Well it has been four days since I crammed my Irn Bru into my back pack and headed off to the airport. I haven't been able to get access to the Internet for a variety of reasons but won't go into all that.
The journey was torture - the overnight in Heathrow was an endurance test alone. The flight from Heathrow to Venice went smoothly and the flight to Mumbai was the same. I enventually managed how to work the longhaul flight telly control and managed to watch some of the History Boys before landing - marvellous. Then the system cut out, just at the good bit - so this will give me something to look forward to one Sunday evening when I get back. I then sat and watched the wee graphic of the plane on the GPS and found that it was an effective method to gain some geographical familiarity with where on earth I was going. I got a bit bored with this after half an hour of circling Mumbai due to a delay landing!!!
We made it to our hostel after an encounter with a Mumbai traffic jam and couldn't believe our eyes at some the crashes that never happened! At some point in the journey the young people mingling on the streets began to fade and it became clear that the people who were on the streets lived there, with small children and babies as well. This is difficult to deal with and make any sense of!
After we woke up at the hostel we went on a tour of Mumbai - this was superb and we saw some extremely interesting stuff about different communities / religions / cultures here.
We went on our journey as culture vultures and our day included a visit to a Bhuddist temple were they were celebrating a feast and we saw a performance of dancing by some of the young people from within the community to celebrate this. This built up into an outlet of energy fuelled by pounding drums and traditional Indian instruments, with clapping from the adults and some of our party. From here we went to a Hindu temple and got into a dispute with one of the street traders about how much we should pay to get our shoes back! This could be understood as being the equivalent of arguing about how much to give the local young team after they watch your car at Celtic or Ibrox park. We then stopped in at Mahattma Gandhi's house for a quite read and a shot of the air conditioning.
The next religion that we encountered were the Parsee and we were told that their tradition means that they take their dead up onto the hill, we were at the foot of; and leave them for the vultures. I didn't expect to end the day getting introduced to 'vulture culture'! But, hey there ye go!
On Monday we went out and about in Mumbai taxis and this was absolute mayhem - being in among it was unbelievable I don't know how this system of non-negotiation works but it does - somehow! We went to visit a project that deals with intravenous drug users and people who are HIV positive. This was extremely effective at what it did with the people and how it helped them to reconnect with themselves and their talents.
The people who use it can learn new skills and are able to come off of heroin with the support of people who try to help them see that their interests are where their talents may lie!!! The organisation runs prison outreach work with social workers, doctors and counsellors, as well as a medical ward and bag manufacturing. They make bags from fabric, leather and paper - in Mumbai, plastic bags are not allowed - due to environmental concerns. This sort of project is known as a social enterprise - any profits from the bag making goes back into the work of the project. I bought a bag - its made extremely well and will be used well I'm sure - then I discovered I'd lost my disposable camera I'd been using!
Its Tuesday, phew... and I better get going quick cos Martin (one of my two room-mates) is getting hungry. The food is amazing and extremely cheap - I will write more about this in the next entry, cos we have been on the train today and it was outrageous. The behaviour of people getting on and off of the train borders on violence and it was quite - nah very heavy scary! This is something that nothing could prepare you for and has to be seen to be believed - just not on my mobile phone camera - thankyou very much!
The project we visited dealt with taking the monsoon water from the roofs of buildings and using it as a way to nourish the soil in communities and lead to a more luxurious environment for the people who lived there. These were quite rich communities and had gates with security gaurds on them! They also recycled stuff from within hospitals and had managed to stop 400kg of waste a day going into the environment. They have started to do some work with compost and have introduced a special breed of earth worm into the soil and this is something that they are looking at developing. Oh, they make paper bags from old newspapers etc. as well!
This is also a social enterprise and they have been awarded an award by UNESCO (who are on Barcelona's shirts) for their storm water harvesting. The thing is Barcelona donate to UNESCO! As the debate about alcoholic drinks manufacturers on football shirts gathers pace, maybe Liverpool, Everton, Celtic and Rangers could follow their example - donate to Shelter, Oxfam, Barnardo's, Children in Need?! Somehow I doubt it, anyway I am digressing again! ... "Aye awright Martin jist coming"
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