by Carol from India,

I travelled to Frankfurt on 2/3/2020 for my interim seminar which was organized by Deutsch-Indische Zusammenarbeit (DIZ). It is a compulsion for all the south-north volunteers to participate in 25 Seminars. In the end of our volunteering year, we need to submit a report, which includes all the seminars in which we have participated. Interim seminar is a mid-term seminar.

I started my journey at 7am from Dortmund-Wickede (the place where I stay – volunteershouse). The volunteershouse is really far from main station and I didn’t want to miss my train and therefore I decided to leave home 1 hour earlier. I reached Dortmund Hauptbahnhof (railway main station) near around 8 am. My train for Frankfurt which was ICE was at 8.39 am. ICE train is one of the fastest trains in Germany, near around 12.15 pm I reached Frankfurt and I got down at the station.

Although I know everything about Germany but I still get lost in railway stations and what I mean is all the railway stations in Germany. One of the Indian volunteer (Arshia), who works with DIZ in Frankfurt was supposed to pick me up from the Frankfurt main station. We both were searching for each other and then there came a time when I realized that she was searching for me at platform 9 and I was waiting for her in platform 4, I ran to plat form 9 as it was almost 13 pm and then I realized that I got down on the wrong station, it was Frankfurt Flughafen (airport). Frankfurt airport was very similar to railway station and I got more confused. I tried asking people and they told me that Frankfurt railway station is really far and so I decided to walk and discover things on my own. Later on, I found S bahn station and I got on that train. It took nearly 30 mins for me to reach Frankfurt HBF and guess what? I was lost again as the railway station was really huge but somehow, I managed to find Arshia. Near around 2pm we reached the place where we were supposed to have our seminar.

After a very adventurous journey I was really looking forward towards my seminar for 4 days. Together we were 4 South-north volunteers, Arshia and Drishti (they work in DIZ), Anup (works in Berlin) and me, along with Dorothe (she is the coordinator of all south-north volunteers), Sybille, Helena (she was a north-south volunteer but now she works with DIZ) and Jona (the head of DIZ). Anup and I, we were staying in a hostel which was across the river. Our seminar started at 10 am in the morning and it ended at 6 pm.

Before attending seminars in Germany, I had this myth that all the seminar is boring and unproductive but I love the fact that Germany never fails to surprise me, especially when it comes to attending seminar. Honestly, seminars over here are so much fun, exciting, creative, productive and what not?

2/3/20: (1st day) – on our very first day, after our lunch break, we had welcome and organizational stuff by DIZ, with (Dorothe, Jona, Sybille and Helena along with the other 3 volunteers.) We were also asked to write down our expectations and things which we want to take back with us. Later on, we were asked by Sybille to make projects regarding, “the development in Germany and what can Germany learn from India?” We were separated in two groups and were asked to present it in front of Dorothe. After our project presentation we went back to the hostel.

 

3/3/20: (2nd day) – on our second day, we discussed with Dorothe about our experiences and challenges in Germany, we also had a very interesting discussion about “so many ears”.

We also prepared “Kartoffel (potato) cutlets with yogurt salat” for our lunch, together in the afternoon for everyone. For those of you who didn’t know: I learned cooking in Germany and guess what? That day I learned a new recipe from Dorothe. We also had a very long and interesting discussion about “German politics and German History” with Jona. Honestly, at this point, I am very much interested in German Politics and history.

4/3/20: (3rd day) – In the seminar we discussed about so many important things, which we all were aware about, such as “racism”. We had an entire day, in which we spoke and discussed about “racism”. Previous south-north volunteers (Anjali and Neha) who extended their volunteering year also participated in this seminar. Two guest speakers (Harpreet and Olivia) were invited during our seminar, who conducted this workshop. We really loved this workshop, we all were deeply indulged in this topic, although it was nearly 8 pm, we didn’t want to stop talking about racism but unfortunately, we all were running out of time.

5/3/20: (4th day) – on our last day, we got our previous letter which we wrote to our self, “LETTER OUR FUTURE SELF”, during our preparation seminar in India.

In that letter, we wrote all our expectations, fears, hopes and many more personal things. We all looked back to our self and we realized that these 6 months has changed our entire life. We will never be the same person again. Looking back was really hard and painful, almost everyone’s eyes were filled with tears, as we left our family behind for 1 year. After reading our letters, we all wrote a new letter again to our self, which we will be getting in our ending seminar in India, after our volunteering year ends. We also said good bye to each other as Anup and I had our trains back to Berlin and Dortmund.

And this is how my adventurous Interim seminar ended. Apart from our seminars, we also explored a bit of Frankfurt. I hope you all liked my story?

Let me know, if you ever got lost and feel the same about the Germany railway stations?