Touchdown in Delhi. Contrary to my expectations, the Indian airport was expansive and current. As my group and I stepped outside, however, we came face to face with an extraordinarily contrasting world. Hurtling through the streets in our guides’ van, it was almost impossible to absorb the sheer number of sights, sounds and smells. Indeed, Lizzie immediately burst into tears as she felt so overwhelmed. Delhi is the definition of a sensory overload. People who have visited India before will know what I mean. If not, imagine the busiest motorway you’ve ever seen, then quadruple the traffic and add cows, goats, dogs, constant chatter, exhaust fumes, incense, animal excrement, the scent of Indian spices and an expansive temple with an immense array of colours decorating the walls. Now you will possess a vague idea. India is colourful, riotous, hectic and culturally rich, which can be hard to process when you have spent the previous 9 hours on an aeroplane.
Perhaps the most startling element of Delhi is the rules and regulations surrounding the roads, or rather, the fact that rules and regulations do not seem to exist. My travelling companion, Ruth, felt that the scene resembled a high speed car chase. Indeed, the traffic in Delhi is enough to astonish even the most erratic of drivers. Gazing through the window of the van, the surrounding roads resembled an ocean of vehicles, and the strict road traffic rules that are heavily enforced in the Western world don’t appear to exist at all in India. The people exist in such a perpetual state of urgency that cars, vans and lorries all weave through the narrowest of spaces in order to reach their required destination as quickly as humanly possible. The green and yellow auto-rickshaws, or tuk tuks, are often the worst culprits of all. A jaunt in one leaves the heart racing and adrenaline pumping as they squeeze through miniscule gaps in the traffic and appear un-phased by the existence of vehicles ten times their size. One thing is for sure: A spin in India is certainly never boring!
As we drove through the side streets of central Delhi, the level of poverty hit us like a brick in the face. There were swarms of half-naked people dozing under wheelbarrows and carts, evidently their only source of shade. A distressing quantity of people lacked eyes and limbs as they begged for money, possessing only the rags on their back. The worst part was that the majority of these impoverished and deprived people were young children, rendered increasingly powerless due to their lack of survival knowledge. This part of the journey conjured an extreme level of raw emotion within my group and I. An eerie silence descended over the van as we individually attempted to process the scenes we had been presented with. Although I had only been in India for a few hours, I knew that I had made the right decision in undertaking this expedition. The money we had all worked so hard to raise was undoubtedly going towards helping these disadvantaged and deserving people.
For me, one of the most inspirational parts of the whole expedition was our project visit. As we were undertaking our cycling expedition to generate funds for Childreach International, the charity arranged a visit to one of the schools that past donations had funded. Immediately upon our arrival we were greeted by excited children who came hurtling out of the building at an alarming speed eager to say hello, or ‘Namaste’, the Hindi version of the greeting.
Under the heat of the blazing Indian sun, a beautiful merging of cultures occurred. The children were eager to play with us and we taught them the words and actions to the iconic song and dance routine, the Hokey Cokey. In return, they taught us an Indian song before leading us inside their school and demonstrating their knowledge of both the Hindi and English languages. Their dedication was impressive and led to a deep contemplative moment for me personally. As we shared our traditions with one another, I realised that our hard work was evidently altering their lives, but their existence was also changing ours. Regardless of their personal struggles, each and every one of the children wore huge smiles on their faces and their bodies radiated joy. Their attitudes were impressive and they were evidently thrilled that they had gained the opportunity to learn.
The experience of witnessing first-hand the work that Childreach International conducts in India was both inspiring and humbling. Connecting with the local community and seeing the children bring to life the importance of generosity, cooperation and knowledge was enlightening and I was touched by their friendliness and intelligence. For our team leader, Ruth, the project visit emphasised the fact that every single person in this world deserves the right to education and the resulting empowerment it is able to supply. The work of Childreach International evidently aids these people in a profound way and their gratefulness motivated my team and I further in regards to the prospect of our 700km cycle, whilst also encouraging us to continue our fundraising activities once the expedition ended. The incentive behind our challenge was hugely important and after putting faces to the problems in the developing world, we were rendered speechless and eager to begin.
No comments:
Post a Comment