Day 4
Shopping again, but this time part of our activities. We were taken to Laxmi road in a convoy of rickshaws ready to buy material for saris and punjabi suits. As usual the journey was hair raising as we raced each other along the roads, not always on the right side. Part way there we were confused whe our rickshaw pulled up behind another and the drivers swapped places, it soon became apparent that the other one had broken down, how to fix it??? we went with the Indian option of get on with things and were amused to see our driver pushing the other rickshaw with his foot! Once at the sari shop, people got excited by the amount of amazingly coloured material at what to us is such cheap prices. After looking at lots, I chose a yellow and pink punjabi suit. Next to bangle alley where the traders all shout above each other trying to lure you in. Once sat down, hundreds of differently coloured bangles are got out and tried on your arms. Sue negoiated very well buying loads for a friend but was shocked at the price of 500 rupees - the friend had underestimated a bit and only given her 4!!!! Next we had a challenge at Phule market. Each group were given 5 rupees and sent off with a hindi word to tryand buy as many of that vegetable as possible with the money. We endeavored to find 'marchi' and eventually a man selling chilli gave us some, we pleaded for more with the words 'challenge', 'more' and of course 'please'. Lunch out and about - Pizza hut in a modern shopping mall. It's a surreal experience going from the hot, dirty crowded street into an air conditioned, clean, modern mall, especially when we saw Marks and Spencers and the Body Shop. Sue and Janet decided they hadn't quite got enough material and we headed off down MG road to find more. While being measured for some trousers, the shop owner looked Sue up and down and announced "Frog, banana"..... we never did find out what that meant!
International evening was fun, with entertainment from Wales, England and Denmark. Our explanation of England was meet with lots of laughter apart from Darshna, who hought the Queen said "my husband must die" each time rather than"my husand and I" - it must have been the very good posh accent Elaine developed for it.
Day 5
Morning spent learning more about WAGGGS - the worldwide movement that we all belong too along wit 10 million other girls and women. Then planning for the service projects - our main reason for coming out to India. We were going to working at 2 sites, the Ranganathan school for deaf children and Niwara old peoples homes. Each had their own challenges to overcome, especially communicating our activities to them.
Another challenge this afternoon - buying items for the projects from the neighbouring area of Wadi. We set out with lists and had to barter our way round, buying amongst other things washing powder, plasters (come individually), chickoos (a small brown fruit) and a flower garland. It was fun trying to get the best deals, but I think we were rather ripped off as the chickoo cost us 5 rupees at a stall but was only 0.49 at the supermarket! The supermarkets are very strange to walk around as the lack of money n the community is echoed by the are shelves in the shops - no one can afford it so they don't stock it. Another reminder of how lucky we are.
Day 6
Our patols turn for the flag this morning - we hoisted the flag up the flag pole and when it was unfurled, lotus flowers cascaded down amongst the group.
First day of the service project and we were all excited. I went to the School for deaf children, we started drawing plans for a mural in one of the classrooms and designig posters. The school has over 100 children living there for most of the year, they get two holidays for Diwali and again mid April to June. The dormitories were small with bunk beds crammed in, mixed ages. Each child had a small bag of belongings and they were no toys or personal items in the room, a hard thing for us to imagine but normal for them. The classrooms are tiny with up to 10 children in each. As with all of India, frequent power cuts in the afternoon disrupted essons, as the hearing aid equipment no longer worked and some of the classrooms didn't have windows so the children couldn't see. After lunch, we had time wih some of the older students to interact together. We had the task of making lanterns to send to Copenhagen to highlight childrens views of climate change. We managed to communicate what ws needed by lots of actions and miming. It was good to have the teacher there though to help out when needed. Then the fun bit, we played fruit salad which involves a lot of running, as you can imagine, the boys got very competive, but they all enjoyed being allowed to have fun. We also plyed a game that highlighted good hygiene and Liz was brilliant at doing all the actions. Then came the chaos when Cat produced a bag of ballooons. With wdie eyes, the children each made sure they had a go in the game before a balloon fight broke out. I'm not sure if any of them slept that night after the hyperactive time they had with us! It was great to see all of the children smiling and we were sad to have to leave at the end of the day.
