Adventures of my life...

Sometimes I wonder how quickly your live changes the direction, what exciting twists and turns it brings. Last 3 months has been like a roller coaster and next 2 months won't give me much rest either. But I'm excited, I'm thrilled, I'm worried...I have 1 thousand feelings at the same time, but importantly I'm awaiting another great adventure of my life. I'm going to a traineeship to India.

Last months have been so full of events that I somehow forgot about this blog. But now, I guess it's time to bring it back to live in order to keep my friends from London and from home updated about my traineeship etc.

Saying goodbye in London was not easy. It felt so strange to leave people that I made such a strong connection to. I'm so glad that I have true friends back in London, I cherisch all the great moments we shared together during the last year, I look at our pictures and have a smile on my face...During last year many things happend, it was not easy at all mainly in the beginning, but in the end I had a terrific year in London, I learned a lot about myself, I learned from people around me, I found my work life balance, I reassured myself about what is truly important for me, I laughed a lot and I cried a lot,simply I lived a lot...and I grew stronger. Thanks everyone who has been part of this amazing experience!

On Monday I'm leaving my home town again after a brief visit of my family and a short trip to Prague to see my friends, and I'm heading to Vienna to catch a flight to Mumbai. I'm going to Pune for 7 weeks for a development traineeship. I will be working in NGO called Vanasthali (www.vanasthali.net). As I was told when you go working to India, you should never really expect to be doing what's written in the job description, so mainly I found out about the organisation itself and I'm still unsure what exactly I will be doing there. Here goes a short blurb about the NGO:

Vanasthali Rural Development Centre (VRDC) was established on the 21st Dec. 1981 with a specific objective to promote Pre-Primary education in Rural Maharashtra. Right from its inception it has worked assiduously on the message, “Back to the village”, given by the Father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi.

VRDC observed that the dropout rate of students at the primary and secondary school level was alarming. There are many reasons for this but one of the impotent reasons was lack of Pre-primary i.e. Balwadi school, in villages. Thus, VRDC started with a definite purpose in mind, to work mainly in villages for the welfare of women and children. It has been working actively in rural regions of western Maharashtra, in approximately 8 districts for the past 24 years.

Its main target groups are:
1. Semi literate rural women:
VRDC has given top priority to the ‘Overall Personality Development’ of the rural woman. We have tremendous faith in her innate intelligence, her resilience and her zest for life.

2. Children in the age group of:

3 to 6 years - For Balwadi.

6 to 12 years - For Hobby class.

VRDC feels that ‘education’ is the only means, which will break the vicious circle of poverty and ignorance. Good living conditions will follow automatically . “A Balwadi for every village is our motto”.


So I hope to be able to help this NGO as much as I can to achieve their objectives. I might be travelling a lot in the rural areas of India, work with children and also with rural women. I hope to learn there a lot about myself, to challenge my world view and mainly to give some of my knowledge, skills and love to those who need it...Let's see how it goes...