August 27, 2017All Things Grow With Love (Bangalore, India)

And so the beginning of the end…begins. During the last full week of our time in India, we split our efforts between two different segments of our “service learning component.” This is where we take our learning experience to the next level and try to apply all of what we’ve taken in so far to new enterprises.

It began with interviewing children from three different schools about a community service project they had been working on. The students ranged from grades 4 to 8 and were all living in or around Bangalore city. We asked them questions like “What does nature mean to you?” and “Are humans a part of nature?” One of my personal favorite answers was “I love nature! Nature is like my best friend” to which I asked for further explanation. The girl told me of how no matter how she was feeling, happy or sad or anything in between, she could always go to her garden and speak to her plants and to a great tree that grows there and find comfort and companionship among her more natural friends. I found this inspiring to say the least. After conducting our interviews, we had to compile all of the information into a presentation for the organizations which had set up the project in the first place.

During the second half of the week we all split into three separate groups to work on different tasks for Pipal Tree, the organization running Fireflies (the ashram where we stayed). By the time we had finished, there was a poster and pamphlet, a lovely new composting site, and a song that ‘shook the roof’. All in all, our week was as successful as the last five had been. Leaving is such sweet sorrow, but what a way to close things.

-Thalia Holst (‘19), International Business & Law and Society

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