Returning 2009

Watch this space! Going back to Delhi Feb2010

Postscript

We have arranged our first meeting together (apart from seeing each other every Sunday!) since we got back, for 29th March. Lots of photos to exchange!

Incidentally- I looked at my mobile today and guess what? Two video clips showing Dick Hogben trying to avoid dancing while festooned with flowers. Anyone who wants a copy just add a comment to this post and I'll get them to you.

I'll leave you with one last image of my favourite kind, from Kusumpur Pahadi.

Greetings and Thanks...

Okay I am not up as early as some...!

I was asked especially by Kiran to pass on her greetings to our church and our friends, and her thanks for all the support you have given to us as a team and to Asha. So thanks from Kiran, and from us. We have really felt that we have gone to the poor in Delhi representing YOU this time because we have felt you all so much behind us!

So thank you for your interest, for your financial gifts, for you prayer support, for your selling of crafts, for your buying of crafts, for your reading our blog, and whatever else you have done to help. Special thanks are due to Rob Atkin who kindly drove the bus up to Heathrow to collect us yesterday, and deliver us to our homes.

Together we have all been part of representing the love of Jesus to the poorest of the poor in Delhi, helping them to feel they matter to Him and to us.

So...THANK YOU!!!!!!

Reflections

We've just been reading through the blogs together, catching up with people's impressions, highs, lows and inner thoughts. I never really made it into the computer room because of the permanent residents! How can Tim and Laura get there so fast?
I wish I could have recorded some of the conversations we have had during the week, just as we have photos to remind us of the sights. I don't want to forget those chats in the backs of rickshaws ( eyes closed as buses and lorries criss-cross in front of us) as we reacted together to the life going on around us. It made us reflect on the things we are shaped by- the Highway code, health and safety, conformity. And yet, we realised how patient and tolerant the people are here. they don't react when others cut them up at the lights!
On a deeper level we have had long chats (over curries- even the Chinese food was hottttttttttt!) about the rights of the child, social justice, priorities and the asha approach to changing whole communities. We chatted with Kiran about her priorities. Water, education, health, social inclusion. No wonder she said she couldn't sleep some nights with all the ideas flying round in her head.
I was so struck by the way all the children in Ektar Vihar could recite the UNICEF Rights of the Child. They KNEW they were entitled to education, parental love, sex equality etc etc. What a powerful message to give them. As Kiran said at the High Commission, she wanted them to know that it was not their fault they were born in the gutter, that they belonged to the human family as equals. Wow, powerful stuff.
I'm sure we will all have come back different people for this experience, having some of our prejudices stripped away and looking at others through different eyes. I know I've got loads to think about.
Thanks Dick and Julie for making it possible for us to share your passion for the poor. What a challenge!

Sue (Early morning posting!)

Nigel beat me to it...body clocks....

Well it's 6am and I have had a few hours sleep....

I just want to say what an amazing privilege it has been to work as a team with this wonderful crowd from Yeovil. Some of them had never spoken to each other before...but relationships will never be the same again.....we've seen Neil dance....and pay 550 ruppees for a "shoe shine" (10 rupees going rate...but the guy has a tender heart!)

Al, Tim and Dennis sat APART on the plane...NO WAY!!!

We have discussed "gastric incidents" over breakfast.....

More than anything though....it has been great to see our friends catch the asha vision and I am sure they have all left a little bit of themselves behind in Delhi....Nigel says "more than I had intended"... but he was referring to the "unfortunate occurrance" that took place in the bathroom in the early hours of one morning.....

Now our Yeovil friends will have more of us banging on about the work of asha!

I also have skirts, tops, scarves (loads!!!), journals and bits and pieces that I have bought in order to follow up with some fundraising.

Hand over and back to the UK

Well, we are back, and I know it is early (05:00 am in the UK), but hey, that's the body clock kicking in.

The Inauguration of the centre was attended by around 500 people, stunning welcome, the pleasure on faces, enthusiastic handshaking, much dancing by some of the children who had dressed up specially to perform in front of all their family and friends all added to making it a very special event.

A part of the opening were the interviews for television. Dick, Tina, Julie and I were "volunteered", so we shall see what happens. They wanted to know what we had done, why we had come, and what were our impressions, all difficult to sum up in a few short sound bites. They were also interested in the training that Tim and Dick had done for local Doctors and that I have been able to do some work with Kiran to help prepare for meetings with local bankers where Asha is working with them and the Finance Ministry in Delhi to start putting together a scheme that will make banking facilities available to those in the slums.

Yesterday (Sat) brought the trip home, a long day with a 9 hour flight which (looking back) went quite quickly. reflection time for all of us. We looked at the slums and and saw the difficult circumstances its residents lived in, the crowding within the slums, lack of water supplies, lots of evidence of poor health, but we also saw determination to improve, immense pride in the homes that had been built, (often on previously waste ground), the gratefulness that people had for Asha and the work it was doing, helping to improve health amongst all the population, especially the rates of infant mortality. Many of the people we met had lived in the slums for many years, having moved from rural villages, where there was limited food (especially if a harvest failed) no work and worse poverty. Their moves to Delhi were driven by looking for work, a better life, and in some cases for the women, being sent through an arranged marriage to join another family (often at 16) and to be part of a household in the slum with the husbands family. By our standards, very hard, but accepted as normality by those we met, with no regrets.

Water is a constant issue, there is no piped water to Kasumper Pahardi (hope I spelt that right!) Water is delivered by 40 tankers each day (still not enough for the 5000 who live there). All over the slums there are rows and rows of blue water carriers, some full, some waiting to be filled all the constant flow of tankers into the slums. Being an illegal development, we are told that the Government will not install standpipes or any other system to alleviate this problem. As a result all water is precious, making it even more special when we see how generous people are being towards us. Many of the people we met have lived with this for 25+ years.

As others have said, we were taken on walks around the slums. Crowded with familys living very close together, here are some images of this.

It was always amazing to walk round a corner and find a cow, goat or sheep. Often a cow would wander down the lane. Cows are sacred in India, and often left free to roam.

Nigel.

And next...we address one sixth of the world's population!

So Kiran drops us in it again! This time - 5 minutes before my departure to the slum for the inauguration ceremony she tells me that an Indian national news channel wishes to interview us on camera! So when I arrived at the slum I had just 5-10 minutes to warn the team. We picked our spokesmen- I had to be one according to Kiran - and we added Julie Tina and Nigel. We picked our soundbites and answered the interviewers questions using those. I just hope whatever proportion of India's 1.2 billion who watch will be enthralled! What a week this has been!

This morning Tim and I had our teaching session with the Asha doctors, which we both found an enjoyable and highly interactive experience. We then spent a while chatting to Kiran's 17 year old daughter - an aspiring doctor, who had been doing a research project among the elderly in the slum. Another inspiring experience.

Tonight Kiran and Freddy are taking us out for a meal...!