I had a new adventure… and a very, very interesting experience, that I feel deserves a post by itself. Last Tuesday, Sebastian and I went with our co-worker Swati to the very southern part of the Dharavi slum, in the northern parts of Bombay. It’s usually not in the area that the Family Services Centre cover, but they work with a group called Chirag, that works with people that are HIV positive, their families, and on community level in order to inform people and create awareness and acceptance towards people with HIV. We visited their organisation where a lady told us about her organisation. They were in a big rectangular room, where they also had some people working, sewing. It was a little hard to hear at times because of the sewing machines in the background.
After that we did some home visits where FSC sponsors the schooling of some of the children to HIV positive parents.
I won’t go in to further detail about the work process, but instead tell about the Dharavi experience. As the headline says, Dharavi is the biggest slum in Asia, and is a maze of dark alleys and dusty streets. The buildings are a mix of multilevel concrete houses built tightly next to each other, and simple iron shack housings. Whole families usually share small, small one room apartments, some of them smaller than some people’s bathrooms.
But the society works “normally” anyway. Most people have electricity (with cables hanging here and there over and between the buildings. Inside many people have electric kitchens and fridges. Most houses seem to have a TV and some type of stereo system. You see people with cell phones and motorcycles.
After that we did some home visits where FSC sponsors the schooling of some of the children to HIV positive parents.
I won’t go in to further detail about the work process, but instead tell about the Dharavi experience. As the headline says, Dharavi is the biggest slum in Asia, and is a maze of dark alleys and dusty streets. The buildings are a mix of multilevel concrete houses built tightly next to each other, and simple iron shack housings. Whole families usually share small, small one room apartments, some of them smaller than some people’s bathrooms.
But the society works “normally” anyway. Most people have electricity (with cables hanging here and there over and between the buildings. Inside many people have electric kitchens and fridges. Most houses seem to have a TV and some type of stereo system. You see people with cell phones and motorcycles.
There are various small shops everywhere. There are tailors, smiths, electronic stores selling DVD players and VCR’s, computer stores, snack bars, barbers, clothing stores selling western style jeans, places you can reload your prepaid phone card, and so on and so on, I even saw a jewellery store. All this in the slum!
Of course there’s full of poverty there, and people suffering. Some of the big problems are also the small spaces, and the hygiene. People live so crowded, and there are sewer lines running down the streets. I saw rats run around that were bigger than kittens (and that was just the body, add the tail on top of that).
While there, a terrible monsoon rain just pored down, flooding some of the streets. At parts the puddles were so deep that I almost got knee deep in water. The rain seemed to have no end.
As with many other parts of Bombay, the area was full of various smells. The outside had its smell of pollution from the cars and rickshaws; the inside smells from the sewers and the garbage, but also the smells from the various food places, the fruit market and the fish market. The smell could turn from good to bad, and back again, really fast. You never know what smell will wait for you around the corner.
I felt like an explorer, going to places where no white man has set his foot before. Lots of people stared at us everywhere we went, more than usually. Random men wanted to shake our hands, women smiled at us talking amongst them selves, young people wanted to touch us as we pasted them and made some cheering (or mocking) noises, and children were full of innocent childlike curiosity.
A young boy that saw us started to yell to his friends in Hindi from the top of his lungs “The English sirs are coming, the English sirs are coming! Come out, come out!” (Swati translated).
All looks and comments weren’t friendly though. I’m also not sure how to interpretate all the laughs ether. I guess there were various reasons for them.
I got later that expected and we were all exhausted when we got home.
Well, these are all the impressions that I remembered, and I don’t know if I did the experience any justice, including my mix of emotions and thoughts. It was far more than I could fully express in words. It needs to be seen ...and even better – in person.
Of course there’s full of poverty there, and people suffering. Some of the big problems are also the small spaces, and the hygiene. People live so crowded, and there are sewer lines running down the streets. I saw rats run around that were bigger than kittens (and that was just the body, add the tail on top of that).
While there, a terrible monsoon rain just pored down, flooding some of the streets. At parts the puddles were so deep that I almost got knee deep in water. The rain seemed to have no end.
As with many other parts of Bombay, the area was full of various smells. The outside had its smell of pollution from the cars and rickshaws; the inside smells from the sewers and the garbage, but also the smells from the various food places, the fruit market and the fish market. The smell could turn from good to bad, and back again, really fast. You never know what smell will wait for you around the corner.
I felt like an explorer, going to places where no white man has set his foot before. Lots of people stared at us everywhere we went, more than usually. Random men wanted to shake our hands, women smiled at us talking amongst them selves, young people wanted to touch us as we pasted them and made some cheering (or mocking) noises, and children were full of innocent childlike curiosity.
A young boy that saw us started to yell to his friends in Hindi from the top of his lungs “The English sirs are coming, the English sirs are coming! Come out, come out!” (Swati translated).
All looks and comments weren’t friendly though. I’m also not sure how to interpretate all the laughs ether. I guess there were various reasons for them.
I got later that expected and we were all exhausted when we got home.
Well, these are all the impressions that I remembered, and I don’t know if I did the experience any justice, including my mix of emotions and thoughts. It was far more than I could fully express in words. It needs to be seen ...and even better – in person.
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