Bye bye India.... we had a blast

We arrived back at BACA safely on Thursday night, to welcoming hugs from happy (and relieved!) families. We may have left India, but the impact that the girls made on many children during the week there will remain, as will the memories that they have of their time in India.

Thank you to everyone who followed the blog and do email me at sophie.gaston@aldridgefoundation.com if you are interested in attending a celebration of the girls' achievements at BACA on Thursday 1st December 2011, where we will also raise money for the OSCAR Foundation.

Finally, a big well done to Ruth, Lily, Tatiarna, Alicia, Amy- Lou and Riziki for what they have achieved and their exemplary attitude throughout- they are all a credit to their families and BACA, and we are very proud of them!

A video insight into the Cuffe Parade slum community

Going Gaga for Ashok and the OSCAR Foundation

On Tuesday, at the crack of dawn we headed to the Royal Bombay Yacht Club for a once in a lifetime opportunity- a sailing trip from the Gateway of India, as the guests of Mumbai native Neena. It was stunning and a fantastic way to watch the sun rise. The girls were shown how the boats work, and when appetites were fully worked up we headed to the Yacht Club for a leisurely breakfast. 

After breakfast, we headed to a slum in Cuffe Parade- this experience is very difficult to put into words, and the photos will hopefully give you some insight. It had a profound effect on us all and we loved it. We were visting the totally inspirational Ashok and his OSCAR Foundation, which aims to engage children in the slums through football. It was an awesome experience- we read to and played games with the children and then the girls joined in a football practice at Oval Maidan. Whilst there, I was approached by a group from U TV, an Indian TV channel, who were putting together a music video for Lady Gaga's song 'Baby I was born this way'. The girls and the children from the OSCAR Foundation sang lines from the song, and it will feature on U TV and You Tube in November as part of an interview that she will be doing with Shah Rukh Khan (THE Bollywood star). After all of this (!), we were the guests of Cassem and his lovely family at the Islam Gymkhana on Marine Drive, for a delicious dinner.

Only in Mumbai could you have a day like this!

Today has been our last full day and it is also Diwali. We've had a great day sightseeing around Mumbai and joining in the festivities. We have been to Elephanta Island, the Hanging Gardens, Marine Drive/ Chowpatty and the Jain Temple. We have just been out to see the Diwali fireworks and had a final dinner at Khyber restaurant in Fort, and have also done a serious amount of power shopping. Finally, the girls have just completed reflective interviews of their whole experience. We are all in great spirits- it has been a brilliant week and the girls have been a credit to their families and BACA.

On Friday when we are home will update the blog with a final post and a selection of photos and film clips of the trip.

WE LOVE MUMBAI!

Dreamz, rickshaws and Bollywood dancing

We had a bit of a lie in yesterday morning and it was definitely for the best, bearing in mind what was to come. At 10 o'clock we left by minibus to travel the entire length of the city to a place called Malad. On the way we got a first sight of some of Mumbai's most famous landmarks; Marine Drive, Chowpatty, Haji Ali and the Nehru Planetarium.

We arrived at Dreamz orphanage and were met by 40 children in a tiny room with washrooms at the back- their place for sleeping, eating, playing- and studying. The children were aged between 2 and 17 and had been there for varying amounts of time, and for different reasons. A two year old had lost both parents in a car crash only five days earlier, and many of the children had been found begging on the streets. The BACA girls were fantastic all day- reading to the children, learning Bollywood dancing from them and playing games. At lunchtime we took them all out for a lunch of a Gujarati thali meal- joined by 20 more boys from the boys home across the city. The photos will hopefully convey some of the experience that we had....

In the evening we took rickshaws for a milkshake by the sea in trendy Bandra. Ruth was responsible for hailing them, and did an excellent job in difficult circumstances. Ms Hogg, was not so lucky and was overcharged by 8 times the right amount for her ride. After the shakes we got the hour and half long taxi ride from North to South Bombay. Very tired and sweaty, we decided to eat at the hostel, which we did despite a (very hot) power cut that lastest 4 hours.....

Today we have been in a slum in Colaba visiting the totally inspirational OSCAR Foundation, teaching the students and playing football with them. More to follow... but the day also including the BACA girls being filmed for a Lady Gaga music video. Only in Mumbai!

First night in the "Maximum City"

The main event yesterday was the journey from Pune to Mumbai, which because of the Diwali holidays was a lot easier and less traffic jam-based than it would normally be.

