hey guys!
Well, we have arrived in Mumbai! We arrived yesterday at stupid o'clock in the morning after a very long flight! we then had to get a taxi to our hotel which was an experience in itself! as we were driving through the streets we got to see some of the sights of mumbai- first impressions were jaw dropping and not in a good way! roads are like building sites but the buildings are ruins!we slept all morning and then met with Christine who works with Pratham! she told us what we would be doing for the rest of the day and on Tuesday, and she told us about the work Pratham does! we then headed out to the girls residential shelter with Rupert (Ruchrita) whos name we couldnt remember for most of the day so claire nicknamed her rupert! we got a rickshaw out to the shelter which was a bit of an experience! its a 3 wheeled bike/car with a roof over it! they drive wherever the hell they want on the road and the road can turn from perfectly fine to pot holed building site! the rickshaws cost next to nothing to get around (we havnt paid more than 30 rupees which is about 30p!!! it was lovely to meet some more of the staff and to be introduced to some of the girls...until a cockroach ran over lisa's foot!! The girls all introduced themselves in english but that was about all they could manage so they just smiled a lot at us after that!! Then we headed back to the hotel for a siesta and dinner! Obviously after travelling all the way to India claires first meal of choice was of course chinese chicken chow mein!!! there's no chance she will be braving any curries after seeing lisa's face when eating a 'mild' tikka masala! Today we had to bravely venture to the other side of mumbai- we are staying in Panvel in New Mumbai, which is the other side of the sea inlet! Today we went all the way down to the bottom of Mumbai to Chhatrrapati Shivaji Terminus! This involved us travelling in a rickshaw, then train and then taxi! as u can imagine it must have been quite a sight seeing us squished on a train! we managed not to get lost, however we also managed to go into the class mixed sex carriage where we were squashed in amongst what felt like thousands of indian men! on our return journey we realised that there was a womens only carriage...we'll definitely be using that from now on!!! We dont think we'll ever get used to the stares we are getting- people just openly stare at you which is very unnerving! the kids absolutely love us, we get so many big smiles from them and they always give us a wave! Although we hated every minute of the train ride there, it was certainly an experience we would not have wanted to miss!When we were in mumbai we went to the main office of pratham and met with christine again! she gave us more of an idea of the different projects pratham run and are involved with and she gave us some background on where pratham came from and what has happened in the past! we found out what we will be doing in the next few days! neither of us felt particularly well after our train experience (We cannot describe the heat/smells/lack of space!) and claire was sick...day two....this is not a good start!! we were excited to learn what we will be doing this week though! Tomorrow we have a day off, so hopefully we will be able to explore the area we are staying in a bit! Then Thursday we are going to Daru Khana to visit the childs rights desk! Friday we are going to Dharavi- most of you will have seen it on the recent programmes on indian slums...! there we are visiting the disability programmes and the platform programmes (where children are rescued from working on train platforms)! Saturday we are going to Govandi to see some more projects! Ruchrita will be looking after us over the next week which is good as we've found that people dont generally speak that much english. On our return train journey we sat in the womens only carriage! this was a much nicer experience, and it was fascinating seeing all the various saris and fashions! whole families jumped onto the carriage to sell various trinkets/jewellery/food/combs/batteries....you name it you could buy it! It was interesting seeing the children selling things, as this is where a lot of the children are rescued from by pratham! now we are chilling in our room, recovering from what has been a chaotic but fascinating day!

missing you all, lots of love,
lisa and claire xxx