day 71

England day! We woke up and had breakfast, which was cornflakes and toast which was good. I had to repack my suitcase, and thankfully everything still fit in it. We ended up leaving the hotel about 8.15 and it took an hour to get to the airport. When we got to the airport we were pretty quick getting the luggage checked in. I changed most of my rupees into pounds and got a subway meal wich the remaining rupees I had left. It was disappointing shopping wise, there was only 1 duty free shop, and they only accepted american dollars. I asked a woman why this was the case, as we were in India, so they should accept their own currency, and she gave me some random excuse which didnt make any sense. So I thought, well if they dont want my money, they wont get it! We were meant to board at 12.30, and at 12.40, someone said we were running a bit late because Prince Edward was on our flight. And that very second, he walked past us with a load of police. Im guessing it was him as he was bald and a man. I dont actually know who Price Edward is. I was under the impression it was him that was married to Fergie, but thats Prince Andrew. So all I know he is the Queens son. So we boarded about 10 mins later, and the plane wasnt as snazzy as the one we arrived on! Obviously Prince Edward isnt that good in the royal family if the plane wasnt that good! But although the plane was older and the entertainment wasnt as good for films, TV and music...it did have 1 redeeming feature... A FREE BAR!!! So I thought, I shant be rude and decline Virgin's offer of beverages, so I had 4 beers. Over the course of the flight I might add. After the 4th, we hit some turbulence. That is when I decided 4 was enough, as drinking and jumping up and down doesnt feel too great. We arrived at Heathrow half an hour early, and our bags were some of the first ones off the converyorbelt...happy times! So by about 6.15 me and Duane headed off to find the underground. When we got there we saw Katie, so we got on the tube with her too. Once on the tube, we saw Matea at the other end of the carriage with her mum, holding a welcome home balloon. It was quite funny. We had to change at Leicester Square, so said by to Katie and as soon as we got to the right platform, it arrived. We were only on the underground about 40mins instead of the hour we were told it would take. Once we got to Euston we got the tickets and Duane got a Burger King and we sat down. Then that blonde doctor who's quite young who does programmes on C4 walked past. He looked quite stressed. Anywayyyy, it was finally time to get on our train, and it was virtually empty. I had a nap on the train, and in no time at all we were at Piccadilly. And I met the family there! And that concludes my Indian Adventure, I hope you have enjoyed my little story!

day 70

We arrived at the train station a bit later than expected because the driver got us lost. When we got there we had about an hours wait til the train. There was a man doing a poo on the track...which thankfully I didnt see, but was much spoken about. After that revelation, we then had some food, we had bits of potato wrapped up in tin foil, a cheese slice sandwich, a boiled egg and a banana, which was for tea. It was ok, but wasnt very filling. A train then arrived, so we asked Rakesh, who worked at the house and came with us to the station, if this was our train. He didnt seem to know, but told us to go on it anyway. Thankfully, it was our train. I was sat near Natasha, Matea, Nat, Dan, Mandy and Holly. As soon as we got on the train everyone wanted to go to bed, but I didnt. But because of the mlayout of the train, when the beds are all folded down, there isnt enough room for you to sit up properly, so you have to lie down. So consequently, I went to bed too. We got off the train at about 5.45, and as soon as we got off the train we were hit by the heat and the smell. We had to walk along a main road with all our suitcases, which was a bit mental as there are no pavements and traffic does what it wants all the time. We got on our bus and drove for 45mins to our hotel. It was a nice hotel, I shared a room with Natasha. It also had a proper shower....the luxuries! As it was now about breakfast time, we went upstairs to where the food was served, and it was more like a gazebo with a table with a tray of cornflakes, some toast, and omelettes on, and you helped yourself. There were only about 12 seats there though which was a problem when there were 47 people there. The food was ok though. We were told that we wouldnt be able to get to the Taj mahal, as the train we needed to get on, you had to book 2 months in advance, and the only other train was later on in that day and took 6 hours, so it would have been to late for us to get there. We were all really disappointed, but there wasnt anything we could do, so just decided to have fun in Delhi instead. Me, Natasha, Tash, Matea and Freddie all got a private taxi person to drive us round the sites of Delhi stopping where we wanted. We went to the garden where Gandhi was assasinated, which just was a park really, then to the outside of the Red Fort (it was closed on a Monday, and also was an extortionate price for foreigners to get in), then we went to see the President's office, Parliament, the India Gate, and Connaught Place, which is the main shopping district. When we got to Connaught Place, we found a KFC so got some food there. It was the nicest KFC Ive ever seen! It had police at the doors searching everyone though, which isnt too uncommon. The only searched the Indians though, which was a bit strange. We then did some shopping at a market that was underground that was quite cool. It was massive, and Me, Natasha and Tash lost Freddie and Matea. We didnt think anything of it as we had text them to say we would meet them later on...then we hear our names on the tannoy, Matea was giving us an announcement to meet her! It was hillarious. She sounded so posh. Then we had to ask the Indians the embarassing question of where to find the meeting place, as we have been tannoyed. Outside some little beggar boy gave me a chinese burn because I didnt give him money. I was extremely tempted to give him one back, but didnt because 1) I am a better person than him, so neednt do it 2) I was probably about 14 years older than him 3) I may have got some nasty disease from touching him. We got back to the hotel for tea, and had a selection of curries and rice...that makes a change! It was actually quite nice though. We decided to get an earlyish night as we had to be out of the hotel for 8am the following morning, so stayed in the room and watched some rubbish American films til bedtime.

day 69

ive packed up allmy things and cleaned the bedroom, everywhere is just chaos with bags lying around. we laeve here at 2.30pm, arrive at the train station about 8pm, then get the train to delhi which arrives around 8-10am monday morning. When we arrive we go to the hotel and drop off our bags, then im hoping to go to the taj mahal. We haev to be at the airport at around 9am tuesady morning, and we fly at 1.15pm. This will be my last post from India I imagine, so see u soon everyone!

day 68

I couldnt be bothered going out today because I need to save money for going to Delhi, and maybe theTaj Mahal, and also I needed to pack. So its now lunchtime and I have packed, so I'll probably do a bit of sunbathing outside later, its really warm outside, but at night its freezing.
In the evening we had an awards ceremony for all the volunteers. I was nominated in the sexiest female category. All I can say to that is the people who voted for me must be blind, i look a right state! needless to say i didnt win lol.

day 67

We had to fill in evaluation forms about the project in the morning, then I had to type it up and email relevant people with it. We bought Manu and Anil, our supervisors, a photoframe each with a pic of us all in. They liked it. Iev also had some henna put on my ankle and foot, which looks nice. This evening we are going to a restaurant for Freddy's birthday (a volunteer) so it will be like a big leaving party. The meal was good, the restaurants quite small so we basically filled the whole place. They played proper old school disco music in the background for some reason, like vengaboys, five, backstreet boys...it was like being 9 again! we had also got him a cool cake with a dragon made of icing on it, and it was rather tasty! after the meal we went back to the house and had a bit of a party in the common room

day 66

Today was the last day at school. We were driven all the way to school because we were carrying lots of things for the kids. When we got to school we blew a lot of balloons up and the kisd loved playing with them, I dont think they see balloons too often. After about 10mins the assistant teacher said the kids had to come inside because there was a school inspector. After about 20mins the kids came back outside and we moved all the balloons from outside the classroom to the firld as they were randomly popping and distracting the other kids. They played with the balloons for ages, then they coloured in some hats we had made for them. After lunch we played pass the parcel and made sure every kid had a prize. We also gave them biscuits, crisps and bananas, and gave thm the goody bags we had made last night with a watch, sweets and balloons in. When it came to hometime we got Manu to tel them again that we were leaving for good, as we didnt think they properly understood it when they wre told earlier in the week. As we thought, they didnt actually know we were leaving. Jyoti was the most upset and was hugging us and not letting go. I gave Vishal a hug and he kissed me on the cheek, he's so cute! As we were all hugging the kids, Vinita and her brotehr Kavi must have left to go home, so we didnt get to say goodbye to them which was a shame. As I walked to the bus to go home, Vishal and Jyoti held each of my hands all the way to the bus, and once the bus set off, lots of the kids ran after the bus waving at us, they were so cute!

