Our names are Ryan and Yanica and here is a small-ish intro about us and our current lives. We come from a sunny island called Malta. We have been friends for 8 years and a couple for 6. Together we graduated to become software developers and have been working in the field for the last 5 - 6 years. In 2014 we started dreaming about travelling; It all started as a discussion over a few drinks which slowly became a goal in our lives. We worked hard, tweaked our saving skills and managed to save up enough to get us going. During our saving every penny period, two good friends back home got us into volunteering for an organisation called Salesian Pastoral Youth Service (SPYS). We decided we wanted to spend some of our travel time volunteering on a project and SPYS helped make that a reality. 2017 was our year to travel. We'd be honest, there were many times where we questioned whether we should use most of our life savings towards travelling or whether we should put it down as a deposit for a house…..

Fast forwarding the story to today, it's been 5 months since we left Malta and we are super glad to have chosen the option to quit our jobs, volunteer and backpack around Asia. Our journey started by going straight to India. Both of us have never set foot outside of Europe and saying that we were overwhelmed doesn't even scratch the surface of how we felt when we stepped out of Thiruvananthapuram airport in Kerala. Even though many advised that maybe we should start our journey somewhere easier, we wanted to go on the Volunteering project first whilst our minds were still focused and SPYS preparation sessions were still fresh.

We spent two months volunteering at Don Bosco Veedu in Kerala, a southern state in India and then spend another two months travelling our way up north. After that we headed to Thailand for just two weeks and have been nearly a month in Cambodia.

It’s a shame that we recently got to know about Steemit, it would have been great to blog our India experience here as the concept of this platform along with the community seems to have a more positive vibe than that found on other social media networks. A big thanks goes to @theislander and @rooddzy for introducing us to Steemit. Also, it would be out of scope to share all that has happened so far in an #introduceyourself post. However here are some of our most memorable moments in India.

Volunteering at Don Bosco Veedu.

On the project we spent most of our time with the children and youths living at the shelter home and we loved it. It was such a great feeling to share knowledge; we taught them English and in the process learnt a little bit of Malayalam. We played all sorts of games and created some of the best crafts we ever did in our lives. We are not teachers by profession and it was hard to control situations we are not used too however engaging with children even though there was a huge language barrier was without a doubt one of our success stories.

Awesome children and youth we lived with. The topic for that day was Fun with Shapes. Yeahhh!



And here we present to you the Don Bosco Veedu airforce. The children made these using popsicle sticks, scissors, glue and plaint. Their enthusiasm and positive energy transformed a simple idea into something greater showing that children are amazing and capable of achieving more than most of us might think.



After class photo time 😁



We visited Karimadom Slum residing in Trivandrum. On that day we learnt the role Don Bosco Veedu played in uplifting the slums and the ongoing services they provide to the people of Karimadom. We then met with the lovely children who welcomed us with songs. We spent the evening playing games, dancing, and just having a good laugh.



During our two months stay, we also managed to put our careers to good use by creating a website for the organisation. The following picture is just us working on the website whilst showing some moments of despair a software developer feels at times. If you are interested to learn more about Don Bosco Veedu feel free to check out their new website on https://dbveedu.org



One of the many good laughs we shared



The Don Bosco Veedu team. The people who made us feel right at home. This photo was taken on Independence day were we celebrated India’s independence from the British Rule on 15th of August 1947.

Making our way up North

Don't worry, be Hampi! For those of you who remember the Flinststones, we felt like we found Bedrock City



Parvati Valley residing in the gorgeous Himalayas... It was indeed tough to move on from this place



Rishikesh, a city where yoga is a highlight and where the tourquise Ganga River begins



Varanasi, the oldest city in the world and so much more....



Kolkata, the city of mouth watering street food and many historical sights

After getting a taste of what India has to offer, we really believe that the country is one big masala where everything is possible. We loved it and hated it and even though it has been only a month and a half travelling through south east Asia, we feel we might return to India at some point on this trip. It is a country that gave us a lot of mixed emotions, good food, and so far, the most authentic experiences.

We look forward to continue sharing our Asian adventure with you and hope you enjoyed reading our introductory post. You can check out our Facebook and Instagram links found below should you wish to read more about our previous moments in Asia.

Peace out Steemians

Our Links:

Steemit: https://steemit.com/@ryanica
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanicaasia
Facebook: https://facebook.com/ryanicaasia