The honeymoon is over in Mumbai

Swimming lessons in Mumbai

COUNTRY: India - Mumbai
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Community Health Work
WRITTEN BY: Helen Foster

When we arrived in Mumbai we were told there are four stages of culture shock:

1. The honeymoon period
2. Irritation
3. Adjustment
4. Mastery

The thing about a city like Mumbai however, is that she doesn’t play fair. Just when you think you’ve mastered your new surroundings she likes to remind you that you’re still indeed a tourist.

You don’t know when or how she will strike – all you know is that it’s inevitable.

This week we were feeling much more confident than when we arrived in Mumbai two weeks ago – we could now navigate our way around the busy city and had become familiar with the people and processes at our placements.

But as always, just when we thought we’d made it to stage four she struck again – and on more than one occasion.

The first time occurred while I was on the hunt for some cones of henna so I could lean to do henna tattoos myself. One afternoon our rickshaw pulled up at a set of traffic lights and as usual there was an abundance of beggars asking for money and people selling fruit and other souvenirs. A man who appeared to be selling cones of henna approached our rickshaw. “Perfect!” I thought to myself. I managed to barter him down from 20 rupees each to 10 and excitedly purchased two cones.

Once we drove off I felt the cones and thought, “hang on a minute!” I opened up the packages and to my dismay realised that what I thought was henna was in fact peanuts wrapped up in newspaper! Our driver was laughing hysterically. He turned around and between fits of laughter, said in broken English “usually, less than one rupee!”

The level of poverty that exists in India is truly distressing – there are beggars everywhere! It’s an overwhelming problem and one that at times, seems impossible to resolve. So, although I had just been ripped off (again!), I laughed it off and gave them to some street kids on my way home. Here, it’s the least you can do.

The second incident occurred on the weekend when we decided to catch a bus to Lonavala, a hill station three hours east of Mumbai. India is renowned for its lack of public toilets and this occasion was no exception. During our drive to Lonavala, one of the girls, lets name her Lucy*, was busting for the bathroom. I asked her how she was going and she admitted “I am fantasizing about going to the toilet in my jumper and throwing it out the window!”

As we were coming into Lonavala, much to Lucy’s* relief, the bus driver yelled out “something something something... LONAVALA!” We cried out for him to stop the bus. We jumped off only to quickly realise we were alone and in the middle of a busy three-lane highway. We all sensed that perhaps this wasn’t the right stop. We called Farooq, the coordinator of the guesthouse and he told us that we had indeed gotten off the bus four kilometres too early!

Once we did finally make it to Lonavala we went to two ancient Budhist caves – Bhaja and Kharla. Kharla cave was next to a Hindu temple and the number of people making the trek up the mountain to pray to that particular god was astonishing! People pushed and struggled up the steep path carrying gifts of flowers, coconuts, chickens and goats to offer to the god.

Apart from those typical tourist moments however, things have been great. Dani, Charishma and I have really settled into our clinical placement at SEC. Admittedly, before commencing our placement I was concerned that I would not get much relevant experience. Instead I have learnt more in the past two weeks than I have in the past two years of my speech pathology degree.

This week however has been particularly challenging as I’ve been left to run all the speech pathology sessions alone. Obviously, I was terrified but the school has been very supportive – their goal is not to alienate those with disabilities but to empower them. I have seven children that I see each week, working on a number of issues such as dyslexia, articulation issues, social skills and memory and comprehension

Dani and Charishma are absolutely inspiring with the occupational therapy work they are doing with the children. The objective of their placement is to teach students with disabilities basic motor skills to enable them to enter a mainstream school.

Meanwhile Rachael, Johanna and Lauren have enjoyed their second week at Sanjeevani hospital, shadowing the doctors and nurses and learning more about health care systems in India. One of the highlights for them was getting to observe open heart surgery. This week however, the girls will move to a public paediatric hospital.

Anyway, that’s about it from me. Overall it’s been an interesting and exciting and crazy week – but that’s why Mumbai is so unique. Stay tuned for the rest of our adventures!