What is so special about the DNS study trip to Asia

DNS started as the traveling school for Danish teachers and other people seeking an alternative education in 70’s when people were in love with the earth, adored new crazy ideas and tried to change our world. That was the start of education, which nowadays is a 4 year international studies program for people who still believe in the old ideals and with new quality try to take care of our earth and people who struggle the most to live on it.

The idea with slight changes stayed through the years, the same as the way to learn – explore the world, see it, touch it, feel it, learn from it. The world is our classroom and it is big enough and changing constantly for each and every DNS’er to learn his part. We still travel all over the world and the first, the most touching and impressive trip is the Asia trip.

The first and the only time in DNS and most likely in your life, you are travelling with your teammates: 10, 20 or 30 people, who  same as you are exited and ready to see, to learn and to do as much as possible in these 4 months. You have all the time to learn – talk with the people, work with them, live with them, solve their problems, let them solve yours… And you do that together. That is the time in DNS when you enjoy your colleagues the most, sometimes 24/7 - you get closer, you laugh and  complain together, fight the problems as well  each other and in the end you become friends!

The travel has many aspects but I think I can name the following ones as the most important:

Social life

All the 4 years in DNS you are with your team in common life, work, projects, therefore, you need to possess cooperation and communication skills, ability to predict and to know each other.

Travel is the first step to get it all. You already have some experience from the saving-up period and you might think that you know each other, but working here in Denmark is totally different from the experience in India or China. You need to trust your teammates 100% there; otherwise, you might be in danger-not even mentioning your strange feelings and frustration, when you experience poverty of the people, see hunger of children, desperation and lassitude of their parents.

You get used to see your teammates happy and sad, exhausted and full of energy, and you feel the same way sometimes. So you learn to understand and to help each other, otherwise, Asia would look so big and loneliness would drag you to the worst home sickness. And there is no time to be home sick; you are in India (Vietnam, Thailand   and China)!

Studying is also not so easy because there is no classroom, your computer, sometimes not even a teacher until the next week… Also, a study object is negotiable, the same as its destination, type of the project, etc.  But if you talk, argue and solve the conflicts these 4 months become the time of your life.

Learning from the world

Once you are in Asia, the time to live the greatest experience is now– you are here to learn as much as possible, to open your eyes for new dimensions and to see different way of living, to ask for different opinions from as many people as possible, to see for your own eyes and to make your own strong and experiences based opinion.

For the future teachers it is important to see another part of the world, another way of school,  lack of  schools, other kind of reality, which you will never understand while reading a book or watching TV.

One day spent with family from a poor village in Rajasthan, gives view of their world: you see them making food for breakfast, you work in fields with them and go to sleep with their children on the same mattress on the floor. That is the experience you can never get if you only stay at home.

Learning about yourself

Your personal development is a matter you struggle most about. Things you see and understand are sometimes difficult to handle. How to react to a hungry family on a street, when you are on your way to lunch? How to act when a woman dies in your eyes and her small child screams next to her. And police doesn’t want to react, because she is just a beggar…

All that makes you very sad frustrated and angry, but you talk, discuss and  sometimes never come to a conclusion, but it changes you, your attitudes, your understanding and  it makes you appreciate what you have and calls a wish in you to change what you saw.

These experiences go fast as a storm and only when you come back you realize how much the travel has given you: your personality grows richer; you get much more mature individually and team wise. You are able to handle difficult situation, to solve conflicts and tell the world what you have experienced.

You evaluate your experiences and then get ready for the next peculiar period in DNS.