David gives the gifts and LMCN Wristbands

David’s trip to India

David Knapman, son of LMCN committee Member Linda, was in India last year volunteering with St John Ambulance.
Llanelli Multicultural Network sent some stationery items for the young people in India as well as  the famous LMCN wrist bands.
David kept a diary of  the visit  and has kindly agreed to share it with us.
Everybody at LMCN would like to congratulate David and fellow volunteers on their  great work whilst in India and the tremendous work they do as volunteers.

India Trip 2011
Day 1

I set off from my house at around 5.30 and arrived at national headquarters. We handed in our sponsor money, were given our t-shirts and hoodies then loaded our suitcases with some extra gifts for the children. We had a short farewell from the chief executive and the chancellor. They also gave us a St. J.A. badge and a key ring  each. We had a photo-shoot outside with the banner. We loaded the two minibuses and set off. We made one stop off at a service station for a hot drink and carried on to Heathrow. At Heathrow we checked in and headed for security, we were then greeted with a long wait in the departures lounge, but at least we had some food and lots of shops. On the first flight it was a little bit boring, but at least it wasn’t long. The second flight from Munich to Delhi was more interesting; we had in-flight movies to watch and food to eat. In fact we had two meals one evening meal and one breakfast as we approached Delhi.

Day 2

We arrived in Delhi in the morning, collected our bags, loaded the trolleys and set out. We searched and searched for our bus and after several phone calls we finally found the mini-bus. This was our first real experience of the Indian anti-throw away society. The bus had a wedge under its front wheel which I assume must be to replace a broken handbrake. The suitcases were loaded, on top of the bus (and some inside when we could not fit any more on top). We were crammed into the minibus with not a single spare seat. I was sat next to Ian with some suitcases and Annie dolls the other side of me. Health and safety was a completely different standard out there. Indicators were not used or used in the opposite direction, horns were used instead of indicators and lane markings were used as a guide for the centre of the car to drive over rather than drive in the lane. We set off for a tour around Delhi where we saw an elephant walking along the road, a giant archway and a craft market. Here I bought grains of rice with mine and my sister’s names painted on them and crafted into a key ring and an necklace. I also saw some traditional Indian musicians. We had food and headed back to the bus and then back to the airport. At this point it was getting very hot. On the way back we got stopped by a police officer and we had no idea what was going to happen as we couldn’t understand what they were saying. Tara said it is probably a routine check and sure enough, the driver gave the police officer his documents. They must have checked out fine as soon we were back on our way. Checked back in at the airport and waited in the departures lounge. We had McDonalds which was quite an experience as there was very little meat burgers served. The plane departed over an hour late due to a problem with the tickets. When we got out at Amritsar we went to collect our bags. Everything was going fine, until we found that Viki’s bag was missing. We all felt extremely sorry for her and lots of the girls offered to help her with clothes until they found her bag. We stepped out into a huge crowd of people. “So this is what it’s like to be famous” I said. We got into our taxis, loaded them with the luggage and set off on the 5 hour journey. The roads were even crazier by night as they were full of lorries with lights and horns blaring, cars and busses driving on the wrong side of the road. We stopped to stretch our legs and as Luke stepped out of the car he saw a concrete block on the floor. He went over to it and found a sheer drop on the other side. It then hit us how high up in the mountains we actually were. I finally managed to get some sleep on the last part of the journey and was woken up just as we pulled up to the hotel. It was 3.30 on the Sunday morning.

Day 3

Breakfast was delicious in the morning. I had a chocolate pancake. Des showed us around the town, showed us where all the shops and cafes were. We then had a chance to ride in the rickshaw taxis, which are no more than an enclosed tricycle with a motorbike engine and very little suspension. We then headed for the Church of St John in the Wilderness. We took part in a nice little service with James reading one of the lessons and Des explaining who we are, what St John Ambulance is about and what we were doing there. After we made our way back to the hotel, which was even more exciting now that the rain began to come down heavier. This made the rickshaw taxis or “shabanggers” much more interesting. The ride was more slippery with more car dodging and also dodging the edge of the mountain side. We all arrived back safely and went down to the cafe for lunch, a toasted cheese sandwich and an iced coffee. We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and getting to know the town. In the evening after food we were split into our different teaching groups and were told where we were going to be teaching the following day. Our group was going to the Hindi centre, Nisthra. We spent time working out who would say what and who would demonstrate what before writing our blogs and heading off to bed.

