Post written by Sonya Anne Dunsirn, a United Planet Volunteer

My first experience in India was being greeted by the torrential monsoon rain. My friend Jenna and I were whisked away to meet the rest of the group that had already arrived in Mumbai. From there, we went to Lanavla, a city about three hours away. We had a quick introduction, ate our first Indian meal, and went to bed. The next day we set out on a trek through the jungle.

We had no idea what we were in for on this “trekking adventure.” It started out by a man releasing the cobras he captured around our hotel. Then we started to hike… in the rain… up the mountains. We walked through small rivers and took our fair share of diggers along the way. Due to the monsoons, there were beautiful waterfalls all around us. We spent the night in a one room stone building with open windows and no electricity. Needless to say, no one got too much sleep. We woke early in the morning to hike higher up. The views were amazing the whole time!

The group took a 15 hour overnight train to Goa. My friends and I kept telling ourself that “everything will be better in Goa” when we were in rainy, bug filled, cold, damp Lanavla. We had no idea what Goa was going to be like, but it was everything we wished for. It was hot, sunny, and our beds were dry!

Jenna and I worked at the Construction School in the morning. In most places in India, construction workers move their shacks to where ever they are working. The children of these workers are forced to move along with them and don’t have an opportunity to go to school. Their “school” was the inside of a storage garage. Even so, the children were amazing. They loved to sing, play, and show us everything they know. The kids were always smiling and couldn’t wait to go to “school” every morning.

In the afternoons, I went to an elderly home. The men there taught me how to play “Carrum”, a game like billiards, but played on a small table with your fingers. I also listened to stories about life and families from the women.

My United Planet Quest really helped me appreciate everything that I have. The living conditions were sad, but it was amazing to see the drive that the people had. The children wanted to go to school to learn and were always excited to see what we had planned for them. My favorite part of the day was when the cows would walk down the street in a herd. This happened twice everyday while we were at school and they walked by everyday at the same time! I will miss everyone I met, both the children, and the wonderful volunteers from all over the world who became close friends. There is so much more to say about my volunteer abroad experience from going on excursions to spice plantations, touching an elephant, getting a henna tattoo, watching Bollywood movies (Ohm Shanti Ohm!), the lizard that slept on our window every night, eating rice and curry for EVERY meal, shenanigans with volunteers from the Orange House, to spending the night coloring for the next days lesson plan. My Quest was incredible and I would go back in a heart beat!

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Explore posts in the same categories: local culture, travel, United Planet, volunteer abroad, volunteer work
Tags: Bollywood, Carrum, elephant, Goa, henna tatoo, hike, India, Lanavla, lizard, monsoon rain, rice and curry, spice plantations, volunteer abroad, Waterfalls

This entry was posted on Friday, September 5th, 2008 at 7:53 pm and is filed under local culture, travel, United Planet, volunteer abroad, volunteer work. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

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