GapBreakers arrive in India

COUNTRY: India
PROGRAM: GapBreak
PROJECT: Teaching
WRITTEN BY: Phoebe Laing

After 24 hours of travel, which included losing Fiz in Mumbai International Airport and finding her again in the domestic terminal, we arrived, exhausted, at the small airport in Udaipur. There we found our group leader, Pankaj, waiting for us with a big smile and a small van (without seatbelts, obviously). Initially we were surprised by every cow wandering across the road, but now they've become as normal as hair-raising overtakes and casually driving on the wrong side of the road. The share house is a small three storey block of flats (including an open roof with an amazing view of the sun setting over the hills) with bunk beds in each room; so far we've shared the house with four English girls, an Austrian, and most recently a girl from Switzerland.

Our first week was largely spent in orientation, getting to know the city, the school and the boys' home where we teach. Now, after just two weeks we know our way around the markets, and have figured out how to squash ourselves into public rickshaws- just 10 rupees or 20 cents for a twenty-minute ride! The markets have a great variety of shops, with lots of hippy pants, long skirts, leather-bound books and tempting silver jewellery. One of the best parts about India is the way that there's always something happening on the streets, whether it's donkeys fighting, a group of people chatting as they sell their vegetables, or an elephant standing in the middle of an alleyway.

We were all quite impressed by the tribal village of our school - despite very basic conditions, such as one-roomed houses with rocks covering the floor and no running water, the people are almost always smiling. The children are ridiculously cute, from the very first day they were running up to hold our hands and calling us Didi (big sister). Coming up with lessons to keep them interested has been a bit of a challenge, as 5-year-olds get distracted very easily, but the Hindi we've learnt during our lessons, such as "don't be naughty", "come here" and "be quiet" has been very useful!

At the orphanage we teach slightly older boys, and play 20 minutes of games with them at the end. The boys are lots of fun, although it is difficult to maintain discipline when you can't help laughing at their cheekiness. Our greatest success in games so far has been Fiz, who fell facedown in the dirt while trying to catch one of the boys during tag.

We've all settled in well, and in a way it's hard to believe it's only been two weeks. Watching the sun set from the roof, the rain fall on the impressively lush green fields, and the locals playing volleyball just across the road is a very peaceful way to pass the time - we've all been doing a lot more reading and much less phone time! Even yoga at 5:45am is bearable when the view of the surrounds is so beautiful. We're very excited to see what more India has in store for us, especially as this weekend we're off to Pushkar and travelling to the Taj Mahal next week for Shoumyaa and Annie's birthday!

Phoebe

Six former strangers reflect on time in Mumbai

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

It is with a mix of emotions that I sit and write the fourth and final blog for the Mumbai team, because it means that our program is officially over!
What a month it has been!

Like a high school science project, six complete strangers from around Australia were dropped into the metaphorical beaker that was our tiny guest house, exposed to one of the most full on cities in the world, and left for a month to see what developed! This could’ve easily ended in disaster, but instead relationships were formed in this short time that we will never forget.

This week the nursing students got the opportunity to spend a few days with Dani, Charishma, and I at SEC, and it was touching to see the way that they too were moved by the beautiful children and staff at the school.

On Wednesday the six of us visited two other SEC schools located across Mumbai. This was a very tough day for us all. Particularly our visit to Antop Hill SEC, as most of the children from this school come from families below the poverty line, so the outcome is often bleak for these children. Some of the children have no parents and travel from orphanages to the school each day, some live in tiny slum houses and others have to deal with the illness of their parents, often AIDS.

Working at Santacruz SEC, we obviously knew that there were children with very sad stories and low socioeconomic backgrounds, yet Farhine the physio who we worked most closely with had deliberately never gone into too much detail with us. By the end of the day we all felt like we had been kicked in the guts time and time again and pretty much all just wanted to cry!
The attitude and commitment of the staff across all three SEC’s is absolutely admirable though, doing their best to re-educate parents about what their child is able to achieve despite their disability, ensure there is regular sponsorship for the children and constantly seeking out donors for resources that are essential for the children. One thing that shocked us was the modified wheel chairs, that were a metal frame with a plastic pool chair mounted on the top.

When we shared our experience of the day with Farhine, she told us that when she first started at Santacruz SEC she went home and cried everyday because it was just so overwhelming and heartbreaking. She said that her mum had encouraged her to leave and just go and get another physio job, but Farhine didn’t want the children to have to go through the process of getting to know someone new and her efforts be in vain so she stuck with it and now the bond she has with the children is just amazing. It was reassuring to meet such a passionate therapist and also know that she too once felt how we had!

Seeing the other SEC schools has sparked passion in all of us and the girls are planning ways of fundraising money for SEC to sponsor children and buy resources once they get back to Australia.

I spent two months fundraising before coming to Mumbai and managed to raise $1000 dollars to donate to the school. It was so rewarding to be able to give to children that needed it so much and also surprising how far money goes over here. With the money raised, I was able to sponsor three children for a year, supply 6 children with a months supply of diapers, and buy three pieces of equipment for the therapy room, including a standing exercise bike, floor mat and a kit box that has different activities for working on fine and gross motor skills. I look forward to working with the other girls on my return to Australia to see what we can achieve when we really put our minds to it!

