Homes, stick dancing and here is thumb

Today at Avenue site, I asked the teacher where the children live because at this site, it is in a more built up area with lots of apartments. The site has been active since 2004 but there is still lots left to be built. Eventually the area where the labourers (as they are referred to here as) will be built on too. Two of the teachers took Anna and I to see where their houses, which was really interesting. Just up the road from the new apartments the road turns into a gravel unpaved road and there are cows eating from the rubbish skips.
To get to the houses, you walk across loose stones which the children walk across barefoot, only a few of them have shoes. Mainly just the school going children. Their homes are a combination of bricks and metal sheets and are mostly one roomed. Some are two roomed. They have their kitchen, lounge and bedroom all in one. The children were all proud to show us their homes and loved (as usual) having their photos taken. Most of the parents were not around, as they were probably working. Many of the children, have the key for the padlock on their door on a piece of string round their neck or wrist. Neha (who has just had a cast removed from her arm but it is still in a sling) with her sister.
The girl in the middle is Rohina, who comes to the creche in the afternoon and is in my group, the other two girls are her sisters.

I think this is Laxmi's (girl in the brown dress) family, the little baby sleeps in the cot which hangs in the middle of the room. This was a one roomed house, so I assume the rest of the family sleeps under the cot.
Some of the construction, the creche is next to the apartments.


Rohina walking back to the creche after the break they have from 1-2pm when the teachers and us eat our lunch and plan activities. The children have their lunch from 12.30-1pm at the creche.
Aarti at the creche, she saw the camera and really wanted a photo :) she is a helpful girl.

I can't remember this girl's name, she is employed by the construction workers to maintain the creche and keep it clean. Here she is preparing some clay which the kids later made into flowers and Diwali sweets. Diwali is in November, Anna and I are planning on heading down to Kerala to see the backwaters and hopefully some elephants.


The first video is at the Avenue site where the children are singing 'where is thumb' in Marathi. The second video is stick dancing in Phule Nagar, the neighbourhood across the street from Sangam where most of the local guides come from. Stick dancing is a traditional part of the Dassera festival which is currently taking place.