Jon Walker - UK

I travelled to the Dakshinayan project in October 2009, which means it’s taken me a year to pen my thoughts for this blog (thanks for your patience Siddharth!). The reason for the delay, aside from my laziness, is the difficulty I’ve found putting the whole Dakshinayan experience into words. Needless to say I had a phenomenal time from start to finish, and I look back on it as one of the most rewarding months of my life.

After getting made redundant in May 2009 I began to plan a stint of travelling in order to ride out the recession and my own disillusionment with working in an office in London. I wanted to combine my time away with some voluntary work so I could do something a bit different, take myself out of my comfort zone and ultimately feel like I was making a small, positive difference to people lives, something the various jobs I’d had in the past had never provided. I chanced upon Dakshinayan online and after emailing Siddharth and reading the various blogs about the project I decided it ticked all the boxes. It more than lived up to expectations. This was and is a proper voluntary experience, where everyone works hard together, eats together and has fun together. There are no boundaries between volunteers and the people who work there full time, and you are made to feel like an integral part of the place from day one. It’s a no frills existence but all the more rewarding for it.

I’d read about the much maligned state of Jharkhand before setting off for India but I didn’t have any concerns about security until I touched down in Mumbai, where the media and the people I met kept warning me of ‘the horrors’ of what was in store. A quick email to Siddharth put my mind at ease, and I can only reiterate what the other volunteers have already said on this blog: the village of Roldih, where the project is based, and the surrounding area is very peaceful, isolated and friendly. The people are fairly used to western volunteers so you will be met with a smile and idle curiosity wherever you go, and will never feel threatened. After a day on the project I wondered why I had ever questioned the safety of the place. The bustling towns of Godda and Jasidih, a few hours drive from Roldih and the transport hubs for the project, were also safe.

There’s no doubt Jharkhand has some serious problems but from what I gathered the Marxist groups who stir up the trouble operate in other parts of the state. Anyway, the opportunity to find out more about this oft-forgotten area of India was fascinating. Siddharth was a wealth of information on the subject, as he was on a number of topics, and I came away suitably educated about the tribes and the land they occupy. If you want to see a slice of India that is far removed from the tourist trail then you can’t go wrong with Dakshinayan. My travels later took me to South East Asia where I undertook treks in Thailand and Vietnam, both of which advertised visits to tribal villages as the main selling point. Needless to say both villages were entirely geared for tourists with big guest houses dotted about, shops selling beer and chocolate and the locals wandering around flogging souvenirs. Dakshinayan is a world away from this and offers ‘the real deal’, an ideal opportunity to witness a way of life so far removed from your own.

I can’t believe I’ve got this far without mentioning the children. They were an absolute joy to be around and so eager to learn. Their enthusiasm was both exhausting and infectious, and you couldn’t help but contrast their attitude to education to that seen in the west. It’s a real privilege for these kids to go to school as there is very little culture of education in the area, and as such they lap up every minute of it. They turn up early, throw their weight into lessons, beg for homework, and occasionally come back after hours to study and play in the grounds. Teaching is daunting, especially when you’re a novice like I was, but these kids make it as easy it can possibly be.

Teaching 6 days a week was easily the most challenging aspect of my stay. Being quite a reserved kind of guy I found it difficult on some days to get up in front of all the expectant faces and put on a performance, which is what teaching is a lot of the time. But as I said at the start one of the reasons for volunteering in the first place was to do something different and test myself so I wasn’t disheartened to have a few obstacles to overcome along the way. I thoroughly enjoyed teaching maths and English to the various classes but found science and social science much tougher. Part of the problem was the language barrier as these subjects were quite wordy and I found it hard to engage the children. The school has ample text books which act as a useful teaching guide but if I had my time again I would be less reliant on them and focus more on practical activities. Since returning to the UK I have undertaken a TEFL course so have gained a bit more insight into teaching methods. This has enabled me to see my lessons were too theory driven- I think I could have made them more fun for the children. Anyway, teaching with Dakshinayan made me realise I had what it takes to teach and gave me the confidence to undertake the TEFL, which I passed in July. I’m off to China to teach English at a university shortly, and I doubt I would be going off on this adventure if it wasn’t for the experience gained in that tiny village in India. Dakshinayan- a life changing place!
I suppose my time at Dakshinayan didn’t live up to my expectations, in that I wasn’t really expecting to enjoy myself. I thought it would be a proper slog and the time would drag, but I ended up having brilliant fun. I had spent three months on the road in polluted, frenzied India before getting to the project so I relished the sense of calm that surrounds the place, and loved the clean air. Maybe if I’d come straight from England it would have been different but as it was the opportunity to put my rucksack down and see the same people day after day was welcome. I did wonder how I would cope with the lack of electricity and running water but I didn’t really miss either. The facilities on the project were far better than I was expecting which helped me settle in quickly. I had a comfortable bed, a good mosquito net and a lamp in my room, and elsewhere there was a flushable western style toilet (filled manually by pump water), solar power to light the kitchen and charge phone batteries, and a water filter. The shortage of toilet roll was the main issue for me but I soon got used to it. I learnt that I’m quite adaptable, but I guess we all are if we have to be.

Some random highlights of my stay:
The glorious sunrises and sunsets. Learning to appreciate the simple pleasures.
Hearing the children sing the national anthem in assembly.
Celebrating Diwali (the Hindu festival of light) with sweets, fireworks and sparklers, and the joy it brought the children.
Watching the cows come home, herded past the school on a nightly basis.
Seeing a sea of hands go up in the classroom after asking a question.
The stars at night, and the brightest moon I’ll ever see. I could almost read a book by it.
Trying (and failing) to teach Suman English, and him trying (and failing) to teach me Hindi.
Getting a child up to the board to solve a maths puzzle, and watching them figure it out and get the answer correct.
Playing cricket everyday with anyone and everyone.
Bhola, one of the project’s helpers (and now one of the big wig’s), a true character and a good source of fun.
Having loads of time to read and think.
Witnessing the last hurrah of the monsoon season in the shape of a spectacular thunderstorm on my third night. I enjoyed it until I had to make a dash to the toilet at 3am through fork lightening and a biblical rain shower!
Eating like a King.
Weird and wonderful wildlife- snakes, spiders, colourful crickets. A local village even had a herd of wild elephants pay a visit one night, which led to mass bonfires and banging of drums to scare them off.
Some intellectual debates with Siddharth, which gradually descended into laddish banter. Fortunately another volunteer, Jemma, arrived to add a bit of refinement to proceedings.
Village visits with Bhola and seeing where the children live and how their families make a living.
Bruni the dog and her mad antics, including disappearing for hours on end and coming back covered in engine oil.
Helping make the dinner and seeing the inside of an Indian kitchen.

There’s tons more, I could carry on for hours about the place I really could. Everyday brought another highlight. There’s lots of downtime on the project but I always found something to do to keep myself occupied, and I can’t really remember being bored once whilst there.

When I left the project in November last year, riding out the gates in Bhola’s van as the music blared, I looked back at the school buildings and thought I’d never see them again. But now, reminiscing a year on, I think I’d like to go back. Having read Siddharth’s recent blogs about how he’s thinking of closing the project by next year I guess I had better make it soon, and so should anyone reading this who is thinking of paying Dakshinayan a visit. Do it!

Email me at jonwalker81@hotmail.com if you have any questions about the project, I’ll be happy to answer them.