St Stephen's in Delhi

What a day! We started off the day with worship, and then headed out towards Zakhira for our last full day of painting and playing with the children.

We were welcomed (as always) by a roomful of boys cheering and sticking out their hands for us to shake them.They were their usual enthusiastic selves, and kept asking for the "paper" game (a game where each team had to fit everyone in the team on one sheet of newspaper while we tore bits off, and which usually ended in all the smaller children being lifted above our heads!). This was followed by some quiet entertainment of making chatter boxes out of paper, and the boys teaching us how to write our names in Hindi. There was then huge excitement as a wedding procession passed through the slum, and everyone rushed out to see the beautifully dressed groom riding a horse and covered in what we thought were real money notes. We then discovered that the notes were just duplicates and quite similar to Monopoly money! It was an interesting experience to see the effort that went into the groom's robes and the marching band, that was right next to the normalities of slum life, like the open drain along the road.

We were then treated to a delicious lunch of rice and daal with poppadums, which was made for us by the lovely ASHA staff. We sat in a circle on mats on the floor and had a truly authentic experience!

After lunch, we split into two groups: those going on the prayer walk and those staying at the ASHA centre. The afternoon was quite calm, with the girls quietly making paper butterflies in the main room, and everyone else hurriedly finishing their painting (while being continuously reminded that it was our last chance to finish it all). The student boys entertained us in the jungle room by singing along to Justin Bieber songs on their phones, and showing us pictures from the party that was given for the groom that we had just seen riding on the horse.

Shama