X Marks the Spot...

I went to Delhi to find treasure. So did I find it? And more importantly, if I did, what am I going to do with it?

I can certainly say that I feel like a richer man as a result of the things I've experienced. It's hard to say though how much, if at all, it's really changed me. I guess only time, and other people's observations will tell.

I'm still not planning to sell all (or even a large percentage) of my possessions, or give away large chunks of my income. We will up our giving a little though - specifically we plan to start giving regularly and directly to Asha (we already support Tearfund), although we haven't decided how much yet!

I certainly encountered a lot of wealth - as I expected to - in the lives and character of the Asha staff - particularly Dr Kiran Martin - and in the lives of, and the welcome we received from, those in the community at Anna Nagar. One of the great things about Anna Nagar (and materially, on the surface there are a lot of not so great things!), is that it is a community - much more so I think than any place I've ever visited in the UK. This is partly unavoidable in Anna Nagar because everyone lives so close to each other in such a confined space that they have no alternative but to be a part of each other's lives, but it's also been by choice - it's an intentional community. People have chosen to work together, look out for each other and support one another. This has made it into a stable and healthy community - not without significant problems of course! - and is surely responsible for the sense of peace we felt on the first day we arrived.

Dr Martin (the founder of Asha) is someone who lives life from a Kingdom of Heaven perspective (see previous post). Her passion for the poor and for justice is an inspiration and a joy to behold. We saw her on the Monday afternoon of the second week, just after she'd been in a meeting with various government officials and bankers to try to make educational loans available for slum dwellers. She'd managed to convince them, on the strength of the improvements that slum dwellers have succeeded in making in their lives and circumstances, that these loans should be available for them, as they are for other Delhi residents. In addition she'd managed to agree a 10% rate of interest (13% for everyone else), to be reduced to 9% if they're consistent with their repayments. She was over the moon! The day before I'd prayed specifically in a team prayer meeting about banks and God making resources available to Asha, without knowing anything about this meeting. I told Dr Martin about this and she immediately accredited her success to this!

Dr Martin lives for the poor - and for Jesus. Their success is her success, their joy is her joy and their pain is her pain as well. You might think that someone like that would feel more pain than joy and less hope than despair but the opposite appears to be the case - she is always bubbly and full of energy and is a delight to be around!

This is real treasure - joy in the middle of pain, hope in the middle of despair, light shining out of darkness! I was reminded while we were in Delhi of the intense pressure India is under at the moment, from poverty, over-population and shortage of resources to name just a few things. The church in India is also under great pressure - available figures suggest that India is one of the worst places in the world at the moment for persecution against Christians, mostly coming from Hindu extremists [there are probably much worse places though, from where such figures are less freely available!]. I was reminded as well, that diamonds are formed under great pressure. I had a picture of a great diamond, emerging from the heart of India and reflecting rays of light and truth across the sub-continent.

"The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it."
- John's gospel chapter 1, verse 5

Poverty and the Rat Race

The two most striking things we noticed about poverty in Delhi were:

1. The extremes of poverty
2. The extreme contrast between rich and poor

Delhi seemed to me every bit as materialistic, if not more so, than the UK - with huge advertising billboards everywhere, massive wealthy looking banks and rich and expensive shops, but it was obvious that only a certain percentage of the population - almost certainly a minority - could afford most of these luxuries. The impression was of a 2 tier economy - where those in the lower tier relied on street sellers and the cheaper bazaars, while tourists and the Indian elite could afford to shop in the nicer, more expensive places. The price differences were quite astonishing. 10 rupees (about 12 pence) could buy you an hour in a rickshaw (if you weren't a tourist!), 7 rupees could buy you a course of antibiotics to treat Delhi belly and 2 or 3 hundred rupees - maybe about £3.50 - could buy you a good quality set of clothes in a bazaar. In the expensive shops and emporiums though, prices shot up quite quickly so they started to look much more like the prices we'd expect to pay here in the UK. Nariman Point in Delhi is the fifth most expensive office location in the world (top of the list is the West End in London), beating New York, Washington and San Francisco!

For large numbers of people however, life seemed to be a struggle just to survive - in fact out of Delhi's 14 million population, about 4 million live in slums! The people came across as very industrious and very determined, which was reflected in the constant and chaotic hustle and bustle of Delhi city life. Everyone has a job to do and a living to make (at least everyone who's managed to find a job...) and they're all hard at it, doing whatever it takes. The impression is of a great writhing seething mass of humanity, with everyone trying to get to the top and/or stay away from the bottom. On the way back from Mussoorie we stopped for lunch at a service station during a busy period. There wasn't much in the way of a queue - just lots of people pushing and shoving to try and get to the bar and get served. I made it to the front but I still had someone behind me shoving his arm round in front of me waving his money and shouting, "uncle, uncle", to try and get the attention of the person serving! Meanwhile a bit further along I saw a woman and a child standing patiently at the front waiting to be served - consistently being ignored in favour of the louder voices behind them! As in much of life, but more noticeably so in India, the strong (and circumstantially advantaged) survive, the weak and unlucky end up dropping off the bottom...

All of this brought home to me more sharply the contrast between the kingdoms of this world and the Kingdom of Heaven which Jesus talked about. In the Kingdom of Heaven, "the first will be last and the last will be first". It's according to the principles of this kingdom, that those of us who profess to follow him are called to live. In the Kingdom of Heaven there is room for everyone, and no-one needs to worry about dropping off the bottom. It's a kingdom where people put each other's needs first, instead of competing for wealth and power - where everyone has a place and they all make room for one another. It's according to the principles of this kingdom that Asha is operating. Asha is there to say, "we need to make room for these people - to give them a chance, to see what they can become - instead of excluding them or forgetting about them". It's so good to see these kingdom principles being worked out in the lives of the people of Anna Nagar - to see what a difference it's made to their lives and community, not just to their physical circumstances. Hopefully in time, more of these people will get to know the King of this kingdom, of whose reign they have begun to be beneficiaries!

