Saturday was a stressful day at work as it was panic stations the day
before the sports day! I of course got my bossy hat on and everything
was ready on time but as you can imagine I always have to check if
people are working to English time or Indian!!! In India 10 could mean
10:15, 10:30 or even 10:45!!! So I booked an auto van for 1pm and asked
for it to be in English time, well that was a big mistake, it finally
arrived at 1:40, we loaded it up to take the stuff to the sports ground
where the event was taking place so that took us till 2:00pm the drivers
then went for lunch as they did a whole 20mins work so it finally left
at 3:00pm!!! That's Indian time.
Divya and I then decided we needed some retail therapy and went to the
forum which is a huge mall and I stocked up on pick and mix!!!
We then were invited to Hema's house for tea; Hema is the GapGuru rep in
Bangalore.
So I, Lizzie, Divya, Tom, Clive and Nathan turned up!!! There are 6 of
us in south India - if you saw the photos it was us holding the very
large drinks!!! We then had a race home in the autos; I, Tom and Nathan
in one auto (we won of course) then Divya, Lizzie and Clive in the
other.
Sunday was a very very very very long day. We picked the children up at
7am from their various homes etc. where they normally are, most of
these children live on the streets so have very little clothing and most
have no shoes! We then gave them breakfast and played a variety of non
competitive games with them to encourage them to work as a team and
every child got a goody bag at the end of the day (those are the ones I
spent most of my week organising!). I decided to try my hand at Indian
dancing much to the amusement of the children, and all I heard was
auntie like this, auntie not like that etc... For those who don't know
the children call all elders either auntie or uncle. I was interviewed
by NDTV which is India's nation wide news channel about the work I am
doing and how I helped organise the day etc... It was on TV this
morning! I am now officially famous. The children then called me on
stage with the others who helped organise the day and sang a song in
thanks, it was very emotional!
Today was a really good day, we had orgainsed for the older children
of Ananya (one of the six places I work with) to watch a movie, it was
called "Life is Beautiful" it was set in Italy during the war and it was
about the discrimination of Jews. I know that sounds very heavy but it
was to show them that while they are looked down on because they live on
the streets and in slums, not all people are like that and they have to
think positive in themselves and channel their anger into other things.
It was a very emotional day and they got so much out of it!!! And so
did I!