AGS India Immersion Programme 2017/18

Michael [Read reflections #1 and #2 first] Yet, in saying all I've said in the past two blogs, I'm not going to come back from India and start a charity, I'm probably not even going to start giving more to charities, and I'm definitely not going to give up my life of luxury and convert to an ascetic life of monasticism up in the Himalayas. India has had a profound effect on me, but in a different way. Seeing all the smiles brought onto the faces of kids as a result of being surrounded by friends and tight-knit families, spending a month creating some of the most fulfilling and rewarding memories of my life with a great group of boys, I'm now resolved to make more time in my life for connection with friends and time spent with family. Leaving for India I thought I would come back and want to lock myself in my room for a month after the emotional exhaustion of the past 31 days. Instead I find myself emailing my parents asking them to head to the batch with my gran...

Michael [Read Reflection #1 first] I saw the effervescent smiles of the kids we played with and wondered if they were  always as happy as they appeared in our company or just happy because of the novelty of playing with us light-skinned tourists. When I walk down the road and see beggars sleeping on the side of the street, I struggle to believe the millions of ceaseless smiles shining at us as we walk past. I struggle to believe the smile of the cycle tuk tuk driver in Delhi as he turns and looks at us with a hearty grin and yet keeps all his worldly possessions in a pouch above our seat and uses his cycle tuk tuk as a home.  I struggle also with the contradictions, the ones mentioned in my previous blog 'Photographs' as well as countless others. In the picturesque, enchanting hills of Darjeeling I remember watching on awkwardly as a man with no legs crawled along the street, pushing his pot of jangling coins out in front of him, wearing knee pads to prevent his lifeles...

Michael You smirk because it sounds cheesy, the classic India immersion pseudo-philosophising, but when I ask myself this question now, it is not altogether as ridiculous and easy to dismiss as it had been less than one month ago.  I suppose 'ridiculous' isn't the right word, I remember that in the build up to the trip I would love to go round grinning while telling my friends how I was about to have "the eye-opening, life-changing, experience of a lifetime". But back then, deep down, I don't know if I really believed myself. Warnings in advance for the obscenely long series of blogs, but this is a bit of an outpouring of all that I've been feeling for the past month. But before I can say how I feel and how the trip has affected me, I think I need to first process what I've seen. I've seen so many stories, and even though we have seen small spots of hope at NGO's like Freeset, Future Hope and Asha, a pervading sense of hopeless ...

Michael I open my camera and look at a photo I took a week or two ago. I flick to another. And another. And another. Every photo I see a canvas, a hectic, messed-up, disorganised canvas splattered by paint from a troubled, sporadic artistic. Without order or reason, a million blotches of paint dropped from bucket, creating a dazzling, inscrutable, absorbing smorgasbord of purposes, goals, and contradictions. One photo, taken by a typical train track illustrates the visual waterfall of colour that is the usual cross-section of Indian life. Every second looking at the photo reveals another story. A metre away from the tracks a stall is set up selling the standard array of Indian street snacks. Atop the shack, a blue corner of tarpaulin peeks over the edge, a hint at the shop owner's bed for the night, and many nights more. In another corner, a mother sits cradling her baby. Her seat is the dirt floor of a home held up by bamboo sticks with a cloth draped over the top. Elsewhe...

Raymond   Yeah. So through this trip, I am proud to say I haven't lost many things this trip. Haven't lost any personal belongings. Haven't lost my way through the immense labyrinth of a few India metropolises. Haven't even managed to lose weight. I have lost a few games of 500. And I've also managed to lose my glasses. Whoops. Mum and Dad, please feel welcome to be totally disappointed and angry in your son. I completely understand, as I am rather disappointed at my own idiocy. To cut to the chase, I decided it would be a fantastic idea to go for a dip in the sea with my glasses, on, not expecting myself to have much of a swim. Anyhow, I got caught off guard through my little stroll and a wave crashed over me, sweeping me off my feet and my glasses off my face/head.  Consequently, I have been visually impaired for a period of about 2 hours while I wait for fish and chips on Colva beach. Yes I have been on a bit of a crusade to find my precious eyewear. I miss my tw...

