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India Trip 2009
The Impact on me...
I think that probably the most influential part of the trip was the great effect and impact it has had upon me and all of us when thinking about the truly extreme differences between our lives and others within the world. Not everybody is as fortunate as us, and I think that all of us underestimated, and still do, the great amount of privileges we take for granted every minute of the day. Children at the Goodwill Village don’t have or see their parents, they sleep on the floor, they can fit all of their belongings into one box, but they still manage to be happy in their day-to-day lives. Throughout the trip I found myself asking, “How do they do it?” I mean, I complain on a D of E walk on Dartmoor, or even walking up mountains while being ill in India, but these situations, I see as challenges, are small and insignificant compared to the lives of the many stricken in poverty in India. Goodwill, is a charity I know we are all proud to be a part of, they do unbelievable work, giving seriously disadvantaged children the opportunity to step out of the poverty cycle and make a better life for themselves and their families in the future. This is crucial for the generation of today as surely all of us would like to see poverty improving, and more positive prospects for those in need. It might take that little bit of effort from all of us, but I think it’s worth it for the sheer amount of positives we could take from the situation. we all know that there will always be poverty in the world, including within our own country, but we could make that percentage just a little less, giving people just that extra hope across the globe.
Another great effect, which I mentioned briefly earlier, was the great happiness of those in such poverty. We all think about the need for money in this country and how we could add to our income, but do we really need that extra cash? It gives us a momentary feeling of happiness, but it’s not really ‘needed’. I know I enjoy buying new things, clothes and jewellery, but I don’t actually need them, I just like to have them. As we are all so used to the possibility of going shopping and buying new things constantly, I think the realisation of the small amount others posses really affected all of us. Not only did they have almost nothing, they didn’t seem sad about it, they were unbelievably happy and gracious about the fact that we had come to see them, I dread to think of their faces if they knew how many equivalent rupees it cost us to go, but I think that those pounds or rupees were worth it because it was truly a once in a lifetime experience.
I never really understood the statement, ‘money can’t buy you happiness‘ fully until I arrived in India. Many of us say we believe in this statement, but we all like that extra money in the bank! I realised that that statement really is true. If Indians such as the ones we met are able to find happiness in such a dire condition, I believe that each and every person is able to be truly happy without the comfort of endless money. We don’t really need it, what we need is to be loved, by our parents or by house mothers. This is another reason why the work of the Goodwill Village is so astounding, as without that love given to the children, many of them would be lost without path to find the happiness they deserve.
Many of us would love to return to India, and meet the children of Goodwill once again, I know that this is something I would love to do! Or maybe St Margaret’s will still be visiting Goodwill in the next 30 years, and some of us to decide to do a ‘Mr and Mrs Painter’ and offer to go and look after the lovely and easy going sixth formers, which of course we were for every minute of the day, without fail!
Alice Hodgkinson
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