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First impression
Ms. Corinne Rose, December 2008
No sooner had I arrived at the guest house, I was greeted by Govind and offered some chai. He asked me how long I was thinking of staying and how I knew about the guest house. I said I had read about the Sambhali project on the website and would be interested in getting involved if I could help in anyway. Over the next couple of days, Govind and his wife, Mukta both made me feel very comfortable in the guest house and explained about the arrangements for people who stay long-term. I felt immediately that the guest-house had a very relaxed atmosphere, the people working here are very warm and friendly and so I could tell that it was going to be a lovely place to stay for any length of time.
Govind suggested that I could get involved with helping him prepare a presentation for a Business Womens’ Group in Austria in June 2009. I felt it would be something I could get involved in very quickly and would enjoy the creative element of thinking through the presentation and the 10 min film that would be included. During the following couple of days I read through all the reports and the information about the Trust on the web-site and I started to understand what the project meant to the volunteers and to the girls attending the project themselves. There are some very harrowing stories that show what these young girls have already been through in their lives before coming to Sambhali and the friendships they have formed since being here.
I have been to the classroom a couple of times and have watched the girls practise a dance to the Wedding Song. The music is beautiful and the girls have been practising hard and with such grace. Unfortunately, one of the girls burst into tears during the practice, because the song reminded her that she was going to get married in a year’s time. It was because marriage to her meant that she was getting married to a boy that she has only seen in a photograph, would be leaving to go and stay with a strange family and not be able to see her friends or family for 3 months, added to which she would be missing all the friends she has made at Sambhali. I learnt that she would not have been able to cry at home and this was an outlet for her emotions. All the other girls went with her into the other room to support her, showing the closeness and understanding that girls have for each other.
Today I went to one of the girl’s family house on the outskirts of Jodhpur to take some photos for the presentation of the family circumstances and her life at home. I was pleasantly surprised to see that she was living in a modern house that had only been built seven years ago, as I understand it with the money that her father had left when he died. Now she and her five sisters and mother live in 2 rooms, whilst the bathroom and area for cooking chapatis is on the roof terrace. One of her sisters teaches and earns 800 rupees a month which she spends on educating her 3 younger sisters by sending them to school. Her mother earns 7000 rupees a month cleaning in an office and this is the money that the family live on for food, bills, clothes etc. Starting to get to know the girls is the great part of being involved in the project and I am looking forward to the next few weeks to understand more of the lives of the girls attending Sambhali and how they can have a better future.
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