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!