| How I went to India |

Kids, I’m going to tell you the story of how I went to India.  It all started when I boarded a plane to San Francisco.  It was morning when we first arrived in India, and it wasn’t long until we boarded a bus and started a long drive through hell called an Indian highway.  It took us several hours to reach our final destination, but it was worth sitting through the horrible bus ride.  We got to our tents and went to bed and eagerly awaited our adventures in the morning.

It was 9:30 when we went to our school, which is only a five minute walk from our campsite.  I was unprepared for my lesson, so naturally I was quite nervous.  I felt like an idiot some of the time because my lesson was very difficult to teach with a language barrier.  I began to think that the kids would hate me, but thankfully my team leaders were able to step in and lend a hand and helped me get through the day.  I didn’t really make any personal connections with the kids, but I was hopeful for the next day.

Day two was a whole different experience from the first.  We went to the school at about the same time, only this time I was ready for anything.  I had a much easier lesson and it definately went a lot smoother then the first one.  It was this day that I met one of my favorite kids on the planet.  Her name is Shamnom, she is a first grader that maybe annoying sometimes, but she is a sweetheart none the less.  She sat in my lap while I was teaching them on the second day and I knew instantly that she was my favorite person.  I hate to admit it, but I may get a little teary eyed when I leave because I wish I could take her with me.

India has been an experience so far and I hope it continues to be fun.  I’m sure that it will be considering it’s my tent who ends up waking people up at 6 o’clock every morning.  It doesn’t seem like this trip is long enough for the amount of training it took, but I hope that I can cherish the little time we have left in this amazing country.

Andrew Dobrowolski