Volunteer Job at Lha: French teacher and contributer to Contact
After travelling a while in Asia, I was in Indonesia and supposed to go to Malaysia next. But India had been calling me very strongly for a few months…
When I decided to change all my plans for India, the question of “where” came. In a huge country like India, the options were numerous. So, despite the winter, I stopped procrastinating and took a flight for Dharamshala, a city that I had wished to discover since the beginning of my travels.
Since being attracted a few years back by the Tibetan culture, I wanted to involve myself in its community, I wanted to be helpful. That is how my path has crossed the association Lha.
First, I started with helping with the English conversation classes which were amazing! Quickly, I had “my” group of students: two Tibetan women and two monks. Their life stories were impressive. Our conversations were rich, we laughed a lot, and I could see them improving their English day after day.
After a few days, and thanks to my background, I had the opportunity to work on the environmental part of the association. With two other volunteers, we wrote articles for Contact magazine and the Tibet Nature website. With the goal of raising environmental awareness, we covered some diverse topics over the following months. It was such rewarding work and an enriching exchange.
At the same time the Lha French teacher left so I started to learn how to teach French which is my mother tongue. I had three classes: beginner and intermediate, plus an individual lesson. It was a real challenge for me to teach up to 20 people (the beginners)! Nevertheless, their enthusiasm encouraged me to do my best. Moreover, my individual student was teaching me Tibetan at the end of our class. I was feeling very slow in learning a new language in comparison with my students… My days became very busy!
After six weeks of volunteering, I can say that I have absolutely no regrets at having changed my original plans. I have not only learned a new skill, teaching a language, but also gained valuable experience in my profession. To write environmental articles for a magazine is such a big opportunity for my career in the protection of the biodiversity.
The Lha team is awesome, my students are awesome, everything is great and I had so much fun!
Each day I was learning from everyone, each day I was leaving the office with a smile, and each day added meaning to my travel.
I already plan to come back in the future to continue my commitment with Lha.
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