ELSA - A BEAUTIFUL GIRL FROM FINLAND – HELSINKI By Jyotsna Shah and Jitendra Shah | Ahmedabad Chapter “Elsa, a girl aged 18 years from Helsinki – a Capital of Finland was with us for a shorter period of around two months i.e. August 2019 and September 2019.
Hosting Stories
To speak about Elsa, we all family members agree that she was a very nice girl who easily reached anyone's heart. She was regular in a ending school. She was neat and clean in her daily affairs. She was good at dressings.
We also learnt from her one word and that is: OK. She never ever complained about anything while she was with us. Whenever we used to ask for anything, maybe food, breakfast, household work etc. she gladly used to say OK. This is her best quality. During her period of stay with us, her Naming Ceremony (Finland culture) was falling on 15.10.2019 and we celebrated that day at our house by calling all Host students from USA, France, Japan etc. who were in Ahmedabad. It was an excellent experience for us too. She was with us during Navratri Fes val too and my younger daughter used to take her for GARBA at different venues. She had the privilege to a end one marriage of my younger daughter's friend. She observed all Indian marriage rituals quite minutely and
Community Service Helping The Needy By Jalpa Shah, Volunteer, Anand Chapter “I am glad to share that we have done two community services this last month. On the 2nd of September, we donated 35 kg of clothes to the poor and needy people. This idea was ini ated to help the people who are unable to afford to get clothes in this pandemic. This community service was conducted to fill up some bright colour to their lives. Mr. Vinod Shah from USA, my uncle, donated 140 pairs of clothes including pent, shirt, kur s, dress, coat, chaniyacholi, sherwani, saree, jewelry etc. Our AFS Anand Chapter's volunteers came together with full enthusiasm and donated clothes to support the cause.
thoroughly enjoyed the Indian—Gujara marriage. We took her to our family houses in Ahmedabad / Baroda for par es and to make her know our Indian and specifically Gujara culture of joint family in detail. Important observa on of her is worth men oning regarding all visits by her with us as she was nicely accepted in my family and friends. She enjoyed many family get-togethers. While she was with us and understood our Gujara culture of joint family systems very well while and she too organized her family get- together a er reaching back to Finland. In the same way, we, too, learnt the magical word “OK” from her in daily family communica on to smoothen the family conflicts /environment. We shall always love to welcome her again.... and again.”
ci zens in old age homes. Pandemic being a blessing in disguise, allowed us to try and cook new recipes and dishes. Senior ci zens at old age homes are not fortunate to cook new dishes most of the me, so the Anand Chapter decided to bring new flavors to the senior ci zens. It was a fun meal for them. As the senior ci zens are considered vulnerable, not all the volunteers are allowed to meet therefore, I and Dip Patel visited them. We observed, prac ced, and maintained social distancing at all mes while comple ng this community service.”
Because of the pandemic, it was challenging for us to meet and donate the clothes, but it's rightly said that when there is a will there's a way. Mr. Prashant Dandekar and Mrs. Ankita Dandekar who live in Mumbai and have been involved in conduc ng the same kind of community service in a pandemic situa on, came together to help in the distribu on in Mumbai a er we shipped all the collected clothes to them. On the 24th of September, we did another community service where we distributed sandwiches, biscuits, and ice cream to senior
Page 11 | October 2020 | Newsle er | AFS India
