I started to plan my trip to India
only few weeks before my departure. I didn't know what to think, what to
expect, but I hoped that somehow I will be able to survive there for
6 weeks... As we landed in Hyderabad, bunch of AIESEC people were waiting for
us, we started to talk, but firstly I didn´t understand
a word...Indian accent seemed like something I would never be able to
understand. But in obviously in some time this obstacle disappeared and since
then I would never have a problem to understand any Indian.
First two days me and my friend Petra,
we stayed at our „team leader“ Bhavishyat´s place. This was the first time
I saw how indian family lives and it was also the first time I tryed
indian food...not spicy, of course. I appreciated their hospitality, it´s
not easy to accomodate two strange foreign girls. After that we moved to
a flat with that funny view noone would ever have in Europe – yard full of
garbage. Really something unusual for me...But the flat was in general ok.
First days of our stay we were just
meeting other AIESECers and guys from Hyderabad Goes Green. Those days we
didn´t have much work, because of some misunderstanding in communication
between us and AIESEC, so we had some time to travel. One week in Kerala was one
of the best trips I ever had. After we came back, some of other interns
were already in the flat. It was nice to meet people from different parts of
the world, to know more about them, about their countries, cultures and also to
talk about my country, to share my experiences... We were supposed to work from
that moment, but still there was not much work for us to do. AIESECers, as they
promised us something we were not getting, as food. It was some kind of funny
and weird not to get any food for few days and then, when they finally provided
something, it wasn´t enough at all for 10 people. But we learned how to handle
it.
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Work we were doing was very interesting
and I think that also usefull for those kids we were talking to. It was
very surprising for me, the ways kids were behaving, how they were paying
attentions to what we were saying to them. I really liked it. And then,
after every workshop, the wanted to shake hands with us, asked for our
autographs, that´s something I have never seen before.
Another problem we (interns) were
facing was the time management and organisation of workshops. We didn´t get any
information untill the last moment, mostly untill the late evening before the
workshop was supposed to be. It was the same way also when the worshop was
postponed or cancelled. Because of this desinformation, we couldn´t plan any
other trip, even if we had enough free time for travelling. AIESECers only
started to act after the complaint of all 10 interns and after a visit of
the president of AIESEC.
Firstly
I was supposed to stay in India only for 6 weeks, but as i fell in
love with India, I postponed my ticket twice and finally I stayed for
2,5 months. My overall experience is great, I´ve seen very nice places, I´ve
met great people, that became my close friends and although I´m already back
home, I´m still in touch with them and I think I will be for
a long time. I´ve learned so much about a culture completely
different than my own culture, I tasted food as spicy as hell.
I think India is a great country and I would be so happy to come
back someday. I will only remember good things that happened over there
and I will only laugh about those problems we had, cause they seem very funny
now. But I hope, for the good of AIESEC Hyderabad, that for their next
project they will try to focus more on their interns and they will try to avoid
those errors and problems we were facing during our stay. As most of them are
really young, they can doing it very good, but still can do much better, cause
they have a great potential. I will miss India so much and hope to go
there again very soon.The writer is Simona Hains from Slovakia. She was in Hyderabad interning on Community Development Project.
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