Today has been another limited day in terms of group activities as the boys were given the whole day to do as they pleased. With that said, some incredible experiences were had as groups went exploring the areas neighbouring our hotel, in what was our last day in Mumbai before setting off for Goa. We will flick out only formal blogs from this point, and will detail the reasons for this, as well as the purposes of our stay in Goa, when we arrive. At this point, we are all ready for some serious R&R, and with no one currently sick it couldn't be better timing to enjoy it. Thursday 28 December 8:30am – breakfast was not compulsory, but many still chose to feast on the YWCA buffet for one last time. 10:00am – the rest of the group, admittedly including myself, appeared in drips and drabs. With the only deadline being a 12pm checkout, many headed back to Café Mondegar or Leopold Café for a brunch of sorts (if you can call a burger and chips a brunch meal). 12p...

Ryan Donovan While walking through the streets of Mumbai I came across a particular shop where their security appeared much greater than others. I thought I would share this as it really does reflect the level of security in many parts of India. At the front of the shops were a few steps that led to the front door. Beside these stood a 'security guard' who was facing completely the wrong direction and on the phone. A walk through style metal detector was located covering half the steps. It was completely wooden with two wires that came out of the wood which ran 2 meters towards the shop and then stopped, not being plugged into anything, leaving the wooden structure completely disconnected. There were many shoppers who wisely decided to walk up the other side of the stairs where there was no metal detector. What a secure shop. A secure shop that got me thinking. This small, rather amusing experience made me realise this shop is very much like a lot of India. On the surface...

  Leo Smith It's safe to say that this trip has gone at rapid pace. It seems like yesterday that I arrived at Hotel Emirates in Kolkata, and now I sit here in Mumbai, about to embark on the final leg of the trip. India has taught me some valuable lessons, and I seem to have picked things up in every city even though I may not have realised it. As I think back on experiences that I have witnessed, and things I have done, I feel the need to share some of the most valuable lessons that India has taught me to date. Firstly, happiness doesn't rely on anything. When I think back to all the slums that I have been to in the last 3 weeks, one thing comes to mind- happiness. These kids, who don't even have the basic needs of life, can sometimes seem happier than they should be. Their attitudes to life are far different to ours in New Zealand. This really motivated me throughout the trip, to always attempt to see the silver lining, and its helped maintain positivity in me ...

Richard The Reality Check   Something happened to me on that day in Kolkata, December the 9 th to be exact. I'm not talking about some big, drastic event that happened while I was there that no one would ever expect, in fact, I'm not even sure if it has had an effect at all on the way I go about things now. Nonetheless, something did happen. It was the day we visited a slum called Brooklyn, which I'm sure the majority of you have probably heard about by now. The day didn't start off well for me after hearing some tough news from back in New Zealand, to be honest, I was actually considering not going out at all that day but after some motivation from the staff I ended up coming along. Truth to be told, what I saw at Brooklyn has haunted me since, as I touched on in one of my previous blogs I have been too scared to accept what I saw in fear of how I might react. What I felt throughout my time in Brooklyn and ever since is grief, I would describe it a...

Sam Lindberg Our last day in Mumbai before a train at 10pm to Goa saw us with several hours of free time in our hands. Tom went through discussing the various things we should do; try new foods, go play cricket at the Maidan or just walk and see where the wind takes you. A few of us decided to go down to the Maidan and indulge in some frisbee and attempted to join in on a game of cricket with some locals. Seeing hundreds of people enjoying a sunny day doing what they love in a greatly appreciated part of the city highlighted something to me. Playing sport, have it be touch rugby, cricket or soccer is something special and can unite people together in such a large community where belonging seems so important.  After a nice lunch at the famous Leopolds, an ice-cream was definitely needed on what is a scorching hot day for us, Yet a standard winters day for India. While Ryan and I were waiting for a couple boys to get some money out, a boy who was a beggar came up to us. My first ...

Cam Over the past week or so I've been stumped in terms of what things I've seen and felt that are worth a blog. However after some more reflection time in the lavatory staring at the same stained bathroom tiles, (my only accompaniment being my stomach's demonstration of a whale-call) I've come to a realisation that in this beautiful labyrinth of ups, downs, colours and stories it's hard to find something undeserving of its own dialogue . Coming into this trip, I was planning on writing a blog or two per city, trying to sum them up and the lessons they taught me. As I've expressed before, I find it impossible to "summarise" a society/city, and I've found how malleable the lessons learnt from them can be (through debrief). Despite these distinct chapters in our journey, I've observed some consistency among the chaos. I'm shocked to say that I have gotten used to seeing children beggars born into situations they can't help, and that...

