Our day at Shishya with Ken McRae
Today we traveled further into the Doon valley to visit Shisya, one of the many projects run by Ken and Frieda McRae. Ken picked us up in Dehra Dun and we arrived just in time for morning assembly at the Primary School where Julie and Claire (aka Molly and Minta) helped with their energetic and clever sketch on the weather. The school is built round an open meeting area which helped make it bright and the grounds around it had been carefully landscaped which all helped the atmosphere. Children from poor backgrounds go to the school and it is always over subscribed. The kids were engaged and joined in with enthusiasm.
The part of the work involved a boys’ home where the boys lived in separate units with house parents. They included boys who came from deprived backgrounds and others who were orphaned. Each day the boys had their own chores and also worked on the land growing vegetables, they had their own cows to milk and plenty of space round the units to play.
The medics among us had the opportunity to visit the local hospital and we split into groups to work with teaching materials and drama and a chance to meet and talk to the volunteers who work with the children. There was a sense of space after our visit to the slums the day before. In the distance were the foothills of the Himalayas where we were now heading.
We piled into 5 taxis for our trip up the mountains to Mussoorie – up zig-zag roads reminiscent of the Alps. After an hour and a half of hair pin bends and corners and also spectacular views of the valley below we arrived at the Hanifl Centre which was peaceful, clean and above all cool!
