Introduction - 2 days to go

Hey there :)

First I want to welcome my family, friends and whoever is interested to follow me on my journey to India and read about my experiences on this blog. 

I'm sure it will be a great, interesting, challenging and engaging time and I will do my best to keep you up to date with posts and pictures!

I'll begin with answering a few questions:

What am I doing in India?

I will be working as a volunteer teacher at Shanti Bhavan, an exceptional school whose mission is to provide the best education as possible to the disadvantaged children of India's lowest caste and enable them to study and achieve great things. The idea is that one child who made it will make an impact on the lives of hundreds of other children.

Their education gives them a chances to be the leaders of tomorrow and transform the Indian  society. 

The school is located about 3 hours south of Bangalore, the next big village is Hosur.

During the school holidays I'll try to see as much as possible of southern India, there are so many interesting things to see there that time will surely be to short!

How long will I be there?

As indicated in the title, my flight will go on Thursday, August 23rd. My flight back is scheduled for December 25th but I have the option to rebook the flight to a later date...we'll see. The only limit is my visa, which lasts for 6 months.

If you have any other question that wasn't answered, don't hesitate to write a comment or send me an email.

I will try write new blog entries as often as possible or, well, if there is something interesting to tell :) We'll see how much time I've got as the work at Shanti Bhavan will be quite challenging.

At the moment I'm getting everything ready for thursday, at least I have all the stuff I need together (I hope so!) The next challenge is to get it into my suitcase and not exceed the weight limit by the airline ;) 

There are still a few things to do and e-mails to write but it should be possible to finish everything by wednesday night.

The rest of the time I spend reading "Teach like a champion" by Doug Lemov, a great book that prepares me for being a teacher. The other one is "India Untouched - The Forgotten Face of Rural Poverty" by Dr. Abraham M. George, the founder of Shanti Bhavan.

By the way, the weather in Germany is great, sun and 33 °C - the best preparation for India. Good thing we have a terrace with a nice view where I can read my books.