff from the NGO I work with.
I will leave the town for two days, spending my weekend in Mamallapuram, a small seaside village famous with its historical sites (temples, caves, bas-reliefs, rathas) and carvings.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
06.05.2010
In India, cows can be seen everywhere, and it seems normal to Indian people to have cow walk on the street and block their way even on the busiest road. I have to admit that Indian drive really good, I couldn’t do that, not in India. The traffic in India is like a mess for foreigners, but for Indian they have their own rules and ways to avoid any accident, the Indian rules.
When I was on my way to my work site this morning with a staff of the NGO, we were stopped by a police. It turns out to be the problem of the plate of the bike. The plate is there, but without number. The most interest part isn’t on the bike, it happens while I was waiting for the staff to settle the thing. When I was waiting, a cow walked straight to me, stopped like 2 meters in front of me, and start to pee. She acts like I’m not exist, just relax standing there. God! It’s really funny, at least for me.
I’d a short visit to the nearby village in the afternoon, had some interaction with the villagers, mostly are women, and they requested to have some talk on some health issues. My fields of presentation have become larger and larger, from HIV/AIDS to cancer, and now all health issues.
When I was on my way to my work site this morning with a staff of the NGO, we were stopped by a police. It turns out to be the problem of the plate of the bike. The plate is there, but without number. The most interest part isn’t on the bike, it happens while I was waiting for the staff to settle the thing. When I was waiting, a cow walked straight to me, stopped like 2 meters in front of me, and start to pee. She acts like I’m not exist, just relax standing there. God! It’s really funny, at least for me.
I’d a short visit to the nearby village in the afternoon, had some interaction with the villagers, mostly are women, and they requested to have some talk on some health issues. My fields of presentation have become larger and larger, from HIV/AIDS to cancer, and now all health issues.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
05.05.2010
1145 hours
I just finish a HIV session with the local women self help group, the responses are good, and they are all understanding what I’m talking about. We have some conversation after the session, mostly about my life, they even want to introduce some girls for me, which I rejected their good will and showed them the picture of me and my girlfriend. It’s great for me to have such a good feedback for my first presentation.
1720 hours
I’ve another session with a group of women about HIV/AIDS, and they request for another session about cancer. I think I’m going to share with them about cervical cancer, which is the most common cancer a women will get in India. This is a great day after all, everything just goes well. They are still treating me like VIP, which I’m not so comfortable with. Upon my request I can finally sit on the floor and eat with them tomorrow, which I hope it’s going to happen. I’m diarrhea for this few days, I think it would take me some time to be get used to the Indian sanitary standard.
I just finish a HIV session with the local women self help group, the responses are good, and they are all understanding what I’m talking about. We have some conversation after the session, mostly about my life, they even want to introduce some girls for me, which I rejected their good will and showed them the picture of me and my girlfriend. It’s great for me to have such a good feedback for my first presentation.
1720 hours
I’ve another session with a group of women about HIV/AIDS, and they request for another session about cancer. I think I’m going to share with them about cervical cancer, which is the most common cancer a women will get in India. This is a great day after all, everything just goes well. They are still treating me like VIP, which I’m not so comfortable with. Upon my request I can finally sit on the floor and eat with them tomorrow, which I hope it’s going to happen. I’m diarrhea for this few days, I think it would take me some time to be get used to the Indian sanitary standard.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
04.05.2010
Today I'm just stay at home and prepare my HIV/AIDS presentation to the Indian people stay at rural area. I'd like to thank those who help me to prepare it, especially you, dear.
Yesterday was a great day actually. Had a meeting in the morning with my employer, then went to their office, 27+- km away, which is not too far, but take a long time (around 1 hour) to travel there.
I'm working with a NGO called Karunalayam Rural Welfare Society, as it's name suggest, their main focus is in the rural area. The people there treat me really well, even too over that I'm not feeling comfortable. I'm just like a V.I.P over there.
When I first arrive in their office, they welcome me by their traditional way. They used to put a piece a cloth around their guest's neck, and just for yesterday, I had received two pieces of cloth. After that they were just keep feeding me, almost every house i visit, they will serve drink or snack or food. I don't know how is my tolerance to the seemingly unclean food and drink, I already feel my stomach isn't in good order. But what I can do? I can't refuse to have what people offer me. It's not polite.
