DAY 5

DAY 5

Hello from Team 2 on day 5!

First things first, we have been hearing that David doesn't believe Ruth is here. Well David, your sister is here and working hard and doing great :)

Today was totally different from yesterday. Wheras yesterday after most of the day painting we went to Zhakira which is much worse than Kanak Durga, having had less Asha-ing, today after painting we went to Ekta Vihar which was the first one Asha went in to and it is amazing in there.

But backtracking a bit, the clinic is looking great! the dinosaur room is all but finished, the fish are nearly there and the rest of the walls are already looking bright and colourful and clean. everybody that saw the clinic before it was cleaned up for us to work in said that it was a very dank and depressing place, but its certainly not any more! we have loads of mad cartoony dinosaurs and beautiful intricate fish surrounded by bubbles. we are being very well looked after by the CHVs of the slum, every day they make us chai (YUMMY!) and then later on we have a diet coke break, and if we don't stop work and drink it we get in trouble. There is one lady in particular who is very strict at making sure we have a good break, so everyone drops their brushes when she comes by and hastily picks up their cans! they are fantastic women, so empowered and inspirational. the kids were teaching geni hannah and liz how to do the bangra dancing as well! which was funny, us trying to copy them, getting it all wrong in our old clothes covered in paint and them doing it so fast ad looking amazing!

after that we changed into our salwar kameezes and hopped on the bus to ekta vihar where we went to their clinic for another welcome, with flower necklaces again, and a talk about what the slum was like before and what it was now, hearing from the women and kids. asha has improved it SO MUCH! it used to be horrible, typical slum before intervention, dirty, unhealthy, disease ridden, sewage everywhere, no kids in school, men drunk all day n women too scared to come out of their houses type thing, we hear the same from every slum, but now its not even classed as a slum any more, but a colony! the most advanced one, ekta vihar women now own their land, so they cant be demolished (a constant fear for the other slums) the houses are all in the womens names to stop their husbands throwing them out for another woman. (charming!) they are small houses with two floors, stunning compared to slum huts. hearing them talk, so confident and organised and empowered. after all being a bit depressed yesterday seeing how bad zhakira is, ekta vihar was a big encouragement because thats what the future holds for the other slums!

after all the talking, the kids all started singing to a small piano thingy and a drum and first one girl started dancing then they all pulled us up out of our seats and we all started dancing! michael and jez included, we were all shaking our booties and doign all the indian hand wiggles etc. it was fantastic! so much fun, and the kids all loved it.

after a quick turn around into fancier salwar kameezes we went out (looking gorgeous all!) for a posh meal with Freddie and Dr Kiran Martin, which was amazing! so much great food, we are all absolutely stuffed now! the rest of the team are now in bed in fact in a foody stupor.

nicks hand is healing fine, jez is now fine on antibiotics and mark is feeling a lot better, he has a nasty bacterial thingy but has also got some antibiotics, he came out with us this eve. it was nice to see him again! however, libby has now fallen ill and so we are in great need of prayer for her.

and all of us, it is only gods strength that keeps us going in the face of SO MUCH, so lots of prayer please!

if you have any questions or comments please leave them, it would be great to see some response!

god bless you all too!

p.s. prepare to hear a LOT of us going on and on about our experiences when we get back!

xxx