Agra

We are in Agra - home of the magnificent Taj Mahal.

Agra seems cleaner than the other cities we have visited but still far from acceptable by Australian standards. Streets are still chaotic and cattle wander everywhere.

While viewing the back of the Taj Mahal we came across a 15 year old boy begging for money. This is very common and we have learned to ignore beggars as we were told that they earn more than labourers and often pay a cut to the local "mafia". However we saw that this boy was blind with what appeared to be cataracts on both eyes. Knowing that this was easily cured by an operation ($200 -300 for both eyes) we got the hotel we were staying at to help us locate the mother who agreed to have us take him to a hospital for assessment. We promised to have his eyes fixed if we could. This created great excitement in the family and we took both mother and son in the next day.

Unfortunately our hopes were quickly dashed when the opthalmologist told us that his blindness was due to an untreated eye infection he had when he was young and was now incurable.

However he recommended a school for the blind where he could be taught self sufficiency and musical instruments and would have a chance at a reasonable life. We drove him out there with his mother. They both liked it and said that they would come back in a few days to apply. It is on the outskirts of Agra and will require him to board if he does end up going there. If he chooses to do so we will have to fund this which will cost around $50 a month - more of a commitment than we had anticipated! I am going to have to find a way to raise this money so if anyone is willing to support all or some of this please let me know. An Aussie we met on the train coming in to town has generously paid for the first month's expenses but from here on we are on our own with this one.

The work we have done seems like such a drop in the ocean. The needs are huge in countries like this. We have promised ourselves not to find any more needy cases on this trip (although they are everywhere).

I have spent some hours talking to a group of young (all under 10) children that sell cheap tourist trinkets near the Taj. They are from one family and their father is a rickshaw driver. They live in poverty but are all smiles and laughter. They don't go to school although the parents could afford to send them because they do not want to lose the income the kids are bringing in each day.