first day...

Yes the holiday has ended- today was my first day at CWT.  It was sort of like every first day in a new job in that you spend it sort of trailing around feeling a bit like a spare part and trying to be useful in any way you can!  Met some of the other volunteers though which was really good and one of them is moving into the same place as me on saturday so it will be good to have her nearby.  This morning (after waking up early for the first time in a couple of weeks...) I got the bus to Mapusa and then changed to get another bus out to the mango house (marcella if you're reading this I was thinking about your 'particular way' shall we say of catching buses and whether you would get away with it here!).  Mapusa bus station is crazy!  Not sure I have ever seen that many buses so when I got there I was wondering how on earth I was ever going to find the right one.  I asked a couple of bus conductors and luckily it was just opposite where I got off the first bus so it was OK I scrambled on to it just as it was pulling off (no pesky health and safety here you just leap!).  CWT goes out to 2 slum areas currently.  I went to the first one this morning, called Karaswada, where we just had small children who don't go to school (the older children go to school 6 mornings a week).  We spent a couple of hours doing alphabet, numbers, songs and colours.  They practise writing numbers and letters on little chalk boards and on the chalk board at the front and they practice recognising different letters, with each one standing for a word and an action (D is for dance- I liked that one!).  It was really good, the children are so enthusiastic, noisy, keen to learn and chuffed to bits when they get something right and you praise them.  They also like sitting next to you or holding your hand and swinging around endlessly!  It was then back to mango house for a yummy lunch before I went to the other slum area called crossroads in the afternoon.  We had a mix of different ages here as the older ones finish school at lunchtime.  To be honest I'm sat here wondering how to describe it as I did find it quite difficult.  Although it is a tiny slum the conditions are dreadful, I don't think it would matter how much preparation and research you did beforehand, when you actually are there it is something else.  I did feel a bit choked just seeing the awful conditions the families are living in, but again the children are so happy and energetic and full of beans.  The older ones did homework and the younger ones read books, sang songs, played games and did some colouring in.  It is amazing to see how excited and happy they are to receive a colouring sheet and a crayon, obviously something which school children in the UK take so much for granted.  Unfortunately, we discovered that 4 small children had been surviving without their parents, who had gone away somewhere, for the past 4 days.  the youngest of which can't have been more than 18 months ish.  They were taken back to mango house and fed big meals and washed and given clean clothes and patched up medical wise.  Obviously this was quite difficult to comprehend and, to be honest, quite heartbreaking, but at least they have the help of CWT.  So all in all, I'm exhausted!  But glad to be doing something now.  I was starting to get a bit low being by myself all the time and by moving from my hotel to the apartment, I sort of disorientated myself as I had got to know where everything was near the hotel and now I have to start again.  But it's all part of the adventure I suppose!  Right that was an essay Ms Mawby would have been proud of (please don't correct it Jo!) so I better sign off.  Hope you're all well.  St George's students I hope you're being the wonderful well behaved young people you can all be and are working towardss your exams.... (do you need another reminder?  I'm sure you're getting lots already!).  Please post a comment on here if you're reading this it would be lovely to hear from you.  And just to say again- thankyou so much for the amazing send off, I've shown the poster you made me and the card to everyone! xxx