What am I doing in India?

I have spent the last year on Hidra, and this has been very nice and relaxing, and now I think it about time to see the world. Hidra is, without doubt, the center of the world (one is always in the center of one's own physical world), but it can be nice to see some of the outskirts of our globe too (where some billions of people live).
So I am travelling, not because I need a holiday, but maybe because I want a challenge. Since I am not travelling to relax, and I want to stay for a longer period of time in one place, I think that volunteer work is the best way to spend the next five months.
I first heard about Atlantis Youth Exchange a year ago when they had a stand at my university college during a career day. To travel with Atlantis seemed to be a good way to encounter the world. It is nice to know that I will travel together with three other Norwegians to India, and that there will be a person waving a sign saying IDEX (Atlantis' Indian partner) when we arrive at the airport in New Delhi. I am sure that I will find enough ways to challenge myself in India, so I don't need to begin my travel by being fooled by a taxi driver, robbed and ending up in a lousy hotel. I prefer Atlantis' way, with a one week introduction course, learning some Hindi and being dressed up in traditional Hindi clothes.
I have chosen to join two different projects in India. I will spend the first twelve weeks in the state of Himachal Pradesh in the northern part of India working on a social development project. The next eight weeks will be spent on a turtle conservation project on the beaches in Goa. So it's two totally different places and projects.
The project in Himachal Pradesh is located in the village/town of Palampur (1440m. above sea level). It was established in 2005, and has now lasted for 5 years. The volunteers are working in schools, kinder gardens, orphans home and with women empowerment. I wish to work with the women empowerment part of the project, which involves teaching conversational English and basic computer skills. All the volunteers, up to 20 people, live together in an international volunteer camp. So I will not only meet Indians, but also youth from all over Europe.
The camp in Goa is situated close to the Majorda beach and the town of Madgaon in the southern part of the state. Here I will also live in an international volunteer camp, and the volunteers will work on many of the same kind of projects as in Himachal Pradesh. But I have chosen to do something different here; I am going to rescue baby sea turtles (Olive Ridley turtles), which means to pick and remove plastic garbage from the beach. But it also involves to run awareness campaigns among the local population and tourists, and to guard the preserved natural nesting grounds.
I will write a closer description of the projects and the camp sites later. This is about all I know now. And it's not definite that I will work on these exact projects. The first day in Himachal and in Goa we will visit all the different projects, and then decide where we want to work. Maybe my mind will change, or maybe there will be different needs in the local community.
My time in India ends the 9^th of February when my flight leave for the Philippines where I will visit my father and Aireen. To get a visa here I needed a flight ticket out of the country, so I have a return ticket to Norway the 3^rd of March. But this ticket is changeable, so time will show if I will change it or not.
And at last; it might be that I don't have internet access in the camps…

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