After a very stressful journey down to London, involving me arriving at the airport 15 minutes before check-in closed, I finally made in to India! I managed to sleep for about 1 hour of the 9 hour flight from London to Mumbai so I arrived already extremely tired! The first thing I noticed as we landed was the slums that were squashed right up to the edge of the landing strip. As we stepped out of the plane and into the tunnel I was hit with the smell of curry!
As we waited outside the airport to get onto the bus I started to notice the stares we were getting from passers by. As a group of 20 white girls looking thoroughly confused we must have stood out a lot! One man was actually so focused on us that he tripped going down a step! I thoroughly enjoyed that first bus journey, there was just so much to see! The roads here are completely insane, no amount of warning could prepare you for the chaos. It is like a constant video game as vehicles try to avoid cars, buses, autos, motorbikes, bikes, pedestrians, cows, camels.. The list goes on. Each journey on the roads is an adventure in itself!
We all spent two nights in a guest house while we had an orientation from our Overseas Representatives. We went to their home for dinner and had our first experience of eating curry and rice with only our right hands! This was extremely difficult but the food was still delicious. Our group of twenty then split off into pairs as we all travelled to our different projects all over the country. When Holly and me were in the taxi travelling across the city we stopped in traffic and a young girl, who can't have been older that 5, came up to my window carrying a baby and started begging. The taxi driver just kept talking as normal but I didn't know where to look. It was awful.
Anyone who knows me well will be impressed to hear that I have started eating bananas. This is not because I suddenly love the taste, it is for the sake of money as they are so much cheaper than other fruit. You get about 6 bananas for the equivalent of 10p! Other than bananas I have been eating lots of very spicy curry for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I think that will take a while to get used to.
Our accommodation for the year seems fine. It is very basic but we have made it our own by covering the walls with pictures of our family and friends. We do have hot water but the shower seems to fire water in ever direction apart from beneath so it looks like we will be washing out of a bucket for the time being. I made my first attempt an hand washing my clothes which was interesting. We made the mistake of leaving the light on in the bathroom once in got dark which led to large amounts of insects coming in through the window. We won't make that mistake again.
We don't officially start teaching until next week so we are just spending time getting to know the hospital and preparing for lessons. Yesterday we went to the shop for the first time and the shopkeeper gave me sweets for change because she had no coins left! I thought this was a strange alternative. Unfortunately the shop had no toilet roll so I was forced to take some from the hospital. I felt bad but it seemed necessary! This part of the city is very modern. There is a McDonalds, KFC and Cineplex across the road from the hospital!
Soon I will work out how to put pictures up from my camera so my next post will hopefully contain some photos!
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