Holi

Holi is the Hindu festival of colour, which this year co-incided with the Easter weekend. We didn't learn much about Holi while we were in India, but for those who are interested, there's a wikipedia article about it here.

For the most part, the festivities seem to consist of everyone throwing coloured paint powder at each other, which seems like a lot of fun! - For a few days beforehand, little piles and also little bags of coloured powder can be seen on sale at market stalls. We were advised however - for our own safety - to leave Delhi over the Holi weekend, as the festivities can sometimes get out of hand, meaning the streets may not always be a very safe place for tourists!

We also saw evidence of Holi festivities in Mussoorie, and had water balloons containing coloured paint thrown at our bus a couple of times. When I asked to photograph a family of paint-covered Indians at our hotel they obliged happily, but then insisted on painting my face in order to include me in the festivities! Some of the rest of the team also got Holi-fied, but for the most part people were gracious enough not to throw it all over our clothes!

On our first day back in Anna Nagar I think some of the children were anxious that we may have missed out! More importantly though, it was another excuse to put red paint all over our faces!

Bargaining

Bargaining was fun although I don't think many of us were much good at it. I think Jono may have been the exception, having lived in Cape Town in South Africa, although perhaps he was just lucky! On one occasion he managed to get the price of something from 3000 rupees (about £36) down to 1600 just by saying repeatedly (genuinely as it happened) that he didn't want it! Unfortunately for the shop keeper he still didn't buy it! One of our team, on being giving the price of something responded with, "That's cheap!", at which a couple of us who heard it just groaned and exchanged glances!

You could bargain for most things, the exception being some of the government emporiums and more expensive shops where prices were marked on things. If you knew what you were doing, even a fixed price wasn't necessarily a fixed price, but it took someone more familiar than us with the culture to know when this was or wasn't the case! My best results were:

1. A rural Indian scene, hand-painted on black cloth - bargained from 2000 down to 1500 rupees.
2. A couple of souvenir elephants, hand-carved - down from 800 to 600 for the pair.
3. A leather wallet - down from 450 to 270.

As you can see, I was getting slightly better towards the end! If I'd had a bit more idea what I was doing though, I think about half the original asking price would've been a reasonable expectation, and this is assuming the prices hadn't been inflated even more for the benefit of us tourists! In one of the homes we visited in Ana Nagar, I managed to knock a mobile phone onto the floor and break it. I offered to replace it and my offer was initially refused but later taken up when I left it open. The phone in question was on sale new for 3000 rupees but Felix (our Indian guide) bargained it down for me to 1550!

It's also normal to bargain for tuc tucs, but this is hard work and they charge a lot more for western tourists! A big part of the art of bargaining is knowing when to walk away - or at least when to threaten to! Another part though, is knowing when someone is only faking it! There are plenty of tuc tucs around so if you say no to one you should usually be able to find another. I think though that most of the drivers have got the idea that they do better by turning down westerners who refuse to pay high prices, so that we tourists get the idea that we have to pay more if we need to get anywhere. It's also normal apparently, for tuc tuc drivers to charge more after dark, although without knowing what normal prices really are it's pretty hard to know what is and isn't reasonable. All this aside though, I think the most we ever paid for a tuc tuc ride was 40 rupees for 3 people, which amounts to about 50 pence, so it's all pretty relative!

Getting Around in Delhi

The main ways of getting around as a tourist in Delhi are:

1. Your feet
2. Auto-rickshaws (or "tuc tucs")
3. The metro

There are also public buses, which we never ventured on and which looked pretty scary. They were usually crammed with Indians who understood how the system worked, were not air-conditioned (I don't think) and nearly always looked pretty banged up.

We didn't get to use the metro either. We didn't have much time for exploring and I don't think it went anywhere we wanted to go. It's a very recent addition to Delhi and we're told is clean, quiet and efficient - in stark contrast to Delhi on the surface!

Getting to a shopping centre a few streets away on foot should be a fairly simple exercise but unfortunately this wasn't the case! We found we were constantly hassled by beggars and people wanting to be "friends", although this diminished when we went out in smaller groups. These "friends" invariably wanted to make suggestions about where we should go and which shops or shopping areas we should visit. We suspected that some of these people at least were on commission - being paid some sort of financial reward by shop owners for successfully luring in wealthy tourists!

On the last day but one we left the YMCA with the goal of visiting a particular shopping area and were way-laid almost immediately and told we couldn't go that way because there was a large demonstration taking place up ahead. We were also advised to visit an alternative shopping emporium. A demonstration did seem plausible as there was a "free Tibet" protest taking place at a stall nearby, but we were still sceptical. We ignored the advice, carried on, and were quickly met by someone else telling us not to go that way because there was a demonstration up ahead. At this point we decided to change route - Tearfund policy is to steer well clear of demonstrations for safety reasons in case anything turns nasty - and were quickly rejoined by the first man who cheerfully guided us again towards his selected emporium. As we discussed the possibility of going shopping tomorrow instead, we were informed this would be impossible as the demonstration would be there tomorrow as well.

The emporium we were taken to was very posh and ridiculously expensive and we left quickly without buying anything. Our next idea was to hire a tuc tuc to take us to the place we'd wanted to visit originally. The tuc tuc driver informed us that we couldn't get to where we wanted to go because of the demonstration (which we still hadn't seen any sign of) but he could take us to another shopping area instead. We relented and went with his suggestion. The second emporium was cheaper than the first one but still didn't have the things most of us were looking for and was a lot more expensive than the typical Indian bazaar prices which we'd been hoping to pay. A few of us found suitable gifts and souvenirs and, disappointed, we returned to the YMCA.

