Departure & plans

Hi All...

Everytime I forget how horrible organised I'm when I'm about to leave...Spending till midnight behind the computer to sort out music, documents and all that stuff, writing all the emails I still had to write and so on... And the same procedure at work. Yeah I still have to learn how to let things go..as they are just things and away is away.....

But now I'm about to leave! My backpack is packed...15 kilograms this time! (including the lonely planet and other paperworks!) Will leave my cosy place up to my parents for some weeks as they might enjoying living in a city for some days... especially with the not to miss Charles Dickens Festival next week. Not to miss and good luck with the crowd. Maybe that crowd resembles India a bit, only they don't need such a big event to gather such amount of people...they just need a street....

I'm leaving with some different thoughts in my head. I'm curious how I'll experience the volunteering..especially concerning what the local people think about it. And what is our urge to do this? Is the main goal helping? Or is it something else? And if it is, is it working? Had some interesting discussions about this the past weeks with a friend. To me the volunteering is a way of exchange. I think I can learn a lot from this experience and hope that I can give the people there something too…

Some of you might found this an interesting blog too: http://thevault.punt.nl/sierraleone/ It's available in Dutch and English. It's written by a dutch girl who moved to Sierra Leone. But it is about more about the cultural differences and living in another country.

I also had a lot of thoughts about ‘going back’  and the meaning of that. I always joke about writing a book about that, as I think that returning it is a lot more difficult then leaving. Personally ‘returning’  this time for means, challenging my own ideas about my admiration to India and its people. (as I had a year to built an image in my head that it felt like a 2nd home to me). But it’s also about returning back home after, which last year changed my mind about many things, as all of sudden being confronted with my culture and behaving…but it also gave me back the thought of following my heart, which really made me a happy person the past year! (but that’s not always an easy path to follow). I guess returning after leaving “forever”  because of finding happiness somewhere else…is a hard way of learning that happiness is to be found in yourself. and really get to know what this universal sentence is meaning..And sometimes that needs a lifetime, or maybe some more if you believe in reincarnation…

Ok…enough about the thoughts now! Now it’s time to leave and prepare for two days of travelling…my plan for the first days is this:

11-12 dec my flight will be from Ams-londen-Delhi. I’ll arrive in Delhi at 10.50 IST. There I’ll meet with Dabis, another volunteer of SCF. Enough time to chat about the work and other topics, as the train will take 20 hours to reach Chandrapur (without delay).

After spending the night there we will probably leave next day for the place where my ‘ home’  will be for three weeks. A place called Mohurli. (look up on Googlemaps.com) Close to the gates of the tiger reserve! I have been given some assignments beside the school program stuff so I think it will keep me pretty busy for three weeks…. 

Instead of earlier plans, I booked some trains to travel south, as trains fill up quickly…(and always can be cancelled). The plan now is that I’ll spend a weekend in Nagpur (3-5 jan) as it is a main train junction and all trains directly from Chandrapur to Hyderbad where already fully booked… From Nagpur leaving by train to Hyderabad. Then further to the south (inland flight), starting in Cochin, going land inwards to the surroundings of tea plantations as they are supposed to be beautiful…then Alleppy and the backwaters. From there with a train to Madurai to spend some days and from there flying to Mumbai for the last 2 nights.

 Oke…That’s it for now…Next message will hopefully be sent from India

 Greetings Marloes