My first week in India

I’m spending the next 9 months travelling around Asia, before I start Teach First next year. I’ve already had my first week in Delhi, where I’m volunteering as a teacher for Project Why for 3 months. After that I’m going to head south to travel round other parts of India, then I’ll jet off to Hong Kong to see my family and then move on to Thailand to meet the lovely Emily Huntingford, where we’ll be exploring Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Back to St Albans at the end of May! Hopefully I'll post my thoughts and pictures here on a weekly basis.

After a week in Delhi, I’m gradually adjusting! Delhi is really like no other place. The roads are insanely busy and there is a constant sound of honking, which hit me as soon as I stepped out of the airport at half 4 in the morning. I’m staying in a flat in south Delhi, in a place called Govind Puri, where Project Why is based. It’s a very conservative area, so I can’t dress how I usually would, and so far the only white people I’ve seen here are the other volunteers, so we stand out quite a bit! I had a surreal moment a few days ago, when I walked up the stairs to the flat to be stopped by two huge monkeys blocking my way. The monkeys in Delhi are quite aggressive at the moment, so I crept backwards and had to wait until they moved on before I could get back inside. Fortunately, they love their Chai in India, so a lot of tea drinking has made me feel more and more at home!

Project Why is a non-profit organisation that supports slum children and their families, through education and life skills enhancement. On my first day, I started teaching Maths and English to 10-13 year olds at a school based in the slum in Okhla. It’s a supplementary school to the state school they also attend in the morning (for girls) or afternoon (for boys). I was pretty awful to begin with, but over the last week, I’ve started to get the hang of it. The kids are brilliant. They can actually be rather cheeky to me and demanding, as they all want individual attention right away; I often hear shouts of “Ma’am, ma’am” from 10 directions, or have five books or more thrust on my lap at once, to mark immediately. But they do make me laugh and they’re (usually) very kind and helpful towards each other and the teachers in the school. We had a party last week to say goodbye to two volunteers and one of the games we played was limbo. We put the boys in two lines and got them to go under the limbo stick in pairs, and as they went underneath they held hands even though they’re a group of boys who were as old as 16. I love the way they’re not embarrassed to be affectionate.

The kids also love handshakes, and at the end of both the morning and afternoon session I usually shake hands with most of the students there! These are very special handshakes, and can be quite tiring, particularly as they love the handshake that involves arm wrestling at the end. Some of those children are quite strong… at least I’ll probably be a pretty good arm wrestler by the end of my time here.

I’ve also been getting to know the other volunteers here. Last week there was a lovely group of girls from Nottingham Trent University, who I made semi-adopt me for the last week of their stay. I went to some great places with them, and I was introduced to how to barter properly with the market stall holders at the fantastically colourful market Dilli Haat. Turns out I’m a bit too nice to them, but Harriet showed me how to get a good deal and I bought a gorgeous salwar kameez top for good price.

Yesterday I visited Humayan’s Tomb with a new volunteer called Emily, who’s from Maine, USA. The tomb pre-dates the Taj Mahal and you can really see how it inspired it. It was absolutely stunning!

One of the odd things about visiting sights in Delhi, is that some of the Indian tourists want to be in photos with me and other white people. I don’t know how many photos I’ve featured in so far, but it’s a lot! I’m going to start charging soon...

I'm looking forward to another exciting week in Delhi. Any feedback and comments on my blog would be greatly appreciated!