Lachie Dickson While all the others have the freedom to explore a city of contrast, beauty and interact with the amazing people this city has to offer this afternoon, I sit here alone. Close to a bathroom. The only seat I can trust my backside on. However, I try to not dwell on these circumstances. It has left me with some precious time to reflect on what a journey it has been. The questions I have asked myself, the processes with which I struggle to comprehend and the happiness that is evident amongst society. What does India have that we are missing? I have asked this to myself throughout this trip. Very little emerged to the surface from this question. But it has left me often comparing and contrasting India to NZ in ways I didn't imagine before undertaking this Immersion. Travelling through India, conversations with locals amongst the boys occurred regularly. Little English made things difficult, but with the people's great enthusiasm and interest in us, within 2 mi...

Callan   At home, time hangs over all that I do. Counting down the minutes until the end of a period, timing my arrival at a party so that I'm fashionably late, setting my alarm early enough so that I have enough time to roll out of bed and get to school. Time is always on my mind. A week ago I lost my watch. Up until that point I had still been engrossed in that man-made measure of where the sun is in the sky, the numbers ticking over, edging closer to lunch, the next activity or the arrival of our train. I was so concerned with time that I found it slipping away. Now I find myself spending less time staring at my wrist, and more time observing and appreciating what's around me. Amongst all of the incredible people that we've met, and the unforgettable experiences that we've had, my sense of time has become blurred. I've let go of that attachment to time that had been holding me back. I recognise, however, that this freedom is a luxury that will not last. I cannot ...

Nikau Te reo o te iwi  Coming to Mumbai certainly sits high amongst the many highlights of my own experience of this tour; however one thing in particular I believe that has served to be very helpful for me would be my learning of the basics of their mother tongue Hindi . Being a fluent speaker of te reo I hadn't struggled too much with picking up pronunciations of certain tags and phrases passed onto me by the different characters and individuals I've had the pleasure of interacting with. Although I am not 100% sure that my spelling of these phrases is correct, I gather the sounds made while reciting them wouldn't be too far off from the real deal. So, here goes something: As far as a simple greeting goes I have thus far managed to begin conversation with my hands pressed together at chest height, saying a simple namaste /hello- done in sync with a head bow as a sign of respect towards the person I am addressing. I would then follow this with mera nam Nikau he...

Zachary Morrow Our trip is almost at an end and yet I feel incomplete, I feel unfinished and my questions are unanswered. In Jaipur one moment stuck with me, my rickshaw driver asked me "What is the one thing that is not possible in India?", Josh Roberts and I both had no answer, "Nothing is not possible in India, anything is possible" he said. His answer made me puzzled because many people in India are very restricted. Many   women cannot travel outside and when they can they are to be with a man, many children grow up as orphans on the streets with no education always hungry for food, many young girls must leave school early to pay for there dowry at their future wedding, it seems that, for some, in India nothing is possible. On further thought the rickshaw drivers statement has merit. The NGO's like Future hope, Free set, The Jungle Crows and the Magicians that we have visited throughout the trip have showed hope for all in Indi...

Miller Amongst all the places I have travelled, India is by far the most religiously diverse, not only in variety of religious faiths but also in what religion means to the people.   Back home I've found religion is only important in life when you're at a sermon (or other religious session) or when arguing over interpretations of religious texts; in India it is quite the contrary.   India treats religion differently as it does not partition religion from day to day life as NZ and the West does.   Especially for the poorer people, religion is what keeps you going, the reason you continue to fight when all seems lost.   I feel as though this is how religion should be, it should promote reasons to love and hope and to carry you through tough times as opposed to being no more than a thought to cross your mind every once and a while or to use as a scapegoat to try and poach one's freedom.   I know that for some in India the latter way of...

Will Pretty The largest religion in India is Hinduism, also the third largest religion in the world. The reason I felt the need to blog about something that I have no involvement with is due to the profound impact it has on the nation and its people. Having now spent 3 weeks travelling through India, seeing the vast contrasts this Immersion is designed to show, I have come to the conclusion that without religion the nation would be completely different. In India, religion stands for hope . Religion, or in the primary case, Hinduism, was described to me by our tour guide yesterday as a philosophy, rather than a rule of life that you get following most other religions. The philosophy being that because your body is 70% water, during this life, as long as you do everything to bring you good karma, in your next life you will move up a caste and be reincarnated to live a more wealthy and prosperous life by up to 70%. Coming from the knowledge of reincarnation, this answe...

