Sara Montini

Hello!

I’m Sara, I’m 24 years old and I come from Milan, Italy, where I’ve been studying Political Sciences and International Relations. When I chose to join the Tushita Foundation I did not really know what to expect from this experience; I thought why not? Maybe it can help me find out what I really want to do…

Well… It changed my life!

These four months have made me grow first of all as a person. It was the first time in India for me and at the beginning I was overwhelmed by this new culture: I had to re-think many of my ideas and to re-set some of my values to understand it. This was not only helpful for my growth, it also taught me that I have the skills to face such a different reality and take the best from it!

The Tushita people (and they are a lot!) have been like a family for me in this wonderful journey and I will always be thankful for the help they gave me. Ankita, Veena, Virendra, Bhim, Tilak bhaia were there every morning and every day and they have been a consistent and essential part of this experience. If I think of January and my first days in Amer, at the Tushita Foundation, I feel grateful to all the teachers who made me feel truly welcomed: THANK YOU Firdous, Payal, Ruksar, Rahila, Shalu, Jyoti, Pooja, Geeta, Ruchi for having been such a strong and safe bridge between me and this new world!

One of the most unexpected and amazing things about my experience at the TF has been discovering how much I enjoy teaching. The project I brought was Mythology and the students really surprised me: they have always been curious, smart, full of positive emotions about my person and the subject I wanted to share with them. We made a journey in the past, starting from Ancient Egypt and its legends about how the world was created and why the Nile river rises every year. We also found out that 3000 years BC there were some strange gods who made the first mummies in history and this was very, very interesting. Then we moved to myths from Crete, a small island in the Mediterrean Sea known for his maze where a terrible Mynotaur used to live (until Theseus arrived; but this is another story). The children felt very involved and disappointed when we read the sad story of Icarus and his father Daedalus. Of course, we also studied Mythology from Ancient Greece: the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, as well as the story of Prometheus, kept the children (and the teacher too) very attentive and curious for many days. Finally we moved to Chinese Mythology and it was incredible to find out that, according to their legends, the world began from an egg, floating in the water: it was incredible because in ancient Egypt people used to think the same! This is why I love mythology and I really enjoyed myself in sharing it with the students: I think Mythology is about human beings, no matter their culture and their language, because at the end we all wonder about the same questions and we all want to be happy! I really hope the children will remember that thousands years ago, in China and in Egypt (and there was no way for those places to be connected at that time!) human beings wanted to understand how the world started to exist and found a very similar answer: life comes from the water and from an egg!

The Tushita Foundation is a wonderful and powerful project for so many people: it helps the volunteers from Western countries to face a completely different environment and to challenge themselves; it helps the children, of course teaching them English but mostly showing them how to live together in harmony, finding the good things of life that we can share; it helps the teachers, nine beautiful women, empowering them and giving them such a great opportunity of growth.

I will never forget all the new things I’ve learned here and there will always be a place in my heart full of children in pink and blue dresses saying “good afternoon Mam”. I’m a richer person after these four months and for that I also want to thank the persons who created this project, making this sharing of love and ideas possible. Thank you Gaju Bana and Veena-ji, thank you Jan Sir and Rosenda Mam.

And of course this is not a goodbye but only a SEE YOU SOON Tushita Foundation people!

With all of my love.

Sara