MIEKE VAN DE PAS

My experiences at the Youth Summit:

I can hardly describe my experiences of the days I was in India. I’ve seen so much things and was impressed of almost everything I saw, heard and felt. Because everything was so different from the life in Holland which I was used to.

My first experience in India (when I stepped out of the plane) was the sweat I felt trickling from my whole body.

It was great that we went to Campion School by bus through the city, so that we already could see a big part of the city-life in Mumbai.
Our trips in the bus, taxis and the train were unforgettable experiences, because it was a bit scared to see the chaotic traffic with all its hooting.

I was also impressed of the enormous slums we saw next to the airport, the railway and the dirty water:
And then I could imagine that in one city could live more people than in the whole Netherlands.

But not only the people in the slums impressed me, because on every street lay people staring at us. I think you get used to it when you live in such a city, but for me it was quite shocking.

I didn’t know what to think or what to say when we arrived Campion School. So many boys with knotted ties and they were all giving us a warm welcome. Later in the week we also visited St. Peters in Panchgani. I had never spoken to someone in a boarding school and it made me think about the quality of the education in the Netherlands. Because I gathered that the Indian students had a lot more knowledge than the Dutch students. (But it also makes me very glad that I’m not in an Indian school, because the Dutch students have a lot more free time!)

In the Panchgani area I really liked the country with its landscapes. I enjoyed the nature trails while we saw the mountains, lakes, palm trees, banana trees, small villages, cows, etc, but I also enjoyed every minute in the camp. The Indians, the Finnish and the Dutch, they were all really nice people and I became acquainted with all kind of (for me) strange cultures. The Indian boys learned us some sentences in Hindi and we learned them some funny Dutch words and children songs. By the way: We’ve had so much fun together!

The Indian food was also a sort of experience for me, because I’m not used to three big meals on a day. In Holland we eat just some bread as breakfast and lunch. Our only warm meal is dinner. And we’re used to have dinner at approximately 6 o’clock in the evening. The food was good, I liked the spicy flavours, but I really missed the meat.

The things I enjoyed most were the dance party in that restaurant in Mumbai where we had our lunch on the 12th of Oct, the ball at St. Peters and the nights in your little house.

Mieke van de Pas
Pius X – college
The Netherlands