Josh Hamilton Having gone ¾ of the trip without sickness -  I could say I was feeling slightly confident that I wasn't going to get sick. Maybe that is what got me. I had tricked myself into the state of 'over-confidence' - I had let that get the best of me. Unfortunately, my day for being sick was Christmas. Throwing up on the train and throwing up outside the front steps of our hotel, on Christmas, was not something worth celebrating. I was not to leave the hotel for the rest of the day. This was tough. I felt divorced from the groups Christmas cheers and celebrations, I was kept in a solitary confinement whilst the group was seeing the economic capital of India, and I was sick to my stomach whereas the group was eating from the best restaurants in the city. Why did this have such an impact on me? This is because I have become accustomed to Christmas' around other people – and as I knew the sacrifice I was making to miss Christmas with my...

Leo Smith A year ago, when Mr Skeen informed me that I would be travelling to India, he told me to enjoy my Christmas as a year later here India, it would be very different. And here I sit, at the hostel one year later, wondering if it really was Christmas yesterday. Christmas was weird to say the least, while it was a very fun day, there were somethings which just didn't feel right. However I'll dedicate this blog to the highlights of my Christmas. 1- the food. Now I can't say that the food on the train to Mumbai was any good, however the food when we arrived in Mumbai was second to none. For breakfast I had a guilty pleasure of eating chocco flakes, and I left it there in preparation for lunch. And boy was it worth it. The three plates of chips my table had as well as the pasta I personally had were some of the nicest things I must have ever eaten. The only downside of it was that I didn't hear Mr Jordan say that we had a rugby tournament a...

Richard During the last couple of days a few negatives that restricted my chance to "chill" in Jaipur consisted of my shoes getting stolen outside a Hare Krishna temple and a nasty spell of time in which my stomach decided that it didn't like any substances that I consumed resulting in it ferociously expelling it from the gut, whether that be from the mouth or the rear end but I'll save you from the intricate details. A big positive however that I experienced during my time Jaipur was the chance to get close to my rickshaw driver, Ima. I was able to share this privilege with fellow tour members Reuben and Cam. Ima is an interesting man to say the least, his idea of reassuring includes that of telling us his 'quote to live by', this being "Drink 'n' drive and smoke 'n' fly" . So as we began our first journey, I presume you can understand why us lads had never felt more safe???   Another thing t...

Matt Christmas in India was always going to be a strange experience. An overnight train, endless curries and 30 degree temperatures doesn't sound like an ideal Christmas but I thought I would blog about the five people who made my Christmas better and a day to remember for the rest of my life. Fifty Two: Fifty Two is a man of mystery. In our compartment of six only five of the six beds were taken with seat 52 remaining empty. We were fearful to occupy his bed as the last thing we needed was a conflict at 3am if he jumped on at some unknown station along our route. And thus as we drifted off to sleep on Christmas Eve the bottom bunk left unoccupied despite the superior sleep one receives on the lowest bed. But as you may have guessed Fifty Two never turned up at all which provided our group with more luggage space and a nicer bed for Josh Hamilton to retire to when Delhi Belly brought him down. The Candyman: Now here in India the men selling food and drink on the trains have a bit o...

Have loved not only reliving my own India tour through all your blogs but also been able to experience a whole new side of India through your boys own thoughts and journey. Not long to go before you land back in (hopefully) sunny Auckland and the trip is all over. Enjoy these last few days and especially take some time out in Goa to not only relax but also be by yourself and reflect on this past month and what it has meant to you and what you want to take from it. Tom, Reuben, Shane and Mark you are legends and a half! Looking forward to catching up when you are back and hearing in person the many stories from good ol' India. William Allen (2013 India tour)

Another massive day here in Mumbai – we cannot be accused of not making the most of our time here! Once again, we have been touched by the people here and their generosity and kindness to our group of wayward travellers. In particular, we have to say thanks to the Magician Foundation (India) for the time we have spent together (today was our last day with the Magicians). They are doing incredible work, very similar to Khelo Rugby, in using engagement through rugby to encourage children to stay in school, practise good hygiene, and stay away from drugs and alcohol. Their efforts have come a huge way since we last visited in 2015 and they now influence over 1800 children with only 4 full-time staff. To hear more about their work, head to magicianfoundation.org Like I said, we have had a big day so apologies for the late post. The YWCA receptionist has just switched off the lights on the hotel's Christmas tree so I think he is trying to tell me to go to bed. Upon telling him I...