KERELA with 11 and 13 yo?

[noonaragain]

Hi. i'm considering a working holiday in Kerela with my dh and 11 and 13 yo dds over new year. we would travel for a few days then volunteer for a week in a school.

its been a life long passion of mine to visit India, and i think it would be incredible for the whole family in terms of our wider education/ broadening horizons. and of course we wish to contribute something to the community, albeit for a short time.

if you've visited Kerelea, please come and talk to me about health risks, immunisations , road safety, crime and any other issues that might help me get a realistic picture of whether i am brave enough to do this. (btw my 13 is adult size, but my 11 yo is like a typical 9 yo and doesn't have much meat on hers sickness would deplete her easily)

i am very broad minded but a little risk averse by nature (health and road safety issues being my main worries with travel somewhere like this) so any advice would be appreciated.

I've been to India many times and Kerala three times. Are you going to do the house boat trips? These are super super relaxing and amazing. I read a lot of books! Not sure how much the typical teenager would enjoy though.

I've never been ill once in India. Food wise it literally is curry at every meal which by the end of each trip I'm done with.

Mosquitos are rampant in Kerala, no malaria. But take a lot of repellant as I've been badly savaged on occasion and it makes me miserable. I've never had any jabs.

Roads and driving are awful. But then i live in the Middle East so didn't bat that much of an eyelid!

please research voluntourism VERY carefully. Look on the Lonely Planet thorntree gap year forum for an informative thread - won't link for some reason.

may make more sense to go on holiday, you'll see and learn a lot. Then give cash to a suitable aid agency.

you'll need full sets of jabs and 24/7 DEET against dengue.

We went to Kerala a few years ago (7). I don't remember needing vaccines, didn't take malaria treatment as not advised to for that area. If your other vaccines are up to date you probably won't need any.
Curry at every meal yes which I found a bit wearing. Depends where you stay of course.
I think your kids sound like a good age to go there. We'd never been anywhere like that before and it was an amazing experience. Are you staying in one place or travelling around? We visited lots of places - Cochin, Allapey (house boats), Trivandrum, Munnar - tea land but cold and wet compared to everywhere else! My dd is only 5 but would love to take her there when she is older.
Roads are very chaotic. We paid for a driver rather than driving ourselves, but we did a lot of travelling 2-3 hours between destinations.
I got ill (vomiting) for a couple of days but dh was fine. Be careful of the water, make sure bottles given to you are sealed not filled from the tap which I suspect is what happened to me..
We weren't affected by crime but common sense is essential. Being pale white skinned we stuck out a mile too so had a lot of attention in some areas, esp the beach! The phrase "ooh white legs" said by a local has stayed with me! A funny memory of course. Do wear tshirt or something over a swim suit, the locals are pretty covered up which again we didn't realise hence more attention (staring really) than I liked!
Do your research but I would suggest it would be an amazing experience for you all. We are so pleased we went there.