Adrien Bachelet & Jade Tellier, Green Village Raipur, India
We are finally on the field, at the Green Village, Raipur in India.
Due to the coronavirus situation, we were waiting for so many months for our departure from France. It was of course difficult to be unable to join the field but we never dropped our project. It is a life project for both of us, not a parenthesis in our professional experiences and during all these months, we had a lot of time to imagine our days here, Jade as a Coach, Adrien as a Project Manager Integration.
We both know Asia, we already know India and this made us even more excited to really “live India” and to have time to understand this spiritual, rich and colorful country. We didn’t know a lot about the Green Village Raipur, we just knew that the GV is situated in the middle of a small village - Saragaon, in the countryside but it was hard to imagine anything. We didn’t really know which expectations to have.
We were like LP4Y loves to say, under total “lâcher-prise” - “let it go” and it was a huge surprise when we arrived at our final destination. It was a big dream that finally came true. We arrived at our new home at night and it was only in the morning that we discovered the landscape from the terrace and the rooftop: a rice field background with farmers, cows, locals dressed with beautiful colors bathing on the ponds, colorful houses and fruit trees.
Our neighborhood
We quickly realized that we were at home. Our new home for 1 year! We reached the Green Village after a 15 minutes walk with some salutations of the inhabitants of the village. We will always remember the Youth welcoming on our first day at the GV. They were all applauding in line with a big smile and with a rose freshly cut from the garden for both of us.
A warm welcome from the Youth at the GV
We thought that we would have a very long period of observation before entering into the work but finally, we entered into the field very quickly. Here, everyday, we learn a lot about patience. Of course it is a different culture and when a Youth tells you “ok, I will do it” or “ok, I am capable of” then you come back again and again to ask for the task to be done and you finally just realize that he didn’t understand your request, you understand that you have to change absolutely all your way of doing and thinking.
The biggest challenge is of course patience but also the Youth determination and motivation, they have to keep all the motivation during their 3 months here. You know when a Youth is fully motivated and you quickly see when someone is lazier and needs to be motivated. If they motivate themselves, they go very far. You learn a lot about each Youth personality and you develop a strong sense of intuition. Moreover, thanks to the individual talk, we strengthen our relationships and it touches us a lot when we see a Youth that does everything for improving himself for a better personal and professional life.
It will be a year of full surprise and we personally feel that we are at the right place at the right moment. Helping others is fulfilling and helping with an innovative pedagogy is even better. It is fulfilling to help the Youth accept themself and focus on their future, making life road with them and give them hope by truly believing in themself and in their potential. After a month, we see the results and the impacts rapidly. We learn how to be more rigorous and demanding with the Youth and we understand the sense of our mission. We experienced the first departure from the GV of some Youth to their first job and it was very moving. We see that more and more companies take their social responsibility seriously and it is nice to know that we will follow the Youth professional experience.
A Youth who leaves the GV for starting her job.
To tell more about our village environment, here, animals are part of our lives. On some mornings, we are escorted by monkeys and dogs on our way to work. Cows try to enter our working space and some dogs try to bite us at night on our way back home. In our home, we found a frog in our water gallon, we got a nice snake guest in our roommate's bedroom and it is a nice souvenir to remember all the indian family of the landlord who arrived for New Year in our living room to chase the snake. Also, we used to share our house with "Rémy the Rat''. This is a big exit from our comfort zone and our indian neighborhood must be wondering why we are screaming sometimes.
From our terrace, we see mongoose, eagles and a large variety of birds. It is very peaceful! Nature is very important for us and ecology as well. Although, this is a pillar of the green village pedagogy.
The wonderful sunset from our Catalyst House
We are happy there and we found our balance between our personal and professional life, we share moments and some events with the Youth (Christmas, Stars Dinner…)
Christmas party and Jade first experience with Sari The STARS dinner
We do morning yoga on our terrace, we spend a lot of time preparing and having breakfast with all our roommates, we learn a lot about indian cuisine and we have our annual subscription at the “Squash Club of Raipur”.
Furthermore, it is very new for us to live with 5 roommates as a couple and it was one of our fears before the mission to find the balance between “roommates life” and “couple life”. But finally, we have a very good experience and it feels good to be surrounded by people with the same interests and values. We are spending a lot of time with them but also with some people in our village.
We went to the barber and we met the best haircut ever : Sanjay. After our work, on the same day, we passed in front of his house and he invited us to his simple and traditional red mud house. We met all his beautiful family and this moment is still today one of our best memories of our first month here.
Sanjay, the Haircut with his beautiful wife Lunch at Shouria’s house
Jade & Adrien