Week 2 - Monday

Today was a 10.30am start and we were pick up by taxi and taken to the drug addicts feeding location in Bandra. One of the hardest parts of being out in India is the stares you get. It is as if many of these people have not seen a white person before. The drug addict are very much the same and one man had being drinking quite heavily. He was fascinated by us and demanded that we speak some English to him, which we did and he spoke back in very slurred Hindi. Some of the Vision Rescue team will take the time to talk to these men about their addictions or other issues and give them advice.

It was then off to a slum that we visited last week to meet the children again. Today they were learning English so we sat among the children and helped them out with their pronunciation of letters. They were learning the letters of the alphabet so eventually they will move on to form words. Again it was evident just how eager these children are to learn. They rushed to the bus and climbed aboard with smiles. Many of them are getting used to the 'High 5' and love touching you hand. For many of them human touch can be a bad experience or non-existant and so when they touch your hand it shows that they are starting to trust you. As you can see from the picture, two boys were desperate to have a photo taken with their bowls on their heads.

The afternoon was spent at the Vision Rescue office talking with Biju about the work we will be doing and sharing our observations and thoughts with him. He also very kindly bought us lunch in a very posh Indian restaurant next to the office. He also shared with us some ideas about how the donations that many of you so kindly gave will be spent. They need new TV's and DVD players for the buses to use when teaching the kids and also one for the new medical unit. Some of the money will pay for these and other resources need for the teaching. I will update you on what we have spent at a later stage.

Tomorrow we will be visiting the medical unit which Caron will be able to advise them on and I will be taken to see some sports facilities that Biju would like to use with some of the older boys. I will be able to help Vision Rescue to set up a new sports programme and train some of the team to coach sports like football and cricket.

I hope all is well back in England and that the weather is good. I was informed today that the Indian monsoon season starts in June which means lots of rain. Still, at least I will be used to that!!