A Life-Changing Winter Break in India
Senior Linda Chow recounted her two-week Alternative Break serving communities in India.
By Linda Chow ‘15
Traveling and teaching in the slums of India is definitely a memorable way to spend your winter break. The Alternative Winter Break India program enables students to travel to a foreign country and volunteer, while immersing themselves in an unfamiliar culture. When people think of India, the first things that come to mind are probably Bollywood movies and dancing, saris, Indian food, and elephants. However, if there is anything I learned from my experience abroad, there is so much more to India than meets the eye.
Our group worked at two different sites, Banjara Basti and Hathi Tiba, which consisted of families identified as the lowest caste, the ‘untouchables’. In this caste, men often spend their earnings on alcohol and tobacco, women are responsible for all the domestic work, and children do not have any formal education and can be found collecting garbage to contribute to their household or taking care of their younger siblings. When we arrived at each site, we did “walkthroughs” to gather as many children in the community and encourage them to attend school for the morning. We found that many children had mixed reactions: some greeted us with smiles and immediately ran to the school grounds, others cried and refused to come, while others couldn’t because they were too busy with chores or collecting trash. I have to admit, it was definitely discouraging and made us all question the impact of our service and presence in these communities.
However, despite these hardships, the children living in both sites always greeted us with smiles, laughs, hugs, and genuine curiosity to learn. There was a point where we all realized that we decided to spend our break, our “free time”, giving back to those less fortunate than us and, for the children who did show up, we had put on one hell of a show, at least for them. Our projects included English lessons, lessons in proper social behavior, women empowerment groups, and beautification projects. At each site, we would split up into pairs or small groups to work with Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade and the empowerment group. What also put us at ease was the fact that, though we were only there for a handful of weeks, the organization receives volunteers all year-round, and each and every volunteer has left some impact on the children involved, whether it was administering very basic first aid, encouraging children to go to school every day, or teaching them about the solar system (which they LOVED).
In addition to the service, we also did a lot of fun cultural activities, such as henna tattooing, exploring palaces and forts, our very own Holi festival, and even overnight camping and riding camels in the desert/mountains!
Our two weeks of service was definitely too short for us, though we are all happy to say that this experience has allowed us to gain a completely life-changing perspective on the world and the inequalities that exist globally. Needless to say, we have all learned to appreciate the things we take for granted here in the States and at USC, and it has sparked our desire to give back to those with limited opportunities–locally, nationally, and abroad. On a personal level, this experience has sparked a passion to step away from the “bubble” I live in and to really challenge myself. I know this trip has touched me in so many ways I can still barely comprehend. I’ll be raving about India and this amazing experience for the rest of my life!
