"You cannot create experience. You must undergo it" (A. Camus)
My
experience in SWASH Village project through EduCARE India NGO started in the beginning of September 2015, in the
rainy monsoon season in Dharamsala. I arrived in a outskirts in upper Dharamsala, in a little village called Naddi and I was
delighted by the amazing view on Himalayan Mountains and the Kangra
valley. Since the first second there, I felt in a place welcoming, calm
and serene. Apart from the crazy rain that could start without warning
you and last for hours (through late June to early August months), the first days in this peaceful
village enchanted my senses. People are very nice to you: they don’t
hesitate to invite you for a chai or a dinner at their house. These
first days surrounded by warm and welcoming people made me feel already
like at home.
My first months in the organization were very special to me, I was
discovering more than India in itself. By many ways, the internship I
did was a first experience for a lot of things. It was the first time I
worked abroad, outside my home country of France. It was the first time I worked as a volunteer - intern in an NGO in India as part of my academic work / sanitation and waste management stage. It was the first time I lived with a roommate and in an NGO volunteer - interns’ house. It was the first time I stayed a long time away from my
family and my friends.
Meeting the other new volunteer - interns during the induction and spending some
time together made me realize that the SWSH Village project / NGO EduCARE India is more than an organization. It is a cross-cultural sharing platform,
it is a family welcoming people from all over the world: Italy, Spain,
Portugal, the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Vietnam, India etc. Sharing my
experience with other interns from different countries around the world
was a gift. Living with the center volunteer-interns made me discover and
appreciate life in community. Enjoying free time with my roommates and
the other volunteer-interns, partnering and collaborating with them on different
projects, supporting each other: it was amazing to do all these things.
This internship has been also the opportunity for me to
travel around in India. Working in SWASH Village project and EduCARE India NGO allowed me to get to the other
centers of the organization in other regions and to enjoy the different tastes of India: doing a camel safari in the hot and dry Thar Desert in Rajasthan,
walking in the noisy and crowded streets of Punjab while enjoying
Bhangra (local) music and trekking in the freezing Himalayan range. I
particularly enjoyed the different outdoor activities offered by the
Himalayan Mountains: it was awesome to be able to do trekking and hiking
in these outstanding landscapes.
During my holidays, I experienced most of the beautiful sights that
North India can offer: palaces, forts, tombs and plenty of temples.
During my travels, I also enjoyed urban India with the crazy Delhi and
the outstanding Mumbai, which were good breaks from the countryside.
Particularly, these travels made me discover how diverse India is: rural
and urban, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Jains, dry
and humid, cold and hot. I never saw this much diversity before and it
was fascinating that all this diversity was standing in harmony.
I enjoyed a
lot being a SWASH Village and EduCARE India ngo intern. The eight months I spent working (volunteer work - internship / academic work abroad) with the non-profit organization in India were very intense and every day gave me a different experience
from in India. I thank all the people that I met during my volunteer work - internship abroad in India, all the SWASH Village team and EduCARE India interns, Naddi villagers, Naddi interns and
the other people I met in India for making this experience unique.
Meeting people from everywhere in the world, contributing to rural
development, challenging myself with project management, enjoying Indian
cultural diversity and spicy food, experiencing the crazy but also
incredible country's sights, and, last but not least, living by myself
far from my home country. In a nutshell, I would say that I learnt more
in eight months of experience than in the rest of my life:
"You cannot create experience. You must undergo it" (A. Camus)
Kevin Sundareswaran - France
SWASH Project Manager / Project Coordinator in Naddi
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