The next day, we were given some advice by one of the Asha workers about a particular shopping area near Delhi station which was worth visiting. In the afternoon (after the inaugaration ceremony) we left the YMCA to get a couple of tuc tucs to this area and were immediately told by the drivers that we couldn't go there because it was shut! The driver, again, wanted to take us to a shopping area of his recommendation and also wanted to charge us about double what we'd paid the previous day, so we gave up and decided to try again to walk to the area we'd intended to visit the day before. We eventually got there, there was no sign of any demonstrations anywhere, and we were able to get on with our shopping...

Indian Bureaucracy

India is a land of contradictions.

In many respects, most noticeably in regard to traffic, Indians are extremely laid back about rules and regulations, and yet they seem to have a love of red tape and procedures which would put most British bureaucrats to shame!

The first time I used the internet in the YMCA, I wandered straight in, the person in charge noted the time on the clock, noted it again when I had finished, I paid my money and that was that. The second visit was the same. On the third visit I was asked to fill in a row in a little book giving my name and room number, time started and my passport number! I protested that I didn't have my passport with me and hadn't needed it the last 2 times and was let off. Another user was made to return to her room for hers though! On the way out I was asked again for my passport. On my next visit I was prepared, went through the same procedure and this time was given a receipt as well for my efforts!

At mealtimes we had to go to the reception desk and specify our room number, in return for which we were given a little ticket with the room number hand-written on it. We then entered the dining room, which was a few metres away, and presented the ticket to the doorman before being allowed to eat. Why this needed to be a 2 stage process is anyone's guess! The YMCA also had a security officer on the entrance gate and another one on the exit gate, who wrote in little booklets every time a person or a vehicle went in or out. It seems doubtful they could've accurately identified every single person going through the gates, so what the purpose of all this was is a little unclear.

My most frustrating experience of Indian bureaucracy occurred when visiting one of the government shopping emporiums. This was basically a large crafts and souvenirs shop on 4 levels selling everything from knick knacks to large expensive artwork, textiles and furniture. To make a purchase it was necessary to take your item to a desk on the floor on which you found it, in return for which you were given a ticket printed out by a computer. You then had to take this ticket to the cash desk on the ground floor but you weren't allowed to take the item - this had to stay on the floor where you'd found it! At the cash desk you were given a receipt which you then had to take to another desk and wait for your item to be sent down to you! Unfortunately, my item got lost in the system somewhere. After waiting fruitlessly for half an hour, I left the shop to continue shopping elsewhere and came back and retrieved my purchase later!

It's difficult to fully understand why all this bureaucracy exists. A couple of theories we came up with were:

1. Perhaps it harks back to the days of colonialism. We Brits are famous for our bureaucracy so perhaps Indians felt that if we were doing it and being successful then they ought to do so as well, but never fully understood the motivations and reasons behind it so ended up doing it (even more than we do) just for the sake of it!
   
   
2. Maybe it's an employment thing. Delhi - in fact everywhere went in India - is crawling with people - 1.2 billion of them altogether! All of these people need jobs. In the UK we're very influenced by the bottom line, but in India labour is cheap and perhaps they are more friends and family motivated than we are. Perhaps finding jobs for people so they don't starve is actually more important than finding the most efficient ways to do things. All this bureaucracy (much of which seems needless), at least gives people a job and the illusion (unfortunately) that they are being paid to do something useful.

At Delhi airport on the way home, Emma worked out that we had to stand in 8 queues - although to be fair, some of these were very short to the point that they hardly really count as queues at all!

We queued for 15 minutes to get into the airport, 45 minutes to get our baggage security checked and another 45 minutes to check in our baggage (why this couldn't have been amalgamated with the security check...). The airport itself was chaos with queues criss-crossing the floor in all directions so that it was pretty difficult to work out which queue you were actually supposed to be in! People constantly had to make way for those who needed to get across the queues to get to where they were supposed to be going. After checking in our baggage we had to queue for another hour to get through passport control. There was then another short queue to get ourselves and our hand luggage security checked before we made it to the departure lounge. We then queued again to get our boarding cards checked, and twice more (briefly) to get a final security check on ourselves and our hand luggage before entering the plane. I was allowed to take a litre of water with me onto the plane though - at Heathrow there was a 100ml limit on all liquids. The guard cannily asked me to drink out of the bottle - which I probably could have faked if I'd been prepared for it but I quite liked this practical approach!

Traffic in India

The traffic in Delhi was like nothing else I've ever seen. There are traffic regulations but no-one seems to pay much attention to most of them, the exception being that most people do seem to stop at red lights. We did go straight through one at 3:45am on the way to the airport but the road was pretty quiet and the driver beeped the horn loudly in case anything else was coming so that was OK!

In the UK, people generally use their horn as a warning or sign of annoyance if someone else does something dangerous. In India, people generally use their horns when they are about to do something dangerous, are in the process of doing something dangerous, or just want to let other drivers know where they are in case someone else fails to notice them. The effect of all this is that everywhere you go you are constantly surrounded by beeping horns.

Some of the roads in Delhi have "No Horn" signs, but these are universally ignored. Many of the roads also have lane markings which are similarly ignored. People don't generally drive in lanes at all, they simply go wherever there's a gap, so a 2 lane road could have anything from 2 to 5 vehicles squeezed into it from left to right at any point and this constantly varies as the traffic ebbs and flows.

