Our First Day in Varanasi

Normal sight throughout our ride from the airport to the guest house

Coffee-ing up in Delhi before our flight to Varanasi (polaroid image)

Lijnie, Laurent, Wahing, Pearla and Madeleine finally all made it safe and sound to Varanasi! After an hour and a half of crazy taxi driving (most insane traffic any of us have ever seen), we arrived at our guest house around 1PM, local time. After dropping off our luggage and shortly exploring the apartment, we followed the owner of the house to his restaurant for lunch. He then showed us the surroundings of our guest house, such as where to find grocery shops. Once we made it back home, we proceeded to reaching out to our contacts in Varanasi: Devesh, our martial arts representative, and Shiva, the head of AshaDia. 

​They both agreed to come to our apartment early in the evening to say hi and discuss what the coming two weeks would consist of. It is the first time in India for the whole team, and although we have been following the India project closely for a while, it was great to finally be able to put faces to the names we have so eagerly heard about. Shiva has taken over Meera’s old position, so he was really interested in hearing FairFight’s story, our goal and why we do what we do. After a brief round of introduction, we began discussing the plan for the coming two weeks, and we can say that it is going to be incredibly busy, but we are all so excited to get started! Everybody was really involved throughout the meeting and we ended up discussing for two hours. I will be giving you a brief overview of what our plan consists off, but will attempt to post regular more in-depth updates throughout the project (depend a lot on how nice the internet decides to be with us...).

---

The team, Devesh and Shiva meeting in our apartment

Saturday is the kite festival in Varanasi, and for the occasion Devesh very kindly invited us to celebrate with him and his family. Our second day in Varanasi will thus be spent truly immersed in the culture and we are beyond grateful for that. Furthermore, we really wanted to visit the girls at Disha and/or Asha as soon as possible. Fortunately, we were able to plan a visit to Asha this Sunday already! On Monday, we will leave for Sarnath in the morning to visit the temple before going to the school where the seminar will be held in order to give an idea of the space we have and how our team should organize their teaching. Finally we will attend one of Devesh’s classes before heading back to Varanasi. 
​
Tuesday marks the beginning of five consecutive days of seminar, three in Varanasi and two in Gorakhpur, which means that we will spend the Sunday thereafter resting. Unfortunately, Wahing will be leaving us on that same day. We will spend the next week visiting alternatively Asha and Disha, and planning tours of Varanasi to get to know the holy city better. Once all of this will be done, it will be time to head back home.

Taking in Varanasi and the view from our rooftop

I can say that the team is really incredible, and I could not wish to have any better people handling the project. Everybody is serious about what we are doing here but still manage to keep a very pleasant mood and atmosphere, especially thanks to Wahing’s out-of-nowhere-jokes that makes us all burst out laughing. However, we are missing our dear Floris that could not attend due to an injury to his knee, you are truly being missed buddy! 
​
After a lovely dinner together, we all fell asleep quite early and quickly as none of us slept the previous night due to the overnight travels. Nonetheless, we are beyond excited to start giving classes and meeting all the rest of the people involved in this project! We will try to update you as often as possible, thank you so much for reading and supporting us. Do not hesitate to contact us via Facebook or email if you want to know more and/or have any questions, we would be happy to provide you with anything you need.
​
Until next time,
Laurent Masson