This will be the last of the daily posts on our project. Myrthe is now on her way to Delhi and tomorrow we will be following her. Today we said goodbye to the girls and have been finalising our observations and proposals for FairFight.
Here’s a couple of arty animal shots courtesy of Myrthe. Mine would have been a much less classy selfie with my favourite cow but while I was chatting with her and getting ready to take it I realised there were actual grownups in the alley watching.
Today you can see a bit more across the river. Still seems unlikely that there are mountains over there though.
I like the early morning light in the street by the Ghat.
And here’s my ironing friend already working at 8.30 this Sunday morning. 
We took a rickshaw to Disha as the roads were quiet. Our bartering technique is now completely solid. We decide what we’re going to pay and just repeat it firmly until we get an agreement. Typical conversation goes ‘how much for 4 of us to Samne Ghat?’ Rickshaw driver ‘200 rupees’ Us. ‘No. 100’ Him: ‘150’. Us: ‘100’. Him ‘120’. Us ‘100’. Him – indicates with head we should get into rickshaw. Works well. If the driver gets upset we walk off until he agrees anyway. Or open up to alternative bids.
I haven’t taken enough pictures of small children on motorbikes. Here’s one.
And more delivery shots. There are a lot of gas canisters moving around the city.
And milk churns, usually 6 or 7 at a time strapped to a bike or a motorbike. I mentioned I wanted a milk churn picture and then immediately a delivery came into view. I then said I wanted one million rupees but the spell was already broken.
It was difficult for us all to say goodbye. They made us lots of notes and pictures. This was especially lovely:
Rinki wrote this on it on behalf of all the girls: 
We handed out the lovely packages made by Mae Zantout whose son Danny trains with me in Oxford. They were very excited and especially loved the fact that each little bag of treasures was labelled for them personally. 
We also gave them their handbooks and were happy to see how keenly they began to study them and ask questions. 
Here’s Rishika organising the present bags. She is very dynamic and energetic; always to be found where the action is. 
There’s always time for a rooftop selfie: 
But soon it was time to go. 
We waved until we had to turn the corner. It felt emphatic.
Tomorrow we leave, and we cannot know whether or not our plans will work for the girls. We don’t know if we will have funding to return. We could not promise anything or answer the questions about if we will come back and see them again.
We live in a world of advanced communications though and we can Skype, we can email and with the older girls we can Facebook. We have a responsibility to them; a duty of care. Children who have already suffered too much cannot be subjected to a revolving door of well-meaning voluntourists.
So time’s up on our visit here but the story is far from done. There are more questions than answers now. How can we best support the team here? Should we plan to return? If so, when? How can we make the project here as strong as the Zimbabwe FairFight programme? Where should FairFight go next?
What can you do? Maybe you have answers to the questions – feel free to email me your ideas: mary@schoolofmartialarts.com
To find out more about FairFight visit http://www.fairfight.nl
To support the work of Ashadiya go to Ashadiya.com
Thank you for sharing our project. I will update the blog periodically when there is news. FairFight has a wonderful mission and I passionately believe it will change the lives of some of the most vulnerable young women in the world. Tell everyone ✅
PS If you’d like to contribute to the costs of this trip (which still managed to outstrip my estimates!) then thank you! Please chip in at https://www.gofundme.com/fairfightvaranasi
Fairfight Varanasi 