Seelampur

Today we were driven to Seelampur, one of the most distant slums from the Asha office. It has its own lab facility.  It is rather an impressive building as Asha's Community buildings go - very spacious with a lovely central courtyard:

I understand the women employ a gardener to look after the plants!  The community of 30,000 is mainly muslim.  I saw the computer room where some lads were surfing as I arrived.

These are the friendly Asha staff who helped me with the clinic:

The month of Ramadan has just started so I saw a lot of people complaining of feeling faint - including one pregnant lady.  They have no food or drink from sunrise to sunset - in this heat!  It's not easy!  I also had a number of patients with respiratory illnesses.  I was able to spend time with patients explaining their treatments, something that they don't get from Government hospitals which are swamped with patients.

After the clinic we had to make our own way back by metro - but it was quite a walk to the station.  Hence my first ever ride in a cycle rickshaw. 

It was on a quiet road with mainly cycle and autorickshaws being the other traffic so I felt reasonably safe.  I never fancied trying one on roads with lorries and buses buzzing past.  Mind you we did meet an ox cart!

We arrived at the station and Ayesha showed me Delhi Metro cards and how to use one.  May be worth investing in one for 50 rupees and using it when we come.  It would certainly save the long queues for tickets.

I then took an autorickshaw to the office, keeping the price down to what the Asha staff told me it should be!  Ignore the meter...everyone else does.  It wasn't on zero to start anyway!

Later I took another autorickshaw back to the flat as all the drivers had disappeared by the time I finished.  Bianca was brave and took the bus that I discovered yesterday!

Peaceful day

No pics today - mainly cos I've done so little!

Freddy picked us up for church this morning which was great.  They were saying goodbye to a couple of members who were diplomats and had been recalled to their respective countries - Ivory Coast and Ghana.

Freddy invited Bianca and I to lunch - finishing up what he had made for the men's meeting yesterday when some men from his church came round to hear about and pray for Asha.  We were very happy to mop up the leftovers which were delicious.  We then sat down and watched a Bollywood film - "Wake up Sid" which was actually very good.  We missed our chance to visit Qutab Minar - I blame Bianca!

We're home again feeling sleepy...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Day off - sightseeing!

I had a lazy morning - a bit of a lie in and a read of Charles Dickens.  After lunch though I headed out into the big wild city!  I waited 20 mins for a bus, gave up and took an autorickshaw to the nearest metro stop at Chattarpur:

The Metro is clean, fast and air-conditioned! But it can get crowded.

Just a short wait for the train, and then I was whisked into Old Delhi.

As soon as you get out of the station there are crowds of people, cars, autorickshaws, cycle rickshaws, and the people start to hassle you. "Can I help you Sir?" "Where do you want to go Sir?" "Cycle rickshaw Sir? Red Fort, Spice Market...?" But I pressed on through the crowds, ensuring pockets and bags were well zipped up!  Finally managed to battle the short walk to the Red Fort...

...with its impressive walls and gateway:

I grabbed myself an audioguide and wandered round in the heat and humidity.  The grounds are extensive and the buildings impressive, at least what's left of them after various raiders have ransacked them (Persians) or shot at them (British).













This is impressive - the building where Emperor Shah Jahan used to hold court.  He's the guy who built the Taj Mahal as a memorial for his wife.

And this is where the ladies used to hang out.  Pretty isn't it?

After exploring the Fort it was back to the bustle of Old Delhi to fight my way back to the Metro.

The Metro was packed and on the short journey back, 2 trains I was on got "evacuated" due to technical problems.  Indian crowded trains are different to the London Underground where people tend to stand aside and let people off first.  In India it's more like the driving: everyone just pushes in the direction they want to go!  I managed to get the bus back to the flat - for 5 rupees (6p) for about 4 km.

Welcome to Trilokpuri...

I went into the Office first thing where I was asked to see one patient by Dr S.  While there I had 2 more quick consultations with Asha staff!  Then Freddy drove me to Trilokpuri - a slum on the other side of the Yamuna river.  We passed the Commonwealth Games village to get there.  Apparently the flats there are being sold for  $500,000 each!

This is what greeted me on arrival at Trilokpuri:

I had quite a long clinic in Trilokpuri.  I hope I was useful.  I saw all sorts from 2 months to 80 plus, and from depression to dyspepsia!  This was my consulting room today:

Ayesha and Sweeta helped me in translation etc. Ayesha was feeling under the weather too.

This is the remains of my lunch - a trusty cereal bar, 2 bananas and a Pepsi supplied by the CHV's!

