Orientation

During this first week in India we have been very busy with orientation. CCS planned many activites designed to help us feel comfortable and adjust to life in India.

We spent the first part of the week in Delhi, then later flew up to Dharamsala together. While in Delhi a professor came from the university and condensed 5-10 thousand years of Indian history in 2 and 1/2 hours. He was extremely interesting and was able to tie together all the bits and pieces and relate it to India's current culture. I could have listened to him for a week! He also somehow knew that I was the only non-American in the group and guessed that I was Canadian. This really impressed everyone.

The Director of the program, Bela, gave us a workshop on customs and values, comparing them to North American customs and values in a humourous way. Bela is also one of the founding members of Cross Cultural Solutions. Herself and an American man created and developed the program. India was the first site (now there are sites in 12 countries) and Bela recounted the challenges and fun of setting up and developing this NGO (which is so neat!).

Our Indian hosts served us Chai Tea (although here is is just called Tea because apparently "Chai" means "Tea" in Hindi), gave us instructions on making tea, along with a "Tea" kit as well as a package of Indian spices. Before we left Delhi they took us out to lunch to try a large variety of different authentic foods.

The staff in Dharamsala met us at the airport and helped us settle in to our Home Base. We learned a little about the history and culture of Dharamsala are ready to learn more in the comming weeks.
For our work placements we each were taken to our sites with a CCS community worker who introduced us to the staff we'd be working with. We were able to ask questions on expectations of work (with a translator) and then just observe for the first day. Back at the Home Base we had a creativity workshop where we all shared ideas on teaching English and working with children (primarly focuses of our work). This set us up really well for success.
For fun the staff challenged the volunteers to a Tug-of-War. We volunteers painted war paint on our faces to pysch out the staff - it worked- we won 3/3 matches. The picture is of the volunteers just before victory. We also had Hindi lessons and played Cricket. Most importantly though, throughout this first week the staff helped us through the day to day adjustments at our workplaces and living in Dharamsala.