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| Dressed for Onam |
What is Empowerment? The internet says empowerment is the process of gaining freedom, authority and confidence to control one's life, make decisions and achieve goals. It involves increasing personal or collective strength, enabling individuals to overcome powerlessness, claim rights and influence change.
This is the word I thought of when I interviewed the highly adventurous Carla Ide. Carla has worn so many hats till date that it's difficult to fit her into any box.
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A woman who has travelled a lot, learnt a lot and discovered herself a lot on these travels is what one can describe her as, I guess. I met her through a friend's friend and was delighted to find that she was an Indophile. I found her process of discovering India, my motherland, very interesting.
Carla tells me that one of her friends who is a school teacher once asked her new class what they admired in others? The teacher friend then told the students that she admires this friend of her own called Carla who symbolizes courage to her. Someone doing all the things she wouldn't dare do. Get on a plane and travel alone to places to discover the world.
That's exactly the energy I got when I spoke to Carla. A soft and smiling face that thrives on talks about spirituality and eyes that show me how open minded she is. Carla says that she knows women her age who invest in property and making a life with a man and she chooses to invest in herself to grow as a person and find her way in this world.
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Her love for the East began when she started taking meditation classes in Bruges, Belgium. This practice got her to be part of a group who planned to travel to Ladakh in 2023. The trip would be organised in a way where the participants had to hike in altitude through trails for 6 days and camp every night. The hiking was something Carla wasn't good at, but her meditation practice was at its peak. The energy of the mountains, the group that she was with and the new people she met helped her get through each day of hiking. She started seeing signs when she fatigued, like a butterfly stopping next to her when she sat down for a rest. Those days of hiking and those evenings of camping with people who meditated in a group when the sun was setting in the Himalayas and the culmination of the trip at the monastery represent for Carla a coming-home sort of feeling. She felt herself coming into her power as a grown woman both physically and mentally. She found India eye opening. She realised that there was so much more to discover in India. The love of India grew there.
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She asked others who were interested to travel with her to Manali as she met some locals who spoke about that area. On that trip to Manali she saw local traditional women with nose-rings on both nostrils and was majorly inspired to do the same. She then got her two nose-piercings on her return to Belgium.
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| Traditional women in Manali |
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| Nose piercing session back home |
Those travels made Carla realise that she needed a change in her life. She decided to apply for a 1-year tourist visa and travel India but in the process of doing so, one of her friends told her of an opportunity to teach Dutch in Cochin. This job involved preparing qualified nurses to travel to Belgium with enough Dutch to allow them to study for one year in a Dutch speaking university with internships at the local Dutch speaking hospitals. Belgium has a lack of qualified medical staff and the non-profit organization Chinta v.z.w, Aurora project (https://chinta.be/nl) has been getting nurses to come work from India and elsewhere.
Since her mother and sister are both nurses, Carla felt this was an opportunity custom-made for her. She knew she would enjoy teaching the women who would be future nurses in Belgium while actually living in India and discovering it closer than before. She would be in the South of India and she had no experience of the culture there. The people she met were heartwarming; they appreciated her job as it was the 5th year of the training program in the region. The stay and working area were all very close to the Lourdes hospital which was used as the base for the trainings. The hospital provides the hostel where classes take place and students stay during the Dutch classes. The school in Gent, Belgium also does one month internship there with nursing students from Belgium. They are partners of Chinta v.z.w and organize the stay for the visiting language teachers. These nurses are selected by ODPEC (Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Council) from hospitals all over India, if they get through all the selection processes.
While in her previous travel she felt like a tourist, this time she was enjoying the feeling of being as local as possible. The women she taught were very friendly and very hard working. They practically had no time as they learnt Dutch for 6 days a week and had to keep at it for 6 months. Carla and her colleagues contacted people in Belgium who have a certain level of Dutch to help the students practice on some Saturdays and I'm happy to say that I participated in the practice sessions myself. It was fun for me to see these women from Kerala, the land of my parents talking to me in the land where I currently live. Carla is happy to confirm that the women are now in Belgium and are have started the academic year since they have a good level of the language to follow classes organized by ZOWE Brugge, which is a specialized nursing school offering training to become a certified graduate nurse. They are also employed during the training, some in hospitals, some at retirement homes.
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| sitting cross-legged on the floor for Sadhya |
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| Pookalam for Onam |
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| With her students |
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| Kathakali dancers |
Carla remembers her six months in Kerala with a warm heart. She visited a local temple festival where the energy was great. She was witness to a celebration for Lord Vishnu and she also participated in Onam. She really celebrated making the Pookalam (decoration with flowers) and saw the enthusiasm of the local home owners to win the competition for the best Pookalam. She partook of the traditional feast or Sadhya and dressed in a traditional Kerala saree and danced with her students. She played games with the women and they all felt that they were young girls again. She commends the hospitality with which she was treated everywhere as she met some extended families of her students when she travelled in local areas. They all insisted she visit their home and partake in a meal with the family.
In the land of Ayurveda, she knew that her attachment to India was only getting stronger. When the students arrived at Brussels airport in a freezing cold and dark climate in January, Carla did her best to welcome them with her warm smile at the airport. She felt that the two cultures now are interwoven like in the making of a beautiful blanket. Keep reading the blog to know more about Carla and her adventures which I hope to feature here.
You can follow Carla on Instagram on this handle https://www.instagram.com/carla_ide/
Below are some small fun videos that Carla shared with me.
#femaletraveller #indiatravels #traveltoindia #indiannurses #lifeinbelgium #belgianinindia #carlaide
#chintavzw
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