day 65

Vinita was in school again today, hooray! We were all pleasantly surprised. We usually do a weekly test on a Friday, but as we arent teaching at all on Friday, and having a patry all day tomorow, we set the test today. It was an epic test of everything we have taught them, and it took them all morning to complete. Vishal got about 63/96 which was good, although for some of the questions he blatantly couldnt be bothered doing the working out so guessed, so erally his mark should have been higher. Vinita got about 33 right, which was good considering her poor attendance, but ist a real shame because think she is cleverer than Vishal, so its just her attendance which is leting her down. About a third of the things on the test she couldnt answer because she hasnt been in to learn it, like times tables and telling the time. In the afternoon we couldnt be bothered doing construction, and a coulpe of the others were feeling a bit ill, so we convinced Anil to let us go home so we could buy things for the party tomorrow. So after lunch we went into town and bought patry food, and each child a watch, just a little plastic one so its fun and also educational...how thoughtful are we! the watches were quite expensive, about 80 rupees each which in English terms is about a pound, but for India terms its a lot. And they were the cheapest we could find as well. Can't wait for tomorrow now!

day 64

Still only Vishal at school today. It was also the teachers last day while we were here, she's going to 'seminars' for the next 6 days. She said she hated her job...if i had a job where i sat in the sun all day doing nothing id be well chuffed! We taught Vishal his 4 and 5 times tables in the morning. In the afternoon Manu was ill so we had to go home so she could go to a doctor, so we had dinner at the house then watched a DVD

day 63

There was only Vishal in school again. I taught him 2 and 3 times tables and read some books with him. He enjoyed Thomas the tank engine. In the afternoon we went to do constuction to find out the hole we had dug had been filled in with a wall that had fallen down into it. So now the hole was a m,ound. So we spent 1.5 hours getting rocks back out. There has been no water in teh house since getting back which is very annoying! I went for a walk round the river bed as well by the hosue which was nice.

day 62

When we got up we put all our bags in the taxi and went for some breakfast/dinner. After that we did some moer shopping adn I bougth an elephant dangly thing. We then went to Manu temple and it was quite rubbish. We set off for home at 2.30 and on the way back there was a festival being held at Kullu which is no the way back, which meant we were stuck ni trafic for 1.5 hours there. There were arndom men carrying chair like things, and they did this for about an hour of the journey. It was starnge. We stopped off in Mandi for food on the way home, and got back about 11pm.

day 61

We left the hotel at about 9.45 and got breakfast at a nearb7y restaurant. The views were good, it is a ski resort in the winter, and it had alpine trees and log cabins so looked nice. After breakfast we went to a fwe templs. One was set in some woods and was pretty.We visited the hot springs, which i thought would be an outside sort of thing ni the rocks, but its just a building with 2 pools, 1 for men, one for women, with semi naked people in. It wasnt that good! Then we went to New Manali to do some shopping, it was erally busy and a festival of some sotr was going no with people playing musical instruments and lighting fireworks. I bought some new sunglasses because my ones were scratched. After that we went for some food at a chinese place near our hotel, then went to buy some alcohol and had a party in one of the rooms at the hotel. We were playing ring of fire, then someone said 'who's he?', and there was a random Indian man sat on the floor of the room. So we said please could he leaev, and he pulled out a massive bag of weed and said sopmething about it was his duty to shaer his weed with us. So he ended up staying a while lol. It was rather random.

day 60

Today is Gandhis birthday...so you know what that means...PUBLIC HOLIDAY TIME! all the kids fmo all the schools came to our huose to watch Gandhi on DVD. As you can imagine it was chaos. The film was too in depth for them so theywere all messing about, and itwas in Hindi so none of us understood it. This afternoon Im going to Manali until Sunday, should be fun! We arrived at Manali at 11.30. We got there by taxi, one of the drivers at the house owns a taxi, so we got a discounted rate. He was our chauffeur for the weekend taking us anywhere we anted. We rang a hotel on the way and booked 3 rooms, there were 9 of us. When we got to Manali we found the hotel, put all our bags in, went to the cafe next door for some cake, then went to bed.

day 59

school was same as always today, just Vishal aagin and I taught him maths all morning. In the afternoon we were meant to be digging the hole, but the hole has a massive boulder in it which we cant break, so some men are working to chisel it away meaning we had nothing to do. I then found uot my bank card has been blocked so im poor and have no way of transferring money as theyve blocked the online bit as well as the actual card. Sad times. It turns out that my card expired toady. If i wanted money yesterday itd have been fine, but now im pennyless! My new cards in the post...all the good that does for me all the way in India. But now mother has transferred money into my friends account for me to take out, it should all be dandy. My online banking doesnt work still which is random, will have to sort that out when im home.

day 58

Todays story starts with Priya the puppy. I eralise now I haev neglected to etl u about her in the first place. Basically about 2 weeks ago a little puppy was outside the house and was a bit cute but had fleas. We could have kept her, but it would haev meant someone actually looking after her, so insted we gave her to a local man who owns dogs. Anyway, back to today, when we woke up thre was a lot of strange noises coming from outside. Turns out it was Priya in an onion bag, in a acrdboard box given back to us as she has rabies. She was mental. So It was decided that during the day she would be taken to the vets to be put down, or in Indian terms, just shot by a local person. But it turns out she didnt have rabies in the end as she did go to the vet, who said she had septacemia and a temp of 110 degree, explaining why she was going crazy. So she is still at the vets. People were crying and everything! Enough of the interesting story now, back to the usual. School just had Vishal again and we did maths all day with him. In the afternoon we were invited tto the 2nd ady of a local wedding which was good. We ate of leaves again and had rice and different sorts of dal, followed by sweet rice. It was really good, but the thing with the meal sittings, its that there is set time for meals, so as soon as 1 person finishes, thats your lot and u have to leaev, so i didnt finish all my food which was a shame. But it did turn my fingers and mouth bright yellow so maybe was a good thing i stopped before i looked eevn worse. We saw the bride and groom as well and got a pic with the groom, they looked well fancy, a bit like tinsel lol. After that a few of us decided to walk home instead of waiting for the bus, whichw as a nice 30min walk. When we got home there was no water which i wasnt happy about as i really needed a shower! But soon after they turned it on so everything was ok!