Suitable for my weak western stomach!

Then I met the students 

at various stages of their careers, from Neetu, who only heard 2 days ago that she had got in to a Sanskrit Honours course, and attended College today for the Freshers Orientation Day

(she told me she had enjoyed it, seen her classroom and made friends with some of her class mates), and these two who had just qualified and are looking for jobs.

The girl did Sanskrit Honours and is planning to take a secretarial course, and the lad did mechanical engineering.  

Then I met the lovely smiling kids who after a long chat decided that they wanted to sing and dance for me so I am experimenting in uploading a video so I can share it with you:

Here's a photo of the kids:

Then I met the ladies who were about to start their weekly prayer meeting.  They shared what God had done in their lives and I shared from John 17.

OK, the first movie seems to have worked so lets try another - the ladies singing a worship chorus:

By the way, my flatmate Bianca is also now doing a blog.  In case you hadn't noticed there is a link under my profile which takes you there.

Kalkaji...

Today I did a morning clinic in Kalkaji.  When I say "morning", it went on until gone 2pm!  It was busy - we saw around 45 patients.  I visited Kalkaji 2 years ago when I sat in with Lily, a Nurse Practitioner who was running an antenatal clinic.

Kalkaji has grown to be a huge slum and apparently has a population of 40000 - the same as Yeovil!  This is the view as you approach the Community Centre Building:

 The centre itself is the only one in Asha I have been to that has a little courtyard.  It's actually quite a pretty building:

 Here are Lily and Dr R who led the clinic.  We discussed some of the more difficult cases as we went along.

One of our patients was a six day old baby with a fever:

When the clinic had finally finished and I had demolished a couple of trusty cereal bars for lunch, I met the five Community Health Volunteers, one of which had worked with Asha for 22 years and another for 20 years.

We discussed how life had been before Asha:  All the houses were poor quality and small.  No children went to school.  One of the CHV's had lost her own 11 month old son to diarrhoea because she didn't know what to do.  Women were afraid to be delivered in hospital. Many died in childbirth.  Many children were malnourished and died. Measles was common and severe.  We compared that with life now:  They estimated that only about 5% of houses are poor quality by their estimation.  All children up to age 15/16 are in school with about 10% staying on to year 12. Few children die and measles is only seen occasionly and is mild due to near 100% immunisation. Few are malnourished. Nearly all women deliver in hospital and maternal deaths are rare.  Most people have jobs.

Then I met the Bal Mandal girls (boys attend school in the afternoon).  They were once again welcoming with their smiles and we had a brief chat.

Unfortunately my visit was cut short as the driver had come to collect me early for some reason lost in translation.  I was quite sad to leave them so soon but they gave me a lovely send off with smiles and waves and cries of "Goodbye Sir"!

As I got back to the flat earlyish I went for a stroll to some of the further shops, where Freddy told me I could print some photos.  I found it and the staff were friendly and helpful (the shop had A/C :-)) and I got some 7x5 inch pictures for 12 rupees each (15p)  They took an hour to do so I wandered further and found an air conditioned Mall with an even bigger supermarket on 3 floors.  So I bought some more bits including some more Tiger biscuits and wandered home via the photoshop.  I was desperate for a shower and cup of tea - Assam today - which is still my favourite.

More amazing students!

This morning I was in the clinic again with Dr S.  This is the last clinic with her before she goes for a few days break.  I saw 2 young children this morning who had come in from an orphanage in Gurgaon in the south of the city.  The children there are all children of sex workers.  Dr S told me later that they have to allow the children home once a year with their parent(s).  Last year one girl went for a home visit and never came back.  There are great concerns about where she is now.  There seems to be little oversight of care of children here...very disturbing!

Dr S is beginning to use some of the new drugs on our list now - although it is not yet finalised.

This afternoon was the second Celebration for the new students.  As yesterday there were about 50 students there.  Vinola gave a brief introduction.  She is very good with them.

Again several of the students gave a speech including Sanju who had good English and had spent time chatting with me beforehand.

 Here are some others:

 One of the second years talked about her experience of starting College and encouraged those just starting out.

The rest of the team from Mayapuri came...

Hannah and Jenny (1st and second left) remembered me from both 2010 when they were both teaching English in Tigri, and also 2008 when we briefly visited the slum they were decorating!  The other important bit of information is that Jenny (2nd left) accepted Rupert's (far right) proposal of marriage last week outside Humayan's Tomb!  Jenny thought she was just posing for a photo as Rupert filmed the whole thing!

