Namaste!

This was it, after a 7 hour bus ride we arrived in Sunauli, one of the border towns of Nepal and India. Anxiously we went into the immigration office to get the Departure Stamp and walked into India!!! Going through immigration was easy and the friendly staff directed us to the bus station.
The difference of Sunauli on the Indian side was clearly noticeable. It was significantly dirtier, the traffic was pure chaos with honking trucks, buses and rickshaws everywhere and "It smelled like s***" "But with a sweet flavour to it"!

We decided to take a bus to Gorakphur (3 hours) and from there continue with a train to Delhi (14 hours). Everything seemed to work out perfectly on that day and during a quick break, where we had our first Samosa, we met a nice Indian, Harsh, who just came from a Nepal-trip and was on his way back to Delhi. He told us that he would take the 2:30am train and was a little surprised when we told him that we didn't have a ticket yet but would take an earlier train.

When we arrived in Gorakphur it was dark already. Thankfully, Harsh waited for us and Hanna (a Korean girl who was already on the bus from Pokhara to Sunauli with us) and together we walked to the train station. What we saw there was something we had never seen before; people lying outside and inside the station on the ground and on the platform on the floor. Harsh took on the duty of getting us a train ticket which turned out to be a lot more difficult than expected. The train at 7:30pm had left on time and the one at 10:30pm was cancelled. At this point it was still uncertain whether the one at 2:30am would arrive or not; confirmation would come at midnight when they get the schedule for the new day. So since we all had to wait anyway, we went for dinner at a small station cafe and waited ... and waited ... and waited! At midnight Harsh went up to the counter again and received confirmation that the train would arrive but with a delay of an hour. The only still available ticket was the typically crowded "Unreserved 2nd Class" and the plan was to see how full the compartment was and then perhaps bribe the train supervisor to get into a different compartment.

The train ended up being over 2 hours late but thankfully our compartment wasn't too full and the 3 of us could settle down (the 2 of us on a bench and Hanna climbed up onto a luggage rag) more or less comfortably while Harsh went to his "Air-Conditioned 3 Tier" Compartment. After a few hours of disruptive sleep, the train started to fill up by 9am. Harsh joined us to spend the rest of the journey playing cards and chatting instead of being in his far more comfortable compartment. 12 hours later we arrived in Delhi. The 3 of us took Harsh out for dinner as a thank you for everything he did for us before we said good-bye to find a guesthouse for the next couple of nights. We wouldn't have made it to Delhi without Harsh and finally, after 36 hours, we fell into bed.

Since we were planning on coming back to Delhi anyway, we decided to sleep in the next day and rather have a comfort day with Starbucks coffee and muffins for breakfast and Domino's Pizza for dinner instead of doing some sightseeing. The next morning we already took the bus to Jaipur where we spent one month volunteering in an orphanage.

When we arrived at the orphanage, nobody seemed to expect us though we tried to call a few times and even emailed them a week prior. In addition they didn't know our names nor how long we would stay but the biggest surprise for us was that they had 2 more German volunteers there at the same time.

The ashram currently accommodates 25 children between the age of 13 months and 22 years old and is owned by Didi Gautami who is 47 years old and suffers from heavy arthritis. They also have 4 women (3 of them are actually mothers of 3 of the children) who cook, wash, clean and take care of Didi and the children. It turned out that our main duty would be to teach the children English, help them with their homework, play with them and give them love.

Since the other 2 girls arrived a week before us they got their own room while we shared our room with Archana, a 15 year old girl. We didn't mind sharing a room and actually felt bad that 3 other girls had to make space for us. The lack of privacy was tough at times though, our room was as busy as a train station when everyone came in to get their things at 6:30am in the morning or used the ensuite bathroom. Every time we just closed the door to get some privacy (after showering for example) we were locked in from the outside and had to knock first to get someone to let us out.

In the mornings our help was not necessary as most of the children are quite independent or get help from the women in getting ready for school. Therefore, we had basically "Free Time" until 3pm but often ended up running errands for Didi (accompanying her to the hospital several times, getting her medication or paying the internet bill) or helping the women with the preparation for lunch. At 3pm when all the children were back from school and the younger ones who got home earlier, finished their nap we all had lunch together. At 3:45pm we (the volunteers - the 4 of us took turns every other day) brought the children to dance class until 5:00pm before it was study time from 5:30pm until 8:00pm. All 20 children were divided into 4 groups. Ann took care of 6 young ones between 3 and 6 years old who required all her attention. Sabrina had 4 children between 8 and 11 years old. The remaining 10 children were divided between Svenja and Krisi (the other girls). These teaching lessons were the most stressful part of our day. Ann was supposed to teach them English (alphabet and writing simple words) and Math (addition and simple exercises with the numbers up to 100). The environment was mostly disruptive and the children either couldn't or wouldn't concentrate and constantly required Ann's attention. Sabrina was downstairs in the children's bedroom with her group and the remaining 10 children. Her challenge was to help them with their homework and help them study Indian History, Math, Science, General Knowledge and English. After studying it was time for meditation! The definition of an ashram is "a place of communal living established around the philosophies of a guru (a spiritual guide or teacher)". In our case it was "Baba" who was their master and the "religion" Didi belonged to is called "Sargarh" which is apparently a "lower class" religion. The first 30 minutes they prepare themselves by chanting their mantra "Baba Nam Kevalam" in many different ways before they start an approx. 15 minute meditation in the dark. For the children, especially the young ones, it is very hard to stay awake but misbehaviour during meditation is not tolerated. At 9:00pm it was time for dinner and with that our day ended and we mostly were exhausted from a long day. This was our routine from Monday to Saturday; only Sunday was different when the children did not have to go to school or dance class and we could take them to the park. These were the moments we enjoyed the most.

During our stay at the ashram we got a pretty good insight in the Indian culture and learnt that it is best to accept certain things the way they are because in 4 weeks we would not be able to change around everything. Overall, their point of view differs in many ways from the way we were taught but this is what makes traveling exciting! We tried very hard though to teach the children simple things like "Good Morning", "Thank you" and "Please" which was already a task.

Everything we wrote sounds pretty negative but let us ensure you we also had some very nice experiences. On the rare occasions when we actually could go sightseeing we got to explore Jaipur the "Pink City". The beautiful city centre contains so much history and reveals architectural master pieces (especially carvings) in each building that will leave anybody with big eyes. We could also witness some of India's many festivals and experience Indian hospitality when families invited all children and us volunteers to outstanding meals. Very special to us was our last minute invitation to our first Indian wedding when we were able to experience something we have only seen in movies so far. The most important part for us was the safety we felt for 1 month and everything that comes with it. We were able to get familiar with our surrounding, found ourselves some favourite places (coffee shop and fruit stand), had our "own" rickshaw driver Bharat who we could call anytime we needed a ride and found ourselves friends in neighbours. The orphanage was a place we could come back to after an exhausting day of sightseeing and the children had the ability to make us feel better by making us laugh, hugging us or simply being around us.

After 4 weeks we can say with certainty that we learnt from this experience and grew in it. Unfortunately many things were disappointing and definitely different than we expected. For the greater part we felt that our help was not required apart from the study time and we felt that the money we paid (not little for Indian standards) was not used for the appropriate things. However we accept now that everything we went through was for the children only and they were all the time our main concern. Our intentions were honest and we were told that regardless what happened, we did a good thing. This is how we close this chapter and make peace with it.

Now we are ready to visit some other places in India!!!

Cheerio,

Ann & Sabrina