Hello all: Slums, rural poverty, and cocktail parties.

Slums, rural poverty, and cocktail parties.

That's pretty much my experience of bangalore so far in a nutshell. To pretend each day of NGO working life was a trauma and an endurance test would be disingenuous.

It's been great here at the Belaku trust so far. An article about a day at the local theatre has appeared in the Hindu Times, and I've been poked by viji into posting it here. It's very exciting. They mentioned my name. Given that the last few times (!) me and Sneh have ended up in the Bangalore press has been for us attending one swanky opening party or another, this article goes some way to atone for all that and make it look like we actually do a job here. Ahem.

(Nb- Sneh found herself on the FRONT PAGE of the Bangalore times last week!)

Belaku does some awesome work- they have links with Anganwaris (Kindergartens) in the villages south of Bglr, and they do things like train teachers, provide health checks and, occasionally, ship a few dozen kids somewhere interesting to expand thier minds: as I see it, this is one of the most high impact things you can do for Indian development.

http://www.hindu.com/2009/08/04/stories/2009080458710200.htm

The article fails to mention that the group of kids we brought spoke no english, were wide eyed and gleeful about their first experience of the city, and largely turned up barefoot. Literally, a 2hour bus ride and then an auto to the venue with not a bata chappal in sight. Grinning like it was their birthday. (they don't generally know when this actually is, so this was as good a day as any... ;)

Anyway, encouraging them to run around acting out different scenarios and generally misbehave was super-fun, and made me realise that these kids had potential to be rocket scientists and definitely silver screen actors! How do you help them a) aim that high and b) fulfil that dream?

Well, that was me actually writing a blog entry, and I might just make more of an effort on this from now on! Am trying to get a new website sorted, a catalogue made and much more done here before I go- time is flying!

Will keep you posted- nice to hear your stories too :)

Samina xx