Day 8

Good evening citizens of Northern Ireland!

After last night’s blog fiasco, there were a few tired eyes at breakfast this morning. However spirits rose after a sugar kick from the 2 week out-of-date 'litchi twirl' Tropicana fruit juice and we were filled with anticipation and excitement to spend another day with the children in Tigri! Walking into the slum again made us realise how lucky we are to live in a clean, safe living environment, which we often take for granted.

The children, as always, were eager and waiting to give us hugs and high fives. It is heart-warming and humbling to see a crowd of children awaiting our arrival every day. Michael started the morning by teaching 20 primary aged girls about different animals and the noises they make. We then broke into chorus singing ‘The Fluffy sheep of Slemish’ which is now Indian number one. (Video to follow) The children really enjoyed learning about our Ballymena Academy culture.

Meanwhile the art team were hard at work on the wall murals with help from the rest of us. The murals have really brightened up the walls of the resource centre (and our trousers). The paintings include ‘Where’s Wally?’ and ‘Minions’ from the ‘Despicable Me’ movies. These are characters that the children recognise and have enjoyed helping us paint. The staff in the resource centre have really appreciated the art work.

The craft today consisted of animal ears for the children made from a hairband and ear templates. They loved personalising their ears although Julie, Tori and Emma had the hard task of finding every child’s favourite colour. With the craft completed, the children enjoyed having their pictures taken wearing their animal ears and playing with the animal finger puppets that Michael provided.

The college students received much needed guidance from Johnny, Cameron and Molly about future job prospects and essential interview techniques. The team has been pleasantly surprised at how easy it is to talk to the college students and it has amazed us how intelligent they are and how their dreams are achievable thanks to the help of Asha. Some of them even attend the best university in India!

Today was also special for all of us, as we had the opportunity to receive a Henna tattoo. Although they took longer than anticipated, it was well worth the wait and we were left with beautifully detailed designs. A few members of the team were branded with their “other half’s” name after interrogation from the ladies at the centre. This was not the case for everyone, as the majority of the team had to get their own name tattooed on their arm. #ForeverAlone

Unfortunately the high tea at the British Ambassador’s residence was cancelled, since the Ambassador had a last minute engagement out of the country. Despite missing out on the chance to visit a V.I.P., this gave us the opportunity to spend more valuable time with the children and allowed the art team to catch up with painting. Today we started to draw the winning crest drawn by Kurtis Williamson in Year 8, celebrating the link between Ballymena Academy and Asha. 

As each day passes it becomes more difficult to say goodbye to these amazing kids.

Tonight was spent at the Dilli Haat market where we got the chance to put our bartering skills to the test. The market was filled with everything from scarves to books to chess boards. We had a ball and we topped it off with dinner at our favourite restaurant in India, The Diatchi Chinese.

We hope you enjoyed this blog entry as much as we enjoyed writing it.

Love Johnny, Emma, Julie and Dave xo