Experience: Joyce, Inda

With AIESEC I went to Kolkata, India to do an internship. At first, I was hired by Balcos Exports which is an exports company. My function was dealing with international customers and participating at several tradeshows around the world. Soon after I started I had to end this internship since it was not safe for me to work for this company. It turned out that the situation of this company was bad. Moreover, the company was chased by several customers for money and the CEO thought it was a good idea to give my personal contact information without my knowledge. This resulted in me getting phone calls day and night from customers chasing me for money. Together with some other
reasons I saw no other way then to end this internship. After being in touch with the Dutch Embassy in Delhi and the Indian Agency in The Hague it was decided that I could do another internship in India without returning back to The Netherlands. I got hired at Kariwala Industries Ltd which is an export company in bags: promotional, beach, and fashion bags. I was working in the merchandising department as a management trainee for three months. I was in charge of one order of a jute shopper of Ben & Jerry. Think about sending samples, providing feedback to the factory, making sure the factory has the required materials, prepare the export documentation and so on. Moreover, I did some work for companies such as Carrefour and Walmart. This related to making photo offers, sending samples and so on. 

The last part of the job was sending proactive bag proposals to potential customers in Spain.
The working culture in India is a little different than what we are used to. Everything goes at a much slower rate. There were many times I was very bored waiting to do something. In the beginning I showed a lot of initiative by asking every time I had nothing to do if there was something I could do. The thing is that Indian people freak out when you ask those questions. They find it really hard to say no or anything like that so basically when there is no job for you at that moment you keep quiet. For me that was really hard. Since part of my job was to send proactive bag proposals to customers in Spain, I

extended that to Europe so I could do a little more. Moreover, I was the only trainee in this company at that moment, but they had previous interns via AIESEC before. This also means that the language spoken in the office is Bengali although the official language in the office is English. I can only say that you get used to it, but it is not always nice to only hear a language you do not know, since you miss out on all the conversations.

As you read I had some major issues in the beginning and I appreciated the help of AIESEC Tilburg so that I could do another internship in Kolkata, India. I am not so enthusiastic about AIESEC Kolkata though. I had some serious issues with them regarding the fact that they wanted me to pay for quitting the first internship while they should have screened this company. Moreover, I met many other interns and they faced similar situations: some had to do illegal practices, some were threatened like me, others thought they were matched but on arrival there was no job for them and so on. Furthermore, I and the other interns faced situations in the house we were staying in that someone of AIESEC Kolkata would show up unexpectedly and trying to steal what they like. This resulted in the fact that we had to lock our closets for AIESEC Kolkata which is really ridiculous in my opinion.

The culture of India is off course very different. A lot is going on in the streets. There are many people and there is a lot of trash. Moreover, always someone is watching you wherever you are. Especially, in the beginning this can be a bit frustrating because we are not so used to people staring all the time or clicking pictures and so on. Kolkata itself does not have many cultural highlights to visit; you basically need one or two days. Places to go to are for example: Victorial Memorial, Kali Temple, Birla Mandir, St. Pauls Cathedral, and Mother Theresa House. Moreover, the best place to go shopping is new market.

What you should not do in this culture as a girl is dress inappropriately. This means that your shoulders should be covered and that you should not wear skirts or dresses. When you read the travel information about this country they tell you that as long as you wear dresses and skirts until your knee it is fine, but trust me that when you wear those clothes the men will stare even more. It off course depends on how uncomfortable you feel, but in a country like this it is best to avoid this kind of attention from men. To give an idea that you really have to be careful is that even when I was fully covered I got followed to the house I was staying in several times.
Finally, what you see in this culture is a big gap between the poor and the rich. It is easily to see the difference since the rich are very fat and the poor very thin. There is no such thing as doing sports in India and eating and gaining weight is to show how good you are doing financially. Hinduism is the religion most people follow. Many festivals are there according to that religion. Moreover, most people are vegetarian. This means that when you order a dish with chicken the amount of chicken you get is very little. But the vegetarian dishes are very nice so you will not miss the meat as much.
What I learned is that I am able to adapt to a totally different culture. Moreover, I learned to be much more flexible. I lived 5 months in India of which 2,5 months were without water. AIESEC Kolkata did provide us jars with water, so the only possibility to shower is with a bucket. Moreover, you can only flush the toilet with those jars, you cannot wash your clothes, clean, cook, or do the dishes. This is a big change of what I was used to but when you have to deal with it is not even that bad. The stay definitely changed me. Indian people lie about everything, it is in their culture which can be a bit frustrating, but for me it was good, because I always see the good in people and by living in this culture you become less naïf. When I compare my expectations to the real experience I am disappointed with the internships AIESEC Kolkata provides. 9 out of 10 are bad internships just because they are collecting money instead of screening the companies. This is something I really did not expect. Still I am happy that I did a second internship since the second company is a very good company. Off course, you know when you go to India that everything goes at a slower rate and that often you have nothing to do, but that was also my expectation.

