Many people have been asking what exactly I’m doing here, so I’ll try my best to explain in this post because I’m still learning for myself (welcome to India..).
There are 22 students who live in the house; 14 from Germany, two from Italy, five from Norway, and one from the Netherlands. Their parents pay a lot of money for them to spend a year studying here in India so the company I work for opened a position as a caretaker so that the students have someone they can talk to 24/7. This is split between me and the main coordinator who also liaises between their schools as well.
Primarily, my job consists of check-ins–making sure everything is going okay at school, adjusting is going well here in India, and most of all making sure there is very minimal conflict within the house. Admittedly, this was extremely challenging at first. Having been out of high school for the nearly 5 years now, I almost forgot how difficult life can be as a teenager. There are so many different personalities, cultures, and mindsets living in one house. I’ve had no choice but to take this whole process as a learning experience rather than being purely disciplinary.
On tough days, I’m usually trying to teach students more effective ways of communicating their problems. For an example, I came home a few weeks ago when the coordinator told me about an issue that happened at the student house. One student seemed to be having a very difficult time adjusting. She was living with a host family before she decided she would rather move into the student house. The problem was that no one in the student house was welcoming her into their room. I found her in the stairwell crying.
She told me that she had been kicked out of her room by the other girls because one of her roommates didn’t want her in the room anymore. She obviously needed to sleep somewhere, so I took her back into the room to try to solve what exactly was going on. After about 20 minutes, everything was out in the open. The girl who asked her to leave the room was feeling overwhelmed because she felt like she had become her one and only friend and she didn’t like all the attention. The girl who was kicked out felt a connection to her, but didn’t realize she was so attached. After about a week of giving each other space, you would have never thought anything happened. Because they were able to sit and talk about their problems, a solution was able to be worked out and everyone was able to move on and learn from the experience. They both seem completely fine now, and they both also have other friends they have made in the house. It makes me incredibly proud to see how the students continue to evolve throughout their journeys here.
Besides dealing with the occasional issues, the students are a blast to be around. We’re all learning from one another as we live in the same residence and are all experiencing India first hand. I’m so happy to be apart of an organization that supports this kind of experience because there aren’t many like it.
As for my personal life, because I have to be in the house or with the students the majority of the day, I don’t get a lot of free time to go out and do things on my own. I have worked out with my boss that I have every other weekend off while the students are at their host families. That leaves twice a month where I can go out and explore India for myself. So far I have taken a train to visit a friend in Delhi, taken a bus to Agra, and gotten to meet some really cool people around Jaipur.
When I return home, I will start my graduate school applications. I’m hoping this experience continues to change me and open my eyes to new experiences. Until then, I will see everyone when I return next year.
Six Months in India 