Hello there and welcome to the secret life of a gap year teenager.
So after our adventures in Jaipur our friend Rishiji , led us to the beautiful city of Udaipur (which he claims is ‘the venice of india’). Our first night we explored the beautiful lakes and architecture that’s sprinkled throughout the ‘old town’ and dined like kings and queens on a rooftop overlooking tiny island hotels, singing along to the wedding music we could hear blasting across the water and ahhing over the fireworks being set off.
The following day we departed for Jhadol (about a 2hr bus ride from Udaipur). No one really had any idea where exactly we were going or what exactly we would be doing but the second we arrived at our new base (which was an orphanage/school/hostel/community gathering place) our days were full to the brim. We went right into choosing which grade we would be teaching spoken English to in the mornings and met our new rural homestay families who are apart of what is a very secluded Adivasi community.
Megan taught 1st grade, Payton taught 2nd, Walker taught 3rd, Matt taught 4th, Brad taught 5th and Evangeline (myself) taught 6th. It was an eyeopening experience for us all. At times it left us frustrated and overwhelmed but in the end the challenge helped us grow in patience, creativity and above all else appreciation for every teacher we’ve ever had.
In the evenings in Jhadol we walked from the school to our homestays and enjoyed life with our new Adivasi families. We drank tea, played games with the kids, helped with the chores, and fell in love with our pet cows and baby goats. This homestay was significantly different than anything we’ve experienced so far in India. The Adivasi families are far removed from main stream Indian culture. None of our families spoke English or Hindi (which was awkward because we were practicing our hindi before hand to impress them haha) so connecting was that much more interesting, and all families live very very simply. Despite the awkward silences during meals and the creepy animal noises we heard through out the night, living among such a beautiful community of people was absolutely incredible.
We are back in Udaipur currently and preparing for our next venture to Bundi! Today our student led free travel officially starts. We are all stoked to make our last 10 days together unforgettable and can’t to tell you all more stories in person!
And thank you for being a loyal follower of our blog despite the typos, glitches and randomly timed posts.