It was very hard saying goodbye to the gorgeous little people that we had spent the last month working with, we all knew we would become attached but never knew it would be that tough!
Yet we can go away with the satisfaction of knowing that we made a difference. A major highlight was that on the last day, Rohit, a boy whose arms were affected by cerebal palsy, managed to tie his shoelaces independently after Dani had been working with him.

Rachael, Lauren and Johanna farewelled the staff at Sanjeevani private Hospital and had a nice goodbye lunch with Dr Datar.
On Tuesday night we were all invited over to one of the doctors houses for dinner. Indian families eat dinner very late compared to western standards, and when dinner was finally served at 11:30pm, and we’d all had about 4 vodkas, we weren’t really that hungry anymore but more worried about still trying to act professional and not say anything stupid!

On Friday our close group was divided, some staying in Mumbai and some flying to Delhi to see Delhi and Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. It was very sad to say goodbye after becoming so close, but good to know we can always catch up when we all get back home.

I think I can speak on behalf of everyone when I say that our time in Mumbai has completely exceeded our expectations. The city, our placements, the people we have met and the food have all been amazing and this has been a month we will never ever forget.

"No time to wash hands" in Mumbai

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

Well as I sit and write this we are officially into our last week of our program in Mumbai! What an amazing and crazy time it has been!!

Week 3 brought the usual expected madness, along with some very unexpected obstacles as well! Lauren, Rachael and Jo spent the week shadowing Dr Nicol Dada who works in a range of hospitals and clinics around Mumbai. The girls could not get over the difference between a public hospital and a private hospital. On a visit to Oshiwara Hospital, a gynaecological hospital, they could not believe that only one consultation room had curtains to conserve the patients privacy, that two patients were getting operated on at the same time and that latex gloves were sterilized and reused rather than disposed of.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the clinic offers antenatal care for pregnant women and reportedly anywhere up to 400 women turn up and wait for a check up. There is no system in India that requires you to receive a referral from a GP to see a specialist, meaning that the hospital system sees a vast rage of conditions; from serious complaints that you can just not fathom, to much milder ailments that could most likely be dealt with by a GP or a nurse. This makes the hospitals extremely busy and the girls were shocked but not really surprised when Dr Dada said “There is no time to wash hands”.

Hygiene standards are definitely different in the public hospitals to that of the Sanjeevani private hospital, as Rachael and Jo found out when they got splattered by a bloody cloth that was thrown across the operating room. This combined with other unhygienic conditions was all too much for Rachael and by the end of the day she passed out at the site of urine on the floor and had to have a little rest in the chair until she recovered. This week the girls will be working with an NGO who provides health care to communities in the slums.

Dani, Charishma and I have had another great week at SEC day school. Dani and Charishma have been very excited to see progress in the students they have been working with and touched to know that some children have been going home and practising the techniques they have been teaching them. SEC is so much more than a school, the commitment of the teachers and carers make it more of a community, where the children look out for each other and complain about being sent home at the end of day. It is very sad to know that once we leave the children we have been working with for a month will not receive any occupational or speech therapy until the school is able to hire someone else.

We will be very sad to say goodbye to our new beautiful little friends and miss seeing their faces each day. In our last week we will spend a day visiting two other SEC sites in Mumbai and comparing the facilities and level of education offered.

On Thursday morning at 3:30am I woke up to Rachael shaking me awake and saying “Helen, wake up, the apartment is flooding!”. As she hurriedly led me towards the bathroom, I could see that yes, the apartment was indeed flooding and there was water everywhere! In the bathroom there was water bursting out of cracks in between the tiles. The most concerning thing though was that on the other side of the wall, conveniently placed, was the mains switch board to the guest house, which had water cascading out of the bottom of it! We managed to turn all the power off and the water, after a run in with the pigeons who were living in the maintenance cupboard.

The CEO’s driver was sent to help us clean up the water and once all the water was gone, he casually flicked all the power back on from its position on the saturated wall saying “water, electricity- no problem!”. We had a very loud conversation about the fact that we thought it probably WAS a problem and kept the power off until it could be looked at by someone a bit more qualified in the morning! We found out the next day that the reason for our random late night feature waterfall was that we had accidently left the hot water switch on. Not realising that not only does the switch not have something that stops it getting hotter and hotter if left on, the pipe was also made of PVC so we had successfully melted the pipe! Thank goodness for safe hot water services!

Friday was a public holiday in Mumbai. We took a ferry to Elephanta Island and visited the islands Hindu temples which were carved out of rock and dedicated to the god Shiva. Along with the caves, the island is also home to hundreds of monkeys. Despite having so much to look at, we once again found that we were the main tourist attraction, with Indian families trying to get us in the background of their pictures and asking us to pose with their children!

Saturday was both Australia day and Indian republic day. Charishma, Dani and I got up early to go and watch the Independence Day ceremony at the school and then we all decided to head down to Colaba to Leopold’s Café to have a few drinks to celebrate our own national day! So after taking the usual 3 hours to get all 6 girls ready and out the door, and an hour train ride, we arrived at Leopold’s to find that unlike Australia, India celebrates its national day by banning the sale of alcohol across the country! We were devastated! But we still had a great day at the markets and our livers thanked us for it the next day!

On Sunday we went to the national park and hired bikes and pedal boats and enjoyed the day away from the busy streets and crowds. We finished off our week with dinner at Juhu beach and reminisced about our time in Mumbai.

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!