Overtaking maneuvres, particularly out on the country roads, can be pretty dangerous. There are a lot of slow vehicles, e.g. ox carts pulling loads of sugar cane, and it takes a long time to get anywhere so drivers get pretty impatient. Generally vehicles just pull out and hope nothing's coming, or if something is coming they pull out anyway and expect it to slow down or move to one side to make way! It's also fairly common to see vehicles driving on the wrong side of the road. This often happens where there's a central reservation and a driver needs to get somewhere a short distance away and can't easily get across the reservation to the other side. During our drive to Mussoorie, at one point the police decided to close our carriageway one car in front of us. Accordingly they diverted all traffic onto the opposite carriageway but there were no traffic cones like you'd expect in this country and both lanes of the opposite carriageway were still in use! The car in front of us was simply diverted into the second lane on the opposite side, with us following, and the vehicles currently using this lane just had to slow down and get out of our way!

Although all this sounds like (and is!) pretty chaotic, there are some saving graces. The main one is that traffic in India tends to be a lot slower than in the UK so when accidents do happen (which is pretty frequently) they tend to be less serious, although I've no doubt there are still a lot more serious traffic accidents in India than there are over here. Probably about two thirds of the vehicles we saw had obvious bumps and scrapes and a pretty high percentage looked like they'd been in multiple accidents. In the UK, when someone is in a crash they usually get the car fixed up again afterwards on the insurance but in India, no-one seems to bother - apart from maybe trying to straighten out the dent a bit with a hammer! I guess this is probably for financial reasons. Possibly also though, there seems little point in fixing a dent when the chances are you'll be getting more of them before too long anyway! While we were in India, 3 of our team were in an auto-rickshaw which got too close to another car and took off most of it's rear wheel arch facing. The rickshaw driver just kept going - he didn't even bother to stop!

In a strange sort of way, all this chaos is actually fairly chilled - once you get used to it. Since everyone drives like a lunatic anyway, most of the time no-one is particularly surprised or upset about it. In the UK people usually only beep when they're really angry, but in India they do it just to say, "Hi, I'm here - please don't squash me", or "Mind out - I'm about to get in your way". Once you realise this it's all a lot less nerve-wracking - although it's still fairly heavy on the ear drums, for the first few days at least! It's also all very practical. People aren't overly fussy about rules, they just get on with doing what they think they need to do in order to get where they're supposed to be going. In a strange sort of way it all works pretty well - except for the accidents of course!

The other scary and unusual thing about Indian driving is the amount of things and/or people that get crammed into or onto vehicles. We saw bicycles piled high with boxes - more than I would've ever thought it possible for a bicycle to carry. On 2 or 3 occasions I saw bicycles laden with 6 large butane gas cylinders - 2 strapped on each side and 2 on the back. I saw 5 people on one motorcycle - father, mother and 3 children, mother and girls all sitting side saddle. Only father had a crash helmet. Motorbikes often carry passengers - quite often more than one - and usually only the driver has a helmet. Dave saw 2 people on a motorbike carrying a large pane of glass, upright, sandwiched inbetween them! One sudden stop (very common in Delhi!) and there would be no pane of glass anymore and two motorcyclists showered with shards! Again this is all very practically motivated. I need to transport something (or someone) from A to B, so I make use of whatever I have available. If there's a risk involved, too bad - the job has to get done. This seems to reflect quite a lot of the Indian attitude towards life.

Apart from the chaos caused by too much traffic, another consequence is pollution. There is a constant haze around Delhi which doesn't block out the sun but is enough to stop you from getting much of a sun tan - although probably if you stood out in it for a long time without any sun cream on you'd eventually still get burned! This is apparently much better than it used to be. All public transport, including all the auto-rickshaws are now run on CNG - Compressed Natural Gas - which is much less polluting, and cheaper than petrol or diesel. It is lighter than air so disperses quickly, making it safer than conventional fuels in the event of a leak. It's main drawback seems to be that it requires more storage space than conventional fuels. For more details on CNG see here.

By the end of our time in Delhi we'd grown quite used to the noise and the chaos on Delhi roads. On returning home to Burley in Leeds, we were particularly struck by how quiet everything was! In fact it was more quiet than usual since most of the students were away for Easter, but all the same, there was hardly any traffic noise and no horns beeping anywhere! When I got home I lay on my bed for a while, listening to the silence ringing in my ears..

The Journey Home

On Saturday (29th) we were up at 2:45am to meet the others in the YMC lobby at 3:15. Having checked out, we left in the Asha minibus at 3:30 to go to the airport. Our flight was due to take off at 6:55.

We arrived at the airport at 4am and spent about 15 minutes queueing to get in. This was followed by 45 minutes queueing to get our baggage security checked and another 45 minutes queuing to check in our baggage (we'd already checked ourselves in online the day before). We then spent another hour queuing to get through customs. We then got to sit down for about 10 minutes before queuing again to check in at the flight gate and then again (briefly) for another security check on our hand luggage before finally boarding the plane at about 7:15. The take-off was delayed and we finally left Delhi at 9am Indian time. After all this though, everything went smoothly!

It was quite a relief to get back to a UK airport where everything runs relatively smoothly and efficiently (at least most of the time!). Our luggage was already on the carousels by the time we got to them. We said our goodbyes and waited 15 minutes for a Heathrow Express train into London, caught the tube to Kings Cross and 30 minutes later we were on the train back to Leeds.

It was a nice contrast being able to cover the 200 or so miles from London to Leeds in 2 hours and 20 minutes as opposed to the 10 and a half hours it had taken us to cover four fifths of this distance from Delhi to Mussoorie a week previously!

Inaugaration Day

Well I'm back in the UK now, but will try and finish off this blog for the last couple of days. I also hope to add a few more entries on specific aspects of Indian life that we encountered and maybe to tidy up some of the existing blog entries which I wrote in quite a hurry.

