On the way to Ahmedabad from Delhi, I met a friendly man named Uday on the train who works in the Ministry of Textile. He was very kind and shared a lot of information on Ahmedabad. I wrote down notes for things to see, unsure how much I could fit in, but glad to learn. He had a good sense of humor and kept me laughing on the way, which is always appreciated, especially on long train rides.He told Kristeen (whom he called chotee) and I (whom he called chotoo) to get off a stop early as it was closer to where we wanted to go, so we did and then made our way to Manav Sadhana. I'd heard of Manav Sadhana through Kristeen and other friends who had visited and volunteered there. Many of those friends had gone back several times and could not say enough wonderful things about the place.I was apprehensive about going to Gujarat, due to the anti-Muslim riots which took place in 2002, but did so just to connect to this organization. We arrived from the train station by auto rickshaw and sat down as they were starting their morning meeting with a prayer and moment of silence. We joined and were warmly welcomed with sandoor.We introduced ourselves, then relaxed a bit, put our luggage in our respective girl's and boy's volunteer homes, then took a tour of the slum they had adopted. We got a glimpse of several nursery schools and then the school/community center which was beautiful. Even the people in the colony were warm and welcoming. To me this was really interesting to see that there had been created a real sense of community in the slum and a lot of work was being done hand in hand with the community. They were accustomed to and appreciative of the volunteers who came in their colony.The school/community center had a lot of really creative uses of recycled materials used for construction and decoration. From colored paper wrappers, to bottles and crates these materials were really artisically repurposed. They also had a nice library where I learned how they keep things organized to check out books to children in the community.There were beautiful murals and a nursery with a cool slide and swings. After looking at the slide (yes, a slide) entrance and cool swinging baby in the nursery, I decided that it was the place to live. Afterwards we walked back to Manav Sadahna next to the Gandhi Ashram and met some of the earn and learn kids who create beautiful cards and other items for sale while also going to school and receiving an education. Jagat bhai was removing some strings that were making life tough for a bird he found with entangled feet.Then it was time for my first workshop there. I sat down with the earn and learn kids and taught them to make flip books. This time, I started with circle (gole), triangle (tricone) and square (chorus) on a blackboard and had the kids draw this in different positions, sizes and shapes on their flipbooks. This quickly got the concept across. Then I gave suggestions by drawing blooming flowers, stick figures etc with which the kids could create something new. Jagat bhai is also a very talented artist with many amazing pieces focused on religous harmony depicting many symbols of various religions in creative and beautiful ways. It was really heartwarming to see the kids take to animation so quickly and also to see the adults taking part too. It was really sweet to get all of that support from Kristeen, "", Jagat bhai and really just everyone there. I felt at home right away thanks to all the warmth.Anjali, one of the amazing people at Manav Sadhana met me and within minutes was on the phone arranging workshops with the various schools in Manav Sadhana. I was really grateful for how everyone invited me in and trusted me with their precious time and resources. It is very humbling to walk into a group of truly dedicated and amazing adults and kids and to try and share something that you hope will be worth their time.