Once we arrived at the guest house in Jodhpur, we were shown the possible rooms and then we were told they weren’t actually ours; simple mistake due to another group arriving the same day.
After freshening up we had our breakfast and then we had a couple hours to chill where some people took a much needed nap; we didn’t get much sleep during our travels.
We then set off to see one of the best preserved forts in India, The Mehrangarh Fort. The architecture was amazing and we all enjoyed the sights even though we ended up becoming more of a tourist attraction than the fort itself. Guess we now know how it feels to be famous.
Once we got back to the guest house we met with the owner (of the house) and founder of sambhali. We chatted and spoke to him about what we would do during our project and he told us stories about some of the women who are/ have been with the trust.
First day of project:
In the morning we met with Govind (founder) and he took us to see the centre that we would be painting. We then returned to the guest house and sorted out the supplies and paint that we needed along with the designs and colours that would go on the walls. We also started looking at booking hotels and restraunts for our stay in Agra and Jaipur whilst a few of the team members went out to get the supplies and paint.
Around 1 o’clock we headed back to the centre and started playing games and singing songs with the girls that we met and had a water fight when it started raining. We cleared, sanded down and primed the 2 classrooms while also painting the outside windows, door frame and lower section of the wall. We also managed to paint the first layer on the doors inside the building.
After returning to the guest house after an enjoyable day despite the intense heat we enjoyed some down time before having dinner and heading to bed after a team meeting.
Before and after pictures of the centre will be shown in later posts.
– Emily & Ailsa