Gallery 44

I am stunned! Completely and utterly baffled at how different youngsters are treated across the globe! I had the opportunity today to conduct, ON MY OWN, a needs assessment that was 7 months overdue, to sponsor new projects of up to $40,000 on the Chikumbuso Women and Orphans Project. I mean WOW! Anywhere else in the Western world this would have never happened, consulted me, maybe, trust me to do it all?? NO WAY, JOSE!!! I am overusing capitals but I am still in disbelief, as I finished writing the initial draft of the report a little while ago, and the feeling is just sinking in... Yesterday was a nice day, I caught up on some work and also tended to some girly stuff, just because my internet decided he hates me and stopped working. Luckily enough, this morning it was all okay! So yes, today has been hectic and so interesting and I am just filling in a form for a Global Forum for youngsters and am trying to sort some application for the Indian summer program and finished a poste...

These past two days have been packed and I have got to meet most of the Lusaka Rotary club and spent some time dipping my toes into the projects that I will be involved in.  Yesterday , I met the headteacher of Libala High School, which I offered some autographed books to for the ne library they are opening, and unfortunately, the tutor I was looking for was away at a funeral. Therefore, we made our way to the Radisson to have the weekly Rotary meeting where I was warmly greeted and made acquiantance with many impressive Zambians. Afterwards, we went to a large advertising and printing company, Magic, where I might be working for a part of the time that I will be here. Afterwards, I came home to chill with my adoptive Zambian family and then, in the evening, I went to a traditional Zambian bbq where I was again made to feel like one of the family. If there is something that Zambians are, that is welcoming pros. Today, was another story, I started my day at Libala High...

This is my third day in Zambia and I am settling down in a nice routine, I am now feeling very much at home and in the past two days I have started to learn a bit more about this wonderful place. I have realised that most families, as in India, have maids and that it is common practice. I must admit that I still feel uncomfortable but am trying to adapt as well as I can as I know that this is how they earn their living. I do try to clean up after our meals and do things myself but find it that I feel embarassed and awkward in telling them that I don't mind. A similar situation happened today, when we were in the market, and the boy we hired to help us carry the groceries wasn't able to get all the bags and I just picked a basket and a couple of bags to carry them myself. Regardless of the fact that I was one of the couple of foreigners there and the constant questions from little boys offering to carry my bags, the look of disbelief and amazament that they had, looking at ...

The only bad thing about moving to Zambia for 2 months is the neverending flight that you have to take to get here! Now enough with the moaning, and on with the story. I left Romania and came back to London to catch my flight, after seeing my friends and some lucky encounters I managed to make it in time for my flight to Amsterdam. That was the easy bit, as the flight from Amsterdam to Lusaka take aprox 12.30 hrs and first stops in Harare, in Zimbabwe. The flight was quite tiring but the view and the entertainment made up for it, vast stretches of the Mediterranean sea at first, then the joining of water and land as we passed above the countries bordering the African territories, then neverending Saharian dessert and dunes, with temperatures so high that they made the air turn into clouds of heat and then, as the sun set on the horizon, the glimmering lights of Zambia's captal, the sea of lights, that drew me in as we touched the tarmac. When I first set my feet on Zambian gro...

Another month gone, another country crossed off the list! I promised myself that by the time I move to Belgium in September I will visit the UK, a little bit of every part of it. However, I still have to do Wales and being so strapped for time I think I might squeeeze it in for August. I am in Dublin, lovely city, waiting on my flight back to my English home, Oxford, this becomes a habit, to write from airports, watching the sunset turn into darkness and the  filling the city skyline with lights that remind me of the life that flows through all these beautiful capitals, of the people I met and the kindness I encountered! Dublin has taken my breath away and after Edinburgh, it is a city in which I want to live in, don't know when, don't know how, but I definitely want to give it a go. I was talking to my Irish friend, that convinced me to visit, that we would love to retire here, live in a coastal house, next to the beach, have two dogs and a cat, and all sorts of silly dre...

It has been almost a month since I left India but India has never left me, or my heart! England has been most welcoming, with warm and sunny days that try to lure me back into its fast moving life. I admit that since I returned I have not had a moment of silence, peace or meditation, always working, always studying, always somewhere to go and something to do. I feel tired but I also feel melancholic, I feel that some part of me is missing and yes, I miss India! Even though I will hopefully return next summer, it seems like aeons from now. I am now busy planning my next adventures, including securing my work placement year that I want to undertake abroad, maybe in India, maybe in the US, maybe in Dubai, who knows where this theatre play called life will throw me. Nevertheless, I have other smaller adventures to look forward to, a week holiday back home in Romania and a weekend away backpacking in Poland for my 21st birthday. More recent than my trips will come the reunion with al...

This morning started at 6 AM with and early shower and then hindi class. All was well and breakfast was really entertaining as I got to have some giggles with some of my newly made friends, I will miss these little group encounters when I will leave but that's life, it never stops, we have to keep on going and just enjoy everything while it lasts. After breakfast we all got into coaches and went to the British Council again for a session regarding their mission in India and a meeting with Sam Miller. From the latter I collected a couple of quotes that I will share with you "I write why I try to understand why I think what I think" and "I am for better or for worse, distinctive"( about his life in India). The seminar was followed by a lovely al fresco lunch which gave us a good boost for the next leg of the race, the trip to the India Gate, which is an impressive construction meant to represent it's independence. The next part of the journey was a...

And other day has passed in new and exciting India. Today was eventful and gave us more of a taste of how India actually lives and breathes. When we arrived at the YMCA we were greeted by some very friendly receptionists and somehow managed to finish our check in just before 5 AM, although the bus journey took a little under 2 hours, and then settled in our rooms.  I did not want to sleep as I thought that if I keep going until the evening my sleep pattern will adjust itself but how wrong was I.  During breakfast we planned to go out exploring and that is exactly what we did, in the heat of the morning we set out to see New Delhi for the first time and we were greeted by a noisy, fast-paced and wonderful city. We all were on the same flight and made friends really fast and that is what I love about having a diverse group, you get to meet people that will inspire you and support you just because you are thrown in life's challenges together. One of our friends, man...

Another month has passed and I finally convinced myself to write another post after reading the blog of a very cute and intersting guy I met during my trip to Croatia. Yes, the time I spent there was amazing and I am getting a taste for travelling alone, but this is not the most important thing that happened to me in the last 30 days. First things first, I went to Split and found Croatia to be an amazing country, where I had the luck to find amazing people. Although I was a little worried about how my holiday will go since I was on my own, I do not regret one moment. Split was big enough not to get bored, but small enough to keep the village feel. It had an amazing reservation park, that I went hiking in and ended up on the other side of the peninsula, where I stayed for an entire day, reading and enjoying the sun on the rocky beach. When I came back, I went to Thorpe park with friends from work and it was the best experience ever! I think I am going to go to America just to g...