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Street
Typical street scene with rubbishI was still not feeling too well and the rest or the group went out into the town to knock on doors and find any children who had not been caught in yesterday's Polio Push. Later in the morning they went to a local school to witness the opening of a new toilet block provided by the local Rotary Clubs of Lucknow. This was a very modern, effective toilet block provided at a cost equivalent to £200 sterling. A snip at that price and something that we could perhaps think about sponsoring in the future.
Yesterday there were 2725 vaccination booths operating in Lucknow and altogether over 800,000 children treated. Our booth vaccinated over 300 in the day.
The amount of poverty here is something that you have to see to believe. Hundreds of people are living in makeshift tents and houses with no sanitation and many sleeping on the side of the roads and pavements. Litter is everywhere and sewage runs down the sides of streets and in open gullies, the stench is appalling and yet the people are pleasant and smile at you as you pass and speak to them.
I found that the train left at 11pm, not
Tuk tuk
Tuk Tuk driver thro mirror am so I travelled to Agra in the minibus, which turned out OK since I was feeling much better by lunch time. The journey was not too bad, although the driving was less than satisfactory. I have read that the Indian driving could be called "Functional Anarchy" and that is true, although death is a constant threat whislt on the roads. Driving is predominantly on the left, although you often meet oncoming traffic on your side and overtaking is done on either side. Keeping moving is done at any cost and traffic comes at you from all angles. In India you need a good horn (in constant use) , good brakes and good luck. Only half the vehicles have rear lights and at night you see tractors and camel and ox driven carts with no lights at all.
At about half distance to Lucknow we experienced a rubber smell and found that the fan belt had broken. Luckily our driver had a spare and after a lot of searching found a spanner which fit and after approximately 1 hour we were on our way again eventually arriving in Agra at 9pm.
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Paul Dugdale
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Son's comment...
Father, this passage is comedy gold!! The mini-bus journey reminded me of Vietnam when Richard and I took a similar ride (about 6 hours) in a the Mekong Delta region. The perpetual accelerating, breaking, swerving and horn honking drove us insane. It was so bad that Richard lost his cool, reprimanded the driver and insisted that he was not to use the horn again for the rest of the journey. This subequently put our lives in danger as the horn is as essential as a steering wheel in Vietnam. We almost took out several moped riders along the way as they didn't know we were coming. At least we got some shut-eye though ;D