January 22, 2024

Taking the Training Wheels Off

Starting today, GCIL students will be setting off to start working with our respective organizations.

In some regards the past few weeks have been, as best I know how to describe it, the greatest field trip of my life. We have visited temples, parks, met a silk buyer, and given birds peanuts to dance. I would wake up every morning, pack my bag, and head downstairs for breakfast. Sometimes I knew exactly what I would be doing that day; sometimes I had a vague idea, and sometimes I just hopped on the bus.

As I knew would be the case, not everything we have done and seen so far as been easy. I have seen both luxury and poverty that are beyond my imagination, sometimes existing right next to each other. I have met girls who will never receive a proper education, while other girls in the same communities are proudly pushed forward by their families to greet us with perfect English.

I miss home but am also happy with the community we are making here. So much of the day-to-day is in such contrast that it can be overwhelming for my brain to fully process. If I am to try and articulate the main takeaway I have had in the past three weeks, it is the strength and determination of so many of the people we have met. Whether we are talking to mothers in the slums, nurses, or CEOs-turned-NGO school principals, we have been exposed to so many different people doing everything they can with what they have been given. In the coming weeks, I hope I can carry this attitude forward with me as we start to work with our organizations.

For the next seven weeks I will be working along with Lucy, Yak, and Aaliyah for an NGO called Sensing Local. Friends and family at home have asked me over the past few weeks what we will be doing and each time I have replied, “I honestly have no idea.” This is the same answer I gave, and I believe a lot of my peers gave, before leaving the States for India. At all times of GCIL so far, the next stage has been hard to imagine. I have no idea what it will be like to work with an NGO in Bangalore and very little understanding of the issues they face.

Despite the uncertainty, I am excited to meet the people at Sensing Local and learn about what they do. Additionally, after feeling a bit like a toddler strapped into a booster seat in the back seat of the car for the past few weeks, it might be nice to start working.

The most important part for me of the past few weeks has been learning about the support system around me. Over the coming weeks I know at times I will continue to be confused, lost, and overwhelmed. But I also know my peers are doing it with me and there are people here to help me. So, while the training wheels are starting to come off this week, I know there are lots of people running alongside me, ready to steady me if I wobble.

By Fiona