Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Have arrived in India. (5th april) India is hectic, noisy, colourful and exciting, arriving in Delhi at 2 am I was very glad to be collected by the rep and taken to the hotel. Driving is a whole new experience, making Bangkok look quite tame!
Day one was little more than recovering from the journey and visiting a local market.There are crowds of people everywhere, all trying to sell you a bargain or ask for money for food. Many are truly suffering terrible poverty and some, extreme disability.
Day two saw the start of our programe, four of us are loaded onto a bus at Delhi station and six hours later arrive in Agra. We will see Taj Mahal early tomorrow. It is a magnificent sight, a real statement of power. We were told that 22,000 Persians spent 22 years building it using the finest materials from around the world.
After breakfast we were loaded onto a bus bound for Jaipur. Another six hour journey., we arrive at the IDEX head office , are briefed about the project, then taken to our host families. I stayed with the Bansals who have two children, they were very welcoming and keen to discus differences in our cultures.
During our stay in Jaipur we had some workshops on language, culture and the project that we will work on. We were also able to visit the amber fort. This is a massive structure nestled in wild and rugged hillside, the security wall is 14km.
Our next journey is to Himachal Pradesh, via Dehi. We have a six hour bus journey (may be all are 6 hrs) then an overnight train journey followed by a 4hr truck ride into the mountains. It was worth it, we arrived to find our "camp" is surrounded by snowcapped mountains, forests, tea plantations and fertile valleys.
Life has had some routine for this three week stay. Each day yoga, breakfast, work, lunch, workshop, homework club, walk then dinner. Work is at a special needs unit, these kids are truly special and it will be hard to leave them. I hope that we have made their days a little more enjoyable but wonder what the future holds for them.
Free time at week ends has allowed some visits. We went to Amritsar to see the Pakistan border ceremony and to visit the golden temple, Sri Harmander Sahib. The flag ceremony at Whaka is a very colourful pantomime. There are some interesting costumes on both sides of the border, much shouting, dancing, singing and marching. Shouting by guards and the crowds is competitive, we could hear the Pakistanis doing the same sort of thing. It seemed an odd tradition but crowds of people had a great time and maybe it can reduce tensions between these peoples a little.
- comments