For future participants wanting to go to Kolkata, India, please keep in mind that AIESEC Kolkata already lies to you when you are still in the Netherlands. Therefore, try to figure out as much of the company from them keeping in mind that it may not be true. Secondly, I would advise you to only accept 3-6 months internships. If you like the internship you can extend your stay, but it is more difficult to get out of one. Thirdly, keep in mind that on arrival you may have no place to stay or they will tell you to sleep on the floor or share a single bed. Moreover, they promise you things like closets, TV, cooking things, hot water, which is probably not in the house they put you in. Finally, I never regretted going to Kolkata, India, because you learn a lot about yourself, but internship wise be careful and prepare yourself. 

Experience: Sanne Klifman, Delhi, India

After my graduation I wanted to go abroad and a Development Traineeship with AIESEC seemed to be a great opportunity. I planned to do a traineeship in Delhi during the first two months of my stay and afterwards I wanted to travel. Some of my relatives were surprised when I informed them that I wanted to go to India because India is crowded, poor, dirty, extremely warm (I went in summer period), smelly, noisy, polluted and so on.., but even though this is all true, India is an incredible country! I had a great time in India; it was a great experience and I had a lot of fun!

My traineeship..

I agreed to participate in sessions about HIV/AIDS in order to inform youngsters about this subject. First of all, I was supposed to be trained by an NGO and afterwards I was supposed to be able to educate about HIV/AIDS. This DT was a project organized by AIESEC Delhi University (DU) and they arrange the NGOs and sessions. By the time of my arrival in Delhi the project was not really organized, or maybe I should say not organized at all… I decided to accompany some other AIESEC trainees who were having a similar project. We were able to speak to doctors about HIV/AIDS, went to a slum area to see the projects of harm reduction (e.g. drug addicts can get free clean needles and are informed about the risks of using drugs) and went to a women’s rehab centre.  After two weeks their project was finished and I had the opportunity to spend some more time in the women’s rehab. There were about 10 women staying in this rehab and during the day they were having activities like Yoga, making jewelry and post cards, literacy classes, and of course sessions with a counselor. In addition to the rehab there was also a crèche and a small school for poor kids from this neighborhood. I spend almost one month at this place and most of the time I was joining the women with their activities or I was helping in the crèche. Although I didn’t really have my own tasks I tried to help them whenever I could and gave a lot of attention to the women and kids.

My personal experience

Going to India for a traineeship was a great experience! This traineeship affected me a lot. I learned that life is good in the Netherlands; we don’t have to worry about money that much, we are able to choose what we would like to do in life (work/study) and we are able to choose who we love (we don’t have arranged marriages). These things are often taken for granted… This trip also changed me on the personal level. For example, I’m well organized but my traineeship wasn’t at all! I didn’t panic and decided that I didn’t want to wait for AIESEC (because they were not responding to my request to find something else) and waste my time, so that is why I arranged some work by myself.

AIESEC Delhi

During my stay in Delhi, I met my AIESEC coach twice and he is the only person of AIESEC DU that I met! AIESEC DU didn’t really organize activities, drinks, trips or anything.. I have to admit that they organized a meeting once, but they only informed the trainees a couple of hours in advance so everyone was already gone for the weekend of having other plans! To my point of view this doesn’t really work out this way… Although AIESEC DU is not what it should be, the AIESEC trainees were great! I lived in an AIESEC apartment and my flat mates and I were going out for dinners, drinks, sightseeing, parties etc with other AIESEC trainees. There are always many trainees in Delhi and these trainees are having a lot of fun together! So if you are planning to come to Delhi, focus on the trainees instead of the LC…

Incredible India

India is a huge country with a lot of different regions, habits, climates, subcultures etc. There is a lot to see; like beautiful places in the mountains and the Himalayas, the desert, national parks with wildlife, beaches and of course huge cities! Like many Asian countries there are a lot of temples and historical buildings in India but besides these cultural places of interest there are a lot of other things to do and so see. Travelling in colorful India is a must!

