A quartet of Border students have recently returned from the trip of a lifetime.
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Baranduda's Madison Murdoch, Holbrook's Bailey Martin, Culcairn's Braedon Pantling and Rutherglen's Tahlia Simpson, who are all part of the Richmond Institute of Sports Leadership, spent almost two weeks in India teaching the basics of Australian rules football.
The trip culminated in the Border youth helping run the All India Football Carnival in Jaipur, which had 350 Indian participants, some of which travelled more than 40 hours via train to compete.
Visits to Delhi, Ludianna, Agra and the Taj Mahal were among the highlights as the group put into practice all their knowledge learned during the inaugural year of the Tigers' Albury-Wodonga program.
One thing that shone through was the willingness of the Indian people to learn and keep persisting, despite the lack of knowledge of the sport.
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"The first day for me was a bit different and things didn't really go to plan as we'd hoped," Martin said.
"There was a seizure, problems with the footy guernseys and people kicking up a fuss about what team they were on.
"The teachers that came with us made up a plan to run a training session in the morning to split them between skilled and unskilled and evenly mixed them.
"There would be a 16-year-old in the seniors and a 21-year-old in the juniors, I don't know how that happened.
"It was good to see people that have never played before and didn't really know what to do, while others that have represented India helped them and included them in the games.
"By the end of it, I could see there was a big improvement, especially between day one and day two."
Pantling and Simpson spent the trip working with Primitive Sports and performed skills testing on Indian students to help set up tailored training programs for each of them.
"They were loving it and even though they couldn't do the skills, they kept going and never gave up. It was really good to see their determination," Simpson said.
"I did lunges, so you'd show them what a proper lunge looked like and they would have to do three lunges on their left and three on the right and we'd have to decide if it was competent.
"Braedon did a knee to wall which tested flexibility of the kids' ankles.
"It was about testing the flexibility, stability, range of motion and stuff like that.
"Obviously their sporting and PE isn't as good as it is here, so that was our main focus.
"Once we'd finished all that, we'd get the footys out and teach the kids all about footy.
"We were working with teachers on different fitness activities because they had pretty outdated methods about how to test their fitness."
Pantling said the group carried somewhat of a celebrity status while walking the streets.
"There was a lot of people staring, everyone wanted to talk to you and wanted photos with you, so I kind of felt like a celebrity over there," he laughed.
"My favourite part was going to a new school and seeing the excitement on their faces.
"Everyone would stare at you and kind of be laughing and pointing, but I found that really cool.
"Once we started teaching them, they had no idea what they were doing, but they still gave it a go. That was really cool to see and really rewarding."
The four agreed the experience was quite an eye-opener.
"Bailey (Martin) and I were in the north of India and on our first few days we did a bit of touring around what they call 'the slums'," Murdoch said.
"Mainly the government look after them and provide toilet facilities, showers and electricity for them.
"We went through a three storey house that someone lived in and it was all concrete walls and concrete floors and that was the structure of their house.
"One thing I still remember is in this little community in Old Delhi, about 60 per cent of people had to use public toilets and showers provided by the government.
"That was quite a shock more than anything.
"We did lots of clinics in government schools and the kids were really excited to see us and get involved.
"Even though they live like that (in poverty), it didn't seem to bother them and they were super excited to be trying the sport."
After a tough start to the trip with illness, Simpson found her feet and lapped up the opportunity.
"When I first got there it was a massive culture shock," she said.
"I didn't really know what to expect and I got there and there were so many people.
"Even the air is different over there and it took me a while to get used to that.
"At the schools, all the girls had to be wearing long pants even though it was about 35 degrees.
"I was dying over there (laughs).
"We went to this school for beggars and one guy that was giving us a tour was going over to Australia to become a chef.
"He said once he was successful and had earned enough money, he would come back and put all his money into the school.
"It was really good to see how loyal they are to their education."
Pantling said it made him realise how much he takes for granted back home.
"You couldn't get cold drinking water over there, it was all warm water," he said.
"All in all, it was an amazing experience. The food was crazy good, the people, how condensed it was.
"The roads were chaotic, it's like there were no road rules over there. You beep you're horn and that's where you are.
"I saw a few crashes which was pretty crazy."
Travelling on trains during the trip also turned a few heads.
"The overnight train was interesting. Tiny, little beds and it was definitely something else," Martin added.
"The sightseeing was good. Our first day in Old Delhi, once we did a walk around, we had to do an 'amazing race' and find our own way around.
"We had to get on the metro trains and get tuk-tuks around and that was ridiculous.
"One of the tuk-tuks was driving along and hit a bike and looked at it and kept going."
The students will take the experience with them into their chosen careers.
Both Simpson and Pantling have applied for positions in Canada, while Murdoch wants to move into event management.
The final open day for next year's Richmond Institute enrolments is November 13.
Visit http://www.richmondinstitute.com.au/albury-wodonga/ to register for the open day.