Rickshaw Racing and Discos

With a chance to sit down and blog after our hectic last few days running all over the show, I finally get to share both a highlight from today's touring of Old Delhi but also something that's been sitting with us for a few days.

While travelling from sight to sight through Old Delhi today we were finally given the chance to hop on some pedal power rickshaws. Although we all knew that encouraging our drivers to race was strictly prohibited, it didn't take long before sly smiles were seen from boys that overtook you and not long after that for full shouting, screaming and abusive racing to commence as we were rushed through the hectic streets. Jonty and myself, although not having chosen the fastest driver out of Delhi's finest, had the upper hand in navigating the tightest of gaps, gaps few other drivers dared to follow. This we believe was our key to 1st place in race 1. In race 2 however, despite maintaining a solid second position behind Alex and Chris, we were cheekily overtaken in the final sprint to the finish line by 2 other rickshaws; we suspect bribery was involved and will be pressing charges. We'd just like to mention that if it hadn't been for Mr Skeen sabotaging our plans of getting Jonty to pedal and our local to steer us we would have definitely won each race by a good few streets.

We also had the privilege yesterday to visit the ASHA slum project and were completely blown away by a group of young kids aged between possibly 10 and 13 who, with ASHA's help, had taken the initiative to make a change in their slum environment. These kids, as Skeen has already talked about, were in charge of not only looking after health, vaccinations, litter, and most other slum issues but also actively wrote to the government requesting help to bring about change in the areas where they live. We couldn't help but compare these kids to year 7 & 8 kids back in Auckland, the kids who, every month came along to YMCA, paid their $10 to dance/chat/look at their iPhones; where the biggest worry for some of them was if another girl had worn the same dress as them. It's really tested us to think about our problems in life and what impact we have made on problems that affect more than us. These kids have been brought up in possibly the complete opposite lifestyle to us affluent Aucklanders but yet we don't hear them saying they are too young to make a difference, or that its up to the adults to bring about change. We won't be forgetting those kids any time soon and I know that personally I won't again be able to use my age as an excuse to ignore today's issues, whether they be in NZ or India.

William