Coming to Kerala.

After spending an exceedingly long day in New Delhi airport with only an electronic copy of the training manual to terrify myself with and following some awful turbulence on my flight to Cochin I was so happy to see our taxi driver Richard standing waiting on me at the airport. Richard was lovely; standing there with his GVI sign and still smiling even though I was late and it was pouring down. The fact that Richard had only just got the car, which was his first car, wouldn’t normally scare me but the fact that it was torrentially raining and his windscreen wipers didn’t really work was a little off putting to say the least. Richard’s choice in music certainly helped take my mind off the road; from his phone I had the pleasure of listening to a selection of songs from artists including Akon, Enrique Iglesias and the Backstreet Boys. Richard even dedicated the Backstreet Boys song “As long as you love me” to me which wasn’t awkward in the slightest.

I knew that another new volunteer was arriving on the same day as me and since I didn’t arrive until late at night I was worried that I would have missed out on valuable bonding time! However, the team was so welcoming that within an hour I felt as though I had been there for days. When I arrived we had a quick cuppa over which I told the group of my travels so far having spent the previous couple of weeks in the north of India but it was late and because I had been up since 4am that morning it wasn’t long till I was in my very squeaky bed.

The next day Kirsty and I (the other “new recruit”) woke up early to get started with the fun filled day of training! Well, it was a day of training anyway. During our training we went over various risk assessments and cultural material in a cute little café just around the corner from our house where, by the way, they do the best chocolate cake. I’m sure Chesa one of my fellow volunteers/chocolate addict will agree!

On the Sunday night we went to the restaurant Dal Roti for our welcome dinner – the food there is amazing and I would recommend trying a thaili with paratha bread. Yum!

On Monday morning, since the school was closed we had some more training in the morning and had the afternoon free to relax and explore Fort Kochi and get to know the other volunteers better. We took a wander to the Jewish synagogue which was a lovely walk and I’m happy to report that I appear to have brought the sun with me, fingers crossed the monsoon appears to be over! Fort Kochi is lovely; I’ve only been here for a couple of days and already I feel very content.

We went out for dinner again on Monday night for another excellent meal. I really am going to have to stop eating so much chocolate cake! When we got home, after chilling out around the hammock it was time for an early night in preparation for tomorrows first day at the school! I’m both excited and nervous and can’t wait to get started!

P.S. Never in a million years did I think that after one week at the school would I be dressed up as a lion dancing for 600 schools children. As Ridhi and Leti say “prepare for the unexpected here!”.


Ami x (GVI Volunteer)

Coming to Kerala.