Meeting the Dalai Lama and Serving-Learning in Bangalore

In late December of 2013, I boarded a plane to Bangalore. Immediately after getting off the final plane, I felt Home. There has never been a more revolutionary experience in this entire life for me. This is no platitude or exaggerated conjecture, this is as truth as science. The people are unmatched in their capacity for care and their creativity of different manifest forms of thoughtfulness. When serving with the Centre for Social Action, I got to spend as much time as I pleased volunteering with a branch of the organization called Parivarthana. It is a non-profit that cultivates sustainability through creating goods out of recycled materials. Its workforce consists of thirty women from the local impoverished areas, supplying them with needed income and promotes systemic social justice simultaneously. Two of the employees became two of my closest friends; neither of them spoke very much English at all, yet we always found ways to communicate with one another. Our friendship grew to a point where I was even invited to one of their weddings. This place became where I spent most of my time, turning my "required" 15 hours into over 100. Additionally, I was led to a United Nations Microscholarship school to help facilitate lessons on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the general culture of the United States. There, I made even more friends. It hurt to leave Bangalore. Sincerely, it was something that I did not want to do. There is a part of me that believes I left both my mind and heart back in South Central India. As for the program itself, the academic challenge is a worthy one and the professors are of high intellectual regards. The program manager is one heck of a tour guide and unintentionally promotes independent learning. If you are a person that self-initiates adventures, appreciates diversity, treats everything as a learning opportunity, does not take life too seriously but treats academics with high importance, and has a longing to serve, then this program is certainly for you. All I know is that I cannot wait to go back and am eternally grateful to programs like USAC and Boise State University's International Learning Opportunities office for the privileged opportunities they played such a paramount role in.