I recommend everyone who is thinking of going abroad to go for an AIESEC traineeship. AIESEC gives you the possibility to combine doing something good (a DT) or practice what you’ve learned during your studies (MT) with having a great time abroad. So don’t hesitate and arrange a traineeship…J.  When you are still hesitating or having some questions, feel free to contact me for more information: sanneklifman@hotmail.com

Experience: Irene van Vught, India

In short: From the 20^th of june 2012 till the 20^th of August 2012 I have been living in India. In these 8 weeks I did a 6-week-GCDP at the Doon Global School in Dehradun, known as the schooling capital of India. Together with another EP, a girl from China, I have been living and teaching in a residential and day-school in the humid & hilly area 6 hours North West of New Delhi.

LC Dehradun: The LC Dehradun completely lived up to their promises which has definitely enriched my experience. AIESEC Dehradun used to be an entity of AIESEC Chandigarh, but since June 2012 they have become independent. I think because of the fact that it is still a relatively small LC with a small number of internships to manage, they have been able to maintain high quality (As opposed to some other LCs in India). Besides that, a big plus was that they managed to show empathy for the EP’s ‘standard of living’, which is significantly different of the average Indian standard, in order to make your stay comfortable. Despite the fact that there were only a few AEISEC interns in Dehradun, the active LC did its ultimate best to let the interns meet each other and to integrate them in the Indian culture by organizing events in which many local AIESECers participated.  And since the culture is very different it is very important to deal with these people as they fulfill the role of the bridge, gradually connecting you with the local culture.

GCDP Project worldview: As educational trainee I have been teaching to kids between the age of 6 and 17. I did several powerpoint presentations for the kids between 12-17; introduction of myself and AIESEC, presentations about the Netherlands, cultural differences India VS Holland, Core qualities HRM concept.
And we played fun but educational games with the younger kids; poster making, chair-dancing, sports. The internship setup was very flexible, I had a lot of freedom in determining what I wanted to do, so I could make the most out of it myself. (Of course within school & cultural boundaries!).

The Doon Global School was a very interesting environment because the school culture is –whether you want it or not- pulling you out of your comfort zone completely!! Getting used to a completely different organization with different structures, procedures, norms & values, climate, food, etc is not easy at all, but a great manner to stretch your comfort zone and develop yourself further both professionally and personally! JUST DO IT!! For more information visit my blog: www.ireneintoronto.waarbenjij.nu 

Experience: Jasper Wierda, Delhi, India

I am Jasper Wierda, and during the summer of 2011 I was an AIESEC intern for AIESEC Delhi University in India. If you ever consider going on internship via AIESEC don’t hesitate anymore, I guarantee you that it will be a life changing experience. Also, I can recommend an internship to India due to my own experience but I guess that any uncommon foreign country will do.

India
The first things to notice when arriving in India were the heat and the humidity (killing), then came the traffic (crazy) and the conditions of the accommodation (not as at home). Be prepared for something different, basic and in the end magnificent.
In the beginning I did not really like Delhi, it was a big (as in BIG) city, never sleeping with too much dirt lying around everywhere. Then in the first weekend I started travelling (luckily I had the opportunity to travel every weekend) and with the travelling I started to fall in love with India. You can visit so many beautiful places and experience so many amazing things. For example, I still remember that day I went on camel safari and slept in the desert. Or the day we had a 30 hour bus ride back from the Himalaya Mountains (in India) since the bus got stuck in the mountains due to heavy rain.

Apart from the places to visit there were the people to meet. Despite of what many travel guides and people told me in advance, people are very nice. They all try to help the Westerns at their best (not always the most efficient way however). Off course you got to get used to Western pricing, regularly double or even 4-double amount of what things should cost. Autoriksja’s for example, charge double to 3-double amounts, but for souvenirs that’s only the starting point. Just keep in mind that it’s all part of the game, and you should have a nice time haggling.
Speaking about time, Indians take their time in everything they do, ranging from a telephone repair of 20 minutes that lasts 2 hours or waiting time in a restaurant that takes at least 30 minutes for only the drinks (if you have managed to order). In traffic however, Indians are the most impatient people I’ve met. They use their horn instead of their flasher to pass, and they’re passing whenever the smallest opportunity exists. This, added to the fact that usually 2 or 3 cars drive on the same lane (meant for one car) makes Indian traffic really an… experience.
Or the metro for example, where everyone enters and exits at the same time. Especially when metro is crowded, this becomes an experience as well.
Also, the Indians love it to learn you Hindi phrases resulting in some very nice interactions with locals. I remember for example the 70-years old guard guarding my neighborhood trying to let me count in Hindi. Soon autoriksja’s stopped to listen and try to teach me more.