A short visit to the villages we work in gave me an insight into the living conditions of the people there. Most of them just live in a small hut build by straws, dry leaves and dry grasses. Without proper sewage system and toilet, though electric is available. Water supply is on the sharing basis, which there's only couple of pipe in one village, and everybody have to go to the pipe to get water. Cooking are done at the front of the house, and I don't think it's that clean. Most of the people are involve in agriculture activities, so there's not many men in the village during day time. This is the place I'm going to work.
I'll teach the local children, teenager, and women about the HIV/AIDS. This could be a great challenge for me since I've no experience to it. I'm going to overcome the language barrier, and present as simple yet as detail as I could. Anyway I'm going to try my best and hopefully it's going to have some help to the community in the HIV/AIDS issues.
By the way, the fund of my volunteering work is almost entirely came from donation and support from my friends, and I'm still couple of hundred MYR short in my fund, so I hope I can get enough fund to continue my work in India. Thank you for your support.
Yesterday was a great day actually. Had a meeting in the morning with my employer, then went to their office, 27+- km away, which is not too far, but take a long time (around 1 hour) to travel there.
I'm working with a NGO called Karunalayam Rural Welfare Society, as it's name suggest, their main focus is in the rural area. The people there treat me really well, even too over that I'm not feeling comfortable. I'm just like a V.I.P over there.
When I first arrive in their office, they welcome me by their traditional way. They used to put a piece a cloth around their guest's neck, and just for yesterday, I had received two pieces of cloth. After that they were just keep feeding me, almost every house i visit, they will serve drink or snack or food. I don't know how is my tolerance to the seemingly unclean food and drink, I already feel my stomach isn't in good order. But what I can do? I can't refuse to have what people offer me. It's not polite.
A short visit to the villages we work in gave me an insight into the living conditions of the people there. Most of them just live in a small hut build by straws, dry leaves and dry grasses. Without proper sewage system and toilet, though electric is available. Water supply is on the sharing basis, which there's only couple of pipe in one village, and everybody have to go to the pipe to get water. Cooking are done at the front of the house, and I don't think it's that clean. Most of the people are involve in agriculture activities, so there's not many men in the village during day time. This is the place I'm going to work.
I'll teach the local children, teenager, and women about the HIV/AIDS. This could be a great challenge for me since I've no experience to it. I'm going to overcome the language barrier, and present as simple yet as detail as I could. Anyway I'm going to try my best and hopefully it's going to have some help to the community in the HIV/AIDS issues.
By the way, the fund of my volunteering work is almost entirely came from donation and support from my friends, and I'm still couple of hundred MYR short in my fund, so I hope I can get enough fund to continue my work in India. Thank you for your support.
Monday, May 3, 2010
03.05.2010
Today will be m 5th day in India and my 'employer' (a local NGO, which I can't actually remember it's name) is coming to meet me later in the morning.
Couple of days in India, I'm getting more and more familiar with this country. The most important skill you have to mastered in order to survive in India is actually patience, but not other things. You have got to wait for everything, and punctual is really not their cup of tea, not at all. For a 0900 hours meeting, you may need to wait until 1000 hours before they appear.
Electricity and water cut are the most usual things in India. Within this 5 days , there's 2 days electric cut and 1 day water cut. Can you imagine that?
Language is a great barrier for me, because of the lack of use of English back in Malaysia, and nervous. I think this is the best environment to push myself, with English as the sole language of communication.
I'm not from a developed country, so I'm not really have that kind of great 'cultural shock' faced by people from developed country. Nevertheless India is a totally different country from which I came from, so there's always new things for me to discover and experience. And I can tell you that, the experiences are great.
Couple of days in India, I'm getting more and more familiar with this country. The most important skill you have to mastered in order to survive in India is actually patience, but not other things. You have got to wait for everything, and punctual is really not their cup of tea, not at all. For a 0900 hours meeting, you may need to wait until 1000 hours before they appear.
Electricity and water cut are the most usual things in India. Within this 5 days , there's 2 days electric cut and 1 day water cut. Can you imagine that?
Language is a great barrier for me, because of the lack of use of English back in Malaysia, and nervous. I think this is the best environment to push myself, with English as the sole language of communication.
I'm not from a developed country, so I'm not really have that kind of great 'cultural shock' faced by people from developed country. Nevertheless India is a totally different country from which I came from, so there's always new things for me to discover and experience. And I can tell you that, the experiences are great.
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