Back in the UK

Well what a crazy week I have had. It has been so busy, mixed with the crap Internet connection we had at the University that I was unable to get up to date. But now I'm back in the UK and getting used to being back in cold civilisation. Thankfully we were greeted back with some gorgeous sun so I'm not freezing cold yet.

India was incredible. Since I last wrote we have been seeing all the important sights of the city like San Thome Basilica, St George's Fort and numerous temples. We have also been to one of the lecturers home to meet his family and experience a traditional Indian home. It was a wonderful experience, so generous and kind people and we even experienced the crazy trains and buses plus a ride on the back of the lecturers motorbike. We had to do it two trips so it was a welcome break of being on my own for a little while.

We then worked at Spastn, which is the (excuse the politically incorrect wording) Spastics society of Chennai. We got involved with the Early Intervention work where 0-3 year olds where helped with different skills. The parents were actively involved so that the learning could be continued at home as well. We also went into the vocational workshops where the children and young adults learnt skills such as cooking, tailoring and handicrafts which could be sold to help fund their education. We found that alot of the active work done by charities and NGO's was very much based on self help schemes which was good as it didn't rely on people needing to come in and help. It was bad on our end though as we couldn't help out as much as we wanted. It was encouraging though.

On the Friday we decided to go visit a town called Pondicherry which has alot of French links. We travelled over at 7am and it cost us equivalent of £1.20 to travel around 160 km. The return bus cost us only 55p. Everything was so cheap. In total I worked out that I spent under £85 for the whole 2 weeks. It was incredible.

Though the actual trip was meant to be based around working with the University, it was poorly organised and alot of waiting around was common place but when we were left to get on with things our self and also when working with our NGO link Niana, we got alot of things done and we definitely made the most of the trip. It was certainly a culture shock, the fact that so many people live in utter poverty and scrape a living on under a pound a day. The clash of society with huge air conditioned shopping plaza's right next to slum areas made you feel like you were actually on a film set or something. It was hard to get your head around but then the inhabitants would still greet you with big smiles and hellos. The kids were fascinated with us and the parents always encouraged the kids to come shake our hands, as if it would make the children better people. It was heartwarming and heartbreaking. At the same time it was all that they had ever experienced. Many of the homeless people did have the opportunity to go to places where they could have a place to sleep or a place where they could get a free meal, but they chose not to go there. Why, I don't know.

It was a definite eye opener to home in how wonderfully lucky we are to live in such a developed country where poverty is very rare. India is slowly becoming quite developed though. With the large shopping plaza's, huge modern industrial estates of offices and western influences, alot of India makes you feel that you could be in London or the USA but is not just developing the country, it is also making the gap between the rich and poor wider. We were lucky to meet Niana who proved that the wealthy and poor could work together in harmony with respect but apparently the set up was rare in society.

All in all, the trip was a big eye opener, and if we forget that it was meant to be an University trip, then it was truely amazing! I just can't wait to go back and explore India in more depth.