Yesterday morning was one of the most interesting yet. I was pick up at 9.30 and taken to Mahim Gardens where I met up with the 15 street boys who wanted to play some football. Nearly all of them were barefooted and I had no equipment apart from two football. When I arrived the staff on the bus had just started feeding the kids so it gave me a chance to properly meet them all before starting the football. The ground that we were going to use for the football was not available so we had to use the local park- no grass, just red dusty earth and lots of stones! Some of them had never kicked a football before so I had to start from the very beginning. They enjoyed the warm up, but stretching their muscles was alien to many of them. After the warm up, we did some very basic passing and shooting exercises for about 15 mins. This was not easy as everything I said had to go through an interpreter who doesn't play football either! They then played a small game (or something that closely resembled a game of football) during which one lad (probably the best there) scored two goals. The game was unfortunately cut short by a) some of the boys getting tired and b) the security guard wanted to lock up the park! You have to remember that most of these boys spend their time roaming the streets and have drug / glue addictions so the experience of being coach football was completely new and very exciting for them. From here we went on to the Vision Rescue kitchen to wait for the bus to arrive back this to a lot longer than expected as it had to fill up with diesel meaning a long detour! Fortunately, some of there were some boys playing cricket in the street outside the kitchen so I decided to join in. The bat was very small and the ball was a very light air filled ball but it was great fun. One shot that I hit flew in to the middle of the road and about 5 boys chased after it. They are used to dodging the traffic to fetch cricket balls. I was also entertained with the spinning tops again and this time I had a go. It was more difficult than I thought but eventually got the hang of it. I will be looking out for the in the shops so I can bring some back to England. I am beginning to see more and more that in the poorer families children serve one of two purposes. They are either a financial investment or they are a burden and a nuisance. In the slums and poorer areas, I have seen very little adult and child interaction. This is why the interaction with the adults on the Vision Rescue buses is so important to these kids.
After having some lunch, I headed back to the ashram to freshen up and then met Biju at the office to update him on how things were going and to discuss the teaching.
In the evening , I was lucky enough to be invited out to dinner at a very nice hotel! Biju and his team had organised the band from Hillsong Church in London to come and do a concert in Mumbai and we spent the evening with them having dinner. I got to have STEAK!!!!!!! I have missed having beef so I had no hesitation in ordering it! It was also really nice to chat to a group of Westerners. It was a very good ending to what had been a very tiring yet rewarding day.
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