Friday (28th) was "Inaugaration Day" - this consisted of a ceremony in the slum, celebrating the completion of all our work on the resource centre! There was a lot more to it than we were expecting. A large tent was erected at the entrance to the slum and one of the Delhi government ministers was invited to witness the occasion. Paula (our team leader) was declared "guest of honour", and we were all seated on a platform inside the tent and draped with garlands of flowers as we had been on the day of our arrival. Various speeches were given and some of the children performed song and dance routines. We were extremely impressed by the quality of these performances - especially an Indian dance routine performed by Nitika and Puja - 2 of the girls we'd got to know in the slum. Paula gave a speech and we were asked to perform a song which we'd prepared for earlier. We'd been asked to do something non-religious for this occasion, hadn't really had any time to practice and had struggled to think of anything we were all familiar with. Apparently the previous team to have visited, in a similar predicament, had done "The Wheels on the Bus" and it had gone down fine! Accordingly we decided to do "If You're Happy and You Know it"! After the quality of some of the other performances though, we felt a bit silly performing this, but no-one seemed to mind too much although there were a few strange looks I think!

After this we went back into the resource centre and spent a long time saying goodbye to the children and taking photos. It was all very emotional with at least one of our team ending up in tears. The kids kept asking us if we were going to come back and getting replies like, "maybe" and "you never know"! It would be great to go back at some point - maybe I will - but India is a long way away and an expensive place to get to and there other things I would like to do with my life and my days off work in future!

Later in the afternoon we tried to go shopping - I say "tried" because getting to where you want to go in India, especially if you're a tourist and it involves shopping, seems to be no mean feat! We ended up at 2 emporiums we didn't really want to go to and didn't buy very much although I did get a rural Indian scene, hand-painted on black cloth which I was quite pleased with. I'll save the rest of the details of our shopping trip for another blog entry on this subject!

Catching up

Haven't been able to get to a computer for nearly a week now due to lack of time and lack of free computers at the YMCA.

Have to try and catch up very quickly as we have a team meeting in 25 mins and then I'm for an early bed. Had a very long day yesterday and we're catching a plane home in the early hours of Saturday morning so not much time for sleep tomorrow night.

Mussoorie was great, plus we saw a lot of Indian life on the 10 and a half hour bus journey there! Very busy roads, mostly single carriageway and full of ox carts carrying sugar cane to the refineries, plus all sorts of other things. Hence a very slow journey full of lots of hairy overtaking manoeuvres as is the norm in India! Mussoorie itself is in the foothills of the Himalayas with some beautiful views, plus we visited a large waterfall with a cable car ride to the bottom, which is a very busy Indian tourist attraction. We were the only white people there and several Indians asked to have their photos taken with us!

On Monday we were back in Anna Nagar slum again, doing some more painting work on the resource centre. The murals we've been asked to paint are coming along great - we've all discovered hidden artistic talents which we didn't realise we had!

On Tuesday afternoon, we did some songs and games with some of the children from the slum. I think they were all from the Bal Mandal - the children's group which looks after lane hygiene and various other community concerns. I had to teach 20 - 30 children - far more than I was expecting - how to make an Origami flapping bird! Amazingly, with some considerable help most of them got there and were pretty pleased with their creations. The down side though, is that the birds wear out fairly quickly after a lot of use - the paper tears and the wings stop flapping so there were a few disappointed children. Unfortunately I didn't have time to teach them well enough so they would remember how to do it again. :(

On Wednesday we visited the Taj Mahal, which was awesome. We also went to the Red Fort which is also in Agra, just across the river from the Taj Mahal. We left Delhi at 7am and got home again at midnight after a 5 hour bus drive in each direction.

Today we were back in the slum again, finishing off our creations and tidying up a bit. We also went for another walk around the slum and were invited into some more houses and asked to pray for a couple of the women we met. In the afternoon we did some more songs and games with the kids and I did a very short talk for the children about the message of Easter. They weren't sure what day Easter was (it was last Sunday, the day after the Hindu festival of Holi), but apart from that they seemed to know the Easter story about as well as I did! I asked them what happened to a Hindu after they died, expecting them to talk about reincarnation, but the first answer was that they burned the body, then got rid of the ashes, then had a 7 day mourning period (or something - I can't remember all the details), and eventually we got to, "and then we go to heaven" - which wasn't the typical Hindu answer I was expecting!

We've seen a lot of desparate poverty over the last few days and the worst of it certainly hasn't been in Anna Nagar. Anna Nagar consists of cramped ramshackle dwellings, it smells, there are lots of flies, but it has drainage, a clean water supply and electricity, and the people have access to basic medical care and education. Elsewhere we've seen people living on rubbish heaps, picking through rubbish, sleeping on streets, begging and doing anything they can to extract money from richer Indians or from tourists. We've been advised that it's generally best not to give money to beggars as many of them are professionals and involved in or victims of organised crime and if you give to one you will likely get mobbed by many more. None of us have felt entirely comfortable with this I don't think but we've also all felt overwhelmed by the need and not known how best to respond to it so we've tended to shut it out rather than to try and engage except with the people we're specifically here to help. I'm still not sure whether this is the best policy but it certainly seems like the easiest one at the moment...

Going to Mussoorie

Yesterday (Thursday), half our team were struck down with diarrhoea and/or sickness and were unable to visit the slum. By the end of the day everyone was affected apart from Dave and Duncan. Dave's been hit today so Duncan's the only one to have survived! I was a lot better yesterday having taken some antibiotics provided by Asha.

The plan today was to set off at 7am to Mussoorie for a weekend break. This is about 290 km away or anywhere between 6 and 12 hours drive depending on conditions. We're expecting the roads to be busy because as well as being Easter, this weekend is also Holi - an important Hindu festival. At 6:15am though, we got a knock on our door from Paula (our team leader) to say she'd decided to cancel the trip as there didn't seem to be enough people well enough to travel. However, after breakfast and having gathered the troops we discovered that most people were making a fairly good recovery. As it currently stands, 10 of us will be heading off in about 20 minutes time. The other 4 (Dave, Paula, Liz and Hazel) will spend the weekend in Delhi, trying to keep out of the way of the Holi festivities!

