The past few days have been so busy that I have not had any time to even get on the web. We took a 1 hour ferry ride across the Arabian Sea to visit the Elephanta Caves and learned about various Indian gods and some of the history of the Persians and Indians. It was very interesting to hear different beliefs and worldly viewpoints. The caves had magnificent artifacts that have been around for centuries (See photos) and are still in relatively good shape.
In the afternoon we visited the largest slum in Asia, Dharavi. Having tourist visit the slum was very new and many of us felt it may be inappropriate to be walking through as tourist. Needless to say, there were mixed reactions with our presence. Upon de-boarding the bus, we were immediately struck with the heat, humidity, and a foul, pungent odor. The slum is a city inside the city of Mumbai and has over a million people calling it home. Although the majority of the residents do not acknowledge Dharavi as their home to outsiders, as they are ashamed of telling outsiders where they live, which gave us further credence that we may not be well received by members of the community.
We walked through narrow passages and witnessed how this community operates. Surprisingly, the community operated businesses that forged aluminum, plastic, and they also made and sold clothing and pottery. With garbage in every area of the slum, it was amazing to see how simple and efficient certain small businesses ran within the community.
After an hour, we started receiving a lot of attention from the children. Much to our surprise, not one individual in this community begged for money or food during our entire two hours in Dharavi. They residents predominately had a pleasant demeanor about them and smiled and greeted us. One young woman even offered us chopped up coconut as a courtesy.
The children started to follow us and they all wanted a "high-five" and greeted us with a "Hello, How are you?" We acknowledged and returned the gesture, but the children looked perplexed and did not know how to respond. However, all of the children were so happy to see us and their enjoyment of having us there made us all feels great.
We ventured out of the slum toward the bus. During this entire "walk-through" I was the only person wearing flip flops (Not a good idea, but I did not bring tennis shoes with me). As we were walking I slipped and my left leg feel into a grayish liquid that ran through the sides of the slums. I quickly pulled my leg out of the liquid and had a solid grey coat from my foot to the middle of my shin. My fellow group members quickly came to my rescue and dumped bottled water on my shin, foot, and flip flop to remove my newly added grey sock.
My first thought was that this grey matter was run off from the slum homes or it was some kind of liquid for patching broken areas of the homes. The next morning, I was advised that the liquid I stepped in was raw sewage. I was disturbed by this and went back up to my room and took another shower and profusely scrubbed my foot until it was nearly raw.
The people of Dharavi left their mark on me (literally) in more ways than one and I will not forget the how bad things could be for us and how fortunate we all are in America.
In the afternoon we visited the largest slum in Asia, Dharavi. Having tourist visit the slum was very new and many of us felt it may be inappropriate to be walking through as tourist. Needless to say, there were mixed reactions with our presence. Upon de-boarding the bus, we were immediately struck with the heat, humidity, and a foul, pungent odor. The slum is a city inside the city of Mumbai and has over a million people calling it home. Although the majority of the residents do not acknowledge Dharavi as their home to outsiders, as they are ashamed of telling outsiders where they live, which gave us further credence that we may not be well received by members of the community.
We walked through narrow passages and witnessed how this community operates. Surprisingly, the community operated businesses that forged aluminum, plastic, and they also made and sold clothing and pottery. With garbage in every area of the slum, it was amazing to see how simple and efficient certain small businesses ran within the community.
After an hour, we started receiving a lot of attention from the children. Much to our surprise, not one individual in this community begged for money or food during our entire two hours in Dharavi. They residents predominately had a pleasant demeanor about them and smiled and greeted us. One young woman even offered us chopped up coconut as a courtesy.
The children started to follow us and they all wanted a "high-five" and greeted us with a "Hello, How are you?" We acknowledged and returned the gesture, but the children looked perplexed and did not know how to respond. However, all of the children were so happy to see us and their enjoyment of having us there made us all feels great.
We ventured out of the slum toward the bus. During this entire "walk-through" I was the only person wearing flip flops (Not a good idea, but I did not bring tennis shoes with me). As we were walking I slipped and my left leg feel into a grayish liquid that ran through the sides of the slums. I quickly pulled my leg out of the liquid and had a solid grey coat from my foot to the middle of my shin. My fellow group members quickly came to my rescue and dumped bottled water on my shin, foot, and flip flop to remove my newly added grey sock.
My first thought was that this grey matter was run off from the slum homes or it was some kind of liquid for patching broken areas of the homes. The next morning, I was advised that the liquid I stepped in was raw sewage. I was disturbed by this and went back up to my room and took another shower and profusely scrubbed my foot until it was nearly raw.
The people of Dharavi left their mark on me (literally) in more ways than one and I will not forget the how bad things could be for us and how fortunate we all are in America.
My new name in the group is now Shitshin. :)
Cheers,
GB (AKA Shitshin)
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