Hannah gave an inspiring talk explaining about Peter's experience when he got out of the boat and began walking on water towards Jesus, but then began to sink.  She suggested that when the students begin to feel overwhelmed in the future, they should do what Peter did and look to Jesus as He holds out his hand to lift them up.

And then it was my time to repeat the message I gave yesterday:

After a Q&A session the students were asked to give a short explanation of something they liked or appreciated about their Asha worker.  These guys and gals have worked their socks off over the last few weeks and need a bit of appreciation!!!  Here they are appreciating David:

The Tigri students were there! It was lovely to meet them and Sunita who came with them.  One of them, Rekha, who wants to be a Policewoman, shouted after me when I left: "Sir....Sir!"  She introduced herself as the sister of Suhil.  In 2010 our church back home had raised some funds and had some leftover from the project costs.  Suhil was starting a course in Animation studies and was struggling because he could only gain access to a computer at College for about 20 minutes each day.  How can you study Animation like that? So Freddy asked us if it was OK to use the money to buy him a computer.  We were only too pleased to say yes:

And here is his beautiful younger sister asking a question at the Q&A session:

Now I'm home and being air-conditioned!

New College Students...

I'm writing an early morning blog today as I didn't get time to write one last night.  Yesterday I spent the morning in the clinic with Dr S again.  The new drugs list is progressing as we are gathering information about cost and availability etc.  We should be able to finalise it for approval and adoption next week.

Then in the afternoon, we had the first of two gatherings of the students who have been successful at gaining admission to University from the slums this year.  The full list is now virtually known.  Competition for places has been very tight this year and the process has been time consuming and taxing for both students and Asha staff. There are about 100 students who have been admitted but that doesn't include those who are admitted to private institutions as the deadline for those is not yet passed. So about 45 students gathered together to celebrate...

...along with Asha staff, a British team working at Mayapuri at present, Bianca, my USA student flatmate, a second year student who you will recognise from a previous blog, and Yours Truly.  After  a brief introduction several of us took it in turns to give motivational and encouraging speeches.  So here is Reikha from Jeevan Nagar, whose tiny home I visited, mugging up on her notes, which she didn't refer to at all later.  She has just completed her second year Sanskrit Honours degree and shared a little about what it was like for her when she started.  She went on to share some tips from her experience.

A couple of students introduced themselves and shared their experiences and obstacles they had to overcome

And then it was Bianca's turn, translated into Hindi by the new Asha staff member, Ayesha.

Next up was me.  Now bearing in mind that Rekha had just been talking about when she was sitting there 2 years ago, someone from the UK had got up to speak, and she could still remember every word (!) you can imagine I was feeling just a little pressure!  So I introduced myself and said I was from the UK.  I asked them if they knew what was about to happen there in a few days.  They knew - the Olympics.  I then went on to talk about races and how when you're racing you don't look back but yours eyes are fixed forward towards the prize.  I nicked one of Freddy's texts from Sunday - Phil 3v13.  Anyway I was told later that it had gone down well so you never know - someone might remember in 2 years??

Then the floor was open to the students to share.  The first to volunteer was Roopa from Kalkaji slum, who I had had a long chat with before the celebration started...

They all expressed their gratitude to Asha and many told their stories.  Some were quite choked up as they shared - and not just the girls!  They really do feel grateful for this opportunity!  Several of them talked about how their families had to be persuaded to allow them to stay in education and were grateful for the time Asha staff had spent persuading parents.  One lass talked about her experience of Pushpa, one of the Asha nurses who went to College with her on repeated occasions to try and persuade the College staff to allow her admittance.  The College Administrator told Pushpa "you are trying to get a student admission here, not bartering for vegetables in the market"!  But her persistence paid off!

Lastly, I need to tell you about this lass who got up to speak, but was so choked up she couldn't explain her story...

So Soni got up, gave her a cuddle and explained on her behalf:

As part of the complex admission process there is a form to complete which must be photocopied.  Only the original is acceptable to gain admission.  Amongst the stress and mountain of papers, this lass had mislaid the original copy and her admission was therefore not accepted.  That evening, Soni went round to her house and prayed with her about it.  The very next morning the original form was found and her admission process proceeded!

Later today,   I hope to meet the second half of this group of students, when I will be speaking again...

By the way - a little tip in case you haven't discovered:  If you click on a photo it enlarges it and lets you see a slideshow of all the pics in that blog.

Also, I am completely unashamed in reminding you that you can give money to support these students through College by clicking on the Asha link on the right under my profile.  Asha needs all the support it can get to see these students through.  £450 is all it takes to pay for a full year of College expenses.  Any small amount will help!