day 57

There was only Vishal at school again today. We taught him the names of members of the family, then he made a family tree. After break we taught him smoe maths and set him maths homework. In the afternoon it was the heath and hygiene day we had to plan for the scfhool. We bought 10 bars of soap, toothbrushes, toothpastes and bananas for our kids. In the end class 4 joined us so we had more kids than expected. We began by giving them posters we had made with captions like 'brush yuor teeth' and pictures to colour in. There were 3 diff types of posters. We then played a game where they had to run to the right poster and do the action for it and the last person to run there lost..until there was 1 winner. Funnily enough the deaf girl came 3rd uot of 20 even though she didnt know what we were shouting lol. Then the kisd were taught a song about brushing their teeth etc and I took some pics of it and filmed some bits of it. We finished off by playing pass the parcel where the prizes were bits of fruit. Instead of wrapping fruit up we wrote notes saying they'd won a certain piece of fruit, until the end where a coconut was wrapped up. They had a good day!

day 56

Today we have had the day off because its a public holiday...again. We are meant to clean the hous this afternoon...no chance.

day 55

Today I have just stayed in all day. had a nice lie in, something I'ev not had in 8 weeks! Ive sorted through my wardrobe as its so full and everythings falling out. Later I'l try and watch some F1 and maybe some football depending whats on. For tea we had egg curry...it was hard boiled eggs in curry sauce. Now i like eggs, and I like curry....but this does not mean they should be served together. It wasnt that nice. It was also totally random, who thought of egg in a curry!

day 54

I couldnt be bothered going away this weekend, because everywhere nearby (e.g. within 4 hours away) I have already been to, so unless I wanted to do another 8 hour journey, I'd have to stay local. So I have come to Palampur to do some shopping, use the internet and get a meal. Theres a new restaurant thats opened up in town which everyone is raving about, so we are going to go there. As for the rest of the day, I think we will play some cards, watch a film, and maybe watch some football.

day 53

It was test day at school so we set them a test consisting of addition, subtraction and naming body parts. This took them all morning to complete. I marked Vinita's test and she got pretty much all of them right which is a good sign that we are actually teaching them something! Then near lunchtime, the teacher who is lazy and sits outside was doing what she does best...being lazy...when I acught her hitting a girl. And I mean hit. I'd class it as GBH it was that bad! anyway, it was only me out of the fwe volunteers who were outside as well who saw it, so I said did they see it, so they said no and looked at her. At this point she looked over and saw us looking disapprovingly at her, and she looked guiltily away. Later on we found out that she had had a word with one of the other volunteers who wasnt there at the time, and who knew nothing about it, that she had hit the girl because she was slow and didn't do her work. Then Anil, our project supervisor had a word with the teacher and apparently she told him that she was complaining about us because we were laughing at her, and we should mind our own business. As we only found this out on the bus ride home, we couldnt actually say anything to her, but I'm sure words will be exchanged on Tuesday (Mondays a public holiday). So not only is she idle and lazy, she's a child abuser and a liar. Its not like we didnt expect hitting to go on, because even though its still illegal here, its very common. Its just the fact that she properly hit the kid, and then lied about us, trying to imply we find this behaviour either amusing or undermining to her (whatever she seems to think) which was totally unneccesary. Anyway, rant over! I dont think im up to much this weekend, maybe just stay in the houise and watch tv or go to town for a bit. How exciting my life is! On the bright side, its 18 adys til im home! so theres still plenty of time for you all to buy a red carpet for my arrival :-p xx

day 52

Today was pretty much the same as yesterday, apatr from th teacher was asleep all ady. And when she woke up she was moaning that she had a 'fever'. I have never mat anyone as idle as her its unbelieveable. She sits outside in a nice chair and occasionally shouts instructions to the kids through the window so she doesnt have to move. Its hard teaching the kids because we are outside and there aer unlimited distractions e.g. etachers shuoting, other kids, goats, strangers walking past. In the afternoon I finished the painting of the walls. When I got home there was a prog on the TV about the city united game debating the extra time in it...then there was a powercut so missed most of it :-(

day 51

On the awlk to school a taxi driver purposely tried to run os over. This isnt a new thing. Drivers think its funny to pertend to drive into you, but not so funny when Im stood on the edge of a mountain. At school I marked the kids' hopmework and went through the corrections and then went on to do some harder maths with them and some spelling. In the afternoon I did some painting of the times tables.

day 50

Today we did maths, body parts and clothes with the kids, and in the afternoon we started to dig a hole which will one ady become a toilet for some woman. the hole has to be 10 feet deep and at the mo is about 10 feet wide, so a lot of digging is involved! ive no idea why it has to be that big!

day 49

There was no school toady as its Eid (I think thats how you spell it). It baffled me as there are probably more Muslims in England than in India, so why everyone ahs the day off I'm still not sure. But anyway, this meant there were no kids to teach so we went to do a family visit instead. This was a visit to 1 of my pupils, Vinita. Her family are extremely poor, and they liev a 2 hour trek away. I didnt make it to the house, as it would have involved climbing a vertical cliff which had a drop which was pretty steep onto a waterafll below. Those who did go, said they lived under a rock, adn from the pics, thats exactly what it is. It almost looks like a cave, but its just a big overhanging rock. It's really sad that a massive family, I think there are 7 kids, are living here. Apparently they are waiting for a real house off the government. I also got bitten by a leech! I didnt realise until i looked down adn saw my sock was covered in blood, then saw the little leech on it! It was about 4mm big...but my gosh would it not stop bleeding! It literally took half an hour and half a pack of tissues. I wasnt impressed!

day 48

We got up at 9am and had breakfast at the hotel, I had toast and butter. We then walked to the bus station which took about 20mins. We eventually found the right bus, got on it, and then found out we needed to buy tickets to get on it first, so had to leave and get tickets. The queue was long and everyone was pushing etc. When I finally ordered the tickets I was told there was no more room on the bus, so we had to get tickets for another bus which stopped about 2 hours away from where we are staying here. That journey took about 7.45 hours, then another 2 hours to get back home. As it was past food time we got a takeaway from Taj restaurant in town, I had veg chowmein which was excellent, then tried getting a taxi back to the house, and all the drivers were trying to rip us off. In the end we did get ripped off, but just for the lesser amount of the offers. If I tried ripping off Asians in England its illegal, but its everyday here and its really unfair and annoying! When we got back I found out the footy score :-( then went to bed

day 47

Me Tash, Natasha, Rash and Kerri all decided to go to Chandigarh which is an 8 hour bus ride away, so we got up at 4.45 ...yes, it was very early! then walked the 4km to town for the bus. There was a little scorpion outside my room as well! it was about 8cm long and was stuck on its back. We arrived at Chandigarh at about 3.30 then had to go to another bus station which was in the centre of the city. There were seats reserved for freedom fighters on it which was strange! When we arrived all the hotels were quite expensive so we ended up going a bit further afield and got a cheaper one. Once we droppde off our bags we went to the rock garden. Its like a massive park made from bits of old rubbish, it sounds odd but was good. I also had a camel ride there!We left there abouty 5.30 and went to a mall which was a 10min tuktuk ride away where there was a cinema, shops and restaurants. We went to the foodcourt and I had enchiladas, they were so nice! Then we went to a bar where there was happy hour on cocktails, it worked out about 3 pounds for 2 massive cocktails, it made me happy :). Then we stopped off at Mcds for some snacks, not me personally...but i bought a pizza McPuff (yes, that is its name!) for tomorrows breakfast. We thought about watching a film, but they were all in Punjabi, so we went home

day 46

There was a massiev moth outside the house today injured on the floor, it was the size of a bat! at school we did a etst with Vishal and did some more of body parts and clothes. In the afternoon we had some meetings, and I was informed that some poeple arent happy about how ofetn Im on the internet, and consequently I am getting the 3rd degree off people I barely speak to about why I want to go on the internet when the computer is free, which has annoyed me, as I genuinely need to go on to sort out my getting home from Heathrow. Im off to Chandigar over the weekend which is an 8hr ride away...fun times!