Yesterday we went back into the slum and spent the morning doing some more painting. We've painted the walls of 3 of the rooms in the resource centre - a fairly basic but functional building used for a variety of purposes, e.g. as a meeting place for the women's and children's groups. On Wednesday, those who made it to the slum made a start on the murals we've been asked to create. In the room I'm working on we have a space theme. Yesterday I painted a giant multi-coloured space rocket which seems to have gone down very well with the children and the rest of the team!

In the afternoon we joined in an Asha prayer meeting. These are organised by Asha for anyone in the slum who wants to join in. There were maybe about 50 of us altogether including us and the women and children. To start with, Felix (our guide) strummed away on the guitar for a bit while the women and children were arriving. Jono (one of our team) banged away on a double ended bongo-thing which had appeared from somewhere. Then one of the girls got hold of the bongo and it suddenly came to life! The women and children worshipped God for a while in Hindi and we joined in as best we could, mostly by clapping! Then one by one, some of the women gave testimonies of the things God had done in their lives which mostly consisted of answered prayers in response to illnesses. Afterwards we discovered that most of those who come to the prayer meetings are not actually "Christians" - but they believe in Jesus and worship him alongside their Hindu gods. Asha is not directly involved in preaching the gospel to these women but Asha does have relationships with various missionaries who visit the slums from time to time in a more explicitly evangelistic capacity. We couldn't deny the work that God is doing in these women's lives, but it does seem a shame that at this time most of them are still hanging onto their Hindu gods.

Delhi Belly!

Today I have the runs so am resting up and taking it easy for the day! It's given me a chance to catch up on my blog from yesterday. Emma's also not feeling too great - she seems to have a bit of a chest infection - and is up in our room trying to sleep it off.

I seem to be spending a lot of time on the internet. Fortunately it's only 10 rupees (about 12 pence) for 15 minutes! I think I'll be changing my google password when I get home though - I don't think these PCs are very secure!

I'd like to write more about our experiences but I've covered most of the important stuff so far I think and have been on the PC for nearly an hour now so I think I'll just leave it there and write another update (if I can fit one in) tomorrow.

Anna Nagar

Today we were taken to Anna Nagar slum - where we will be working - and introduced to some of the people.

Asha have been working in Anna Nagar for a number of years and as a result conditions have improved significantly. The first thing I noticed (others also commented on this) when we entered the slum was that it felt very peaceful.

[By comparison, the slum we walked through briefly the day before had been manic. There just seemed to be people everywhere and we were followed by swarms of children who all wanted their pictures taken. It had all been very overwhelming although very friendly, but I did discover afterwards I'd been the butt of a few "jokes" - the children like to shake your hand but some will offer the left hand to see if they can catch out an ignorant westerner - the left hand is considered dirty for reasons I won't go into but you can probably work it out!]

By contrast however, the slum we went to today seemed very peaceful. Still lots of people and they still showed an interest in us and were very friendly but most of them were happy to carry on going about their business. They made us feel very welcome without making us feel overwhelmed.

We were welcomed into the resource centre and once again draped with marigold garlands! This time we met the Mahila Mandal (the women's group - we were told there were 2 in this slum) and also the Bal Mandal - the children's group who also have responsibility in the slum for maintaining standards of cleanliness and looking out for the needs of other slum dwellers. The Mahila Mandal and the Bal Mandal are organised on a democratic system, with an elected president, secretary and treasurer and have various responsibilities. The Mahila Mandal seems to be mostly made up of Lane Volunteers - each volunteer is responsible for her lane in the slum, which usually consists of about 25 dwellings, which as far as I can tell generally equates to about 150 people. The Mahila Mandal also includes a Community Health Volunteer, who is trained and provided with free basic medical supplies by Asha. She is allowed to charge 2 rupees per patient - about 2.4 pence - which she is allowed to keep for herself as a salary. This is capped at 125 rupees - or about one pound fifty - but I'm not sure over what time period. The Bal Mandal have similar responsibilities to the women, e.g. looking after lanes, making sure standards of cleanliness are maintained and looking out for anyone in the community who is particularly struggling to take care of themselves. We will hopefully learn a bit more about their activities in the next few days. The children go to a government school in the mornings then come back to the slum and carry out their duties as well as receiving some supplementary education from Asha as they are only able to go the poorest and least well equipped schools.

One of the most powerful impressions so far has been how happy everyone seems to be! Although still living in squalor by normal western standards, their situation has improved drastically through the work of Asha. More importantly though, these people have developed a sense of self esteem that they didn't have before and have learnt to live and work together in very tight-knit community! There was such a strong sense of love and compassion between all the women and children we met. They all seemed to look out for each other and seemed very pleased to see us. They all seemed extremely positive and proud of their achievements and I didn't see any bickering between any of the children.

After we'd been introduced, we set to work painting 3 of the rooms we will be working on. None of us are trained decorators but we did the best we could and several of the children were allowed to join in which they seemed to enjoy! Juni, a 13 year old lad (although he looks younger), took it on himself to try and teach some of us Hindi. He had enough English to make himself pretty well understood and would repeat a phrase to us in English and in Hindi and get us to repeat it back to him. I was rubbish! I could remember a phrase for a couple of minutes and then it would just disappear out of my head! I had nothing else to relate it to and I couldn't see it written down - to me it was just a collection of sounds and I found it extroardinarily difficult to hang on to! The heat and still being quite tired also probably didn't help!