Day 4

This was the first day of training. We set off in two taxis full to the brim with equipment and people. We went to the Hindi centre Nisthra. They understood the training very well, and we had no problems with our interpreter. The first part of the course was CPR and the Recovery Position then we moved on to other things like choking and chest pains. They seamed to absorb the knowledge, even better than some people I have trained here. They were so willing to learn and try. The last art of the course was a blanket lift, just for fun. All 3 groups of 6 managed to do the lift, and when we asked the last group if they would go outside onto the balcony with her in the lift, they went all the way down the stairs which we were amazed at. It just shows that they are learning and doing it right. We had our evening meal back at the hotel all together. It was fantastic again. We discussed the plans for tomorrow and wrote up our blogs for the day.

Day 5

This was our first encounter with the Tibetan children at the Lower Tibetan Childrens village. It is called lower purely as it is lower down the mountainside. Here we taught year 10 pupils who had already done the course last year. It was great to see how much they had actually remembered as a year without any extra practicing is quite some time. We also used the baby and Junior Annie dolls to add to the challenge. They asked us about nosebleeds, dog bites and cramps which was not quite what we were expecting! Back at the hotel I tried the Tibetan “boatman” which is a traditional spicy noodle dish. It was delicious but just a bit too spicy. We had our meeting again and found that this time we were going to Norbulingka the Tibetan Culture centre. Here we trained two sessions. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. Both groups were excellent, but especially the second group of students. They were much more inquisitive, seamed to understand more and wanted to learn. That was something that all the groups had, that willingness to learn something new. We also had some time to look around the centre which was so peaceful and calm. After food we discussed the following days meeting with the Dali Lama, made sure our uniform was spot on, wrote our blogs and went to sleep.

Day 6

This was the big day. We woke up early and got changed into our uniform. We went down in taxis all crammed in as the cars were only small. We waited outside the gates and were allowed through one by one, each one of us being searched. We then made our way up to a second set of gates where we waited and again were searched. It felt like we were back at the airport already. We headed up the hill and waited where we were told in a line. We saw a car come down from the forest on the other side of the garden. I was expecting his holiness to have come out from inside the building. His holiness stepped out of the car and made his way over to the steps at the front of the building. There he started to shake people’s hands from the line one by one, saying a few words with each. Very soon it was our turn and I could not believe the moment was actually here. I shook his hand and said “Tashi Delek” meaning good day or hello. We all stood around him and the photographer was so quick, he took 5 pictures within 30 seconds. I had barley enough time to get into the picture and was just my head showing behind James. We were given our holy knot and made our way back to the hotel. It was such a great feeling knowing that you have met one of the world’s holiest people. Such a great honour too, to be able to meet him on behalf of St John Ambulance. We went back to the hotel, put our holy knots and uniforms away safely and went out to do some much needed shopping and relax time. We needed this as we had been training the rest of the week so were getting a bit worn out. This was also the day of the Diwali celebrations. There was a huge fireworks display with music and dancing. The fireworks were much louder and scarier then they are back home. They were also hugely bright too. We had a bit of a scare when somebody was hit in the face with a firework. All I had heard was that somebody was hit in the face with a firework and ran to get a bucket of water. When I got back to the foyer with a bucket of water, I found to my surprise that after disturbing Matt, the person only had a small cut and no burn on their forehead. We all burst out laughing at the big bucket of water. Then Ian came up behind me with another one even fuller just to top it all off.