day 45

today there was only Vishal at school so I taught him body parts and clothes. I had cut out a person and clothes and he stuck them on, it was fun. In the afternoon we did a family visit to his house. We found out about the siblings and parents jobs etc. it turns out his father is an alcoholic who beats the kids up if they do their schoolwork wrong, which may be why he is so clever!

day 44

Today a fwe of us got up at 5.30am to go to Mcleod Ganj. We awnted to make the 9am speech thing by the Dalai Lama, so we had to get up that early and walk 4km into town as there arent taxis about at that time. We got the 6.45 bus and got there at 8.45 and went straight to the temple. We were searched on entry and once we were inside we sat in the courtyard. About 45 mins after we arrived the Dalai Lama arrived and everyone was standing up and praying. He walked right up near me, to a man 2 rown in front of me and had a little conversation with him, it would have been nice to know what he said! Then he went inside the temple and did his speeches, and I listned outside and had a radio with me for the interpertations. The interpretor wasnt that great though, but I think the messages were about not to be selfish and not to rely on material things, and something about natural minerals. That lasted about 2 hours and after that we went for some food to Tibet Kitchen again, then did some shopping. In the evening we had an 'emergengy meeting' which meant that he wanted to tell some people off, it was rubbish, but on the whole, a good day!

day 43

Toda we had a film day so watched Madagascar all day, which was good, Id not seen the film before. We watched it on a laptop though so the screen was quite small, but its better than teaching! In the afternoon I did some more painting of the alphabet on the wall. We got home to found that we now haev Sky TV!!! Theres ESPN which will be handy for seeing the football!

day 42

At school we set Vishal and Vinita a test, adn taught them pasrts of the body. In the afernoon I did more drawing of the alphabet, because we had t rub half of it out because the teacher wanted more room to fit hindi letters in. Then me and Nayo painted the Hindi letters and I drew out some times tables no the wall outside ready for painting.

day 41

We found out that the Dalai Lama was coming to town so we got up early to do everything we wanted to do so we could see him as well. Firstly we went to the temple then did some shopping. We heard he was coming 2.30-3pm so waited on the temple road from about 2pm to get ourselves a good spot. There was aTibetan woman next to us, she looked about 25-30, and she was telling us about how she had to cross the Himalayas to flee Tibet, adn it took her 1 month and 5 days, and after 25 days her food ran out. It was sad, as I didnt realise people were still having to leave Tibet like that. We waited there until about 4.15, when some trumpet players on the roof of the temple started playing, then everyone was going crazy like crying an praying. The tibetan woman had told us he would be in a black car with a flag, and that car did indeed come down the road. As it passed ys, I looked at every passenger and he wasnt there. By the time I'd realised he wasnt there the next car had driven past and he was in that. I cought a glimpse of him for about a second, and managed to get a pic of the back of his head. It was worth the wait though.

day 40

Toady me Natasha, Natasha and Matea went to Mcleod Ganj. On th way we stopped off at Dharamsalam and visited the miniature painting museum. It was similar to the museum at Kangra fort but a lot biger. They tried charging us 50 rupees to get in, but then lowered it to 25 as we were students. We noticed though, that Indians got ni for 5 rupees, so Matea and Natasha hasd a right go at the man telling him he's a racist so we ended up going in for free :-). We arived at Mcleod Ganj at about 3pm and went to registed for the Dalai Lamas talk on Wednesday, but whether we can go yet we dont know, but we registered anyway. I thought it'd be really busy, but it wasnt which was good. After that we did some shopping and booked into the same hotel I stayed in last time.After that we went for food in a place aclled the Tibetan Kitchen and I had a Thai green curry with noodles and chips, and a banana panacke with ice cream...yes, i was hungry. The food was really nice. We then met up with 2 other volunteers called Duane and Danny, and we went to a bar in time to watch the United match. I found out city won (woooo!) We stayed there until the match ended then went to bed.

day 39

We got to school, to find out its a 'non taeching' day...despite the kisd still being there we werent allowed to etach them. This is apparently coz its raining in Delhi or something that this holiday has come about...I have no idea why that makes sense, but I stop asking these sorts of questions now as nothing has a comprehensible answer. They wanted us to jsut sit there for 3 hours doing nothing, but in teh end we persuaded them to let us start walking back. As we were walking back, maybe about 20min into the walk one of the buses from our house drove past and gave us a lift back. As I now had lots of time to spare, I started making worksheets for the kids. In the afternoon it was meetings...boringggggggg

day 38

In the morning we had the usual day at school, but in the afternoon it was sports day. We put up a banner we had made and separated the kids into 2 teams. The day went really well, and I was the captian of a team, and that team won woo! There were times where we needed to show them how to do certain sports, and some races went better than others...like them not grasping the concept of not holding the lemon in the lemon and spoon arce. The races we did were skipping, lemon and spoon, relay, badminton, over and under and 3-legged. At the end the scoers were tied between the teams, so we had a basketball shootoff, and noly 1 boy scored who was from my etam. After that we had an awarsd ceremony and gave the winners medals which we had made from cardboard and tin foil, they seemed to like it! Then a teacher randomly got out a drum and played it and some of the kids started dancing and singing and it turned into a little concert!

day 37

It was spitting this morning but we still went to school. We were meant to haev a morning watching the Madagascar DVD, for educational reasons of course, but the laptop battery had run out and we didnt have an adapter for the plug, so had to do real work instead :-( Every morning we pass 2 little Tibetan looking kids, aged about 1 and 3 tied to a post which is covered by a little roof by the side of the mountain. Its really sad as its obviously their house, and their parents must just work nearby and cant look after them, hence the tying up to a post so they dont fall off the mountian. But today their mother had taken them to day care so they can now interact with other kids which is good, but as of yet theyre yet to show any sort of emotion or speak. In the afternoon I drew the alphabet on 1 of the clasroom walls which is going to getr painted once we get paint, which could be literally any time from now to never.

day 36

We did the rest of the alphabet with the kids today and also did telling the time. In the afternoon we did plantation again which is basically planting some plants. For tea we had mashed potato...everyone was going crazier than bodger and badger for it! it was weird though because it had nuts and currants in...it was interesting, not unpleasant, although the currants had pips in. We had macaroni and gren beans with it, so a good meal!

day 35

Half way through! There are now snow on the mountians which looks good, but the weathers been sunny so its not as snowy as it had been. Just the usual day at school doing alphabet then plantation in the afternoon.

day 34

We got up at 7am to go to the temple again, as we didnt get to go in the golden bit yesterday because of the queues, but again the queues were massiev and we didnt haev weenough time which was rubbish. We got some breakfast then at 10.45 we got the bus back. Got back home at 7.30...so a long day!

day 33

We had to get the 7am bus to Amritsar so an early start. It took about 3 hurs to get there. When we got there we went straight to the golden temple, its really good. We walked round there for a few hours, and had lots of people staring, shaking uor hands and requesting for photos with us...because they cant get enough of white people! Later on we went looking for a place to stay the night, but everywhere was really expensive. In the end we found an ok place about 10mins from the Palace. As soon as we had dropped our stuff off there we went to Wagha, which is on the Pakistani border. Every evening there is a ceremony where guards from both countries close the gates and lower flags. It was really good, it was like a pantomime with India chanting things, then you could here from the otehr side of the fence Pakistan with a feeble attempt of a comeback as they have no tourists to shout lol. I also had my first bit of alcohol! jsut 500ml of lager, but it was great all the same. It took about 1.5 hours to get there from Amritsar, so when we got back it was quite late. We went to a posh hotel/restaurant which looked great but the service wasnt that good. Then we went to bed because it was quite late and we needd to get up early.

