29/09/09

Nothing had changed in the creche apart from the glue (flour and water) we used to stick the newspaper up with had started to go moldy :/ We decided that we would do maths in the morning as we want the children to have an opportunity to learn, for we are well aware that some will never have the chance to attend school. This makes teaching rather difficult as the groups have such a range of abilities some have just about grasped 1-10, others can add and subtract and some can do division and multiplication, and we are supposed to teach all abilities at the same time. So the morning was a bit none stop as there were several different activates going on at once. I knew that one of the older boys who attends school loves division so I had prepared some worksheets for him which he wizzed through, getting every single one correct. I gave the others who attend school adding and subtracting problems which actually meant there was silence from a few children - amazing I know. I am extremely impressed with their ability as they not only have to be good at maths but also be able to know the English numerals as well as the Marathi. There are a couple of really intelligent kids who can really excel if they are given the right opportunities. Things started to get more cramped as the day went on as we had to move further and further down the room, as the builders decided to cement the floor whilst the creche was going on. This meant all the kids in a space about 1/4 of the usual size but we manged. On the whole it was a thoroughly enjoyable day, especially as we plan to go to Mumbai at the weekend which will be great fun!!!

Dussehra - 28/09/09

As it was a national holiday because of Dussehra the creche was closed. We went to pay our respects to the Goddess Durga and were blessed whilst we were there, out of the group I waS the only one who was given a flower which was slightly awkward but never mind. Its the blond hair blue eye combo that does it, unfortunately I can' t escape that :( Gwen and Jill left in the afternoon which meant more tears and a subdued evening. It feels rather empty without them here, they had such a large presence at Sangam its seems that there is something missing. It also means the top corridor is even more empty than normal with just us CVPs, Priyanka and Katey up there but soon the new PVs will move in and we will get use to our new family. Me and Kylie decided to paint some more pictures for our creche, can't wait to get back there tomorrow and see if anything has changed.

27/09/09

Manisha left this morning so everyone was rather down, not a brilliant way to start the day but it had to happen sometime :( I'm going to miss the Monsoon Volunteers they were here when I arrived and were so friendly and welcoming I felt at home straight away. We quickly poped to MG road to collect our tailoring and some how managed to back in time for lunch, which was rather amazing as we left MG road with less than 10mins till lunch. In the afternoon Pooja was performed on iteams around Sangam which provide people with their income such as the till in the shop, gardening tools and computers as it is part of the Dussehra festivities. Usually this occurs tomorrow but as it is a national holiday the Pooja was brought forward. After the ceremony you are given prasad and a leaf which symbolises gold for the coming year. We went out to Hard Rock in the evening for Gwen and Jill's last night with us :( It was a lovely evening but we all knew what was to come tomorrow which made me feel slightly down.

26/09/09

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY NAOMI!!!!!!!

Didn't do much today, went to a little market place over the river from Sangam. The stalls were rather disappointing, but at least I know that I much prefer the Laxmi road area for future shopping trips.

25/09/09

This morning I worked with the younger children, I started off with the alphabet and i was really pleased when they actually started to get the hang of it. I then started to teach maths - although I've learned the Mahrahti numbers, it was still rather difficult as many of the children are from different provinces other than Maharashtra and the teacher expected me to know the numerals, which was rather awkward. I tried my best and they seemed to understand and enjoy themselves so it turned out ok. In the afternoon I started decorating again but this time I had to go up a ladder, I didn't mind that even though it was rather high and I was actually on the the top step :S However, when I lent over and touched the light fitting for a little extra support I got an electric shock. I didn't think much of it so carried on but it felt like the current was still running through my body as I attempted to put up another piece of newspaper. Then when I put a piece up above the light fitting I got an even bigger shock, that's when I realised the whole wall must have a current running through it so i got down rather sharpish.

As the monsoon volunteers (Manisha, Gwen and Jill) are leaving soon we went out to celebrate. We went to watch the film Up in 3D which was rather fun. I'd never seen a 3D movie before and I really enjoyed but it's always quite amusing watching a kids film :) We then went on to High Spirits, on arrival we found out there was a live band, although the band were rather awful the atmosphere was great and we were able to dance so no harm done.

