By Bhupesh Khairnar, Volunteer, Nashik Chapter.
“After reaching Gandhinagar on 25th Feb we met our host families and same day in the evening we got a chance to interact with many new volunteers cum friends who came from different parts of India to attend the service program. The best moment was to see the AFS India National Office staff with whom you mostly talk over the zoom calls, meeting them in really was true happiness.
The entire journey was extremely lovely for me, may that be repairing those old computers with my team, installing applications in them, taking classes and teaching the kids about how does computer work, etc. The most amazing thing was to see the students being so interested in the classes while we taught, that most of the times they requested us to teach even after the class used to get over. The students were very keen on new things. We shared a good bonding with the teachers and students, in fact, we got so close to each other that as soon as we used to reach the school, all the students used to gather around us and asked us to teach them. Being there in the village and interacting with those kids made me a complete a “BASANVASI “.
The journey was just not limited to teaching computers to the students. I also helped in the promotion of medical camp among the villagers which was a different experience as I did not know how to speak in Gujarati language and I had to interact with them in the same language. Moreover when I got time I did some painting too. The most beautiful thing I got to paint was our Indian flag and it was an honorable and proud moment for me.
The best thing about this community service was that now I’ve got another family in Gandhinagar forever and my friends and siblings. I still get calls from the students of Basan school asking me, “when are you going to come back to our school to teach us?” and that’s the real satisfaction that you get after the community service. If someone asks me what I got from this community service I’ll proudly and satisfyingly say that I’ve got the soul satisfaction of making relations with all my brothers and sisters from all over the country which will now last forever, I didn’t realize when “Divya mam” to “Divya MOM” and Aadil sir changed to Aadil bhai . From this community service, I’ve come to know that education is the best thing to discover a new India so I’ve decided that I will go to the community service program each year !!!Thanks from the bottom of my heart to each and everyone was involved in this community service and who made it be the most successful and memorable event!”