way2go! 7. Coursebook, Schulbuch

85 Statements T F First four words 0 Apart from grey, there was only one other colour in the slums. Only the blue tarpaulin 1 The majority of Mumbai’s inhabitants live in inadequate housing. 2 The supplies needed for the painting project were donated by a company. 3 Asalpha’s residents were immediately on board with painting the walls. 4 All of Asalpha’s buildings were painted in a couple of days. 5 Numerous people in the slum earn money working with metal. 6 The project is expected to benefit the local economy. 7 Asalpha now looks like a famous tourist destination. to paint murals on some of the walls, images that would represent the lives of the residents. One shows a group of women turning steel wool into scouring pads, a source of income for many here. Another, painted for a local boy who said he dreamed of going into space, depicts an astronaut. When the project was finished, the residents were thrilled at the transformation. “I didn’t think paint could cheer me up, but now, when I walk around here, it feels wonderful,” says Aparna Chaudar, whose home has flowered walls. When a policeman walked into the slum last month to meet Sankpal over a local issue, his jaw dropped. He asked Sankpal to turn her brushes to his police station. Tours of Asalpha will start at the end of February, providing job opportunities for a few young guides. Local women will earn some money by providing meals for tourists. Reddy has been stunned at the psychological change. “Maybe because of the media coming in or interacting with the volunteers from outside, people are different now. They are proud and confident. Not only is the slum brighter, the people are brighter too. We hadn’t expected that at all.” Her favourite part of the slum is an alley that has an arch, niche and bright colours; it could be in Morocco, she says. People have got carried away and compared Asalpha with Positano on the Amalfi coast. The comparison is far-fetched. ‘Jolie laide’– French for ‘beautiful-ugly’ – might be more apt. Reddy and Ferreira plan to paint the slum on the other side of the road. “I want to brighten up whole neighbourhoods,” she says. Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv