My experience with Dil Se in Alathur (Tamil Nadu)

I heard of Dil Se through a female friend of mine who had taken part in this organization programm in 2002. It was during my sabbatical year before starting university.Three weeks later, I landed on Indian territory.
After spending two days in Kovalam, Kerala, to take the pulse of the country, I took the train to Madurai (Tamil Nadu) where I was expected at the station. I got off in a completely unknown world.

I quickly got to know the local crew, made of about ten kids (aged 5 to 14) as well as Podumani and Mahesh, the couple who manages the shelter. But it was 15 years-old Sangeeth who lent me a helping hand in my first days, taking advantage of a few weeks holidays he had. Sangeeth usually lives in the Kochi shelter. He showed me some useful places, such as the closest Internet cafe. We also biked all over the area and visited the city of Madurai.
I promptly had to take on a new rhythm, adapting to the children schedule : getting up around 6, having some chai, then going up the roof of the house for a short yoga session. Afterwards weeding the garden or washing clothes until breakfast, around 8. In the early morning I was usually busy digging holes in the garden (the ground is hard !), meant to be used as incinerator and compost hole.
Children go to school around 8.30am and only come back at the end of the afternoon, which means I had enough free time to discover the surroundings, read my emails at the Internet cafe or get ready for the English classes I gave at 6pm.
Communicating with the children was not always easy. I tried to teach the newcomers the most common English words, but I finally made myself a short Tamil vocabulary – very useful in some situations.
In May, I drove back with Praveen to Kochi, where he usually stays at the shelter. One evening we boarded a « fridge » air-conditionned bus. The journey was about 8 hours long but I just could not sleep a wink, because I was shivering so much.
With the passing months, I started to realise that some things were changing in my mind : through force of circumstance, you get your bearings and the foreign country little by little becomes familiar.
At the end of the day, my work will have been only fun : three months that taught me to live a little bit differently; all in all, going back to more basic things.