After lunch we split into 2 groups - one group stayed to do some activities with the children and the other group - my group - was given a tour of a small part of the slum, during which some of the Mahila Mandal invited us into their houses. Anna Nagar is unusual in that with the help of Asha the residents have been successful in gaining land rights for themselves, which means that unlike in many of the slums, they can't be kicked off the land at a moment's notice. Because of this they've been able to build more permanent dwellings for themselves, using brick and plaster, mostly rooved with a mixture of corrugated iron and plastic. The layout of the slum is very ad hoc - the "lanes" twist and turn all over the place and it's not obvious where one starts and another ends. The lanes are very narrow and the rooves low. There are low-hanging (insulated - at least the ones I noticed) electricity cables everywhere. It's not an easy place for a tall clumsy person such as myself to negotiate! The "houses" tend to be basically square or rectangular, but are also pretty ad-hoc. The first house we visited - and this is fairly typical, had one bed in it and maybe enough floor space for 2 or 3 more. 6 people lived there! - a woman, her husband and 4 children including 2 late teenage daughters. High birth rate is a big problem in most of the slums in Delhi, but Asha have found that when people are given access to proper medical facilities, and as their circumstances and their self esteem improves, the birth rate tends to fall quite sharply. In Anna Nagar now, most new families stop at 2 or 3 children at most.

The women take very good care of their houses - everywhere we visited was very clean and tidy. When you're living in such a small space you have to organise it well to make the most of it! Everyone was very welcoming and enthusiastically told us their stories about their role in the slum and the difference that Asha has made to them and to the community. It felt like such a privilege to be there - in a place that is so poor economically and yet seems so rich in terms of human warmth and compassion!

Introducing Asha

Yesterday we visited Asha for the first time.

They picked us up from the YMCA in a minibus and drove us to Asha's main headquarters which also doubles as a health and resource centre, where we were priveleged to meet Dr Kiran Martin who founded the Asha project in 1988. We were given a brief introduction to Asha's work and provided with refreshments, then taken to see a resource centre in one of the slums which has recently been decorated by other volunteers, to give us some idea of the kind of work we would be expected to produce! It was painted in nice bright colours, chosen by the slum-dwellers and decorated with murals of sea creatures, dinosaurs and I forget what else. Then we went back to Asha for lunch.

After lunch, Asha was visited by a government minister from Ireland. Ireland has an embassy here in Delhi and through the embassy gives financial support to Asha's work, so the minister had come here for himself to see first hand what they are doing. When the minister arrived he and we were welcomed to the centre and afterwards into the slum behind the centre by the members of the Mahila Mandal - a group of women who live in the slum and take responsibility for hygiene, health and community concerns. We were draped with garlands of marigolds, then taken to a resource center within the slum where we met the rest of the Mahila Mandal and were told more about their relationship with Asha and some of the work they have recently been doing.

One of the women told us very enthusiastically (through Kiran Martin who was interpreting), about a serious problem they'd had with illegal alcohol being sold in the slum. Some of the men had become alcoholics and were squandering their families' incomes. One woman at least had been driven to suicide by the pressure on her family situation. Even children as young as 11 were becoming heavy drinkers. The women went to the police station and demanded that they do something about it. The police were aware of the problem but had been taking back-handers from the alcohol sellers rather than taking action against them. The women all sat on the steps outside the police station and refused to move until the police did their duty! The police agreed but said they would need the women's help, so the women showed them where all the illegal alcohol was being sold from and the police dealt with the problem. There is now no alcohol being sold within the slum!

They also told us that a couple of days ago one of the water pipes had stopped working. The women asked the local officials to sort out the problem but they were ignored so they went and sat outside the responsible government office and again refused to move until the problem was fixed. They informed the office that if it was not sorted out by nightfall they would come back with their husbands and all their children and do the same again! The problem was sorted out before nightfall...! Hearing this story made me feel very emotional. I was really moved by the pride that these women felt in their achievements and in having discovered, through the work of Asha, that if they organised and worked together they really could make a difference!

Prince David

In the evening of Day 1 (Sunday 16th) we were visited at the YMCA by Prince David (yes that's his real name!), Tearfund's regional adviser for India. He told us a lot about Tearfund's work, most of which I can't remember now. By that point it was a real struggle to keep my eyes open having slept for only about 3 of the last 36 hours! We were very impressed by his character though. He carries a lot of responsibility and is in touch with a huge amount of misery and suffering- yet he came across as relaxed, friendly, humble and compassionate and it felt like a joy to be in his presence.

I'm going to have to try to hurry this up a bit now as I'm getting seriously behind on my blogging!

Discovering the Local Area

On arrival at the YMCA we checked in and were given our rooms. This all took some time. By the time we got to our rooms it was about 8am and we'd agreed to meet for lunch at 12:30 - we weren't going to get much sleep. I spent about 20 minutes trying to erect a mosquito net with nothing really available to hang it off. I eventually managed (sort of) with the help of some string and a couple of pictures hanging on one wall, plus the overhead room fan, as anchor points. We crashed!

I woke up several times, quite disoriented and worried about sleeping in in spite of my alarm (which I've mis-set a couple of times recently...). On one occasion I was sure I heard a Muslim call to prayer, which confused me completely! In the morning, Paula said she also heard it and that may well have been what it was - there is a reasonably sized Muslim population in Delhi, despite most of them having been moved to Pakistan during the Partition.

After lunch we decided to go out for a walk around the surrounding neighbourhood. One of the first things we saw was a man lying covered up in the middle of the pavement. A few feet further on was a woman curled up asleep on the ground on a traffic island. Behind her head was a city sign of some sort carrying the words - "Stay inspired". I was struck by the juxtaposition - she certainly didn't look as though she was feeling very inspired! A few yards further on and we were mobbed by beggars - some women and a lot of children. They all homed in on Paula for some reason and Dave had to step in to the rescue. After this we weren't pestered too badly but quickly got used to the attention. We didn't give them any money, as we'd been advised, but either avoided making eye contact or just politely and firmly refused. In India there are many career beggars who work either for themselves or in organised groups. There are of course also many genuine ones but it's difficult to know the difference. If you give to one you have to be prepared to be followed and more persistently pestered by others.

