The Best Day... ever?!

Billing something as such, before it has started, may seem a recipe for disaster. It wasn’t disasterous but it did end with me refusing to speak to my own mother on the ‘phone, because I felt ‘dead’…

Now lets start at the start.

I fell asleep at half past midnight. At half four I woke, picked up my camera and a wad of cash and skipped merrily out of Sangrajka – Today I would see the sun rise.

Bombing up the highway in a taxi, I reflected on how many taxi rides I’d taken recently and how un-ecofriendly this is compared with my usual ‘I do not drive’ stance…

I ran into Sahar aiport to find Nedah, Sarah and Olivia sitting in a circle on the floor (how Indian) – apparently they’d been there an hour - oops. I grabbed the first two and stole them back to Five Gardens. What a great place for people to first see in India – large old houses, lots of greenery – kind of like Jo’burg gated villas… but a really nice version!

We watched it get light and then I let them get some rest. I had breakfast to eat, Roabin had bubbles to blow and and I had to do my first interview whilst all this was going on. Chomping on ‘Bhurji’ I was told that

“What you are doing is at best useless, and at worse harmful”

Having said that, this very person is the one who’s giving me access to Sindhudurg. I think what he actually meant was

If you don’t do what I tell you to do… THEN – What you do will be at best…

The interview continued in the park as it got light – there’s some great photos, and it’s all recorded on my shiny new Dictaphone.

PIC OF BLOWING BUBBLES

In the afternoon I went to get some hints and tips on researching, and on rural India, from my old pals at the Mumbai-based NGO, Saathi. They're a great bunch and were very happy to help, and during the course of this it dawned on me that this is something that Ned, Sarah and all other International Health students should get before they go off. So – there might be possibilities of a little earner for Saathi here!
By evening, I felt dead. I dozed in my favourite place in the world – the balcony of Sangrajka house. At 11, we reached the train station where I tried to force Anand onto the wrong train as it started moving. Fortunately he was too clever for me, so we got on the right one – sleepy time!