When there are ups there are downs.

I got had.

It was stupid, and all of us should’ve been smarter, but it happened. This weekend was off time from shooting the main story of the documentary so we decided to take the time to go down south to downtown Mumbai and shoot B-Roll; this is where all the nice buildings, wealth, landmarks, and unfortunately tourists reside. It was mainly because of the latter that it happened—the locals have practice. We were at the Gateway to India, which is a large arch, when a beggar approached bakes. She put a flower bracelet on his wrist (which is about the time that I approached). She then placed one on Brennan’s wrist, and then mine. We wanted to give her something in return, so we took out a single Rupee and offered it to her. She denied and said that she didn’t want our money, that she wanted only a little food to eat—she pointed in the direction of the vendors about 100 yards away. We figured this was reasonable enough. We all headed in that direction but decided quickly that it was best if Brennan and Bakes stay and shoot while I go get her some food (oops. Don’t separate). And so it was, this young girl, 15-years-old, and I were walking towards the vendors. She said to me, “no, not there. Just on the other side of the gates.” (She was speaking of the police gates that are set up to enter the gated park). I conceded (oops). Upon exited the gated area I knew I was in trouble: a man approached me saying, “We’re going this way,” and pointed down the street (The girl was actually behind me as we went through the gate and the man approached, which makes me think that the flower was a mark of some kind). At this point I was scared (there, I said it), so I walked with them.

We walked, and walked—girl in front, guy behind—until finally we arrived at a grocery store. We all entered. She took a cart and started grabbing food. Rice, milk, and oil mainly. The man was standing very close so there was no going anywhere. They finished their spree and walked me right to the register. 2000 Rupees it read. I told them I didn’t have that much, to which she responded that she knew I did. We went back and forth like this a few times until finally she started putting things back.

They walked out with 780 Rupees worth of stuff, and I walked the hell out of there glad I wasn’t robbed for everything I had.

On the bright side of things it was actually less than $20 worth of food, and it was food.  They didn’t take money, they didn’t take my passport or credit cards (which were all tucked away in my money belt), they only wanted me to buy them what could feed their family. And if they have a family of ten they can feed them now—probably for about a week.

That wasn’t the brightest moment for all of us. 

In other news, the documentary is progressing. We spent the beginning of the weekend in search of the translator. We needed someone who could translate Marathi (the language of the state) into English while we shoot and Brittany does her work in the slums. Accomplishing this was not as hard as we thought it would be.

A few nights back, Brennan and Bakes hit the streets while I stayed back and blogged and read. While they were out they met a local Priest named Frankie at a fish stand on the side of the road (they bought us mascots for the hotel room). He spoke with them for a while in very clear English, and then mentioned that he preached at a local church nearby. So, when we needed a translator we knew for sure he was the first person to ask. He is too old to do it himself, but we thought there was a pretty good chance he would know someone. So we went in search of the church.

Being that India is mainly a Hindu and Muslim country, a Catholic church sticks out like a sore thumb and was not very hard to locate just by asking around.

We found Frankie and he was very welcoming to us. He took us around introducing everyone and was so proud to give us a tour of his church. We eventually sat down for tea (this is a must when you are a guest pretty much anywhere, including a lot of shops). We told him what we needed. He went to check with an associate of his, and almost as if it were fate, a Marathi teacher (who has experience teaching in the slums) just came into the church to talk to Frankie’s associate about needing a job. It was just our luck. She starts with us on Monday.

This was a start to a very productive weekend. We shot A LOT of b-roll. And a lot of it will work very well.  Things are moving in the right direction. Tomorrow, we’re going back to the church to help Frankie, and then we’re going to shoot a few interviews. After that, more b-roll, then hitting the ground running with the meat of the story on Monday.

We’ll keep you all posted. 

Andrew