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Saturday April 11th, the day Simon went south to Bangalore and Sheena went north to Jaipur. I knew it was a bad start when our driver told us that we couldn't be dropped off together because our flights left from different terminals!
When I arrived in Jaipur it was evening and dark but for once the pre-arranged driver was waiting right outside for me so I had no problems getting to my hotel.
The plan was that I went to Jaipur for a week whilst Simon was in Bangalore so that I could meet some voluntary work contacts, and hopefully get us a project for a couple of weeks before Simon flew back home.
The temperature in Jaipur was forty degrees, far hotter than I imagined, the kind of temperature where you don't want to wear any clothes, which is not something you can do in India!
On my first day I decided to walk to the nearby tourist attractions which would take me around some palaces and bazaars. Without Simon there to read the map for me I strayed off the recommended path and after being harassed by numerous street sellers and other random men I decided it was time to go home. I had been to Jaipur about 14 years ago, but had only a few memories whereas Simon had been just a few years ago and said that he really liked it - I didn't.
The next day I went to the Mother Teresa home for the dying and destitute to see if I could volunteer there. They have a men's and a women's section and I was told by the sister that I could work in the women's section for 2 weeks. I was taken on a tour of the women's section where there were women sitting on the floor with their backs against the wall staring into space or mumbling. There were 2 bedrooms with about 20 beds in each room. I was introduced to some of the women in one of the bedrooms, many were deaf and dumb and I couldn't understand what they were saying to me. Some of them just wanted to hold my hand, and one Gujurati lady was so excited to meet me that she told me her life story within 1 minute. However as well as the active ladies there were also the ones that were lying on their beds, stick thin with hacking coughs. I was told that I would be helping with cooking and washing of clothes as well as just being with the ladies…..but I couldn't do it., I wasn't strong enough.
In the afternoon I went to another project called i-india that have numerous orphanges in Jaipur. If Simon and I were to volunteer together then we would only be able to work in the boys home, and we would be teaching English so I went to visit them. However what I found was boys aged about 12 -16, who had just broken up for the summer holidays and were more interested in playing caram than learning English - and who could blame them?
I was utterly exhausted by the end of the day, partly due to trapesing around the streets of Jaipur for 5 hours in the heat, partly by what I'd seen and most importantly by the feeling that I didn't really want to volunteer at either of the places that I thought I wanted to….so what was I going to do now?
Spend the next few days in my bed - attached to the bathroom due to a dodgy tum, then a quick detour back to Mumbai to stay with Simon and his friend and participate in the Spiritual Oneness Breakthrough Programme for 3 days!!
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