Monday 1st June

Today I started off in the Vision Rescue office printing out resource for my teacher training session this afternoon. I was treated to coffee by one of the Vision Rescue staff and then was picked up by Rajesh and we headed for Mahim. We stopped off at Mahim Gardens first but were too late for football today. Jaywanth had got there earlier and played a game with them. However, they were all there to greet me and I promised them a game tomorrow. I am getting to know the street kids in this area really well and will occasionally see them when in Mahim eating or driving along. From here we went onto Mahim Creek to see the drug addicts and then onto Bandra to watch the teaching. It was only a short lesson today as the bus had been held up at Mahim Creek. We grabbed lunck at the Vision Rescue kitchen and it was great to see my friends Albaz, Imran and Anni. I have been entertaining them by balancing a cricket bat on my nose - they love it! Rajesh and I then drove to some shoe shops to look for some trainers for the street kids when they play football. I thing we managed to sort out a deal with one of the shop owners so we will go back in the next few days and buy some. It was then onto the church hall for the next teacher training session on phonics. I am really keen for the teachers to use phonics to help the children to read and write as they currently use capital letters and the letter names. Some of them struggled with the sounds but will be fine with practice. It was a really good session and I know it will have an impact on the teaching of English on the buses. In the evening I visited Biju in hospital and also and met his mother. What a lovely lady! She kept offering me cashew nuts to eat and also banana chips. Banana chips are like potato crisps but are made of banana and they are nicer. Biju has a couple more days in hospital and then he is off to Australia. Here he will get his back sorted properly by Steve the physio.
Tomorrow is more football and then I will be visiting Reay Road to see the kids again in their smart t-shirts.