As Skeen and other boys have blogged about before me, the slum visit on Christmas day was definitely something that will sit with us for many Christmas's to come. It's difficult to portray through a simple blog how horrible a place it was, the most cramped and destitute living environment I have seen. However for me personally as all of this was unfolded to me as we navigated the dark, damp and narrow alleyways of the homes of 300,000 people I was more enchanted with the smiles and kind words given not only by the kids running through the streets but also the adults as well as they cooked cleaned or sat around looking at us. Even when we were shown an area that only 10 days before our arrival had been involved in a gas leak explosion/fire that devastated many homes and took 10 lives, I was still just amazed at the spirit of the people there, the smiles from people attempting to rebuild the area, people who had probably lost family, or friends in the accident. Here we were a bunch of wealthy tourists coming for a wander through their slum, their home, their burial ground and yet no harsh words were raised, only love, invitation into homes and plenty of smiles and handshakes. It's as if I had accepted the way in which they live because they looked happy. When I should have been in fury or tears at the appalling living conditions for all these people I would instead find myself joking with one of the local boys about how my name was William so I must therefore be William Shakespeare. Has India numbed me into accepting this level of living conditions or human rights just because the people in these areas seem to be content with their lot in life. Am I so apathetic that I can sit comfortably and not do anything about this problem because the people were happy and full of smiles during our 30 min visit?
William
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