Vissers' Hooft 2012. Community Service in REAP. Lessons learnt
Vissers' Hooft 2012. Community Service in REAP. Lessons learnt
After one and a half year of preparation, a journey to India where we stayed in guestfamilies, did community services in the slums of Mumbai and stayed at a boarding school in Panchgani we learnt a lot about our own country, India and ourselves. Overall it was a great adventure that we would recommend to everybody who wants to invest a lot of time, is willing to overcome culture shock and who wants to learn a lot about his/herself, India and the Netherlands.
Here are some of the things we learnt:
Cultural differences:
- In the Netherlands people are more suspicious, arrogant and less hospitable. We were surprised by how curious and friendly the Indian students were.
- Where/what is our ‘culture’? We saw so many beautiful Indian dances, plays etc … We felt a bit poor.
- We are much freeer than Indian students. We can have a boyfriend/girlfriend for example.
- Things in India are in some respects much poorer (slums, environment) but in the Netherlands we make a big fuss out of our ‘problems’
- Indians are much more nationalistic than people in the Netherlands.
- Indians have more disciplin than we have.
- We have to do much more chores at home: clean up our own rooms for example. In rich families, they alle have servants! Indian students were surprised about everything we did in preparation for our trip (for example: earning our own tickets). In a way, we are more independent than the Indian students.
Personal growth:
- We know what a big project involves: budget, planning, organising and promoting actions, divisions of tasks etc. Such a big project can create a great group and is a lot of fun but we also learnt about group processes and our role in them.
- We learnt what it is really like in the slums. You get to know about the lives of people, and about their world. It is not thát different from ours … People are smart, happy, have emotions, want to go to school, get married .. We’re all people and communication is possible!
- We had to improvise a lot and be open for many things we did not have under control and found out that we could! For example when the lessons you prepared don’t work out the way you planned them, or when you miss a plane …
- We have the feeling that we actually made a difference!
- Teaching is quite difficult and tiring.
- We learnt about the differences rich/poor: in our guestfamilies we all had servants and luxury, in the slums 8 people live in one room. We are very priviliged also … I am much more grateful for everything I have and the chances that I get.
- Everybody can and should help to make a difference in the world!
After one and a half year of preparation, a journey to India where we stayed in guestfamilies, did community services in the slums of Mumbai and stayed at a boarding school in Panchgani we learnt a lot about our own country, India and ourselves. Overall it was a great adventure that we would recommend to everybody who wants to invest a lot of time, is willing to overcome culture shock and who wants to learn a lot about his/herself, India and the Netherlands.
Here are some of the things we learnt:
Cultural differences:
- In the Netherlands people are more suspicious, arrogant and less hospitable. We were surprised by how curious and friendly the Indian students were.
- Where/what is our ‘culture’? We saw so many beautiful Indian dances, plays etc … We felt a bit poor.
- We are much freeer than Indian students. We can have a boyfriend/girlfriend for example.
- Things in India are in some respects much poorer (slums, environment) but in the Netherlands we make a big fuss out of our ‘problems’
- Indians are much more nationalistic than people in the Netherlands.
- Indians have more disciplin than we have.
- We have to do much more chores at home: clean up our own rooms for example. In rich families, they alle have servants! Indian students were surprised about everything we did in preparation for our trip (for example: earning our own tickets). In a way, we are more independent than the Indian students.
Personal growth:
- We know what a big project involves: budget, planning, organising and promoting actions, divisions of tasks etc. Such a big project can create a great group and is a lot of fun but we also learnt about group processes and our role in them.
- We learnt what it is really like in the slums. You get to know about the lives of people, and about their world. It is not thát different from ours … People are smart, happy, have emotions, want to go to school, get married .. We’re all people and communication is possible!
- We had to improvise a lot and be open for many things we did not have under control and found out that we could! For example when the lessons you prepared don’t work out the way you planned them, or when you miss a plane …
- We have the feeling that we actually made a difference!
- Teaching is quite difficult and tiring.
- We learnt about the differences rich/poor: in our guestfamilies we all had servants and luxury, in the slums 8 people live in one room. We are very priviliged also … I am much more grateful for everything I have and the chances that I get.
- Everybody can and should help to make a difference in the world!