A group of us decided that we would experience India some more by going to the cinem to watch a bollywood movie. After piling into 3 rickshaws we set off to the local multi-plex, again a strange sight set amongst the chaos outside. After reclining into our huge comfy seats, we soon realised at this wasn't Bollywood.... we were watching a film about terrorists. It was actually good and we were able to follow the plot line, with help from the 'Hind-lish' they spoke, random English phrases thrown in every so often. We even got an interval for the toilet part way through. At the end, the bad terrorist man gave his life to save the woman he loved so a romance really. The journey home was interesting with a rickshaw driver who had been smoking something odd, who thought it was funny to race the others then keep turning to face us while laughing hysterically. We made it home though, another experience of India. Slightly worried when we got back to find the rickshaw that left first hadn't actually got there, they went on a slight detour!
Day 7
Half the group piled onto a bus this morning armed with tools heading off to Niwara old peoples 'asylum' as they call it here. Bit apprehensive as I was expected it to be like the homes in England, but was pleasently surprised to find able bodied lovely people there. We spent the morning completing the gardens started by the previous group - 5 circles of brivks each depicting a picture including the world Guide badge, the Sangam symbol and an elephant. After being given about 30 plants to fill all five gardens and lots of debates over how to share them we finally got ready to plant... but we had decided to share the colours around, this wasn't what they wanted though so we had to redistribute the plants. After lunch we toured the facilities there and it was interesting to see the what to us seemed antiquated equipment they used. Then came the best part of the day, interacting with the residents with the games and activities we had planned. We decided the best way of communicating what we would be doing was to demonstrate and I was volunteered to show the skittes after knocking them all down in practise. So I stood in the middle of the circle, all eyes watching and yes you guessed I missed with all 3 balls, and yes again, the first lady to have a go did better than me and knocked 4 of the 6 down! and some of these little old ladies couldn't half throw that ball hard, we had to keep jumping out of the way which caused even more merriment. It was great watching them all take part and having fun, lots of smiles and laughter. Sadly the men didn't join in but they were watching the activity from outside. One of the ladies started a traditional dance for us then the kitchen staff who were meant to be preparing dinner joined in. They span each other at great speed before getting Emma to join in - the look on her face was so funny as she lost control. Really it was organised chaos but so much fun to do.
Dinner that evening was a slightly too hot curry so we were naughty and ended up in McDonalds eating chicken nuggets.
Day 8
Our second dayat Niwara. Had one too many people for the bus so I sat in the middle at the back where there wasn't actually a seat. We were so wedged in that even with all the bumps and pot holes, nobody moved the whole journey.Started planting a crop called aroo, which is like spinach, but we work to English time rather than Indian time and had finished the task in 30 minutes rather than the morning session allocated. Then we moved on to clearing another area ready for more crops - here's where my archaeology skills of pickaxes and mattocking came in handy. As it was getting very hot, we moved into the banana plantation which was also being cleared. Lots of vegetation was needing to be pulled out and we were slightly worried about what creatures might be hiding underneath. All we found though were a few snails.
Our afternoons activities with the residents had been moved today near to the dorms - possibly to stop us disrupting the kitchen staff from their work! It was great to see even more ladies come out to join in, they even went back in the dorms to bring friends out. The men again watched from afar, but I guess they don't get a look in with this lot! As well as skittles, we had bought musical instruments which they loved playing and we sang and danced our way through the afternoon.
Our event trip tonight was to the mall for ice cream. We took 2 rickshaws across town and back.
Day 9
Our final day on the service project and back to Ranganathan school. The classroom mural looked fantastic and it had been decided that the corridors should have paintings too. Flowers and transport were drawn, with my attempt at a rickshaw adorning the stairs. As we finished, the principal gave a speech to thank us and everyone was presented with a rose by the children. Again it was great to see that we had made a difference to the school and that by leaving the paintings and posters, that difference would be lasting. Christine and I decided to walk home rather than wait for the car to pick us up. Striding out confidently, we carried on until the first major juction which didn't look familiar... luckily we choose the right direction and arrived back at Sangam tired and hot.
Janet and I completed some more of the Sangam challenge in the afternoon, playing on the playground, hanging upside down and going under water - we used our initiative with this it as neither of us wanted to go in the pool, so we stood beneath the water towers, not getting wet at all!
This evening we had a demonstration of the traditional Kathak dancing by a teacher and 3 of her pupils. Each dance tells a story and it was good to watch.
Before bed, Pam described her idea for a rickshaw skit (short play) - as part of the Sangam challenge our whole dorm decided to join in. So we lauged our way trough Hyacinth Bucket in a rickshaw. Liz was brilliant as Hyacinth, getting it just right especially the dishelleved look with her skirt tucked into her pants! Ruth was equally as good as sister Rose, I got a bit of a shock when I turned round and found Ruth flashing at me in Rose style! I don't think I've laughed so much in ages and we couldn't wait to act the skit out at campfire. A brilliant dorm group.
