FairMail pioneer Janneke Smeulders visited FairMail India for the third time in October 2010. This is her story:

“My visit of 3 weeks to the FairMail India team was intensive, impressive and great at the same time, a lot has happened:

Welcome and new office:

On the train station in Varanasi I was welcomed warmly by our manager Akshay, FairMail photographers Dhiraj and Akaash and our American and Swiss volunteers Brittanie and Carole. So it was a cosy and fun ride through the busy streets to the office! Since September we are located in a new office which I had not seen yet so that was a nice surprise: a fine location, a good, big and clean office with 2 extra rooms for volunteers and a huge rooftop terrace that we can use for warm up games and photography classes.

Playing warming up games on the roof top

looking at the new materials to make X-mas cards with

Great! The atmosphere in the office is very good, there is a lot of laughter in the team and good cooperation. It is great to see how well Akshay is running this office. Big compliments to him! We did a lot of games and also a serious workshop about the individual reasons to be in FairMail and the personal goals of all of us. From those results we formulated our common goals. Some of the dreams that the students have turn out to be the dreams of their parents: for example Anuj wants to become a hardware engineer but does not know what this profession is exactly nor how to become one: it is his father that says that he wants his son to become a hardware engineer. In good communication with the parents we want to try and stimulate the students to think for themselves what they like to do and what they would like to become.

Setting our common goals as FairMail team

Photographer Sonu dies:

Two days after my arrival, Sonu died, for me that was unexpectedly quick although he had hepatitis B for years already. Family and the FairMail students told me how he wanted to be a good host until the last moment and how he kept on being serving and polite. When his body gave up, he still managed to step outside and lie on the floor outside his house. There is where he passed away. Sad and impressive for everybody around him. Sonu was carried to the Ganges and cremated, his ashes were spread out in the holy river. With the memories and through his photos that FairMail shows to the whole world, Sonu and his way to look at the world will stay alive.

The first FairMail India photography trip:

Sandhya, Akaash en Dhiraj had the best personal scores (they get points for motivation, coming in time, helping Akshay etc.) so they were invited to go on this photography excursion to the hill station of Pachmarhi, 14 hours by train from Varanasi. Also Akshay, Brittanie and me went and Eileen, our only “voluntourist” that had booked the trip through internet (check out her great pictures by clicking here). Eileen was so great to collect donations among her friends and family so that the costs for all 3 teenagers were covered! The trip was a big success: we all fully enjoyed the green nature, the waterfalls, the friendly and relaxed people (what a difference with the big city!) and each others company.

Made it with the whole team to the waterfall

Eating 3 meals a day together was an important part of the trip, as this was great to get to know each other better…. and because the food was so tasty! For the 3 students this was the first time they were on a train and in a hotel, so that was impressive. The 6 students that stayed behind in Varanasi missed them a lot, they called daily! Also from a photographic view the trip was a success: we made a great new selection of photos that will go on-line on the website soon!”

Janneke Smeulders

Janneke@fairmail.info

ready for the next stop on the photography trip