Yesterday I spent all day in the office, priniting out some resources for the buses, preparing teaching notes and creating proposals for some news areas of Vision Rescue. As it was not that exciting I will leave it to your imagination and skip to today! Unfortunately, I have developed a sore throat so I have gone out and bought some strepsils - I just hope they work!This morning, we dropped Elizabeth at the airport as she is flying on to Goa. From there we went to Mahim Garden. As my throat is still sore, I decided not to play football this morning but watched and gave tips from the sidelines. I stayed around and chatted to the kids whilst they were having their food. They are teaching me Hindi and I am teaching them some English!
From Mahim, we travelled to Juhu to watch the teaching. The lesson was Hindi so it was difficult for me to understand but I got general outline of what was being taught. The teaching at Juhu takes place in a sheltered area at the YMCA centre so there is no bus. This means they have more time for the teaching. Lots of the children here are street children so they are quite chatty and they have a big age range. The youngest child is about 2 and the oldest is about 14. This does put added pressure on the teacher to keep control. You may remember that last time I was at Juhu, there was a child with a septic foot. He travels on the railway alot and he is currently somewhere on the outskirts of Mumbai. His cousin was in the teaching session today and she is going to let us know if he returns to the city centre. We took a quick stroll along the beach before heading back to Mahim for lunch. I was due to go to Raey Road today to see the children in their uniforms again but there is a bit of political unrest due to the attacks on Indian students in Australia. For that reason, I have been advised not to go till next week by which time it will have died down. It has been very hot today with temperatures reaching up to 38 degrees. Biju has flown of to Sydney so I will catch up with him when I return to India in July / August. He was due to fly on to London but will now be staying in Sydney to have his back properly treated.
I'd like to say 'thank you' for all your updates and news letters. They are really interesting and give a good insight into what life is like for you in Mumbai.thank you also for all the photos! I hope that your sore throat is better and am praying for Biju's back.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work and may God richly bless you all.
Ines