day 32

School was teh same as usual, we set them a test which ended up lasting the whole day. In the afternoon A few of us went to Amritsar, which is 8 hours bus ride away. Its like the holy place for Sikhs. We left here at about 4.30 and got on the bus at 5.45 and had to stop off in Pathankot 5 hours away because the buses stopped running, so we satyed at a guest house at the bus station. It wasnt too bad, basic though. We then went to a restaurant nearby which was alright.

day 31

At about 4am it started thunder and lightning outside. As our room has 2 sides with windows in, it was really bright, it was flashing at more than 1 a second for about half an hour. It was either like being in Afghanistan or being at a nightclub with all the flashing and the noise. As it had already woken us up, we noticed that itd started leaking into our room, and coming from the window, the back door and the bedroom door which is near an outside corridor. We spent the next half hour trying to get rid opf the water and putting towels down. As the weather didnt get any better into the morning we stayed off school and just watched DVDs and played scrabble the rest of the day. I also got a letter off tom :)

day 30

On the way to school there was a car accident where a car had tried to overtake a tractor, which resulted in bits of the side of teh car falling off. To make an insurance claim, they needde to call the police, which in India could mean they come whenever they feel like it, and as a result of this we were a bit late for work.At school we taught the lower case alphabety and I did some maths with Vishal and Vinita. In the afternoon we did a practice for sports day, wher the lower years are separated into 2 teams and race against each other. The 2 teams and tigers and sharks original, i know). Its made up of about 6/7 normal sports day games, but has a lemon and spoon instead of egg and spoon race. When Manu (our project executive) gave them the spoons and a stone to practice with, they all put the spoons handle side first into their mouth and started running, so I started shouting for them to stop, because running with something in your mouth on an uneven and slippy floor does result in injury/death. We also found out that Tommy the dog had died :-( apparently some sort of bleeding to death. The cleaner of the school is albino, and everyone apparently in the town believes she is that way not for genetic reasons, but because she aet chicken and milk at the same time. I thuoght this was really funny. Even Manu believes its true as well. Its crazy how people in the 20th century still can believe such things! After school we made some medals for the sports day and I went to town and got my glasses, Im rather pleased with them!

day 29

There was Vishal, Nikil and Nitika at school toady, the same 3 kids as before. I worked with Vishal who is the cleverest of them and did addition, subtraction and 1 times tables. In the afternoon we did a community survey at a house which was a 15 min walk away fmo teh school. It was quite a nice house! marble floors, 2 bedrooms, a real bathroom and a kitchen. After school a few of us went into town and had an eye test and ordered some glasses. The cost for the test, lenses and frames came to 550 rupees (which is between 6-7 pounds) its great!

day 28

it was rainy today so we didnt go into school. So all ive done today really is sleep, read, lisetn to music, watch a film and eat. That is lieterally all ive done, as u can tell its been a boring day! we should be in school tomorrow, as the weather is clear again now.

day 27

We went to GGanj, as its meant to be a holy place, and after a 1km trek, we found its just like a dirty old swimming pool which has fish in (some alive, some dead). It wasnt worth the trek. As we couldnt think of anything else to do, we went back home, so were back home for dinnertime. The bus wasnt too croweed wither which was good. I got a few bits and pieces from town, like bread, cereal, nutella and peanut butter.

day 26

We went to kangra today and stayed there overnight. It took 1.5-2 hours to get there on the bus. About 10-15 mins after getting thre, it proper monsooned rained it down. all the roads turned into rivers and we were all drenched. we stopped off at the nearest cafe, which took us a while to find and stayed thre until the rain had stopped, like an hour later. We were so wet we had to take out coat, shoes and socks off at the door. After that all we wanted to do was get dry, so we tried looking for a hotel. When hotel owners see white wet people, the prices go up. We went in a few places and all were charging extortionate prices to stay, and in the end we had to settle for a room that was 200rupees altogether (there were 3 of us) this is relatievly cheap so we were happy. The room was disgusting though. The paint was mouldy and peeling off, the bed linen was stained, the sheets and pillows were satined, the 'Indian' bathroom was just a hole in the ground and it stunk, and it didnt have a tap. But beggars cant be choosers! We left our things there and went off for an explore of the town. there is a 1000 year old fort nearby which we wanted to visit. The hotel owner told us to pay 30-40 rupees each for a taxi/tuktuk...and every driver we saw was saying 100-200 each, so in the end we risked getting a bus to a place where we thought it was near. Luckily on the bus, a woman tapped me on the shoulder asking if we were going to the fort, and to get off at such a stop, which was good, as we wouldnt have known. She also got off at the stop and gave us directions which was also helpful as there were no signs. On the way there, there was suddenly the sound of gunfire. we were all like what on earth is going on, as no-one semed scared on the streets. It was like being in Afghanistan! but then after about 5mins of solid shooting, we approachde some men playing paintball in the street. Why in the middle of the main road, in the daytime, i do not know. By the time we got to them, all remained were colourful men. At least it wasnt real gunfire! The fort was really nice, and there was a museum there which had lost of old bits of stone. That too ws a rip off as an Indian citizen would have got in for 5 rupees, but a tourist had to pay 100. I got some nice picturs. Luckily the day was a lot warmer and brighter then. Afer that we went to the market and the temple in the town which was good, it was really busy. We then found a decent ish looking restaurant for tea, and i had mushroom chowmein which was quite nice. After that it was dark, so we had to get back to the hotel. It wasnt great! I wore my mac over my pjs as i didnt want any part of my skin touching the bed. I must have slept about 2 hours. i kept being woken up by the sound of traffic, tv, people talking, and in the morning, someone heaving. Also the fan and the electricity had stopped working, so in the morning we knocked 20 rupees off our bill for the inconvenience.

day 25

Today was a hlf day, and spent the 3 morning hours at school teaching the alphabet, the time, and numbers 1-20. It was mainly useless. 1 boy understood more than the erst, as he knew the numbers 1-20, the alphabet and started getting to understand the time. the other 2 kids however it was like banging my head against a brick wall. Its not really their fault, as they are only about 5 years old so wont really understand English, but they didnt understand anything. they know the alphabet by the song, but if you ask them to point out a certain letter, they have no idea what it is. And when pointing at a number over 10, they will just guess and say a numbe below 10. we have a lot of work to do! the kids aer separated into 2 classes which we etach, I have the younger class. in the older class (a year older) 1 boy got really upset and was crying, and we think its because his afmily are very poor, theyre only recently got a house, and the government give the family money, but the father is an alcoholic and spends all their money on alcohol. he is 1 of 7 kids as well, so i think everything is hard for him at the moment. in the afternoon it was meeting time and I was apointed minute taker. It wasnt that fun. I also had my palm read by our project executive, who said that im going to marry someone whos intelligent, have 1 kid, and die early! I dont want to die early! and on that note, thats about it for my day! Weekend tomorrow (yey!) possibly going to Kangra, which ahs the oldest fort in India. But its not definite yet.

