Reflection ISDC at Christ Sophia Reijnen

Making the decision to choose for a minor abroad was one of the most thrilling and exciting decisions I ever made in my life. Before coming to , I was very nervous. I knew would be a completely different culture and I expected it to be overwhelming. And yes, the traffic noise, cows on the road and Indian snacks on every corner where things I had to get used to, but I loved the from day 1. I remember entering the entrance for the first time and being so impressed with the beautiful, impressive campus. It is with no doubt the loveliest campus I have ever seen.

I am a Food & Business student and I came to Bangalore to follow the course ‘International Sustainable Development Cooperation’. I worked on a women empowerment project here in the slums of Janakiram Layout. CSA set up the 3D center there, a center for women self-help groups. One of the self-help groups is interested in creating a business for Indian snacks and my project was to help them with the sales activities. I knew, and I was told by my supervisor Jino Joy, that this project was going to be challenging and hard.

I was prepared for intercultural differences and language barriers. The women did not speak English so I always had to communicate with them through someone else. It made it hard for each other to understand, because the Dutch-English accent is very different from the Indian-English accent. I learned how to be flexible, since a most of the times the appointments with the coordinators or the self-help groups did not go according to plan or were rescheduled. Sometimes we just could not make things clear to each other and that could lead to frustrations of both parties.

The center was a great place to be around. The women were always so friendly and I even got to do some home visits to get to know more about the background of the women. They were all very welcoming. Overall I found out that the Indian people are so heartwarming and kind. They always try to be helpful.

I really missed a project partner sometimes to spar with, but if I really could not figure things out, I could always turn to my supervisor Jino. He was always there to support me with suggestions or extra information and if there was a communication gap, he would talk to the women to make it clear and to properly explain my perspective and context. In my opinion Jino has been a great supervisor.

Having a project at 3D center was a enriching experience. It is unbelievable to see what the project has achieved with over 10 self-help group and the commitment that the coordinators in. I do not really know what I expected to be, but it taught me so much about being grateful, always take time for people, getting out of my comfort zone and to learn that to communicate you do not always have to speak the same language. Overall it was an unbelievable experience and I loved it all even more than I hoped to. Bangalore and it’s inhabitants will forever have a special place in my heart.

Pictures of placement: