Volunteering in South Kerala, India with GVI

If Aladdin's genie magically appeared right now and gave me 3 wishes those would definitively be: 1. Go back in time to July 1st, South Kerala, India. 2. A family for the Manipur kids we tough. 3. One more month in this program.

Working with GVI in this program changed my life. I have to admit I thought it was not going to be hard for me to adapt to the country considering that I was born and raised in a 3rd world country. But it wasn't easy at all. My first week on the program was driving me mad; I was scared of messing up and I was not confident on what I was doing considering that I had never taught or even worked with children before. But I had the wonderful support of the coordinators Ridhi and Ross all the time. They gave me strength all throughout the program. After the first week, teaching came out naturally, I easily learned the name of my kids and I was starting to have the best time of my life. I got really close to my kids, its like if they became part of my family and I have to admit I still shed some tears when I go through pictures and recall memories.

This program helped me see things different. The social scene is obviously an impact, but despite the poverty in India, people will always smile at you while walking on the streets of Fort Kochi. It is a whole new culture but I loved it. The living conditions where simple but comfortable. It was hard to live with 11 other people in the same house. We all had shores to do every day and we had to be responsible for the house cleaning. I remember the early rush in the morning, 12 people in a small kitchen trying to make their breakfast. This simple things made me grow as a person. It made me learn how to work in groups and how to get out of my "comfort zone".

I have to admit that GVI did a great job with all their information on the program before I got there but they forgot to tell me something crucial: "you will have the time of your life".

Yes, this program changed me. How? In words I can't explained. I was completely happy for a whole month. I met the most wonderful people on this trip. The children I taught became "my kids" and my housemates became my friends. I became so close to these two groups of people that I can call them family and this program wouldn't have been the same without them.

Working on this program made me grow and mature as a person and it made a difference on me as well as I made a difference on this world. I could see that on my last day, when Songayao gave me a big hug and didn't let go for a while and when Rominao and Tamchimla started shedding tears as we said goodbye.

I enjoyed volunteering abroad and I would definitively do it again. I recommend this program and GVI to others and I am sure they will have a wonderful experience as well.