Day 7

Today we visited the Crèche at Norbulingka, It was to see how St John had helped there previously. I was shocked at how the simple babysafe & first aid training that they had received had saved not one but two young children in the Crèche. That was really great to hear as it shows how much of a difference we have actually made out there over the past few years. We provided them with a small amount of money to make a kind of mural wall with the children’s pictures on. We had also heard that today our group would be training 26 pupils form upper TCV’s First Aid Club. During the day we found out that the size of the group had, since hearing that we were returning, increased to 156 and had to combine with the other training group to train them all. That was really a great experience to train so many people in one session in a different language. It was difficult but with Des’ help we managed it. Des was in his element and thoroughly enjoyed the teaching. So did I especially the CPR.

Day 8

This was the day of farewells. It began with breakfast, which instead of being at Hotel Tibet was with Father John in Hotel Himalayan Queen. He gave us each a Himalayan cap to keep and we all wore ours for the whole breakfast. We set off quickly for Lower TCV where we were honoured guests at their Science Day. We were amazed to see some of the projects such as a working vacuum cleaner, a model heart that worked just like a real heart, a solar car and a rocket. It was great to see how good their standard of teaching was, and they were learning a very similar curriculum to what we have here. We then witnessed their science quiz which was great to watch. Des then spoke about St John Ambulance, first in Tibetan then carried on in English. The children were so appreciative of the little Tibet that was translated for Des, they loved it. We presented them with gifts, a video camera, a still camera and a netbook computer. The cheers were fantastic. So loud and genuine. They then presented us with a scarf each, which I was not expecting. It felt amazing being up on stage with all of the children clapping and cheering. We had tea with the other honoured guest and I made a small presentation from the Llanelli Multicultural Network to the children there. It was only a bag of pens, pencils, note books and other stationary, but they were so appreciative. We then made our way up to upper TCV high up in the mountains. We saw the Tibetan soil that was brought back from Tibet by a Monk and got given some to take with us. I was approached by a young boy and he gave both Luke and I a small sweet each. I was so touched and taken aback that I still have not eaten it. We saw all the little children of the younger years who sang for us. Even Des was surprised by this gesture. It was fabulous to hear and see all of the little children singing together in unison. And the actions were spectacular too. We presented them with some new Tibetan musical instruments and some traditional dress, which Viki and Emma B got to try on. We gave them each a chocolate bar and it was so great to see their faces light up when they were given them, and when they were eating them. Back at the hotel we had one last farewell. We had invited some of the House nurses from Lower TCV and the hotel manageress. All the girls came dressed in their sari’s that had been specially made, and I decided to wear my Himalayan cap. We sung our national anthem and they sung theirs. We also danced for them too. It was great fun, but also sad that it was coming to an end. We presented the hotel manageress with a special certificate as a thank you which we all signed and had framed.
Day 9

This was the day we left. So it was another 5 hour taxi drive to Amritsar. It was more enjoyable this time as it was light and we could actually see the stunning scenery. At Amritsar we went to see the Golden Temple. Another different religious experience. I found it very strange, and a bit intimidating, being the only group of white people around. In fact we only saw two other white people in the entire complex. We met one of the Sikh leaders who was distinguished by his huge turban. The temple itself was really beautiful all covered in gold. We didn’t stay too long as we had to set off for the airport. We got a bit stuck in traffic coming out of the temple but managed to make it to the airport on time. We flew to Delhi where we stayed over night in the Hotel Waves. It was luxury and really helped for the long flight back.

Day 10

We were all up early with some time for breakfast in the dark, and then straight to the airport. It was still not quite light when we arrived in the airport. There was another set of 2 long flights ahead of us. It was going to be another long day. We were thoroughly searched, yet again, before we could enter the Departures lounge. Yet another wait, but this time we were so tired that we just collapsed. On the plane was much the same story, just tired collapse. And then in the mini-bus ride back home I finally got some sleep. We were greeted back at headquarters again by the Chief Executive, and then I was off back home.

Share and Enjoy