Hannah Headden Care & Community in India

During my final year of school I decided to take gap year before going to university. Although I knew that I wanted a year out, I struggled to make a decision about where I would go or for how long. However I did know that I wanted a challenge and I knew that the country I eventually chose would have to be very different from home. With these thoughts in mind I eventually decided to go to India, a place of vast contrasts and exciting differences. I also decided to spend six months there, due partly for my desire to learn fully about the culture and also because I wanted to get far from home for as long as possible! As it turns out my decisions did not make life easy for me but in hindsight they were probably some of the best decisions I have made.

I was to be doing a Care placement for those six months and my home was an orphanage in the very Southern tip of India in the state of Tamil Nadu. The village was small and very rural. Few people had seen a white person and for the first few months stares and looks of terror from small children followed me wherever I went. Taking the girls in the home to school every morning was one of the most beautiful walks I have ever been on, a walk that will remain forever in my memory. While 55 children streamed out in a line in front of me, clasping books and tiffan jars, tiny children, too small for school ran around blue washed housing while mothers cooked outside. Luscious green paddy fields were worked by a plough and water buffalo. Cattle roamed everywhere and even the occasional elephant! Women walk by with huge baskets on their heads while those not working chat by the local ‘shop’ selling a huge display of fresh fruit and vegetables but little else. Throughout my six months banana’s were harvested and then later, coconuts.

Living and working in the home was not always plain sailing. I had my own room which was a haven away from stares and constant pestering for hugs and chat. Generally though my days in India were wonderful. I would wake with the girls at 6.30 in time for morning worship, there was then a generally ruckus as wash time began. Two huge troughs served as showers and buckets were thrust into the freezing water and thrown over heads. It was my job to help the little ones wash and dress. Barely a day went by where I stayed dry! Breakfast consisted of rice and sambar, a spicy sauce. Then I would walk with the children to school. After returning I would eat breakfast, change and head back to school to teach English. Teaching English was a challenge, but great fun although I’m not sure the children ever got over the fact that a white woman was teaching them. Occasionally hands would be thrust up in the air to tell me I had beautiful skin or to ask shyly for my autograph! It took a while for the class to learn that I was just the same as them. I would generally take afternoons off to rest or go for a chai (tea). The children would return in the afternoons when they would have a snack and we would organise a games time. After games (duck, duck goose, tag or musical bumps) we would then help with study. Dinner would be more spicy rice. There would be more study, free time and then bed.

Everywhere I went in India I was treated like a Bollywood film star. People in my village who by western standards had nothing, were willing to offer me what little they had – a cup of chai, a flower for my hair, or even a meal. I only hope that as much as I gained I also gave back. The children in Packium Ammal Children’s home were not complete orphans and many came from families who simply could not afford to look after them. Without somewhere like Packium to take them in, the result would not bare thinking about. My time in Packiam was, although clichéd, life-changing. I managed to return this summer which was no less wonderful. Doing a gap year at whatever stage in your life is something I would recommend to everyone. If you want a challenge and somewhere completely removed from life at home or a country where you will be valued and needed then India is a good choice!

Hannah Headden

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At school

Smiling faces at my placement

Girls at my placement

Cows in the street

Local woman carrying stones