Being white makes you a walking tourist attraction yourself, especially in the smaller, non-touristic villages. I really had this when I just visited a temple and an old man made me the Indian dot on the forehead. So don’t get surprised if people (either openly or secretly) try to picture you are keep on staring at you. It’s something Indian you should get used to ass well. My strategy was to give them the pleasure back, so I made a lot of pictures of regular Indians 
Furthermore, there is the Indian food. Personally, I loved it and did not found it too spicy. If you are open to try new things (which you should) you’ll have a great journey your first weeks. Then, after a while I felt longing back to meat fish and a decent burger. Indians don’t eat meet (apart from chicken) which makes the country like heaven for veggies.

Project
Concerning my project, I went to India for the Udaan project. This was one of the largest projects of AIESEC Delhi University over there. There were a couple of pre-events at local primary schools, leading to a big main event for probably 2000 children. Just to give them a good time and ‘deliver some smiles’.
Our project involved developing underprivileged children by having six weeks of sessions with them in which we were teaching them English and skills like leadership, teamwork and civic sense. It was the first time AIESEC DU had this project, and we interns were to develop it and make it a success.

While everything in the Netherlands would have been very organized, we started in chaos and ended up in designing the good formats and content. This was quite a challenge, considering the fact that we were working with interns from all over the world too.

During such a project, you meet so many interesting people from all over the world and deal with huge cultural differences. This is one of the best aspects (people) of an internship (via AIESEC) and the main reason why I would recommend you to go.
We were working for four days a week, like a couple of hours each day, so there was plenty of time to experience Delhi with the locals.

AIESEC
And with the locals I refer to the AIESEC people that made my stay in India unforgettable. They took us to those non touristic places worth visiting, showed us those cafes and restaurants that where the so called places to be and organized even some weekend trips for us.

One day I was visiting some part of Delhi with a girl, and we ended up very near their University campus, so we texted them which resulted in a spontaneously and unplanned visit of their University the other day.

Or after having some party, they were taking us by car to visit Delhi by night. We went to awesome places and really felt like locals. Also, one of the local AIESECers was living very near our Intern apartment and spent therefore a lot of time with us. He even gave up some working days or cancelled a meeting.

In the end, I was very glad with AIESEC. In the beginning for example they weren’t there to pick you up at the airport or didn’t even give you a call when you arrived and there were some other minor problems. But they were open to listen to us and using our suggestions to improve which I found great. In the very end they dropped off a lot of interns at the airport because we had become close friends. 

Personal impact
Working with children has a great impact on your life. Being a foreigner abroad has a great impact on your life. Meeting people from all over the world has a great impact on your life. In the end I felt that this experience was live changing. I think I really have become a global citizen. Especially the fact that you have to do this all on your own and that you get the chance to experience the other country changes you. Also, working with children out of the slumps, and meeting a lot of different cultures opens up your mind. I had a great time, and I hope I hereby convinced you to go on internship via AIESEC as well. If you have any questions regarding this experience, please feel free to contact me by mail.

Get away, and enhance your life!

Experience: Joeri Jansen, Baroda, India

Before actually leaving to India for a MT, the LPS organized by LC Tilburg made everything more concrete. By talking about expectations and plans of others who were also planning to leave, I realized that the start of my adventure was really getting close.

Some weeks later I said goodbye to friends and family, packed and arranged everything, and got on the plane, leaving the Netherlands for five months. When I reached Baroda, the city where I would be going to live and work, I got picked up by one of my Dutch colleagues and a local AIESEC’er. We went to our apartment by ‘auto-rickshaw’ seeing a lot of people and cows on the chaotic roads, so the first Indian experience was already taken care of. The first days were quite hectic and chaotic, but I got used to it faster than I expected beforehand.

