Last Wednesday night, some of us rented a minibus and traveled to Ooty. Ooty is a hill station in Tamil Nadu, 2000 meters above sea level. When we arrived early the next day, we could finally breath in the fresh mountain air! It was around 16 degrees, a lot colder than Puducherry, so we had
A few weeks ago, Kulturstudier arranged India Day for us at the study center. We dressed up in colorful traditional saris, decorated ourselves with flowers and jewels. Everyone looked smashing, so elegant. However, the temperature did become a bit of a problem… I’m so impressed by the women who wear these saris everyday. We
In the remote areas of Tamil Nadu lives the Irular people. They are one of the many tribal communities of India. Historically, they have always had a very low position in society, and sadly they still experience discrimination. The community used to live a simple lifestyle in the forests, but were displaced and forced to
We were thrilled to find out that there is a surf school at Bodhi Beach, which isn’t too far from where we live. The autorickshaw drivers made quite a few wrong turns before we were able to get there, but at least now we know where it is. I rented a surf board together with
// One week has gone by since I moved to Puducherry, India. I’m going to study peace and conflict studies with Kulturstudier. South Asia is the perfect location for these studies! The region’s history is rich with both violent conflicts and huge peace movements, I can’t wait to learn more about it. We will also be doing
And then it was all over. Back home. It’s cold, a bit grey, and oh so quiet. No colorful clothes, no pounding speakers constantly shouting out our favourite songs Amen, Johnny or Aye. Our last weeks in Cape Coast were quite intense but also so much fun. We were working on the group paper, hanging
As I start writing this, I’m sitting in a ghost town. This is our study centre. It wasn’t always like this. It used to be much noisier. I walk into the classroom, taking care to leave my footwear behind. I have this sudden urge to arrange the name cards of everyone on their most frequent
I know it’s getting old but time is running out. Crazy. We’re all really busy writing our group papers at the moment, which is a fun but also very tiring process. Every now and then we sneak out to Baobab (a vegetarian restaurant in town) for a coffee or some pancakes. Here’s my fantastic group
I guess there’s two or three Ghanaian dishes that I’ve really come to like. Red red is definitely number one, a delicious black eyed peas mix served with fried plantain (banana-potato-things). Another one is groundnut (peanut) soup that is usually served with fufu (made of yam, almost like a african way of mashed potatoes). Both
It is surreal. One day I am sitting soaking up the honking of the horns, the shouting of desperate vendors, the stench of urine mixed with the sweet scent of cow dung and the constant noise of the fan at night. The next day I am in the most serene place I have been in
