Project week

Hello people!

Sorry it took me so long to write the next post. I wasn't on campus because I had exeat from 27/10-3/11. So here's a little update of my project week. I don't have all the pictures yet, so I will post a few of them and later on some more. I did so much on project week that I desided that I'll just copy some passages of my diary (translated into English and censured ofcourse (; ).

I hope you guys will have an idea of how project week was for me.

27-10-2012

(16:30) "Hey diary, I'm the train to Bangalore now. We left school at 9am. Everyone was so excited because for us the idea of being on an Indian train is very special. But acctually now I'm here I don't find it that special. It's very similar to the European sleep-trains. My roommates (Sonia and Aishwarya) left yesterday and this morning Minjoo came to drop me of at the bus and she said 'I feel like a mother, I'm so proud of you and I'm gonna miss you!' It was so sweet, I really love my roommates! Anyways

with my European length of course the bed is a little bit to small, but what to do? If I fold my legs a little bit I fit so it's ok. There are 3 beds on 1 wall. I'm so happy that I have the one on top. Otherwise if one of the beds falls down it would be on me. I already start  being bored and we're only here for 5 hours yet so I have another 11hours left..."

(20:30) "We're still on the train en we played card-games and games such as 2truth1lie, the pointing game, never have I ever,... We also got train food which, surprisingly, wasn't that bad and wasn't spicy either. And we all survived the Indian train-tiolet (; It's just a hole in the floor and 2 steps to put your feets on. Actually it's cleaner than the Belgian ones because there isn't pee all over the place.. The only problem is that there's no toiletpaper, but we have tissues (:"

(21:00) "I suddenly had a genious income (This train makes me so weird :d): Life is actually like an Indian train. We don't know anything about the journey except for the destination. Sometimes it's scary, uncomfortable and not how we want it to be, but it can also be fun, emotional and bonding. So we should enjoy this experience because it may only happen once.

28-10-2012

(8:00) "There we go, I survived my first night on an Indian train. Except for a baby that started crying at 4am followed by a girl that caughed until 7am I slept well. In 1 hour we'll arrive in Bangalore."

(23:45) "We arrived and the lady immediatly welcomed us with delicious Dosa

 

We didn't do a lot today because we had free and we were tired from the train adventure. We visited Bangalore a little bit 'til 9pm."

29-10-2012 

(16:00) "Today we went to the children in 'dreamschool' for the first time. They are so cute :o it's really incredible!"

 

 
 

 
 

 

 



"There are 4 classes: The migrants (called chilipilli's because they make so much noice), NCLP (National child labour project), the 7th grade (to compare with the Belgium system: I'm doing 11th and 12th grade) and the 10th grade. All the children come from difficult backgrounds and get an education here so they can proceed with their lives. The nice thing is that you almost don't see that some of them come from bad backgrounds."

(22:20) "We just went to Bangalore city :D We went out eating with Sheila and Pramod in an Italian restaurant (I know, it's very contradictory :d but the food was really good). It was a lot of fun."

30-10-2012

"Today we went shopping in a little market and I bought the best present ever for my parents (I'm not gonna tell what because they read it). We went to the school again and we had presentations about what they do exactly. Tomorrow we'll be able to spend some time with the children. We also went shopping in MG Road. It was nice, but not as nice as MG road in Mumbai. By the way, there are MG roads everywhere because it is Mahadma Ghandi road (:

31-10-2012

"Today we went to a show because it is Kannada Rajvothswa (which is a local festival). De kids all dansed and sang for one of their gods. It was really pretty and they were so talented! At the end they give us a rose. It was so cute!"

2-11-2012

"Today we went to the children. I spent time with the children of 7th grade and with the NCLP-children. I liked the NCLP ones more because they were more energetic and creative. But both of them were very nice."

 

The rest of our project week we just visited Bangalore. It was very nice and I really enjoyed my time there because it really inspired me. When I came back my roommates left me notes because they missed me (they came back 1 day earlier than me). I really realized that although we sometimes complain about the bad things in MUWCI, I really love it and I miss it when I'm not there. I'm starting to feel as if this was my second home. The community as we have it here is something that I got used to now and I wouldn't want to miss it.

 

So that was it about Project Week. I'll keep you guys updatet when new things happen, but it's very busy right now so I can't promise when exactly I'll write again. I know that for those of you that are applicate for UWC it is almost time, so good luck and don't worry; just be yourself (:

 

xoxo,

Pauline