We arrived at our accomodation in Colaba in the early evening and after checking in we made our way to Cafe Mondegar (a favourite with locals and tourists) where a lot of sweet and salted lime was drunk. Then we did our first big tourist sight - The Gateway of India. The atmosphere at the Gateway was electric as many people had gathered there to celebrate the start of the holidays and the early evening mist made it even more stunning than usual.

After negotiating our way through the massive crowds we headed to Leopold's which is a cafe made famous in the book Shantaram. Like Mondegar's it is a popular place for locals and tourists and does a great variety of Indian dishes. Despite there also being English food available the girls went straight for the Indian menu with Tatiarna declaring that "I'll eat anything as long as it's not English". Amy-Lou demolishing an entire tandoori chicken was also a high point.

Despite it being well passed all our bedtimes, there was still time for a bit of shopping on Colaba Causeway, and Ms Hogg showed off her haggling skills to great effect by securing a great deal for scarves for all the girls. Unfortunately karma came back to bite her today when she got ripped off by a rickshaw driver, but more of that in the next post.

We'll let you know about today's incredible experience at the orphanage in the next post. Below are some pictures of our first night in Mumbai...

Bye Bye Pune. We loved you.

It's been such a hectic couple of days that it's hard to know where to start. We have just spent our first night in Mumbai which was very exciting, but first let's rewind to the rest of our time in Pune.

Last time we blogged we had just arrived at Vidya Valley school and had been treated to a fantastic assembly complete with singing, dancing, speeches and the national anthem. The rest of the day was wonderful  - we were given a tour of the school by a young boy called Oscar and we had a delicious thali lunch cooked by the school principal Nalini's sister, Marianne. It seems that the whole of her family are involved in making the school the brilliant place that it is.

On Saturday we visited a government (public) school in the morning that is being improved by a local charity. The school has been running for just one year and was set up to provide a good education for children who might otherwise not have access to one. Again, the welcome we were given was overwhelming and we were all so impressed with what we saw. The children and the teachers were clever, talented, friendly and, most noticeably, incredibly well-dressed (see photos). Not only did they put on a show of singing and dancng for us, they had also made us Diwali cards and bought us each a red rose. When you think how little the school had in terms of resources you couldn't fail to be impressed and moved.

Our guide for the day, Janell, then took us to a South Indian restaurant in the centre of Pune called Vaishali, which is really popular with locals. Here we ate dosas (lentil pancakes), wada (spicy potato patties), and idlis (rice cakes with tomato curry). It was delicious and luckily everyone was feeling very adventurous so we ended up having a really authentic meal. Our hosts were very impressed!

After that we took a trip to the cinema to get our first taste of Bollywood. The film we saw was Mujhse Fraandship Karoge. It has a classic, predictable, cheesy plot but we all really enjoyed it (apart from Ms Hogg who managed to sleep through the song and dance numbers). The film is about 4 hours long so we decided to leave halfway through (the films are so long they have an interval in the middle).

Next stop was Pune's main shopping street, MG road. The girls shopped like naturals and picked up some fantastically colourful scarves and kurtas which they are planning to wear at the orphanage today - we will post photos this evening. Finally we headed to the outskirts of Pune for a meal at a beautiful outdoor restaurant. Again the girls impressed their hosts with how much they enjoyed the local food - this time a combination of kebabs and curries.

On Sunday morning we boarded the bus back to Mumbai feeling a little tired but like we had got as much out of Pune as it is possible to in 3 days. It is a wonderful city, very laid-back and friendly and the people we met treated us so well. Mumbai will be a different proposition, but more on that later....

We made it!

After a fantastically comfortable flight with Kingfisher (yes, they do the beer as well!) we landed in Mumbai yesterday to scorching 35 degree heat and all the sights and smells of the city. On the way we had our first taste of a Mumbai traffic jam and took in some of the city's wildlife (goats, cows, donkeys and even monkeys).

On the way to our first destination, Pune, we stopped off at Lonavala which is a hill station that is famous for chikki sweets made from nuts and sugar. Delicious!

We arrived in Pune in the evening where we were met by our wonderful hosts Nalini and Vivek from Vidya Valley school. We settled into our traditional family home where we will be staying for the next 3 nights, and then we went out into the town for our first authentic Indian meal. On the menu was dhal, rotis, kebabs and some wonderful traditional desserts - gulab jamun and malai kulfi.

We are writing this from Vidya Valley school where we have spent the morning watching a highly entertaning assembly and taking part in lessons with the local students. Ms Hogg has already been developing some new ideas for BACA assemblies based on what she has seen!

We won't have regular access to a computer but we will update the blog when we can. However, for regular updates on our every move please follow us on twitter at www.twitter.com/honorwf