Back in India

After a 9 hour fairly bumpy flight, I arrived back in yesterday morning. The flight was made fairly amusing by the funny Indian man from Leeds that was sitting next to me. He was listening to an Indian radio station for most of the journey an couldn't resist singing along every so often.
Rajesh picked me up from the airport and we headed to the college, where I am staying, to drop my bags off. The rest of the day was spent at the office saying hi to everyone and then a bit of shopping for food and toiletries. Just as we left the office for the shopping centre, the skies opened and I got the first taste of the Indian rain season and out came the waterproof coat. The rain causes lots of flooding and ruins the roads as it washes away all the stones and creates loads of pot holes. I've been reliably informed that in August the rain is not as frequent and becomes lighter - we will wait and see!

This morning myself and Rajesh headed of to Mahim to meet the teaching and kitchen staff. He informed me that 4 of the teachers are not available at the moment due to illnesses. Hopefully they will return shortly and we can crack on with the teacher training. The heavy rain means that some of the street children and their families move out of the city for better shelter but they return when it is drier. For this reason, there were not as many children on the bus as usual so the feeding is a lot quicker. No football today due to the wet weather and only a few street children were around. When we moved on to Mahim Creek, Rajesh informed me that they are not able to feed the drug addicts at the moment because the Police have stopped them thinking that it is encouraging more drug addicts to the area. Vision Rescue have been giving permission by the Indian Charities Council but they have to give proof to the police before they will allow Vision Rescue to start feeding again. I was hoping that the morning would be more successful when we reached Bandra, and it was. The bus was full and Manoj taught a good maths lesson. I was observing some children at the back of the bus and quickly became aware that they were unable to write the numbers 1 - 10. A few of them needed help forming the letters and some just couldn't rememeber the order. With one boy, I initially held the piece of chalk with him and helped him form the letters. We did this twice and then he had a go himself and eventually he was able to write all ten numbers. He was so pleased!! He got a sticker for his effort and we will practice again next maths lesson. It also helped me because I can now can to ten in Hindi! After Bandra, we headed for lunch at the kitchen. I then travelled with the bus to the final afternoon location, MMRA, for another maths lesson. The children are slightly brighter and many know the numbers up to 100. It was a very quite day but with a very rewarding maths lesson. Tomorrow is games / DVD day on the buses and myself and Rajesh will also be viewing a few properties that could be used as a new kitchen.