In the End...

Now my voluntary year is nearly over… I start counting the days, sometimes with happy feelings going home again, sometimes sad about leaving my new life and my friends here…
The year passed very, very fast, it doesn’t feel like a full year when I look back. Like we volunteers in Germany learned, there were phases of feelings in the year you are going through. When they actually happened, you were a bit prepared and knew it will go on.
In the beginning everything was so interesting and new, I was lost on the streets in Bangalore, confused how I can ever understand the bus system, excited about fruits I have never seen before and shy about all the people suddenly starring at me. It was a very special time!!
After two, three month I got used to my surroundings and started missing my culture. In that time I started going out at the weekends, enjoying the way of life I was used to, even if it is only a small part of it. But it was very nice drinking a cold beer, walking around in your western style clothes and spending time with relaxed people.
But this was also the time I was struggling with my working place, because there were some things really going on my nerves. I didn’t like seeing certain people anymore and adjusting to the difficult living conditions felt even harder. Also that time passed after some weeks and I learned how to handle colleagues, work and free time. From then on, the year started passing by very fast, the first holidays came, I enjoyed the beautiful Kerala, my work changed, my volunteer partner left, after some time a new one came.
I developed friendships in office and outside and learned a lot about the culture here. At weddings, I started making out the differences, learned how to put a Saree and how to behave properly for an Indian woman. One day, I discovered happily that I was not a special guest in office anymore, but a colleague among others. I was accepted as a person, not as a foreigner. The Sama Family (how they called themselves) integrated me despite all the language difficulties, vanishing to the famous ‘MG road’ on weekends and my strange western behavior, for example brushing my teeth after breakfast and after bath!
I am thankful for Sama hosting me. Like that I got the opportunity to learn so much about India and myself, what I could have never done in one year at home! Thank you!
-Mareile, Sneha-