day 24

at school today we are teaching 4 kids, about 5-7 years old. they really dont understand English, some cant even write in Hindi, so its really difficult to teach them anything. it was like 3 hours spent trying to get blood from a stone. So the next 6 weeks are sure to be fun...In the afternoon we made some 'steps'. they wanted us to dig a hole from a hillside and replace it sith bricks. they didnt seem to understand that bricks without concrete or something to hold them together, will wash away with monsoon rains. after about 30mins of trying to tell them that this really will be a disaster and them tryign to convince us it will work, we just gave in and did it. so by tomorrow comes it is likely the bricks, and maybe a child or two will be at the bottom of the hill. We went to a Chinese/Indian restaurant for tea instead of eating out, and it was the nicest food ever! i had butter chicken curry and chips. There was enough food to feed the 5000, and cost the equivalent of about 2 pounds 50. that really made my day! nice food = happy Lauren.

day 23

At about 8.45 this morning it erally monsoon rained it down, and by 9.15 it hadnt shown any sign of stopping, so all school was cancelled for us, as we may have sli[pped down a mountian or something I'm guessing. Instead we had to do lesson plans and then write an evaluation sheet thing in groups. I watched Mean Girls twice. I also have leant the book 1984 off someone. after reading that, then going back into the normality of people here practically controlling your life, it made me realise how similar my life is to that which is scary! ive also had my eyebrows threaded. that doesnt mean sewn on, its a bit like tweezering, but with thread, so now i have bright red eyebrows. Also, its my turn on the internet day today, and about time too!

day 22

I had a bad stomach toda (its an omen!) so didnt go to school. Instead I stayed in and watched DVDs and read. Later on I went out to town and bought some food so i can eat something other than what they are feeding me, which was the reason i was ill in the first place. that is literally all that happened!

day 21

they haev stopped serving us toast at berakfast, and also stopped butter. they haev a 'quota' of how much bread a month they can give us, and we have used it all. the erason of taht is when u see toast, u get excited as it isnt chappati/rice/potato/lentil/chickpeas. so now for breakfast we have bread type things which looks more like a potato cake, but isnt, and today we had 'porridge'. this is definately not porridge. it looks like couscous, but tastes like eating pellets, its not nice. but i put jam with mine so it was edible. berakfast was the only meal i looked forward to, and now i despise all food! at the school today it was meant to be our first day teaching, but instead we sat there for 3 hours diong nothing while teachers chatted amongst themselves, and kids worked in silence elsewhere. tomorrow we are meant to be teaching properly, but its disappointing as we cant teach the kids we want to, the ones we taught the prev 2 weeks, as they are in teh older class (about age 9-14), and we haev to teach the reception/y1/y2 age classes who dont understand a word of English, so it will be very difficult! in teh afternoon we moevd rocks from 1 end of the playground to another. In films, where prisoners are shackled and berak rocks for no reason ni the boiling sun...it felt just like that. apparently we were moving it to the corner to clear it for sports day. but the playground is made from rocks, and is uneven everywhere, so there is no point. I ahd my horoscope erad to me by the project executive, and she said that someone loves me, and i will be ill with stomach problems on 28th august. i dont want to be ill! also I wont be allowed on the internet as ofetn as a new rota system is in lpace which means I can go on roughly once every 3 days...bad news all around! at least it was sunny today, and someone out there loves me!

day 20

had a pretty lazy day today. we had some bread type thing with scrabled egg for breakfast which was alright, amde a change. we then went into town and i went to the drycleaners and did some shopping, and had lunch uot. then a few of us went for a walk down to the riverbed by the house which was good, despite some locals trying to sell drugs to the boy with us. he actually told us to go away because we were female. it was a privelege and a disgrace at the same time! we also have a cannabis plant (apparently) next to our house. that may explain why the past few night we haev had a hippy playing the guitar to children outside our window! start school properly tomorrow, which will be interesting im sure.

day 19

we went to an angora farm today, i thought it would be fields with little bunnies hopping around, but it was a battery farm style prison for rabbits which were too big for their cages and it stunk of rabbit wee...it really wasnt worth the visit, so i have no idea why it was on the suggestion list of places to visit! then we went to Bajinath, where there is a 1500 year old temple, that was quite good. we got some food out there, i had a chili and garlic noodle dish, it was nice, but really spicy. on the way back to Palampur, we stopped off at a tea factory on the outskirts of the town. it was a bit boring, but it passed the time! the house is erlatively quiet tonight as a few people are staying out places over night, so il prob have a erlatievly quiet night, maybe watch a DVD, who knows! xx

day 18

5 kids at school today, and we had planned a reading day...and as we were very overstaffed, me and 2 others spent the morning doing community surveys. It was a right trek up a moutnain to the houses! and also one house had a skinned dog hanging outside the front door. I have no idea why, but it was horrid. I suggested it was used for meat, but who knows! the afternoon was made of boring meetings. I also got my letter from Tom :-), thanks Tom it was really nice!!! Thats about it for excitement today! A few of us are possibly going to a rabbit angora farm tomorow...not my idea but it will pass the time. Might go to a local zoo on Sunday. Local means its around an hour away. But who knows what will happen! xx

day 17

there were 4 kisd at school again today, we set them a test which ended up lasting the whole day, which was good for us as we didnt really have too much to do. Int eh afternoon I did a community survey with some of the otehrs which means interviewing locals about things like income etc. for the government to use the data in some sort of way. Tea aws rubbish tonight, there was some nice rice which had veg in, but all we had to accompany it was cabbage, tomato and chabbati. luckily enough, its 1 lads birthday, so we aer having a party for him which involves party food so i will have my fill of junk food there :-) no other news really to tell today! xx

day 16

there were only 4 kids at school today, which was a big difference to the 15 ish of yesterday. Me and Duane had planned todays lessons, we learnt vowels and consonants, and then played countdown...i felt so much like Carol. After break we tried playing play your cards right, but a efw didnt understand the concept of higher or lower so we spent the rest of the day trying to teach them that. In the afternoon we had the english/ computer classes, which the kids and a few teenage/20s girls turned up to. the kids werent the problem , it was a 23 year old, she well annoyed me! as tehre were about 20 kdis adn 1 laptop, we haev to separate them so they all wriet a bit av\bout themselves and type it up. she snatched the paper of a 7 year old to type it so she could get on the laptop, she pushed her way in on that, tehn hijacked others' goes, and then erfused to elarn anymore english with us, and had the cheek to complain that she was angry she didnt get on teh laptop! we had 1 hour, 15 ppl wanting to go on, adn she actually did go on! she also is really disruptive and starts Hindi conversations while we are trying to teach. If she doesnt start behaving Im going to haev to have words. Its something when a person older than you is acting worse than the little kids! hopefully by next week all the kisd will have returned to school full time so the overcrowding wont be a problem. but if she starts playing up I'll have to get her removed! went to Palampur after school and posted some postcards...which will arrive probably after I'm back, but the thoughts there. We got something to eat as well, I had a chicken sandwich, the 1st meat in over 2 weeks! it was good. then for tea we had onion bhajis in a masala sauce with rice, a nice meal! probably going to spend the night playing blackjack, Ive taught a few people how to play so we now haev our own little card school! xx

day 15

we arrived at school and saw there was a mouse running round the classroom. we wer all scared so didt start lessons till it had run ut of the room. then once getting in we saw there was a massive spider above the blackboard which spent the next 3 hours running across the walls. it was not a good animal day for me! there were a lot of kids at school today, 15. so many that they were having to share tables and seats with each other. today there were 2 deaf children in total, must be something in the water! we did maths, they understood adding, but nothing else despite trying my hardest to explain. division is something that needs words not actions! the kids decided to join us for dinner, and then half came to the afternoon class again...as if we dont see them enough in the day! it was really raining, monsoon style, and when that happens the electricity doesnt work, so we couldnt teach them PC skills so erad them a story. It was actually so wet, that on the walk to the bus taking us home, i saw a crab...yes a crab! and i am sure it was a crab, Ive had people telling me it must have been a scorpion, but it was definitely a crab. carbs in the himalayas?! mental. by the time not only did i resemble a drowned rat, all the colours of my clothes had leaked onto my skin, so i had a blue body and pink legs...not very appealing. I spent the afternoon sorting out a lesson plan for tomorrow. Tea was well nice today, we had littel doughnut type things for dessert, it made my day!

