Latest News
Posted on September 9th 2014
Peace Child India 2014
On 18th July 2014, 10 excited students waited patiently at Heathrow airport to board a flight to Bangalore, India.
When we arrived, we received a warm Indian welcome at the farm we were staying at. We all received frangipani flowers that were tied to our wrists and a red mark on our foreheads. The farm was on the outskirts of Bangalore, unfortunately on the complete other side to the airport. We had to go through the manic streets of Bangalore which were filled with people, endless beeps from scooters and cars and cows everywhere - perched in the middle of roads or walking, eating, even sleeping.
We were lucky enough to be invited to the local village’s religious celebration the next day. We were greeted my many intrigued locals who were gracious hosts, giving us their chairs and serving foods straight to our plates. Their temple was beautifully decorated with strings of fresh colourful flowers that hung from the banyan tree above the temple. They all wanted to take photos of us eating and as a group like we were celebrities.
For the next week we volunteered at a government school in a nearby village. The school had both primary and secondary school children. The charity had organised for us to work with their Year 9 class of 45 students! There were two sides to the work that we would be doing – education and renovation. We were split into groups and we taught a group of cheeky yet enthusiastic children. The students were all given a passport which they stuck their photo and information in. In our groups, we completed presentations about 6 different countries so that they could gain information about other cultures. They were quite noisy at times but we were crammed into a very tiny space, also a lot of their excitement came from seeing things that they hadn’t seen before. In our groups we completed posters to show what they had learnt which they then presented at an assembly on our last day.
Next we got creative by making volcanoes from paper mache. The students were so excited to be using the flour paste and paint that it was a bit crazy at times. We finished them off by making them explode by combining vinegar, baking soda and paint to the delight of everyone. Alongside all of this, we were also in charge of redecorating two of the walls of their classroom. The walls were a dirty pink colour with chipped holes everywhere. We pulled all of our ideas together, including the children’s, to make sure we created something that they loved. It involved a lot of team work and working at pace. The result was great, or as the children said, “super!” Even more upsetting was the floor -it was concrete and had deep two inch holes all over it. As the class was so big and the room quite small, they couldn’t have any benches in there so the girls sat in lines on the hard floor. Thankfully, our money paid for the floor to be mended.
On the last day, we were ready to present the classroom to the children. But before this we had time to interact with them by playing games and dancing. We decided to teach the children the Candy dance, which didn’t go to plan. Next we tried the Macarena which they really enjoyed and then we did the Cha-cha slide. However, the girls in the class put us to shame with a beautifully choreographed dance routine that they performed and tried to teach us.
During the week we also went to see a Bollywood film at the cinema as well as having our very own Bollywood night where we dressed in traditional clothing, made chapattis and did some Indian dancing.
For the last few days in India we took a trip to the rainforest in Coorg. After a very long journey, watching extravagant Bollywood films, seeing monkeys in the trees and elephants roaming a village, we arrived. It was pitch black which made the jeep ride up a long, bumpy road to reach our hotel even more enjoyable. We trekked through rainforest to be greeted by wonderful views and to top off our trip we spent time swimming and relaxing under a stunning waterfall.
On our final night we all came together with the workers from the Peace Child India charity to have a bbq outside with the fireflies and the fairy lights. We listened to music and ate loads of the delicious food that our cook, the lovely Vejee, made for us. We couldn’t complete our trip to India without visiting an Indian McDonald’s (they had table service!) and buying lots of boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts, both of which were very cheap!
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay. The many experiences will definitely stay with us.
Sarah Hudson - Year 13
