I haven’t been able to blog until now due to the fact of being completely overwhelmed with this city called Mumbai.
Arriving at one of the most crowded airports I have ever seen, we were very relieved to finally see our luggage lumbering along the carousal. Vijaya looked after getting a taxi to take us to the hotel. We looked at the taxi and I kept looking for a bigger one or the second one that would take the 3 of us with 5 huge suitcases to our hotel. Very quickly four men surrounded us and our luggage and hoisted 4 of the suitcases onto the roof of the car and tied it down with rope. We piled into the car and off we limped!
The freeway …… at least we were all going in the same direction, weaving in and out of traffic, passing busses, trucks, motor bikes and rickshaws, hurtling over pot holes and hanging on for dear life. I kept looking out the back window to see if the contents of our suitcases were strewn on the road behind us! I would have been okay if it was our clothes but please …. not my teaching aids! Picturing pelvis’s, knitted uterus’s and breasts rolling into the slums that lined the road ways all the way from the airport to the hotel.
We arrived at the hotel and when we got out of the taxi, the smell almost finished me. I have a very sensitive gag reflex and it was all I could do to hold it together. The slums obviously have no indoor plumbing or outhouses and the smell permeates everything.
Once inside, we were informed that although we had the room booked for the workshop, there were no rooms available. We sat in the lobby and waited Indian time. They managed to find one room and were looking at moving some of us to their sister hotel that was about 10 minutes away. I jumped at that and said Brea and I would be fine to take that option! They sent a car to get us and the 10 minute journey at 6:30 pm took us close to an hour.
When we arrived at the hotel, we were thrilled that there had been a miscommunication – there is no way I could have stayed at that hotel.
The meeting room for the workshop is separate and the smells are only evident when the door is opened.
That all aside – what has enabled me to survive this assault to the senses is the women that are here for the 3 days Teaching Skills workshop and Doula Skills workshop on Sunday.
I can’t tell you what it has been like to get to know these women. Two of the OB’s, Mauli & Shirta, have been most receptive and eager to do what they can to change some of the practices that are done in the name of routine. It is so encouraging to see them open to new ways of learning and doing things.
The two midwives, Lina from England and Red from my home town of Abbotsford (!!!) have shared what it is like to work with the women and families who live in the slums and on the train stations. Sharing what it is like to go to a government hospital and see them so abused by the medical staff as they are giving birth. We treat our animals way better than these women are treated. Yet they continue to try and make a difference in such an archaic and broken system.
Onika, a researcher from New York flew to Mumbai to take this workshop and spend some time volunteering in India.
Rita, a passionate and wise woman who is the only person in her city (500 miles away) who is trying to help women learn about normal birth.
Shrreya, an author and yoga instructor from Pune, 24 years old, who has the most incredible passion and energy …… we know Pune will be well served!
We met with members of Birth India for dinner last night and it was sitting around the table with these women and men from all over India and other countries that I realized this was what I wanted from India. For me it is not about the sites to be seen but rather the lives to be shared, to touch and be touched and to teach and to learn, to laugh and to cry, to be proud and to be humbled. Half way around the world and we all speak the same language.
We finished the workshops today and our closing was one of the most touching and emotional that I have been privileged to be a part of. Their words, poems and appreciation for us coming to Mumbai, moved me beyond tears.
We are meeting some of them for lunch tomorrow and then will be flying back to Hyderabad. We have three days with Dr Vijaya and she has assured us that there will definitely be time for shopping in Old Hyderabad!!
Hoping some of the pictures I am trying to post, will give you a small glimpse of what this has been for us.
Arriving at one of the most crowded airports I have ever seen, we were very relieved to finally see our luggage lumbering along the carousal. Vijaya looked after getting a taxi to take us to the hotel. We looked at the taxi and I kept looking for a bigger one or the second one that would take the 3 of us with 5 huge suitcases to our hotel. Very quickly four men surrounded us and our luggage and hoisted 4 of the suitcases onto the roof of the car and tied it down with rope. We piled into the car and off we limped!
The freeway …… at least we were all going in the same direction, weaving in and out of traffic, passing busses, trucks, motor bikes and rickshaws, hurtling over pot holes and hanging on for dear life. I kept looking out the back window to see if the contents of our suitcases were strewn on the road behind us! I would have been okay if it was our clothes but please …. not my teaching aids! Picturing pelvis’s, knitted uterus’s and breasts rolling into the slums that lined the road ways all the way from the airport to the hotel.
We arrived at the hotel and when we got out of the taxi, the smell almost finished me. I have a very sensitive gag reflex and it was all I could do to hold it together. The slums obviously have no indoor plumbing or outhouses and the smell permeates everything.
Once inside, we were informed that although we had the room booked for the workshop, there were no rooms available. We sat in the lobby and waited Indian time. They managed to find one room and were looking at moving some of us to their sister hotel that was about 10 minutes away. I jumped at that and said Brea and I would be fine to take that option! They sent a car to get us and the 10 minute journey at 6:30 pm took us close to an hour.
When we arrived at the hotel, we were thrilled that there had been a miscommunication – there is no way I could have stayed at that hotel.
The meeting room for the workshop is separate and the smells are only evident when the door is opened.
That all aside – what has enabled me to survive this assault to the senses is the women that are here for the 3 days Teaching Skills workshop and Doula Skills workshop on Sunday.
I can’t tell you what it has been like to get to know these women. Two of the OB’s, Mauli & Shirta, have been most receptive and eager to do what they can to change some of the practices that are done in the name of routine. It is so encouraging to see them open to new ways of learning and doing things.
The two midwives, Lina from England and Red from my home town of Abbotsford (!!!) have shared what it is like to work with the women and families who live in the slums and on the train stations. Sharing what it is like to go to a government hospital and see them so abused by the medical staff as they are giving birth. We treat our animals way better than these women are treated. Yet they continue to try and make a difference in such an archaic and broken system.
Onika, a researcher from New York flew to Mumbai to take this workshop and spend some time volunteering in India.
Rita, a passionate and wise woman who is the only person in her city (500 miles away) who is trying to help women learn about normal birth.
Shrreya, an author and yoga instructor from Pune, 24 years old, who has the most incredible passion and energy …… we know Pune will be well served!
We met with members of Birth India for dinner last night and it was sitting around the table with these women and men from all over India and other countries that I realized this was what I wanted from India. For me it is not about the sites to be seen but rather the lives to be shared, to touch and be touched and to teach and to learn, to laugh and to cry, to be proud and to be humbled. Half way around the world and we all speak the same language.
We finished the workshops today and our closing was one of the most touching and emotional that I have been privileged to be a part of. Their words, poems and appreciation for us coming to Mumbai, moved me beyond tears.
We are meeting some of them for lunch tomorrow and then will be flying back to Hyderabad. We have three days with Dr Vijaya and she has assured us that there will definitely be time for shopping in Old Hyderabad!!
Hoping some of the pictures I am trying to post, will give you a small glimpse of what this has been for us.
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