Week One: Training

Week One Down...and SO much to say!
Wow.
So I left home on the 30th, flew into Paris, waited around for a few hours and left for Mumbai. On my 2nd flight into Mumbai I was sitting with a very sweet couple from the USA who are originally from India and took it upon themselves to be my guide through the airport and make sure I found my driver and everything. It was nice to have someone looking out for me like that, and have someone who knew the language to talk to my drivers a little!
So we finally arrived at Sangam (the Girl Guide World Centre in Pune) after about 3 hours driving with another one of the volunteers Virginia from Brazil, and got greeted by two of our dogs Bunty an Bubbly (named after Bollywood film characters). It was exciting to finally get here, see the place, and finally have a bed to sleep in! :)
The next day we started out training! I'm here with 3 other volunteers:
Christa - from the USA, also a Programme Assistant like me
Anna - UK, also a PA
Virginia - Brazil, the Assistant to the Programme Manager
and then the full time staff, from the USA, Ireland, India, Australia.
Training has been intense, and I finally understand what its like to be a part of it - instead of just planning and helping out with it. There's been so much information crammed into my brain it'll be nice when the cram session starts to slow down a little bit.
But training has been really great because we've got to try out a lot of things, and see little bits of many places around town. We've gone to the big market district - Laxmi Road, where I bought my first sari, punjabi suit, bangles and bindis! I can sense a lot of shopping with get done there in the future. We've also gone to another shopping area called MG road and wandered around. We've taken rickshaw rides everywhere which can be a little intimidating the first time but I think we're getting the hang of it now! We've gone to see a bunch of social organizations in the area, and different places we will be taking participants to in the city and that has been really interesting...i'm sure i'll have more to say about that later once I get a few more opportunities to check out their facilities and services.
Anyway, it's been wild...i'm loving every minute of it, and I am already planning ways to delay my trip home :) I will post pictures very soon
Love and miss you all!
xoxo
Jules