Day 10
Flag ceremony was our patrols turn again and we decided to use the International freinds as a theme. Linda from Denmark explained how in Denmark the horseshoe would always face the sun and that we would salute the flag as it was hoisted while singing. They would also always wear uniform to the ceremony so our patrol did that.
A free morning and we finally made it to the 'cyber-net' internet cafe, then off to MG road again for our last shopping expedition. Despite having decided that I wouldn't spend any more money, we found a souvenier shop that had just the puppets and beads I had been looking for.
The afternoon was spent getting ready for our traditional Maharashtan dinner that evening. We learnt how to tie a sari and how to stop it falling off again. We also had mahendi done on our hands and made rangoli patterns to decorate the dining area. For the eal, everyone dressed in their saris or punjabi suits, sat on the floor and ate the meal off of banana leaf plates with the right hands. The room looked fantastic with all the bright colours being worn. We ate rices, dahl, ghee and gulab jaman - syrupy doughnut type sweets. A great end to the day.
Day 11
Got up early to finish the challenge by climbing the water tower. It was a lot higher than I thought when I stood at the bottom of the metal ladder, but I saw Barbara reaching the top and knew we could do it. Reaching out I climbed quite quickly and got to the half way point easily, I hadn't realised I wa only half way though until I looked up and the ladder stretched up before me. Oh well I was going to do this, so I kept climbing and shaky legged reached the top. I was joined there by Janet, Jane, Lorna, Emma and Gwyneth. From the top there was a wonderful view over Sangam and its grounds, we also watched the flag ceremony (mainly as we hadn't got down i time). Everyone did really well and as a team we helped each other overcome the nerves to climb back down again.
Our final day was spent 'leaving our mark' which was a session in which we did something for Sangam. I helped to repaint the gates at the entrance. We had lots of the local children watching and at one point a man came over to help - he was a portrait painter and gave us his card!
The afternoon was a final service project with the group splitting to provide swimming lessons at Sangam and cricket sessions for the SOS Childrens Village. I went along to the cricket and had great fun with the children there. We had a little difficulty at the beginning getting them to take turns and to stop fighting each other for the bats, but once we had them sat in a line, the system worked. A lot of the boys were good players and were pleased when Nigel gave them a cricket set he had bought from England for them. The children spoke a little English and quickly picked up my phrase of "one more", repeating it to me often. At the end we took photos of the children and they swarmed around each camera to see their pictures.
Day 12
The last day - frenzied packing going on all around me as people try to fit their bargains into the cases ready for the tour around India. Too many things seems to be the theme, well everything is such a bargain here that it's hard not to keep buying. The morning was spent evaluating before the closing ceremony.
It was sad to see all the rickshaws arriving signalling for me the end of the India trip. As I climbed in, complete with all my luggage, I waved goodbye to the group and set off for Pune airport and the next stage of my travelling adventure. The flight from Pune to Mumbai took 17 minutes! almost straight up and down again. Had been worried about the airports in Mumbai when I realised that the domestic and international terminals were separated by 5kms. Luckily there was a free airconditioned coach waiting to take me on the journey. Check in proved a bit of a nightmare after standing in the queue for ages we were told the plane was delayed and to stand to the side. As the delay lengthened, people rushed forward swamping the desk and it was every man for himself. We had to climb over each other to get served in typical Idian style. Eventually I got to speak to the check in man, to be told I would miss my connection and have to stay in Kuala Lumpar for the night....but my bag would go straight to Perth. After waiting over 8 hours at the airport (now around 4am) we boarded the plane and flew onto Malaysia where I was met by a very nice man who took me to the 5 star hotel where I would be staying for the night. After a buffet lunch, which included a chocolate fountain, I headed off on the KLIA train into Kuala Lumpar city. I wandered around seeing the sights, including the old railway station, the Mosque and Orchid gardens, I even spotted monkeys in the trees. Returning to the hotel for another buffet meal and eating lots, I then went to my room to spend time in the luxury bath before relaxing in the double bed watching Northampton v Southampton in the FA cup... good job I had clean pants in my hand luggage as I didn't see my bag again until Australia!
Day 13 - up at 6am to make sure I got this flight to Australia. Flight was unevetful and I finally landed in Perth 24 ours later than planned. Frank met me at the airport and on the way to their house in Rockingham we stopped off at John Days panel beaters where dad used to work back in 1971. Luckily John was actaully there and he happily posed for a photo. Arrived at Margaret and Franks and settled in for the night. A long time getting there, but finally in Australia.