Smaggle

Sometimes life just hands you some cool shit and you can’t quite believe that it happened. I’ve just spent the last four days in the Whitsundays with the other Remarkables for a work conference. It means that I ate food, drank wine, got ferried around to tropical paradise after tropical paradise and somehow managed to call it work. Here’s a few happy snaps from the trip. Whitehaven Beach or as Read the rest!

Day 6 was amazing. We traveled to the outskirts of Bilaspur to visit a village that was home to a Women’s self-help group. They completely abolished gambling and alcoholism in their village. They were opinionated, bossy, lively, hilarious and spirited. Total badasses. We loved them.  Eden posing in the village. See the water buffalo in the back ground? Yeah, it turns out they were coming to kill us. We shr Read the rest!

On day 5 we visited an organic farming community near Balispur. Went I was first told we were going to a farming community I was like why? What’s that got to do with poverty? I’m so naive it’s ridiculous. It turns out that many people live in city slums because they had to leave their farming villages because of failed crops. Basically they run out of money and have to pack up and leave their beau Read the rest!

Day four of our trip was easily the worst. I’m trying really hard to not complain and sound like a princess but it was really, really awful. We had a 4.30am start to catch a plane that didn’t leave until 8am and we were 20 minutes from the airport. Yes. You read that correctly. 3 hours wait time for a simple domestic flight. Sam (World Vision India coordinator and our lovely guide for our trip) says tha Read the rest!

I’m trying to be careful not to bombard you guys with everything all at once because it must be a major culture shock to go from my regular Why Don’t You? posts to hardcore World Vision India stuff. It’s kind of like sprinkling salt on your cereal instead of sugar and then getting a mouthful of something you weren’t expecting. I totally get that and I love you all for being so beautiful and support Read the rest!

Today was hard. Really hard. We went to the office for a briefing before meeting the children of the health program and I honestly was not prepared. The kids we met yesterday were fabulous. Funny, interesting, interested and full of hope. These kids were a different story.  We pulled up outside the slum area in our white van. There was a pile of rubbish there where people were going to the toilet right in front of Read the rest!

We started our second day in India with omelettes at the hotel. We’ve developed a habit of ordering the same thing for breakfast each morning and it’s a comforting little ritual. We hopped in our car and ducked through the streets to get to the World Vision India office in the heart of Delhi. These men were outside the office, stringing flowers together to sell for the Diwali festival that evening. The Read the rest!

I’ve been really struggling to find words to write about my experiences here. I want to be honest but also culturally sensitive and I’m finding it hard to strike a good balance between the two. So I’ve decided to say stuff it, and I’m just going to write what I see and feel, the way I always do. On that note, here are a few observations I have about this extraordinary and bizarre (to me) pl Read the rest!

Today was my first day in India and I’m completely exhausted, culture shocked and over stimulated. I’m not even really sure how to write about this whole experience. I’m going to start with photos… With the beautiful Eden at Sydney airport. We were lucky enough to score two empty seats EACH on our first flight, so we curled up like kittens and slept and chatted the whole time. On our secon Read the rest!

Yeah… So it’s all a bit weird and wonderful. My beautiful friend Eden very kindly (and unbelievably) put me forward for a blogger trip to India with World Vision (and quite surprisingly they were willing to take me!) so in just three weeks I’m on a plane to New Delhi with Eden from Edenland, Kelly from Be a Fun Mum, Mischo Baranovic and the gorgeous Joy from World Vision. I’m incredibly hum Read the rest!