day 14

jam on toast for breakfast (standard) with a frit pancake, which consistde of 1 slice of a banana on it...not really fruit! we went to the school and had a big class today of 12 kids. We did an activity where each kid wrote a letter of the alphabet on the board. 1 boy stood up to do it and did and said nothing, so we assumed he didnt understand English, so the man with us translated it for him...still no response. After 10mins we discovered the boy was deaf and dumb...which someone erally should have told us about! I sat with him during the excercise and tried my best at signing to him with my little knowledfge of sign language. It was challenging but rewarding.Then we played ball games and did some maths. In the afternoon placement it was the English and PC lessons for the teenage girls, but instead half the class turned up as well as their older sisters so we taught them the basics of Word and some conversational English. We had chips for tea, the firt time yet! It was literally the talk of teh town. They were ok, but curied still :-(. but it did beat potato

day 13

i woke up at 7am, and at 7:30, some Indian people tried getting into our room with a key, it was a bit scary as the door wasnt that strong! luckily they soon realised it wasnt their room and left. we got up at 945 and went for berakfast at the place we had the meal the night before. this time, the food was rubbish, and i never even got served! everyone had finished by the time they gave me food which wasnt even what i wanted, then tried charging us more for the bill. i wasnt impressed at all. As qwe spent about 2hours getting breakfast, we didnt have enough time to do everything we wanted to do, so did a bit more shopping. We got the bus back and stopped off at Palampur and did a bit more shopping, then got the taxi back to camp. I picked up my clothes from the tailor round the corner which was good as i had run out of clean clothes! I did some washing when i got back, but the water ran out so im not sure how clean my clothes really are. I also have to beware of monkeys stealing it from the balcony!

day 12

had an onion pancake sort of thing for berakfast...not erally breakfast food, so i had a banana instead. we left around 9am to go to Mcleod Ganj which is a 2 hour ride away, and where the Dalai Lama lives. Because it was India's independance day, it was a 'dry day' emaning they didnt serve alcohol :-(. it was really busy as its a major celebration and the bus had to drop us of 2km outside the town because of the traffic jams. On the way there we visited one of the oldest churches in northern India. Once we got there, one of our group met up wioth an old frind who was travelling, and took us to the motel place where they wre staying, and we all got rooms there for about 3 pounds per double room, so 1.50 each! It was basic but clean and quite spacious. The place was about a 3min walk from the centre dwn lots of muddy steps. I shared a room with a girl called Sophia. we unpacked then explored the town a bit, we went to a Tibetan monasrty and did some shopping. Then we went for some food, I had a tuna pizza which wasnt amazing, bt vetter than what we would have back at camp.In the evening we went to a music 'concert' where a man played the drums and a woman sang, and a man was on the sitar.It was ok but lasted aaages. After that we found a nice little Italian restaurant which charged us about 1 pound for a nice pasta meal, it was really nice. on the way back though, the 4 of us were followed by a scary man shouting things at us so we stopped by 2 other white gils who were next to a shop...who incidentally stopped there because they were being harassed by him as well. so we all walked back together, they were in the place next to ours.

day 11

hi again! today i we went to the school today, and when we got there we were told its a religious festival where children go to other family members...meaning only 1 boy turned up for school. As this meant we couldnt really teach, we all went to the daycare centre, where we sang nursery rhymes and played with about 4 kids. 1 more of our kids turned up there so we did some reading with them. It was a half day for us, with afternoon being meetings, and on our way back home, the minibus hit and killed a dog. everyone was histerical apart from me! i didnt even know we hit anything until i saw it behind us. Its not like dogs never get hit by cars, and espacially if its running in front of vehicles what does it expect! one girl said "he didnt brake hard enough, he wouldnt have ran over it if it was a cow" (cows being holy animals)...but of course he wouldnt, u cant possibly run over a cow without it flying through ur windsheild and killing everyone inside. back at home we had a sinner of chappatis, some spiacnch and potato things and rice...same old. im really bored of the food. its not even like the indian stuff at home which i would gladly eat! i went to teh shop and bought some dairy milk to make up from the average, boring, monotonous food. then we had some meetings, the first was a discussion about how the school placements are going, the second was about what we are going to do next week at school, so we made a timetable etc. Thats about all I have to tell u for today! possibly going to Dharamsala tomorrow, where the Dalai Lama lives. But thats just a thought atm, need tp find out about buses and times etc first. if not i think i will stay at camp or go to Palampur which is a 10min drive away. ttfn xx

day 10

had a massive berakfast today of 2 egg on toats, 2 jam on toasts, and some apple....just incase dinner was horrid and i didnt want to eat. but dinner ended up being onion bhajis in a sort of bolognese sauce with spaghetti which was great! so i really did overeat today! we taught th kids maths today which was more challenging than English. There was 1 more girl in the class today, who i think was about 4. its really hard trying to cater to children between 4-12. we brought in a load of sports equipment like balls and badminton set which they loved. we saw the cutest little puppy ever! it was tiny and white...it was so cute i took some pics...and i dont really like dogs! and the dog was called Tommy! for tea we had same old indian food. Potatoey things with chappati adn more random veg related things. the sim card man came to collect our documents to get sim (its crazy what u need to do to get a sim!) passport photocopy, visa photocopy and 2 passport pics...why, i do not know. then a few of us went to the tailors to get our clothes made...only costs about 4 pounds which is good! a efw of us were going to watch a film tonight...to find the DVD player is broken :-( looks like itl be another game of cards tonight then! tomorrow i have a half day at school, then meetings about school related stuff in the afternoon. not entirely sure what, but will find out 2mrw!

