A few of our teammates had for their investigation been in the slums of Haldwani and had come up with a proposal for a hygiene educational action for the slum kids. The idea was basically to go with 100 pieces of soap, 100 toothbrushes and 100 toothpastes, and then firstly wash them with the soap, and then teach them how to use the toothbrush. It was very important to show everyone how to use it, because we were afraid if we didn’t break the package and used the soap they wouldn’t use it, they would rather just try and sell it. So everyone agreed that it was a very nice action, and we started making the preparations, some buying the soaps, buckets, towels etc. others asking around when and where we could have this cleaning action or “slum carwash” :). The next day we would distribute people to the different tasks, some pouring water, others to wash, one for drying and so forth. So basically we were trying to organize ourselves for the scenario and I started thinking back just a month ago were my dad, Wam, had been telling me about one of his “giving out stuff actions”, where he told how hands would suddenly grow out from everywhere, and start taking stuff in all directions. So out of the blue I asked who was going to take the position as bodyguard, and no one had really been thinking about this, but we knew about 9 DI’s would come to help out, so if needed we would have 9 bodyguards, which would even be able to talk the language of the kids.

So the next day, right after school, we meet two a clock at the crossroad in Haldwani. But when everyone was gathered only one of the DI teachers had shown up and of course all the DNS’ers. But with strong mind and good intensions we decided to do the action anyway, so we started approaching the slums outside the train station, as we had planned with the locals. A bit before our destination we distributed the stuff to the people responsible for that certain task. My task was to film the whole event, since I had some personal issues to touch people so intimate without having any relation to the person, even though it was for a good cause. Anyhow we got our stuff sorted, and we made our final approach, and we started to get excited. But when we arrived people would already be gathering so close around us so we had a hard time moving any further. So I started filming, and people from my team started to yell instructions trying to get kids to form some lines. Then trying to get people to translate the instructions, but then, the second one of us put down the bucket to try and make some big and more obvious hand signals the mayhem and havoc begun, and suddenly hands were coming from everywhere and all directions, grasping and pulling in everything they could reach. I managed to film it for some seconds, but in the situation I felt I rather wanted to have both my hands free, so I would be able to help if some of my teammates would be needing help to come up or something like this. But I can tell it wasn’t a pretty sight, some of the smaller kids got tipped over and got stepped upon by the rest of the mass, and I knew if I would go in to help I would just endanger myself. And I was thinking to myself; all this just to get some buckets and some towels, but I knew that it wasn’t because of the stuff. I think the fact that we went there 11 Europeans all together in a group, obviously walking with stuff in our hands which wasn’t for our own need, coming to the slum peoples home, it just over excited them, and it was a totally normal and expected reaction from their side.

Anyway we managed to get cover inside the train station, where some guards with long sticks became saviors. We stayed there for half an hour discussing what the hell just happen, asking around if everyone was okay, and waiting for the masses to calm down. After some time we agreed to leave the station through the backdoor in smaller groups, and then meet up back home in the DI school. I was together with Sara and Angela the first group to leave the train station, we of course had some slum kids following us, but hiding for half an hour and not giving them any attention had made them calm down, and everyone managed to get back home safely. Though one thing got hurt; our spirit to do nice and good for the poor, but we agreed that this event shouldn’t pull us down or scare us, and we should be happy for whatever had just happened and use it as an experience to be better prepared for our next attempt.