Name:Hannah Osgood
Programme: Himachal Pradesh India
Dates: May-June 2007

How did Real Gap assist you? The people who run the programme in India are really good and know what there doing. They look after you really well from the people in Jaipur who give you talks on things like women's rights in India, to the guides who go to work with you, to the drivers who take you here there and everywhere! The most important thing is that everyone tries his or her best to help you. When I was ill two of the staff took me straight to the doctor and waited with me making sure I understood everything and checking I was ok whenever they saw me after that!

What was the accommodation like? The accommodation was better than I expected. There is the odd gecko around but you get used to it! In Jaipur the family we stayed with were fantastic, we stayed up late into the night talking to them. In-fact I'm still in touch with the daughter and am planning on going back to India for her wedding! I loved living in the Silver Oaks house in Palampur. It was really nice to be with people all the time and if you need some space there is always the roof where a few of us chose to sleep, the view of the mountains is amazing! The beds are comfy if not a little squeaky, there's normal toilets and running water for bucket showers. Just remember that in India you can't flush toilet paper down the loo! What did you think of the programme? The programme had the right combination of work, activities and free time, it is adaptable to your needs. I was only there for 4 weeks and really wanted to go to Amritsar which is only for the 8 weekers. I was allowed to switch, I went to Amritsar instead of trekking. The fun stuff like yoga lessons & football matches with local kids are optional.

What was the most memorable moment of your trip? I don't think there is one most memorable moment, just lots of little ones! Things like sitting in front of the golden temple and watching the sun rise at the Taj Mahal are wow moments. But the little things like a girl at the day care centre hiding all the toys she could find in her dress, the male guides at the camp dancing in a circle at the parties, all of us sitting at night on the roof singing with a guitar (and a bit of beer!) or the audience at the cinema booing and cheering along really makes the experience what it is.

Did your project meet your expectations? I didn't have any particular expectations about going to India but any that I did have it exceeded, particularly as I had such fun with the group of people I was with. The mountains where more beautiful than I expected and everywhere else more dusty than I had expected! Seeing camels and elephants walking down the street in Jaipur was a bit of a surprise though!

Any anecdotes? Anecdotes, there are so many! Monkeys breaking into downstairs at silver oaks and stealing stuff and lots of comical translation errors spring to mind! Two of my favourite stories… 1) Me and another volunteer were in Amritsar at night and needed to get a tuk-tuk to the hotel we were staying in called the “tourist guest house” but the driver had never heard of it and got very confused wanting to know the name of the hotel and kept saying “tourist guest house name?” with us replying “ tourist guest house” the same two lines went round and round with the same intonation for a fair few mins before we jumped in and gave him directions! (He then tried to over charge us naturally!) 2) Indians don't know how to say “no” (their favourite phrase being “yes yes”) and the nearest you may get is a “Yes - but no!” I ended up in the front of a tuk-tuk full of all our bags in Agra before we flew home, with the bags very precariously balanced. I said to the driver are these going to fall on my head? To which the reply was (with a big grin and head wobble) “yes yes!”