day 9

Namaste (hello). today was the 1st day of school. there started off with 2 boys and a girl, but incerased to 2 moer boys later on in teh day. we played educational games like heads shoulders knees and toes...and they already knew the words! the kisd wer aged 5-12, but all seemed a lot younger in looks. we thought they ere really clever, they all have a good knowledge of english...but then later found out theyre not as good as we thought as theyre memorising things rather than knowing it...like they looked at a painted rainbow and went thru the colours 1 by one and got it right...but if u pick a colour theyre not suer what it is. we played basketball with them which was fun but tiring! we had our tiffin (lunchbox, no Anabel dad!) for dinner its like a biscuit barrel with tins of food in. its not great food, but its food all the same. tehn a girl had a leech on her ankle! it was horrid. in the afternoon me and a lad callde Duane were teaching 2 teenagers english...1 was good, the other relly wasnt. i ended up teaching duane the alphabet too which was funny, i felt so knowledgaeble lol. we have to wear indian Salwar Kameezes to work...and i make MC Hammer look like he's wearing drainpipes with how baggy they are! went to the market after work and bought some clothes, so need to get a tailor now! u cant buy ready made clothse which is weird lol. I apologise for the appalling spelling, but the keyboards here are rubbish, and im too lazy to change errors lol. tomorrow we're teaching and building steps...fun. we have to wear our proper clothes too dont get overalls or sumthing, so il look a right state. thats pretty much it for today, off to play blackjack with a few of the girls. i always win :-). xx

day 8

went to the school for the first time today. its about a 10min drive up the mountain which involevs crosing bridges and a waterfall. right in the clouds! the school itself is tiny, 2 classrooms which are small, where all the kids get taught, no matter about age or ability. we just had a look round as t\its teh kids' summer hols so no1 to etach. tomorrow starting 'bridge' classes for the underachievers, so theyre caught up on their education before school begins. we then went to have hindi lessons off the teachers which basically meant we asked them waht we \wanted to know and they told us, but india is a vary varied contry, with places incomprihensible to others in terms of language. one teacher was a local, the other from Rajasthan which is far away. so one was telling us one, one something else. so i still have no idea whats right. they then told us there was a wedding in the village and would we like to go...free food..yes please! so we walked up the mountain some moer and came to a function room. the bride and groom werent there but the guests were all eating food off leaves on the floor. we were escorted into a VIP room coz we were guests! we feldt special..we had chairs to sit on! then after about 10mins we were escorted outside where we sat down to eat. we ate off leaevs which were like stapled with bamboo (random wbut thast what it looked like) and we had a pile of rice, with dif curries..was very nice! then went back and got a sim card...dont remember m,y number tho so will try and contact sum1 with it! then went to a market but bought nothing coz we had ot enugh time. then we had a chinese (ish) for eta, with garlic berad...so glad it wasnt curry! we havent even had a poppadom yet, and the curries arent like back hmoe. all these carbs arent good for me! thts all for now! xx

day 7

had an inside day today. chose which school we were all going to, im giong to Thala school which is 4km away, getting there by an organised bus. saw some monkeys today, they had baby monkeys too which were cute! today for the first time the clouds cleared from teh mountains and the views are amazing! il try and upload them at some time. its the best view ive ever seen! did my washing today with a bucket and some vanish soap...only for a monsoon rain to come and wet it all again! tomorrow we are meant to be visiting the schools to see what its like. we haev ben told we haev a deaf child in the class so will have to try and learn some sign language. not too much to etll today, hope to get on in the next few days though! xx

day 5

hi everyone! i manaegd to survive the 16 hour train journey and 5 hour bus journey. was tiring tho! and a man was thinking of robbing my bags thinking i was asleep...i wasnt. the views here are gorgeous! misty but can see the mountaisn we are right next to them. sharing a room with 3 other girls, 2 bunkbeds per room and en suite. foods ok too. went to the nearest town of Palampur whicvh cost the equivalent of 7p each way! just had a wander and came back. thats all to tell really, il try and be online again soon xx

day 4

for breakfast we had toast again. the toast is smaller than ours and she does home made butter. We got up at 5.30 as we had an early day going to the amber fort. it was a really nice building, it was built in the 16th century...pics will follow in a few weeks time i imagine. it is the 2nd biggest glass palace in the world. got to ride an elephant up top the fort which was cool, and inside was all marble and precious stones. i thought it was only a matter of time until i saw a traffic accident...and i did. a motorbike and a bike collided, the motorbikes fault...and the driver ran over his bike and continued! i was shocked. In the afternoon went to see a bollwood movie. About 1/5 of the words wer english, so got the jist of it just about. typical love story they break up and end up together again. For tea we had potato curry, pumpkin and veg, and ciabatti. Krisha was telling us that she is going to send her son (age 13) to Australia to become a pilot..and as far as im aware he has no say in this. and he wouldnt even fly planes, just look after his uncles fleet (told u thewy were posh) she also told us more about the new servant - her and her family are homeless and all live in a little tent by a road. the girl doesnt know her own age but id guess 15/16. she only has 1 set of clothes, and one of her cousins went missing 2 years ago never to be seen again. it was a really sad story, but i think its commonplace round here. It really makes u realise how well off we are back home. Random thought, but Ive seen a few dogs here...and all seem to be limping! no idea why! thats all for a while now, got a 16hour train jopurney followed by 4 hour bus up mountain 2mrw. should be next weekend i aim to get on the net, but will have to see. hope all is well bk in England xxxxx

day 3

up at 8am and had toast for breakfast. had a 'shower' as well, which consisted of a bucket of water and a jug...nice! we were all taken to a place where poor women and their children were and they made clothes, and bought a few salwar kameez (indian dresses) from them. The weather here is scorching hot, im, still getting burnt with factor 50 on. for dinner had chappati chick peas and potato. got bit a few times in the night which wasnt good, a few have turned t\into big blisters and are itchy but should go soon. on the way back to the host families house, we were picked up by the brother in law...and just as we were on a 'dual' carriage way (cars make their own lanes and do what they want!) the car broke down! we had to get out and try co\rossing about 6 lanes of traffic! the traffic here is menatl. there are lane markings but no one sticks to them, they just make their own, and they beep to over take so its noisey and also really dangerous! we finally crossed the road and got a tuktuk which is like a cross between a taxi and a rickshaw back to the house which was an experience also! its like how many ppl can they fit into the tinyest vehicle which has no doors! for tea we had spinach, a sicy sauce and chilis, followed by a coconut dessert, it was nice. The lady also arranged for a masseus to come round. I told the masseus, who didnt speak english not to go over my bites, by showing her my bites and shaking my head etc...she rubbed it anyway and they got infected and turned b;listery...should go down in a few days but are a bit sore for the time being :-(. In the evening a family came round, apparently the girl was being interviewed for being a servant there...the family already have 2 servants. I also saw 2 camels grazing in next doors garden...random

day 1

The flight lasted 8 hours, and I sat with 2 guys called Chris and Nat who seem nice. I had a nice dinner on the plane, a roast dinner, but breakfast wasnt so nice it was a bit rubbery. Virgin planes are well posh! TVs in every chair, well good! After the plane we got a 7 hour coach ride to Jaipur with no air con...nwas not comfortable! also found out we werent going to the Taj Mahal so I was very disappointed coz i really wanted to go. When we arrived in Jaipur, we were split into groups of 4 to stay with a host family. I stayed with 3 girls called Jagdeep, Matea and Nayo. The family we stayed with were actual royalty! they owned a castle but were doing it up to turn it into a hotel. Although they are extremely rich, its a double edged sword for the mother of the family called Krishna. She isnt allowed to associate with people below her in class, and not allowed to do things on her own...so she became depressed, so did the host job to make friends and let her have a bit of independance. Her brother apparently has his own castle with 15 horses and hosted the ex president of Israel there! Had potato curry chapattis and sweet dessert. Altogether I like with Krishna the mother, Kunwar the father, Gaj the son, and the parents of the father.

Day before leaving

Just over 24 hours til I go...hope I've packed everything I need, but wouldnt surprise me if I've forgotten something. I'm flying from Manchester to Heathrow, then Heathrow to Delhi, so I really hope my luggage doesn't get lost...10 weeks in the same clothes isn't very nice! I should get to Heathrow about 2-3 hours before we meet up, then its another 3 hours till the flight out, and the flight should last around 8 hours. The next time I write I should be in India, and I hope I have some interesting stories to tell!