I was 19 years old the first time I went to India. I stayed there during the summer, volunteering in a slum school, learning more than I was teaching. Until today I don't know exactly what guided me there in the first place, but I was sure I was grasping something I needed for myself. I knew I had encountered a different site where I felt alive, perplexed, and intrigued in every single moment. I wanted to return to that astonishment feeling, and there I went for six months, between my bachelor's and master's degrees. During this complex and intense time I volunteered, I learned, traveled, and brought with me lots of people, places but mainly the ability to love, comprehend and share with the other, as they do it so naturally in India. It was an experience that marked me and, importantly, something made in the right moment.

Traveling:

Volunteering:

I went to India to volunteer as an English tutor. Unfortunately, my experiences were not always really successful. Rapidly, I understood that many of the ONG in the field are more concerned with creating a business model of social work than offering the best experience to the children in question. Nevertheless, after a first not-so-positive experience in Faridabad, I joined Mariana (girl in the pictures), a Portuguese friend of mine, with her Nomad School Project. The project consisted of implementing a van school able to go to very isolated regions in South India, sharing different types of knowledge considered helpful by the communities. For example, how to make a reusable pad or how to build a water filter. Sadly, we could not raise enough money to buy the van, and the project never came to action.