I am Abishek, I was a local volunteer at Thamarai and I have been working as an International volunteer in Germany for almost a year. First of all, I would like to thank Thamarai for giving me this wonderful, life-changing opportunity because I have always lived in Pondicherry and have never ventured beyond my small village. Now, I am in a different country learning a new language, culture, tradition, and meeting a lot of new people.
This helped me personally to explore more about myself and others. I am working in two assignment places; one is Tafel and the other one is Kindergarten, so I will be working three days in Tafel and two days in Kindergarten. At first, I was really confused about how I was going to manage everything because in Tafel we have different sections such as the kitchen team, sorting team, sales team, bakery section, and driving team. At the beginning, my boss told me to work in the sorting team because I could slowly understand the importance of the assignments. Then, after two months they moved me to the sales section. This really motivated me because my German was improving a lot and I understood the rules of place of Assignment. In Kindergarten, I spend time with kids playing, drawing, taking them for a picnic, and doing some office-related work. I really love to work in kindergarten and in Tafel and this is my favorite place.
I am staying with my host family in Oberriexingen, near Stuttgart. I would say I got a second family because they are like my family. I never feel like I am alone and it doesn’t feel like I am in a far away country because it feels like home always. They are taking care of me like their own son and they want to show me everything about Germany and its culture and traditions. I am really happy to be here with my Host family. This project not only helps me, but it will also help our village youth to explore the world and people. Our village is very small and the people live in a certain circle, so this will help our village youths to learn a lot of new things. This experience has been the best part of my life so far.
