On the campus of Jesus Loves Ministries there is a sewing school, the Bethel Ashram children’s home for boys, and the St. Pauls School for nursery up to seventh grade. Soon they will also be opening a girls school.

In this place, you are mainly working with the 15 boys from the children’s home that you grow fond of quickly. Mondays through Saturdays, you help them with homework in the afternoons and in the evenings, you sing, do crafts, and play with them. At the St. Pauls School you can also teach the different grades in “english activity”. Every day you can take part in reading the Bible with the teachers and the “assembly”. In your freetime you can prepare the lessons or just relax.

Adjusting to this very different culture and the unfamiliar settings is often made easier by the warm inclusion of the family of the director of the deployment site. The own apartment, located directly next to the house of this family, is truly a form of luxury. There are two single rooms with a shared entrance hall, a fridge, a bathroom with a shower, which gives one the feeling of shared living.

In general, the close contact with the host family is a big advantage. When talking to Samarpana (director of the deployment site) you learn a lot about interesting things of the Indian culture. Nevertheless, cultural differences can also always be a challenge. Most of the food is yummy and good. The vegetable curry is being kindly cooked with less chili for the volunteers. If it still too spicy you can add white yoghurt.

Since you are not supposed to leave the campus on your own and usually your Telgugu skills are not that great it is often not possible to build close and deep relationships with locals. The times with the family and the boys from the children’s home do sweeten the day though. The kids can be exhausting but they are still fun and absolutely lovable.