I’ve had worse Mondays
On our first night in India most of us had a long peaceful sleep, except from Miss Bowden… who was awoken in the night by a surprise visitor.* Miss Bowden’s day didn’t get any better when she arrived at breakfast to find out she was murdered. The first victim in our own version of BBC’s The Traitors.
After breakfast we received our formal greeting, where we were given pink bindis and flower garlands. We then were given a tour of the grounds, and joined in some maths, science and Bengali lessons with the children of the on-site primary school.
We had an enlightening talk with Swapan, one of the first 11 children of Udayan at it’s founding in 1970, now the centre’s paramedic. He told us about his life before, during and after Udayan and how it helped him. We followed this with many questions we all had. His lasting message:
“If you just work hard enough you can overcome anything.”
We then joined the girls in their free time where Charlotte, Lola and Isabelle had their hair plaited whilst everyone was taught how to play traditional games. At 6pm we had another assembly getting to know many of the children. They told us where they came from and their aspirations for the future, many wanting to be nurses, doctors or join the army to help and protect people. We were temporarily interrupted by Emily being stung by a wasp and thinking she was going to die.**
To round off our night we continued our game of The Traitors and gathered for our first ‘Round Table’. Eva was ‘banished’ due to suspicious activity with Michael. Unfortunately she was faithful so tomorrow we will continue the hunt for The Traitors!
* Comment below to find out the identity of Miss Bowden’s night-caller.
** Emily is fine.
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