Good flight from Heathrow (slighty delayed) and arrived in the early hours of Tues morning. We were met as planned at the airport and taken to the Indian Social Institute - our home for the next few days and received a VSO "goodie bag" - mosi net, pillow, towel etc - all very useful. We managed to get some sleep - but are going to have to get used to the near continual dog barking!
Tues afternon we were collected (along with Tim - our fellow "late arriving" vol) to the VSO programme office - where we received very warm welcome and met up with the other 5 vols - currently undergoing their In-County training, They had had a fruitful morning learning cooking Indian food - and we enjoyed the fruits of their labours! Our In-County training is going to be curtailed from the usual 3 weeks to just 1 week - as we will start our placements next week and join the next cycle of I.C training in March. Later, we all then went to the official finale of a National Trust (no, not the organisation that looks after old halls!!) campaign - which some VSO volunteers have been working on - including flag waving, a government minister, film cameras, dancing and high tea on the lawn! Had a walk in the evening to find some food - the whole city feels quite overwhelming at the moment, but I guess that is to be expected - but I also feel that their is a lot of support for us all.
We met with the doctor this morning for a briefing and have just had "home cooked" lunch at the VSO office to be followed with details of our work placements this afternoon........... with plans afoot for a volunteer day trip to "the Taj" on Saturday.
Good news - apparently our long term accomodation is sorted - on the metro line - between our placments, even better news - metro has a "women only" carriage - with pink seats!!!!
sounds really exciting. hope it all goes well while you find your feet. do you think you'll have worked it all out by the in-country training in march? better late than never... think of us in the -2 +bitter wind of Norfolk. enjoy the pink seats. Bx
ReplyDeletehi! i found your blog by doing a blog search for vso volunteers in delhi (i'm nothing if determined lol).
ReplyDeletei'm a vso volunteer too moving to delhi in the new year - funny thing is, i was supposed to arrive in november but will be arriving instead in march with the next batch of volunteers...so we would have been in the same new vol. group :) - but i guess i'll see you at the i.c. training then!
anywho, i look look forward to reading your adventures over the next few months until i arrive...by then i'm sure i'll be the one with the questions and you'll have the answers!
ooooh i just read your complete profile and see that Katie you and I will be working at the same placement! how wonderful! what a very small world indeed :)
ReplyDeletewhen i was making the decision to accept the placement there weren't any vols at MCS that i could email to learn more about their experience - hopefully, if you decide to share more about your work environment, it will be a positive experience - of course i'm very curious!
Hey Guys, Good to see that you are finally there!! All sounds pretty organised so far. Katie, Pink seats - perfect!! Why don't First buses have those?!! Have fun guys miss you already love from all of us xxx
ReplyDeleteJust noticed you are working in the voluntary sector. Well, if you have got friends looking for such openings in Delhi, I am the man. I run a small NGO that works with autorickshaw drivers in Delhi. Check my hopelessly outdated website www.nyayabhoomi.org.
ReplyDelete