One of the things why I went to India was to do an internship. I was an intern at an Indian IT company with Dutch and German partner companies. I was part of a team of German and Dutch interns, with whom we lived together in an apartment arranged by the company. Within the internship I focused on business development and project management. In practice, business development meant that I was looking for potential new Dutch partner companies to cooperate with. As part of this, I also joined the CEO for a business trip to the Netherlands and Germany, to meet some of these potential partners and to meet some of the existing partners of the company. This was a great experience and it was also nice to see some of my friends again, but I was also glad to go back to India after the trip. Back in India, we started working on new projects (also from companies we met during the business trip) doing the project management, which included talking to both the Dutch partners and Indian software developers. Later on I focused on the processes within the company and set up a customized CRM-system. Overall, the internship was not always that challenging, but I had a lot of freedom, learned a lot and really contributed to the company.

We (the other interns and me) were lucky not having to work in the weekends, so that we were able to see other places in India. Usually we took a sleeper train or bus on Friday evening, spending the weekend somewhere else and then again arrive in Baroda on Monday morning. It is an amazing colorful way of traveling through India, with a lot of people around and it is impossible to get bored during such a trip.
Picture: The day before ‘Holi’ festival at the office.

Looking back, the only conclusion is that I had a great time, saw most incredible places, learned a lot and made many new friends. I will definitely recommend a traineeship like the one I did. As long as you are really motivated to do something like this, everything will be fine, and you will also have an awesome experience abroad.

Experience: Marieke Schramm, Hyderabad, India

Incredible India, that’s what they say. Well, they are right! My two month lasting internship in Hyderabad (India) and my one month of travelling through India proved them right. Did I have a culture shock? Yes, but I enjoyed it. With a reliable AIESEC network behind me, I felt strong enough to handle it and could fully enjoy the beautiful culture of India. Staying at a home-stay with an AIESEC member’s family the first week, was one of the experiences I will never ever forget. Whilst I had still difficulties getting used to everything that is different (climate, food, traffic, people, noises, all the animals on the streets, ...), there was this lovely family trying to make me as comfortable as possible. Because my internship hadn’t started yet and the AIESECer I was staying with had to go to university for some hours a day, I felt bored from time to time. The family was very concerned and didn’t want me to go out on my own and of course I didn’t want them to be worried about me, so I only went out when I was in company of Rohit, my AIESEC home-stay.


After that first week I moved in with the president of AIESEC Hyderabad, living in his own flat with two other trainees. This was a completely different experience: the young Indian students showed us their vibrant lifestyle with all facets. A great and unique thing was that I was living with a local AIESECer, who had a lot friends over all the time and gave me and the two other girls living in the flat the opportunity to get in touch with a lot young Indian people in a short time. I feel like I really lived in India through this great new friends I made and the celebrations (traditional and modern) they invited me and the other interns to. It is nice to have the feeling that I have Indian friends now. Of course we also had regularly contact with all other AIESEC interns living in flats together. Thursdays were always karaoke-nights at our favourite pub, 10 Downing Street. And in weekend all of us, international interns and local Indian AIESECers would go out into one of the few clubs, having the best time! We had a blast, partied a lot, but also had interesting conversations about differences and equalities between cultures. In my experiences, the members of AIESEC Hyderabad are very interested in all different cultures and doing a great job in making you feel at home.


After settling down, my internship started. I was working at a NGO called Kurmaguda Academy for Relief and Education (KARE), situated in the Muslim neighbourhood Kurmaguda in Hyderabad. The NGO exists of a school which offers free education for underprivileged children, job training for women (e.g. chocolate making, perfume making) and free medical care. So far education is not for free in India, that is why underprivileged children are stuck in a vicious circle: their parents have no money to send them to school, so the children don’t get education and have no chance to get a job good enough to enable them to escape from living in a slum. Therefore dedicated residents of the neighbourhood decided that this should change and founded the school whilst working in their own businesses fulltime. Having no experience with running a school couldn’t stop them from trying to improve future chances of a good life for the kids. It really moved me to see all the passion those people had for the work they were doing. My job was to evaluate the education and organisation of the school, teach English and leadership skills and try to set up associations with other school to establish exchange of material and experience. In fact, my job description started with only teaching, but the passion of the founder of the school made me want to do more so I picked up some other duties as well.


