Loved (Almost) Every Minute of CCS India

After a full-on cultural immersion experience in Vietnam (complete with riding on the backs of motorcycles with locals and trying to sleep to the sound of horking neighbours), I was ready to experience India with just a few more of the comforts of home.

Waiting for me at the airport (late on a Saturday night) to collect me from my 6 hour flight from Hong Kong, was a staff member and a driver from Cross-Cultural Solutions. From the moment, I stepped into the back of the SUV and got handed my welcome package, the staff at CCS took care of all of the little challenges and irritations of travel. They whisked myself and two of my fellow arriving volunteers to our humble flat (3 bedrooms - 8 people) near the Hauz Khas area of the city and got us settled into our orientation, sight seeing, and language lessons the next day.

In many ways, doing another CCS program felt an awful lot like coming home. After my 6 week program in Cape Town last year, I knew how the model of volunteer work, cultural exchange, and free time worked and it felt like I had simply arrived in a grittier, dustier, more polluted Cape Town (with even more amazing food and a completely different culture). Outside of a little bug I think I picked up on the plane, I got to skip the worst of the Delhi Belly and ate like a queen for 3 weeks.

My placement at Mother Teresa's Home for the Dying and the Destitute was more challenging that I expected. I had never worked with physically or mentally challenged people before and I think the culture shock of the placement was more intense than the culture shock of arriving in Delhi (keep in mind that I had spent the previous month in the wonderful chaos of Vietnam). I felt grateful to have had another CCS volunteer at the placement to show me around as well as the support of the staff in the Program Office to help me ease into my work. By my third week, I had settled into the routine of nail cutting, feeding, and spending time with a group of 70-80 women and left feeling so grateful for the opportunity I had to spend time with such an inspiring group of patients.

So far, Delhi has been one of my favourite places to volunteer because there is a great need for support, but there is also so much to learn from the culture and the people. With CCS, you will learn to speak basic Hindi, volunteer at an established NGO, see beautiful mosques and temples, learn about the history of the country in terms of politics and women's empowerment, and get a crash course in India's diverse religions and customs. You will also have enough free time to make a weekend trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, which is now one of the best memories of my life. I would return to New Delhi in a heartbeat and I think CCS does such a fantastic job of making India accessible to even the most novice of international volunteers.

My only two pieces of advice:
1. Keep your nails short because outbreaks of lice are rampant and even if you wash your hands, you can easily carry the little buggers around under you nails. You don't want to end up spending your last afternoon in New Delhi with de-lousing chemicals on your head (one of the few moments I didn't enjoy so much).
2. Buy extra pairs of the drawstring Indian pants because you will probably bring home a few extra pounds with you. The food coming out of the CCS kitchen is fantastic and hard to eat it with any kind kind of moderation (or maybe that is just me and my lack of will power when it comes to Indian food)...