Hello from Mumbai day 6!
Today we have been to Govandi...Govandi was also on the TV show that channel four did- it was the dumping ground where people ratch through the rubbish to find things that they can sell on or make things out of. The morning was pretty rough at first, there were flies absoutely everywhere and it was disgusting!! There are slums on the opposite side of the road to the dumping ground and they are the worst we have seen so far. The smells were really bad and many people didnt seem to make any effort to stay clean. This may have been made worse by the fact that the monsoon was a bit crazy today- it has rained constantly!! We went into the Pratham office and met some of the people working there..again there were other activities going on there, mostly adults learning new skills! Claire used a proper Indian toilet (hole in the ground) again today (she used one yesterday too)! Lisa wussed out both times!! Then we went to a couple of the schools that are dotted around Govandi Slums. The first was the drop in centre where parents can voluntarily drop their children off...they are taught by two women in a tiny little room- the main purpose there is to bring children up to the educational standard they should be at for their age so that they can go to the main school. The drop in centre was a tiny room with a metal shutter that pulled down for the door..it was absolutely full of flies- everywhere, crawling on the children, on the floor, on us....it was awful! They dont seem to notice the flies though. The kids were reading and playing games like ludo on the oldest looking boards we'd ever seen! After that we went to a school which has worked to free children from child labour- it was run by a different organisation. The school was up a really tall ladder (a bit like the treehouse type building from the other day!) as you can imagine Lisa wasnt too happy climbing up so high- so scared of heights!!! The school was really good, and they were teaching them all kinds of indian languages as well as english! They were all drawing posters of the Indian flag as independence day is in August. The last school we went to was the big elementary school but we didnt get to see much of it as the morning classes had finished. what we did see looked like the school had been flooded out! there was water everywhere! The kids were really excited to see us, which was a bit of a contrast to the rest of Govandi as they all seemed quite wary of us! We think it might be because of the dumping ground- maybe they were afraid of people judging them for collecting rubbish off it.
In the afternoon we went to another adult education centre which specialised in beauty- they did hair, make up and henna! There were some lovely girls/women there and they did some henna tattoos on us and Natski! They were all so talented but apparently there isnt much appreciation for it as it isnt considered a valuable skill. We're going to try and visit them again before we come home, and hopefully get our hair and makeup done next time! We tried to give them some money for our gorgeous henna, but they wouldnt take anything- they said they did it out of the love of their hearts as we were their guests! They were so lovely! Next time we go we're gonna try and take them some of our hair accessories- apparently they love kirby grips!! When we were leaving it was absolutely pouring down- the streets in the slums had literally turned to rivers (cockermouth main street stylee but not as deep!!) we had to wade out of the slums in it (trying to block out thoughts of what might be in the water and how dirty it was!!!!) the girls from the adult ed place helped us to find rickshaws to get back to the train station which was really nice of them considering they got soaked in the process! One of them (who is wearing the bright pink outfit in the pictures) was really bubbly and constantly cracking jokes (that we didnt understand!) and when we went to get a rickshaw she had to put on another outfit over the top. It turned out she was Sihk so she had to change into the full black outfit that covers everything except the eyes! It was really bizzare and completely changed how we view the women wearing those outfits- she was so friendly- it just shows that you cant judge people by what they wear- even thought the outfits look intimidating, to them its just something they have to do in public! Claire hasnt had much luck with Rickshaws today- our one this morning broke down and he had to push it along to get it to start!! Then the one back to the train station that her and Natski were in broke down completely so she had to jump into Lisa and Ruchitas- a bit of a squeeze with four of us and completely illegal!!! By the time we got back to our hotel we were soaked and filthy! So tonight we're having Macaroni Cheese in bed curtesy of room service while watching gossip girl on the one american channel we've found! (Thats after we had very long hot showers!!) Looking forward to our day of shopping tomorrow!
Love Lisa and Claire xxxx
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