I shall honour this post by blogging about my fellow volunteer, Allie.
Not a surprise, since I spent every day in India with her.
Allie is the same age as I. She just graduated from college, with history as her major. She also took many science subjects. She is currently taking a gap year and would be continuing her studies in Masters in speech therapy when she goes back to the US. She'll be in India for 4 more months. :)
She was supposed to volunteer in an orphanage, but because the slum children's school needed help and she'll be there for 5 months, the local coordinator thought that it would be a good idea for her to exerience teaching in the slum children's school before moving to the orphanage.
It some how happened that way, where there were only both of us doing the orientation week together. So naturally we had to spend time together. At first, we spent time separately. She is an avid reader, a fast one too, and devours her books in a few days. I on the other hand, watched TV and talked to the local coordinator. Not that I don't read, but I haven't been reading in a long while, and needed time to get into the habit of it again.
Initially I think we were more distant from each other. But after the orientation week, going to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, getting sick, both of us twice in a matter of two weeks, we naturally become closer. I think it's so pathetic, that we get sick so often in India. I'm not sure whether I mentioned this, but I used more medicine in 3 weeks in India than I did 5 months in China. It was nice that she also brought her huge collection of medicine. The second time I was sick, she gave me her dosages of medicine, and I got better very quickly.
She fell sick and was in the hospital for 3 days. I was there with her for the whole of 3 days, and didn't go to the school to teach. Imagine going to hospital in India. But we survived it. :)
For the orientation week, we slept in the same room. And for the next two weeks, we slept on the same bed. A king single bed. Hard wooden bed. I am pampered and have my own bed to sleep on my own at home, whether in Penang or Singapore. In Penang, I have the luxury of a queen size bed. In Singapore, I have the luxury of choosing which bed I wanna sleep on. Alone The idea of sharing a bed with someone else was weird, but surprisingly, it wasn't much of a problem. We shared the same blanket too, lol. Maybe because we were always so tired at the end of the day, and just fell asleep like that. Not to mention being sick almost half the time volunteering there, so we had to rest more anyway.
I brought my hard disk there, and we finished the first season of "Lie to Me" together. Yea, we had a lot of time there, cus we only went to school to teach in the morning. It was awesome, but I didn't have Season 2 in my hard disk, so we watched Season 6 of House instead. 4 episodes of it.
Ah, and yes, she's also known as the girl whom I can't beat in Monopoly Deal. We played that more than 5 times, and I lost every time. Sad. Not to say that I'm any good in card games. She is good in card games though.
I'll miss her, and hopefully she doesn't get sick again in India!
Not a surprise, since I spent every day in India with her.
Allie is the same age as I. She just graduated from college, with history as her major. She also took many science subjects. She is currently taking a gap year and would be continuing her studies in Masters in speech therapy when she goes back to the US. She'll be in India for 4 more months. :)
She was supposed to volunteer in an orphanage, but because the slum children's school needed help and she'll be there for 5 months, the local coordinator thought that it would be a good idea for her to exerience teaching in the slum children's school before moving to the orphanage.
It some how happened that way, where there were only both of us doing the orientation week together. So naturally we had to spend time together. At first, we spent time separately. She is an avid reader, a fast one too, and devours her books in a few days. I on the other hand, watched TV and talked to the local coordinator. Not that I don't read, but I haven't been reading in a long while, and needed time to get into the habit of it again.
Initially I think we were more distant from each other. But after the orientation week, going to Agra to visit the Taj Mahal, getting sick, both of us twice in a matter of two weeks, we naturally become closer. I think it's so pathetic, that we get sick so often in India. I'm not sure whether I mentioned this, but I used more medicine in 3 weeks in India than I did 5 months in China. It was nice that she also brought her huge collection of medicine. The second time I was sick, she gave me her dosages of medicine, and I got better very quickly.
She fell sick and was in the hospital for 3 days. I was there with her for the whole of 3 days, and didn't go to the school to teach. Imagine going to hospital in India. But we survived it. :)
For the orientation week, we slept in the same room. And for the next two weeks, we slept on the same bed. A king single bed. Hard wooden bed. I am pampered and have my own bed to sleep on my own at home, whether in Penang or Singapore. In Penang, I have the luxury of a queen size bed. In Singapore, I have the luxury of choosing which bed I wanna sleep on. Alone The idea of sharing a bed with someone else was weird, but surprisingly, it wasn't much of a problem. We shared the same blanket too, lol. Maybe because we were always so tired at the end of the day, and just fell asleep like that. Not to mention being sick almost half the time volunteering there, so we had to rest more anyway.
I brought my hard disk there, and we finished the first season of "Lie to Me" together. Yea, we had a lot of time there, cus we only went to school to teach in the morning. It was awesome, but I didn't have Season 2 in my hard disk, so we watched Season 6 of House instead. 4 episodes of it.
Ah, and yes, she's also known as the girl whom I can't beat in Monopoly Deal. We played that more than 5 times, and I lost every time. Sad. Not to say that I'm any good in card games. She is good in card games though.
I'll miss her, and hopefully she doesn't get sick again in India!
Allie and I
Jordan and the kids. Another fellow volunteer. I commented to him that when I hear him talk, I feel like I'm listening to a live TV show, cus he has a strong American accent. :D
Allie with the kids
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