Rickshaw in Delhi!

And the odyssey begins! A bit late updating... because we are staying in the heart of Old Delhi - right in front of the Jama Masjid, with an amaaaaazing rooftop view of the Jama Masjid and the Red Fort (pics to be added soon)... national monuments right in our backyard! But lacking either street names, or internet connectivity - where electric cables hang down the middle of the road, and you jostle for space with cycle rickshaws and street vendors as you wend your way down the tiny alleyways (which I have already managed to get lost in, plunging deeper and deeper into a warren of narrowing alleys, until I eventually figured out there was no way out but to turn around and retrace my steps without getting run over by a cycle rickshaw :p)

We've had our first day working with our respective organisations! Not before a first day of drama involving rava dosas and near death experiences. How - you may well ask - we shall leave it to your imagination. Let's just say the North Indians don't make dosas quite the same as we do in the South.

But finally... we have got to meet the kids we're working with, and what an experience! For our time in Delhi, Robin is leading a team with Will, Jessie, and Juliet working with the organisation Kutumb, Catherine H. is leading a team with Miriam and Catherine T. working with the organisation Janmadhayam, and Suchitra is leading a team with Nkoko and Theo working with Music Basti at the Ummeed Home for Boys. Each team has had such a unique experience. At Ummeed Home for Boys, we had a class full of tiny Energiser Bunnies on a sugar high. They cartwheeled, did animal imitations, they hung off trees, off our shoulders, bounced around with a level of energy we had rarely ever encountered before. It's a fascinatingly progressive school environment - the kids choose to attend which classes interest them, and wander in and out according to whether we've managed to hold their attention. So really - the onus is on us! Lesson flagging a little bit in levels of engagement and entertainment? Yup, the kids would have wandered out before we can blink an eyelid or do a 'freeze where you are' game... So much excitement, so much newness, so much India :)