Only several hours left!

Noooo! Things are coming to an end, fast! Today I dropped by Yeshwantpur where I'd been volunteering for the Dream School Foundation to say good-bye and sort of tie up any loose ends. Going there for the last time was just another reminder of how soon I'm leaving so it was sort of sad. I blogged about doing a notebook drive earlier and I think I told some of you that my regular volunteer work consisted of compiling case studies of the students and this was all done through Dream School.

I'd never really done volunteer work before this with the exception of helping out at my mom's school or the occasional church shindig, so it was really cool to be able to see a foundation in action and how it's changing the lives of the people it aims to help. The students I've met have been so well-mannered, polite and sweet. Compiling the case studies allowed me to get to know them a little bit and it was cool to hear their ambitions. The first day I came in, they all greeted me, introduced themselves and bombarded me with questions about myself and the US!

Few individuals make a big enough impact to change the whole world, but seeing how Dream School has really helped its students shows that everyone can do something to contribute within their community and impact someone's world. The Dream School Foundation helped its students to get into schools that they wouldn't have been able to afford to attend otherwise and also helps supplement their education with an after-school program so they're getting some great opportunities to get an education through the foundation. I got to meet some great, bright students with a lot of potential and I hope I was able to contribute in my volunteer work with them.

_____

I'm trying to make the most of my last several hours in India by wearing my favorite churidar today and some moments ago, I was parked in front of the TV so I could blog and get my last doses of Bollywood music videos before I have to go off to take on the enormous task of packing. In the last couple days, I've had to climb over my things to get to my bed since I've had all my stuff out in piles in the middle of the room. Swathi's scolding me to pack instead of blog but I wanted to get some blogging in while I'm still in India before I get down to business...