24/09/09

Arielle (1 of the winter programme volunteers) came with me and Kylie to see what we get up to at mobile creche. As we have a new area, we decided to make bright animals out of old toilet rolls which we can hang from the ceiling or around the room. Though it all went a bit crazy with everyone rushing about trying to find things to create their creature the children seemed to really enjoy themselves. The computer bus was also visiting our site for the day so the older ones quickly made their animals and rushed off to play on the computers. In the afternoon I ended up decorating the walls with newspaper so that they are ready for pictures. We walked back to Sangam via the shops so that i could find some dark chocolate to make a cake. For dinner we were all making something and it ended up we had loads of food but it all tasted great :) It was great fun actually all off us rushing around the kitchen trying to cook at the same time. To finish off the evening we had a campfire with the local guides which was really nice.

23/09/09

Both the programme and the community volunteers went on a day trip to visit some of Sangam's partner organisations.1st stop was Ishwari an institute set up to proved women with the opportunity to learn new skills such as cooking, craft and housekeeping. All of which will help in later life. There are also causes for men such as IT and mechanics. Its a brilliant foundation as it enables those who have fewer opportunities to learn new skills. They also make the best ginger biscuits I have ever tasted, we somehow managed to arrive right after a batch had come out of the oven so ate them warm...delicious. We then visited Anand Gram an institution which was started in 1964 by Dr. Indutai Patwardhan to reach out to the victims of leprosy. As leprosy declines the site has started to focus on the needs of the children. There is a large school which children who live in Anand Gram attend along with children from the surrounding area. Anand Gram not only has a school but also housing, cooking and dinning facilities for all the residents, a lounge and a large area of land used for farming. Its a fantastic institution and has made a real difference to those who have been affected by leprosy, both suffers and those stigmatized unfairly for having a family member with the disease. We went to Darshi's for dinner and had another chapatti rolling lesson, she taught use a different technique and I amazed myself by making a round chapatti. It may appear easy to do but its much more difficult than it looks.

22/09/09

OUR SITE WAS BACK OPEN TODAY YAY!!!!!!!! We walked straight passed it at 1st and one of the boys from the creche came running over to show us the way over. The space is so much better than the last site - even though there are no windows and holes but at least the door frame was fixed by the end of the day. We weren't sure what to expert so we hadn't really planned anything, so I felt at a bit of a loose end. We ended up doing colouring and singing songs which was fun. The hokey cokey went down a real treat :) In the evening we went to little get together at Eszter's house which was really nice.

21/09/09

Everyone's site was closed apart from Katsuko's so we all ended up going 2 there today. As 5 would be 2 many for the creche we went in stints the Sweds in the morning and me and Kylie in the afternoon. We took bubbles which went down a treat and ended up playing games for the majority of the afternoon. One game was a bit like duck, duck, goose but instead of saying goose the person drops a handkerchief behind the selected person. 1 of the older boys kept on choosing me which was rather amusing as he kept on teasing me in the process :) Kylie decided that he was my new boyfriend which was hilarious. In evening we went over the road to Phule Nagar, near Grishma's house and took part in stick dancing with the locals, which was nice.

20/09/09

We went to MG road this afternoon. We caught the same bus number as yesterday but it turned out it wasn't the same route so we ended up having 2 quickly jump off the bus, which was rather amusing. When me and Kylie were walking towards Landmark a guy was walking up the street towards us butt naked :S which was something I wasn't expecting as MG rd is a Westernised area. We caught the bus back to Sangam, when we got off the ladies from the kitchen were waiting to cross the road and looked rather suprised when we climbed - was rather funny.

