Monday and Tuesday!

On Monday we went off to visit Mayapuri; another of the slums ASHA works with. They have only been working there for 5 years, so it is not as advanced as Dr. Ambedkar Basti - where we have spent most of our time. It was incredible to see the difference between the two, which was a testimony to the difference that the work of ASHA makes. The houses were much smaller (if that's possible), the lanes were dirtier, and there seemed to be less hope in the eyes of the people. The housing was mixed in with an idustrial sight, so there was a lot of heavy machinery around with people working on the streets. Our resident town planner (Michael S) couldn't believe that houses were almost on top of all the industry work that was going on; little children running around by all the workers, doesn't bear thinking about!

We spent some time with the children's group and were blown away by the sort of things they got up to. ASHA had taught them to know what their rights were as well as the responsibilities that go along with them. They would stand up and recite things like 'I have the right to the love and adoration of my parents' that went along with the responsibility to 'respect and honour them in return'. These children, though only young, were having interactions with the local police to help ensure their slums was a safer, cleaner environment. They protested against things like gambling, litter and alcohol. They'd make posters and pettitions until the police acted. It was incredible to hear!
The women's group shared similar stories; we were so inspired to hear about how they would not tolerate injustice in their slum, and ASHA was teaching them how to care for each other and stand up for what they believed in. They have earnt the respect of the police officers in their area and now have a voice that people pay attention to. The work that ASHA do to empower the women and children really transforms lives, they told us that before Dr Martin came to their slum they would hide their faces and never speak to anyone in their community - and now the stories they tell put us all to shame; we walked away incredibly humbled.

We headed back to Dr. Ambedkar Basti, (the slum where we have spent most of our time) and joined them for their weekly prayer meeting. They sang and prayed in Hindi, we sang and prayed in English. There was lots of singing, dancing and praising God - it was great!

On Tuesday we knew we had our work cut out for us! We had a lot of painting to do and not much time to do it in! The morning sped past and we all got down to business. We were all surprised but thankful that by the end of the day we had managed to finish all the rooms we had to paint; 4 rooms, 2 toilets, a courtyard and 2 outside walls - no small task!

We went home exhausted but still managed to find the energy to take a trip to Old Delhi in the evening. Freddy (Kiran's husband) and his friend showed us round the busy town. We all got on cycle Rickshaw's to take a trip back to the train station. If we thought the auto Rickshaw's we clearly hadn't seen anything yet! We cut through traffic and faced being squashed by a 4X4 several times. Jane and I couldnt help but shout 'beep' anytime anything came close. All the cars around us were beeping their horns as they undertook, overtook and cut each other up...we didnt have the luxury of a horn so we figured we should be it!

The team all doing ok, we're really thankful that we haven't had much sickness amonst us, so praise God for that - and thank you for your prayers!

We'll tell you all about the celebrations in our next post.

Every blessing.