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First Impression, October 2008
Ms. Lena Caroline Schaefer
I am a volunteer from Wuppertal in Germany; my name is Lena and I am 22 years old. I want to stay for about three months at the Sambhali project in Jodhpur.
I traveled from Delhi to Jodhpur on the October 1st and stayed there for 4 days. It is my first time in India and my first time as a volunteer. Therefore I was anxious because I did not know what exactly to expect.
Govind met me at the airport and took me to the Durag Niwas guesthouse. During the drive Govind told me a lot about the actual situation in Sambhali Trust and about the situation in the family. All family members are worried about his mum because she`s staying in the hospital for a while. I feel very sorry for Govind and his family. At the guesthouse I had a warm welcome; all the girls were waiting for me with flowers. All of them looked so pretty, with their nice traditional clothing and their smiles. Govind introduced me to the other volunteers and the family. Everybody is very friendly and hospitable, furthermore, Govind showed me the house and the schoolroom, all of them look very warm.
On my first day on Sunday (there is no school on Sunday) I visited the Mehrangarh Fort and the old town of Jodhpur. I was shocked by all the crazy traffic and the noise…
At the moment I can’t really imagine teaching English because I’ve never done it before and I am very happy that Stephanie, another volunteer from England, starts at the same time. In the Sambhali trust there is a lot of stuff to prepare for the English lessons. Also very helpful were the conversation with the volunteer Fay who taught the girls for about six weeks and the conversations with Govind and Tamanna, the local teacher. They all have a lot of good ideas. The first day I got to know the girls. The girls are between 13 and 18 years old. All the time they are very friendly and polite and interested in English lessons, sewing, my background and my country. All of the girls are very different with their own personalities; some of them have stayed for one year in the Sambhali Trust and the others for only two weeks. Therefore they have different English levels. I think it was a good idea of Megan and Fay to split the class into a basic group and an advanced group. This makes it possible to support each of the girls with their different qualities. It was very difficult to plan the lessons, first we collected all ideas and we thought about what we can teach them and what could be useful for the girls. Megan and Fay’s handover notes were very helpful. So we know what the other volunteers have taught. In our first lessons we have done only some activities and games to get to know the girls. Meanwhile we have realized that the girls do not know everything that the other volunteers have taught so that we decided to make a brief repetition of the previous lesson at the beginning of the next. But on the other hand there is a lot the girls have learnt. I am looking forward to watching the individual progress of the girls over the next few weeks.
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