First
time we are going out of India - for six months!!!!!! We feel very sad to leave our family,
colleagues and friends, and also the places where we lived, walked and worked!
We understood the attachment that we have had towards living and non-living
things.But it is a great opportunity tounderstand all this emotions.
The day came, to fulfill our dreams…
We
are excited and eagerly waiting for our first flight experience and to see
Germany. Also a bit afraid and tensed about traveling.
I
(Yasotha) traveled from Coimbatore to Bangalore with Dr. K.S Malathi, our
Indian Mentor. So I was a bit ok with traveling. It was a good experience and I
was happy.
To
send us to Germany our Director, Indian mentor and family members joined us to
the airport. So we were happy to see them, but sad to leave them.
Entering Germany…
The
flight reached Frankfurt Airport, we came out from the Lufthansa flight a bit
tensed where to collected the luggage, where to go out and where to find Dr.KirstenSames.
With all the tension we completed our procedure and came out..
While
coming out we heard somebody screaming our names, we turned and saw Ms. Hannah,
Ms. Paula and Dr.Kristin Sames welcoming us with happiness and expectation. We are also happy to meet them.
We went to Dr.KristinSames’ house to get refreshed,then we had a welcome party in
KKS office (we were excited). There we met KKS’s staff and 5 BBP Volunteers. It
was very nice. Later we had a planning meeting forthe next week, then time came
to meet our host family.
The host family also welcomedus with
flowers and sweets. We too were happy to see them directly. Then they tried to
comfort us by giving the room, then they showed the house. After that we got a clear
picture of the families in Germany.
Next day onwards we started our new life
experience in Germany: went for the registration, which did not take long time,
wentto make a bank appointment, later we went to supermarket for shopping. And together
we learned traffic rules. In the evening we went to MAI WAY Festival (it is a
musical festival celebrated in Bensheim) it was very nice to listen, many
groups played in the different places of Bensheim, but we visited a refugees
group.
On the next day we visited the church and
attended the mass. It was different to India.
After the mass we unexpectedly met 2013/2014 weltwaerts volunteers. We are
excited to see them! Then we walked with Rike and Janina (old volunteers of
Yasotha’s NGO NMCT) and Hannah and Paula through Bensheim. All together we
walked first to Vidya’s and then to Yasotha’s house and spend time with the
host families. In the evening we visited one of the volunteers: Ms.Sabarina’s
house, and had Barbecue for dinner with her family.
At the fourth day we went to a women’s exhibition,
in which we saw pictures of 99 women, who experienced different problems in
their lives and read how did theymanaged their lives. And at last theykept a
mirror with the massage “think about yourself”.At the same day Mrs.RenateTietz
took us to her house, to visitthe countryside, so wesaw the village lifestyle
of German people. There is no public transportation, no basic facilities (like
hospital, shops, schools, etc.) the people are not working at their farms. Because
of less value for the agriculture they cannot lead a life with that income. So
people were moving into cities. But the cost of living is very high in the cities.
We had two days off (Saturday and Sunday).
We spent our time with our host families and we celebrated Mother’s day. It was
very helpful for us to get to know our host family in a better way.
Second week of Germany…
We started our work at KKS with our first
presentation about “Religion in India” for seven students, guided by our German
mentor Mrs.RenateTietz. It was nice to spendtime with them and to share our
knowledge.