The area we walked round, near the YMCA seems to have a lot of bank headquarters and I was struck again by juxtaposition - this time between wealth and power and those who have nothing or next to nothing trying to eke out a living on the streets just below. I was also very conscious of my wealth and of the power that it gives me - so much freedom and so many choices that these people don't have. No wonder the beggars find us so attractive!

Arrival

Could hardly believe how smoothly the journey went - until we got to Heathrow!

We discovered the plane was heavily overbooked and there was some doubt as to whether we would actually be able to get on the plane or not! In the end, we all got upgraded tickets to "World Traveller Plus" because there was no room left in "World Traveller" (i.e. economy) class - except for David and Paula - our team leader - who we had to leave stranded at the other side of customs waiting to see whether they could find enough room on the plane for them! They were eventually told, with 15 minutes to go before the departure gate closed, that they had found them seats in economy class so they were able to come with us!

When we got to Delhi, after we'd picked up our lugggage I went through customs first to try to find a bank machine while some of the others were cashing travellers cheques on the other side. I was immediately struck by how conspicuous and out of place I felt - it just didn't feel like a western airport and I was obviously someone out of their element who didn't really know what they were doing or where they were going. I needn't have worried. I was offered a taxi ride which I politely refused and was left alone after that. Having failed to withdraw cash from a machine I found our ASHA contact and waited with him until Paula and the others arrived.

Leaving the airport we were first surprised to discover that it was light. We'd landed at 4:55am but by the time we left the airport it was about 6:30 and the sun was coming up. Everything was very dusty. The selection of vehicles we saw was very different from what I'm used to. They mostly looked very old-fashioned - from the taxis to the military truck that rolled by. We all stood on the corner outside the airport waiting for our guides to re-appear with transport. There are 14 of us - 4 guys and 10 womeon - and we were obviously beginning to attract some attention, particularly from some young men who had begun to congregate around us.

The guides re-appeared with a couple of minibuses and a man appeared and offered to take my luggage. I assumed he was a member of Asha staff and gave him my case and rucksack which he proceeded to load onto the minibus. He then re-appeared and demanded that I tip him! I then discovered he wasn't Asha staff at all, he was one of the young men who'd gathered. Others were also trying to load up our luggage for us, sometimes in spite of protests, in the hope of making some quick cash. I gave in and gave the guy a pound coin - I didn't have much else in my pocket - and he promptly demanded another one! I should've refused straight away but I felt a bit flummoxed and unused to all of this! I asked Paula for help, who was also busy being hassled, and then turned the guy down politely but firmly!

On the way from the airport to the YMCA where we were to stay for the 2 weeks, I was struggling to keep my eyes open after such a long journey and no sleep so wasn't able to fully take in my surroundings. What I did see reminded me a little of Turkey though - wide roads, lots of construction, but everything very dusty and a lot of it looking quite dilapidated - although more so than Turkey I thought. I didn't notice any beggars and was disappointed not to see a single cow as these have sacred status in India and I was told to expect to see them in lots of random places e.g. the middle of the road.

Prelude

In 3 days time, on Saturday 15th March, Emma and I will be going to Delhi.

We're going on a 2 week visit to the Asha project, which works with slum dwellers to help them improve their living conditions and gain better access to basic facilities.

We're going with Tearfund - a UK-based Christian relief and development charity - as part of one of their "Transform" teams.

Despite the name, we're not primarily going in order to "transform" India, Delhi, or even the slum that we'll be working in. Most of our duties will be fairly menial and could quite easily be carried out by local residents rather than by Europeans (and one South African) who've flown half way across the world in order to be there!

The main reason we're going is in the hope that we will be "transformed" by the experience.

I've called this blog "searching for treasure" in homage to some of the comments Jesus made comparing treasure on earth with treasure in heaven. Here's a brief selection:

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field."
- Matthew chapter 13 verse 44

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
- Matthew 6 verses 19 to 21

"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
- Luke 12 verses 32 to 34

When Jesus talks about "treasure in heaven", does he mean that we should give up being materialistic in this life, so that we can be showered with gold and possessions and be as materialistic as we like in the life to come? - I don't think so! I think Jesus is calling for a change of heart that begins to appreciate what true riches really are - riches that will last, both in this life in spite of our circumstances, and on into the life to come. He's looking for people who are rich inwardly - who really appreciate what life and love are all about - rather than people who are rich outwardly - who live on the surface and only for themselves!

That last verse I find particularly challenging - "Sell your possessions and give to the poor" - not a command that very many of Jesus' disciples - certainly not this one - seem to take very literally! "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also". Where is my heart? Is it with Jesus? With the destitute and dying and all those, rich or poor, who he cares so much about? Or is it locked away in my own selfish little bubble? - worrying about my riches, my comfort, my well-being - hedging and protecting what's mine in a needy greedy world?

What would happen if I really did sell my possessions and give everything to the poor? Did Jesus expect all of his followers to do this? The evidence seems to be that not all of them did and certainly most of them don't now! What does Jesus require of me? What does my heart require of me? How will I respond to the poverty I see in Delhi?

I believe that treasure can be found in unlikely places - amid the poverty and squalor in the Delhi slums for example! I expect to find people who have nothing, but are richer than me, as well as those who use their worldly "treasure" - their time and resources - to store up for themselves treasures in heaven - to "gain friends for [them]selves, so that when it is gone, [they] will be welcomed into eternal dwellings" (Luke 16 verse 9).

Maybe it might kick me out of my apathy and encourage me to start taking Jesus a little more seriously - and maybe I might become a little richer as a result!