Hello from Kerala!

hey everybody!

Welcome to my webblog. For some of you this may not be the first time to read my stories via this utilty, for many it will. After having spent 4 months in Poland, having attended two summer universities in Italy, a youth exchange program for human rights in Romania, and many more journeys in Europe the time has come to take the next step. Wednesday the 27th of august I will leave for Delhi, India, in order to teach english at an elementary school in a slum area for about nine months. The international organisation Aiesec has made this possible and has matched me with an organisation called kalakhar trust (http://www.kalakartrust.org/). This non-profit organisation takes care of children who make a living by performing their skills as street musicians by supplying them with basic necessities like schooling. And that's where I enter the scene :)
The organisation is non-profit and is therefore not able to supply me with the vast salary I hope to earn somewhere far in the future ;) and for this reason I have already ploughed through the limited stock of funds at my savings account to cover the costs that solely the preparation demands. I have managed more or less now, so now all that is left is to get my final vaccinations, my visa and to buy the necessary stuff for the journey. What's more, I am preparing and thinking of ways to utilise my superb skills in this field ;) in order to teach these children some basics in this regard. Quite a challenge I say, suggestions how to achieve this are always more than welcome :D
Initially I was convinced that an internship as such, i.e. a development internship, does not match with western equipment like laptops and the like, and I was about to leave mine at home in dutchland. However, I have come to the insight that working six days a week in the middle of a slum area is already quite a change, and have therefore decided to take my laptop with me. All that's left is to hope feverishly that my future home will be equiped with internet access... If so, you will regularly be updated with my experiences in Delhi. If not, I will have to depend on the undoubtly shaggy computer to which access has been promised to me at work. May this unpreferred option turn out to be real, stories will appear with a significant lower frequency ;) The place i'm gonna stay at however may hold some western basic utilities, since the so called 'aiesec house' gives home to all the interns that via aiesec work in delhi. This means that, hopefully, I will be living with some interesting and cool people from all around the world. However, it's sensible not to get my hopes up to strongly in this regard.
For now, please sign up to the mail list, cause I am far too lazy to look up 200 email addresses and insert them in there ;) My first stories may be expected soon after my arrival!
Cheers,
Tony