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Published: November 23rd 2006
The gorgeous HIV Children
The little boy 2nd from the right was my favourite, but i actualy thought he was a girl for the first 2 days!Well, I think I can finally say that I have had ENOUGH of the buses here! Our journey to the orphanage took a whopping 31 hours- and only 1 and a half of those was spent waiting for connections!
Our first leg of the journey was a bus from Udaipur to Mumbai, we were the only white people on the bus, which although we're used to being stared at now, is quite intimidating in suchg a confined space. We stopped numerous times for breaks, we only got off the bus the first time and then swore we wouldn't get off again, I wont even tell you about the toilet habits we witnessed, but I think it has scarred me for life. We arrived into Mumbai without a clue where to go for our next bus- and noone we tried to ask seemed to speak any English. We eventually found a bus ticket desk and had just under an hour to wait for our next bus which took us to Pune (pronounced Poona). This bus we were told should take 3 hours but was actually closer to 6 which was an unwelcome treat! Again, the only white people to be seen! (or
kids and fire...??
was a worrying sight!! should i say tanned people). The bus driver was a complete twat and refused to drive through the town- which we understood was the route of the bus, and he dropped us on the highway on the outskirts, loving how helpful these Indians are! We got a tuk tuk across town and booked our ticket for the final leg, on to Ahmednegar. Another helpful bus driver who forced us off a stop too early, we had no idea as obviously we'd never been there before, and when i phoned my contact to tell him we were off the bus he started getting stressed tat I didn't follow his directions! We travelled 31 hours to get there and this chump was complaining about going an extra 5 mins out of his way... honestly.
A whole convoy of vehicles turned up for us, and we were taken back to the campus and shown to our rooms to freshen up before they served us dinner. It was 2230 by now and we were really past hungry, all we wanted to do was sleep but we gave it a go. If I thought we'd tasted spicy before i was wrong! The plates they gave
Loving the sunglasses
Im setting trends everywhere I go! us were stacked with food, and no cultery provided, eating curry and rice through your fingers is not a good look! We made a slight dent in the food and had to apologise that we couldnt finish- we were like the walking dead by now and headed straight back to our room. This was actually nicer then a lot of the places we have stayed in so far! We also didn't have a supply of bottled water, so had to drink the dreaded tap water, although secretly i didnt mind as i could have done with a bit of delhi belly before hitting the beach! It didnt happen though!!
In the morning we woke and headed over to the site for breakfast, which was a lovely plate of spicy rice- appetising. We then got shown around the campus and met some of the kids. The site is divided into two. One side has about 150 healthy orphans on, although mostly the kids here are the chioldren of prostitutes and had been rescued by the organisation so that they dont end up being dragged into the sex trade, and educated and given training into a career of their choice so that
the cycle doesnt continue. Its a really fantastic place. The other side however had around 50 children who all had HIV or Aids and don't have a long life expectancy at all, therefore are not schooled to the extent of the other children, which was really sad. They all knew about their condition, but were the happiest children ever, and really craved attention. There was also a seperate block which was called the adoption centre, and this had about 7 babies in, one of which was only 10 days old!
We met the centre manager and she broght us to the head office, to a local slum school, and also to a childlin eoffice- which is much the same setup as Englands Childline but is run by them too. Also, we got taken to a local brothel. We were both reluctant at going but they insisted that we 'simply had to see it'. I wish they hadn't. It was awful. ABout 8 ladies in there, some early twenties, and some i couldn't even guess their ages but well above fifty. The place was disgusting, dirty and dingy, they showed me inside one of the 'rooms' and it was like a
cell, literally just a manky old bed inside. ALl these ladies just couldn't stop staring at us, and the 2 people showing us around kept saying- have you got any questions? they asked us so many times, and try as we might we just could not come up with anything. What the hell is an appropriate question in that situation!! We made a sharp exit and then got taken back to the orphanage. We spent the rest of the day just playing with the kids, and met two young lads from Scotland who are in their third month there of volunteering work. (and no they weren't fit!) The following day they organised for us to go on a sightseeing tour of Ahmednegar, as apparantly it has a lot to offer historically. The jury are actually out on that one!! We had politely declined this offer the day before sayng that we only had a limited time here and would prefer to spend it with the children, but during our whole stay here it seemed we weren't allowed to make any decisions for ourself! DOn't get me wrong, I did appreciate that they were going out of theire way to make
effort for us, but I think i've harboured my point about visiting tombs by now! Well wouldnt you know it, first on the agenda was, yep, a tomb. Two palaces, and a Tank museum, which trust me is as interesting as it sounds. We then went for lunch, we asked the guide, for about the tenth time could he tell us what time we would be back at- as we had bee told we'd be home for lunch and he said we only had one more museum to visit which was 85km away. At this point I told him with no uncertainty that we would not be visiting that and we would like to go back now please! We have learnt that you need to be a lot more assertive here as people will just ignore you otherwise, so i wasn't just being a bitch before i get any comments!! We stopped at a shop on the way back and picked up a mountain of biscuits and sweets which we gave to the children that afternoon (we gave the better ones to the HIV kids!) And Marianne I'm sure you won't mind that the nail varnish you gave me in
my little survival kit, I used to paint lal the kids nails- they LOVED it! Even the boys! It was so funny seeing 50 kids running around with bright red nails!
We had dinner that night and there was a special guest speaker who was like the Indian equivilent of Bill Oddie, and i got to sit next to him on the top table! They presented me and Jo with some flowers which was really sweet!
Our last day was spent visiting the president of Snehalayas organic farm, which was about 25 acres and Organic farming is quite unheard of there. He had been on national TV the night before promoting his work and offering help to any farmers who would like to get involved. He was a really sweet man and so genuine in his unselfish work for others. We sampled some of the fruit that he grew, one was called a custard apple, which funnily enough tasted exactly as it sounds, quite nice but messy! and the other I cant even remember what it was called but was so sour it made our eyes water. Following this we had lunch out and then back for our final afternoon with the kids. That night was a party as it was someones birthday so there was music and dancing til well gone 11pm when we left! The children all got dressed in their best party gear and danced like maniacs to all the Indian chart hits!!
I was so sad to leave, these children were so amazing and I really think they have touched on a bit of a soft spot! Im planning on going back before i leave as I simply felt I didnt have enough time there.
From here we took a direct bus to Mumbai, which went through the night, and arrived at the airport about 8 hours before our flight for Goa left- but we're here now and got absoluetly no plans of moving any time soon!!
If anyone would like to research Snehalaya further their website is:
www.snehalaya.org it is a bit basic but helps to see a little more!
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Jimbo
non-member comment
Wow
Hey Honey It sounds like a truely amazing experience for you both out there. Well done for turning more indian children gay with the nail polish! You just can't help yourself! I'm really proud of you for doing all this and it does show that you have a heart buried somewhere deep beneath that bitch exterior! haha!! It must be heartbreaking to see those kids out there, just reading about it sounds horrible. I'm sure you've made them a bit happier as well honey. Loving my gran in the shades! Enjoy Mumbai and Goa Benzie and i missed you on tuesday night (crew night) for her birthday and we had a drink and a dance just for you, but it wasn't the same without you! Xxx