Working at the school was challenging. The teachers speak only basic English, some of them can’t speak English at all. The children were not used to my method of teaching and found it difficult to understand me. They are also used to being hit when they behave naughty, a thing I would never do. So even though they were very sweet and kind to me, making them sit still and listen to me was very hard. It may sound as if I found it very difficult to work at the school. But even with all the communication problems, one look or touch can say so much more than words. Everybody was so happy that I came to work at the school, that they welcomed me very warmly. I was on my own the first three weeks at the school and what scared me at first, turned out to be the thing I was most thankful for at last: the fact that I was on my own made it very easy for my shy and young colleges to approach me and everyone wanted to take care of me.


My personal goal for the whole experience was to be open-minded, friendly, and initiating contact. The people I met whilst being in India made this so very easy for me and gave me the most wonderful experiences. This whole experience made me so much stronger. I know now that I can handle myself in a totally different culture then I am used to and do this not only travelling, but also whilst working. It also made me realize that people all over the world may seem so different, but are also quit equal in basic concepts and want the same things from life, the simple things like living happily in good health with your loved ones, in their own ways. I sincerely hope a lot of people who read this will feel inspired to go abroad and will be thankful that they have the opportunity to do so. Of course there were also some inconveniences. For example, the members of AIESEC being students who can be very busy from time to time had sometimes difficulties to house all the interns. Therefore we had to sleep with 8 people in a apartment with three rooms sometimes. Another thing is that a lot of us interns had to wait for our internships to start for a few days or maybe even a week. Also it can be annoying to find out that even people you don’t expect it from, are after your money. But hey, that’s the adventure! Be prepared for the unprepared! Also don’t be too demanding (but demanding enough to make sure that you have the standards to enjoy your time in the other country) and read a lot about the country you are going to, without letting some well mend advices scare you and without lessening your initiative in talking to the real people over there in your new home. I can honestly say, I would always do this over again. Even now I have been back for two months already, I almost daily think back to India. After a short time of 3 months, I left India crying... Never expected myself to be this emotional about my departure, but the feeling of leaving newly made friends for a unknown time, really hit me hard. So my last advice: be prepared to fall in love with a new country!

Experience: Wout Bouwers and Maarten Wessels, India

Afgelopen zomer zijn wij voor 2 maanden als Ambassadeurskoppel naar India geweest. Na een uitgebreid selectie en voorbereidingstraject stapten we op het vliegtuig voor iets wat later een waanzinnig avontuur zou zijn. We kenden elkaar nog lang niet zo goed wanneer we door de Moessons van Mumbai in een overvolle trein naar AIESEC studenten op weg waren. Toen hadden we het door, met het Ambassadeursprogramma zie je niet alleen een land, je beleeft het!

Maar wat hebben we dan gedaan? In het kort, wij zijn in 8 weken tijd op 10 verschillende plekken geweest om elke keer maar weer verrast te worden door de cultuur en de mensen. Bij de locale comités hebben we Holland presentaties en trainingen gegeven. We hebben geholpen met het werven van studenten en het verbeteren van hun selectiebeleid. Ook hebben we bij een humanitair project in Delhi vrijwilligerswerk gedaan voor 1 week. Uiteindelijk hebben we kunnen zorgen dat ze daar van extra computers zijn voorzien en we hebben dit project gelinkt aan het locale AIESEC comité. Aan het einde van onze reis zijn we naar het grootste internationale AIESEC congres gegaan waar meer dan 100 landen bijeen waren. 

Dat indiers hun zaakjes anders aanpakken dan wij in Nederland hebben we op diverse manieren meegemaakt. Als een Indier bijvoorbeeld met het hoofd schudt kan dit zowel ja als nee betekenen, wat nogal voor wat verrassingen kan zorgen. Over verrassingen gesproken, aapjes in de trein, poepende mannen langs het spoor en het volkslied zingen voor een film in de bioscoop schijnt er allemaal bij te horen. Het lastigste voor ons westerlingen was vaak het wachten op niets en vanalles, over een treinrit van 250 km deden we bijvoorbeeld 12 uur! 

Al die verschillen maar juist ook de gelijkenissen die we gezien hebben maakten deze reis zo uniek. In elke stad waar we kwamen konden we iemand bellen en overnachten bij locals, helpen met AIESEC projecten en omgaan met studenten. Door het Ambassadeursprogramma hebben we oneindig veel plekken gezien, honderden Indiers ontmoet en onmogelijke avonturen beleefd. Allemaal ervaringen om nooit te vergeten!

