Today, or maybe tomorrow, I've got lost in the time zones, Philippa will be arriving home, back to the UK. Emily and Steph are travelling, and Jessica is already back in New York. That's it. The last of the Sangam Volunteers for the 2011 - 12 season has left Sangam.
I was really privileged to get to meet all 9 of the other Sangam Volunteers whilst I was there, as my term overlapped with all the other terms.
I spent around about 3 weeks with Ana, Amina, Emily and Steph, 6 weeks with Sophie and Aleia, 2 months with Jessica and Philippa, and 3.5 months with the wonderful Ellen. From each of them, I learnt something about themselves, their lives, their culture (yes, even Sophie and Philippa, who both grew up and live within 3 hours drive of my home town), and from each of them, I learnt something about myself.
I know that some of the other SVs found leaving Sangam really emotional, their lives had changed, and won't ever be the same. I never quite felt this way. I guess I changed in some ways, but overall, the experience didn't change me. That's not to say that spending 3.5 months at Sangam didn't affect me, quite the opposite, it solidified who I am. It made me more sure of myself, my decisions, my life. It made me more confident that I am heading in the right direction with my life, and that I'm becoming the person I want to be, even if I'm still not entirely sure who that person is right now.
But with Philippa on her way home, I find myself emotional. The last of the Sangam Volunteers for the 2011 - 12 season has left Sangam. The last of the 9 girls I had the pleasure to meet, live and work with has left. The season that we created is over.
And all I can see in my head is a postcard, on the wall of the programme room, that I'm not sure anyone ever really noticed, especially once it was surrounded by photos of SVs in the pool, and on an elephant. The postcard is one that I put there, probably the first thing I really felt I did as an SV, putting that postcard on the wall. I remember it so clearly. Sophie was saying that they'd been talking about decorating that wall the whole time they'd been in India, 3 months by the time I got there, and all they'd managed to do was put up a map of Pune. I walked to my dorm, found my things that I'd brought to put on the wall, and found the postcard, which fitted so well with what I'd already come to learn about Sangam. It declared "Chocolate Makes The World Go Round".
By the time I left Sangam, that wall was almost full, full of photographs, and memories, and resources left over from sessions, and flag ceremonies, and things that just got stuck on the wall for no real reason. My photo was up there, along with all the other past SV team photos from the season.
And my guess is that now our season is over, that wall will be cleared, maybe it already has been, ready for a new team of SVs to come in and leave their mark. With Jessica, Philippa, Emily and Steph leaving, the little things that made our season ours, that wall, gecko, the beatles let it be, all of that is leaving too.
I know I did some incredible things at Sangam, and I like to think that things that I did will go on for the next season, and the next season, and maybe several seasons after that, but it feels like now, 3 months later, I am finally leaving Sangam.
Philippa is on her way home. The last of the Sangam Volunteers for the 2011-12 season has left Sangam.
