After preparing for a couple days before all the students arrived, the South Asian students presented on their cultures for the international students. You can read more here, and see a few student interviews here, beginning with Olga!
Monica
Mohammad
Rohini
Kultwisiso
Shilpi
Well it’s time for my next blog !!! I just wanna share how much gratitude I have taken from this trip– for the sights that I have seen through perspectives of what individuals see, and being able to form my own world from that,. Without looking at the world through roasted glasses , I have become much more open minded as a individual acting as a leader in my community. There were many times when my emotional resilience was tested through physical literacy like going for extreme hikes on the Himalayas despite the pain it took to walk each step higher and steeper, and despite the fear of falling of the cliff, the beauty is what really motivated me. I don’t think there has been a time were my motivation has been fractured. I have enjoyed every last moment staying in Dharmasala, the home of the mountains. And staying with people that stayed in the village living and adapting to their daily lives was a intriguing experience. I’ll never forget the way the families were families when they at dinner and the way the made there house a home for people like me. I learnt about their religion, their culture, their attire. I learnt to appreciate animals more. Some people see beyond an animal then just meat or food try see it as there sacred deity which was entrancing for me to hear about. I will definitely go back to South Africa with the same amount of new respect that I have learnt to taking my shoes off to giving some hard namastes!!! I will encourage ways to mitigate the use of resources and to implement innovative ideas in my community to contribute towards climate change. I am grateful, I am thankful, I am blessed. Namaste and thank you for reading and following my journey on this tremendous grateful experience as I token of gratitude, I would love to thank my leaders sincerely for this network that will not leave my side and for the knowledge and skills I have obtained. Namaste.
For the morning walk we visited government buildings and they were amazing. I learned that each Indian state is allowed to have different governing styles, for instance, one state can have communist ruling and another right by it can have Democratic ruling. That made me think about how different that system is compared to the U.S and it was very interesting.
We were assigned to give our reflection on a chart paper through drawings, poem, essay and any creative ideas that relates to climate resilience, community resilience and emotional resilience. I was very much curious and excited to reflect myself throughout the journey to India with my 360Plus family.
So, I made a drawing look like a large greeting card in which I have reflected how I have learned though travel from then to now . Here is a couple of photographs of my chart paper.
-Thank You