Experience: Freek Soetenga, New Delhi, India

Hi everyone! 

I am Freek Soetenga, former student of Tilburg University. 

I majored in Human Resource Studies and graduated in February 2010 in Tilburg. Of course I could have opted for a more common start of my occupational career, but I decided differently. 

In 2007-2008 I spent one semester as an undergrad student at a American University and ever since I have felt the desire to go abroad, for a longer period of time, again. I feel like you really get to know the inhabitants and their culture when you live and work in a foreign country, as opposed to visiting 

the same country as a tourist. I wanted something new, something different. Therefore I decided to sign up for AIESEC and try my luck with them. Soon I realized that India would be the best option for me. For many different 

reasons, but mostly because I had heard so many fascinating stories about that place. I wanted to experience and see what it is like myself. 

My coach warned me that several LCs in India are on a blacklist because they 

hardly organize anything for foreign EPs. I decided to go anyway and two weeks after my graduation I landed on Indian soil. Well, to be frank, the LC is almost non existent. I met my contact person there only once, at work, just because the organization I worked for (Centre for Social Research, CSR in New Delhi) wanted them to come over because they also experienced some problems with that LC. To be completely honest, they did invite me twice for a 

dinner party, but both times it was during the weekend. And weekends are there for you as an EP to explore the country! That is the good thing about AIESEC in India. They put all AIESEC trainees in 4 or 5 different apartments so you have always other foreigners around you to hang out with. 

The downside is that you do not have any privacy really. We had to share rooms with one, two, three and at times even four other people. Two trainees had to sleep in the hallway, with just a little curtain to block the view. I was pretty 

lucky because I roomed with a very nice American guy and we got along well. 

Unfortunately our room did not have any windows, and just a fan to keep us ‘cool’. Just so you know, I am not complaining, I had a great time and I would definitely do it again, but I would not recommend it to anyone. I am trying 

to give you a realistic picture of the situation. Anyway, at one point the thermometer reached 48 degrees centigrade and the warmer it gets, 

the more likely it becomes that the power cuts out. One week there was some kind of construction going on, which resulted in four hour long 

power cuts, every single day. I had to work that week and I spent an equal amount of time in a basement, a relatively cool place, to read a book and wait for the power to come back on..great! 

Work. Of course I should also tell something about that aspect. What I learned in India that, and this is not just my opinion, but most other EP’s shared this, you should NOT go there if you want to expand your professional knowledge/skills. Most EPs were disappointed with their job and as a 

consequence, changed or quit early. I did not end up being disappointed because I kind of expected this to happen. I, and I would recommend this to everyone, went there to get to know the people, the way they work and to experience what their daily life looks like. 

To some extent I managed to do that and I am thankful for that. However, I would also like to tell something about my job. 

 CSR is an NGO that focuses on researching issues concerning underprivileged areas of society, restructuring gender relations and empowering women. I joined the research department to help them out with there ongoing and new studies, but, given my HR background, I was also promised that I would be responsible, together with a colleague, for setting up a HR department. 

 From day one I have been regarded as full-time employee. I started working 

right away on different studies. This really reminded me of just a month earlier when I was still working on my thesis. What I am trying to say is that my daily activities were very similar, especially at first, to what I had been doing at home. It helped that I felt like I was working for a good cause. At times I was the only one in that department - there were no other trainees and just two other foreigners - and because they treated me as a regular employee, they did not give me extra attention or whatsoever. I did not find this a major problem, but I can completely understand if someone else would have felt lonely. If you are that kind of person, try to join an organisation with many other foreigners (not hard to find) 

Luckily, this got better in my situation as well. At the end of April, beginning of May a lot of Indian and some foreign interns joined the organisation for the summer break. 

Also I got to go to several conferences (of which some were completely in Hindi..) and into the field to conduct the questionnaires I had developed. This made things more interesting. My second part of the job, the 

HR-related task, unfortunately never really materialised, except for some recruitment tasks.

 One more thing I want to say about CSR is that I was surprised by the way they carry out their research. It is very unprofessional (and this goes for a lot of things in India) and often even incorrect. I really feel that I helped them out in that area. I finished some projects, got funding, wrote research proposals and papers. 

At work, but even more so in daily life I experienced how bureaucratic and hierarchic the Indian society is. I can think of numerous examples. The caste system is still prevalent and everyone seems to be so afraid to lose his or her job that they will always live by the rules. For the most part people are sincerely friendly, but you have to be careful because you will also meet a lot of people 

(more than for instance in Nepal and China) who will try to take advantage of you; especially when you act like a tourist. Do not wear shorts or sunglasses and try to learn some Hindi, this will be a big help. Oh, somehow, people that try to sell random weird stuff to you - which happens all the 

time - never seem to understand that you are not interested in their product, instead they assume that they will have to lower their price. As a result they will follow you around for 40 minutes whilst shouting an arbitrary number in rupees at you; and in the end they will possibly get frustrated and most likely shout at you and then leave. 

Like I already said before, I would definitely recommend going to India, but be careful. Do not expect anything from the LC. Therefore, only go to a city in which there are many other AIESECers. 

Do not expect too much from you internship because you might end up getting frustrated. If you cannot stand heat, like me, you are going to have a hard time. The sweaty weather I did not like, in fact it was my least favourite part. Also, sometimes it is fairly hard to deal with all the beggars and poor people that surround you. One time, three little boys grabbed my leg and just would not 

let ago anymore. It is such a cliché, but at times like that you realise how well off we are in Europe. 

What I did like were the parties and weekend trips with other foreigners (and locals), the street food, the hospitals (yeah, you might get sick and some of your friends will for sure), every single rickshaw ride, the interaction with locals, getting to know the city and so much more. I could go on for hours, but I already rambled on for too long. So, if you have any questions, please, do 

not hesitate to ask me. 

Freek Soetenga 

Experience: Teun van Vlerken, New Delhi, India

My development internship was with an organization called Kalakar Trust, which takes care of slum children in New Delhi. The Trust was founded to protect the artistic skills of street artists who moved from Rajasthan to Delhi during the past half a century. In order to preserve their skills and enable them to sell these talents Kalakar Trusts provides education and health care to the slum colony where these people live. My role was to teach the children English.

The people at the school were very cooperative and kind. I found integration in the working culture of the school fairly easy, even though I was told that I was basically the first one out of many volunteers who had really managed to become a part of the school. At the time of teaching, there were no other trainees at the school.

The local AIESEC in New Delhi was not all too popular among trainees, to put it mildly. Suspicions about money, integrity and professionalism were more than once discussed. Actually, during my first week a massive fight was just going on as the trainee house had just been without running water for two weeks, and that in August when temperatures easily top 40 degrees Celsius.  However, I must say that, even though I have witnessed questionable behavior from the AIESEC LC, I have personally not encountered any problems. 

The cultures in India are so very different from what we are used to, so that one finds himself completely in a different world. Especially in New Delhi, the massive capital, life is pretty tough and it takes some time to figure out how to deal with a variety of issues. Just to name some; the daily struggle of bargaining a decent price for the auto rickshaw requires some skill and it is only after some weeks that you have mastered this. Dealing with the ever present bureaucracy demands a lot of patience and preparation. Being folded into a bus with so many people around you that you can hardly see any daylight through the mass of bodies are you may also require some getting used to. And of course the ever present variety of cows, dogs, monkeys and the like makes the streets look slightly different from what we are used to here in the Netherlands.

India however is a beautiful country to visit and to live in. Life is full of colours, scents, people, and surprises and the kind of person who is open and eager for new perspectives will without any doubt enjoy life on this subcontinent. The country allows all religions to be practiced freely, something that only adds to the wide range of different people and cultures.

On a personal level I don’t think my stay has really changed me, though it added a lot of insights and perspectives. This is because I had already lived for a longer time in another country and culture before, which prepared me to some extend to changes in my environment. However, if a long stay in India is your first experience abroad it may come as quite a shock.

Every extraordinary experience contributes to your general perception of the world and certain issues, and India has in this respect certainly done its job. You see and you act according to the situations you encounter, and hence breathe to the fullest extend the culture, but it may take years to fully comprehend what this has done to you and your personal development.

I certainly recommend New Delhi as a place for a traineeship (but you need to be flexible). It’s vast and ugly, pollution is terrible, the heat is sometimes unbearable, the food makes many people sick, monkeys may enter your house to steal things to eat, you lose your bag on a train or your watch on a bus, but it shapes you and in the end you will love it all.

Teun van Vlerken