19/09/09

We got up at 5.30am this morning so that we could get to the Lion Fort before it got to hot. We had to catch 2 buses to get there. Thankfully people were really helpful so we managed to get the right buses - it was really amusing at the station, we were searching for the right bus and so we asked a conductor (who had just been shouting at bus which was pulling away) it turned out it was the bus that was pulling away so we had to run and to catch it. The bus admittedly slowed down but the crowd still cheered when we managed to hop on :) It was a nice bus drive, it was really foggy and made it feel like we were in a movie. Though the walk up to the Lion Fort was challenging at times - was more like rock climbing than hiking, it was worth it. The view was amazing and I felt a great sense of achievement when I got to the top. There was a great view from the top and on the way down we made some friends :)

18/09/09

This morning we played Marathi bingo which was great as I got to practice my Marathi and teach them maths at the same time. In the afternoon we blew up some balloons and the children went crazy. We had planned to play some games with the balloons but it was impossible so we just let the kids run around chasing them instead :) For the rest of the day we just ended up playing games which was fun. After tea we went out to High Spirits a bar in Koregaon Park, on arrival we realised there was a themed night - Rock band. Thankfully we were allowed in, we even got wristbands and necklaces. They even had a stage where you could pose for pictures with a drum kit, guitar, base and mike like a real rock band :) It was a fab night out even though people looked at us a bit strange when we started dancing but eventually other people joined in so it was all good in the end.

17/09/09

Me and Kylie went to Katsuko's site, ours still isn't open :( We caught an awesome rickshaw this morning it had been pimped up with new shiny seats and diamante studs, which was rather cool. It even turned out that the driver is the dad of a guy who works at Sangam. We were going to teach them head, knees and toes but we found that they already knew it!!! We also did some craft activities around the theme of soil. In the afternoon we played some ball games, the one when you pass the ball over your head and between your legs went down a real treat.

16/09/09

This morning we started to learn some of the colours in Hindi and objects and fruits which match the appropriate colours. After our Hindi lesson it was time for PUNE CHALLENGE!!! This consisted of being given 3 destinations and having to visit each without looking at the exact address of the sit. I was In a group with Linnea and Jane which was great fun. 1st stop was the handmade paper factory, unfortunately the factory wasn't operational but we were still aloud to have a look around and we saw some of the paper drying, which was beautiful. 2nd we visited the Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar museum and memorial, which was interesting apparently he liked to play the violin and was 16 years old when he married his 9 year old bride :S Last we visited a small Ganesh temple which was nestled in a small side street off the main road. Some how we managed to have rickshaw drivers who knew exactly were we wanted to go, I don't think we would have been able to find them if they hadn't. The paper factory was unidentifiable until you were actually inside, the sign for the museum is easily missed and I don't know how the driver managed to find the temple through the maze of streets. We met up in the Empress Botanical Gardens for lunch which was really nice, the amount of couples was a bit of a surprise as basically every bench was taken by them. On the way home we saw the elephant again, walking through the traffic without a care in the world.

15/09/09

The creche was closed again today so I went with Katsuko to her site. Kylie was feeling ill so she stayed at Sangam, unfortunately there is a bug going around and I have a bad feeling I might be coming down with it. I felt at a bit of a loose end in the morning, not sure what I should but in the afternoon I settled into it and went over the alphabet with some of the children and helped Katsuko with her craft activity. After dinner we went out for ice-cream and met Emma's boyfriend. Emma is another new PV.

14/09/09

As planned me and Kylie made huge paintings pf everything from a Kiwi (the bird not the fruit) to a flower we even painted a helicopter. I found it all rather therapeutic actually and really relaxed into it. After a while we had a breakand went for a walk down the road to show Jane and Arielle (the new PVs) around. Jane somehow managed to find a stash of diet coke in the supermarket - it's really hard to come by around here and I find that its the simple things (such as diet coke) that can cheer you up - not that I've actually felt down more of just needed a little pick me up after a long day. After lunch we got back to painting and the weather got back into monsoon season with bucket fulls of rain coming down. In the evening I made a little something for the CVPs aka The Mighty Ducks.

13/09/09

Mine and Kylie's supreme planning skills were put in to action and we managed to plan what we are going to do at Mobile creche for the rest of the month!!! In the afternoon we sat down and organised what we were going to do with our free time, such as what we would like to visit etc. We may be able to go down to Goa for a few days during Dwali which will be great!!! On the whole it looks like we have a jam packed schedule with going to stay in Mumbai, Goa and Mahabaleshwar and wanting to visit sites within Pune. Nothing else really happened apart from it started to rain, it not been raining as much as I had been expecting so when ever it does it's always a bit of a surprise. The creche is closed tomorrow so me and Kylie are going to stay at Sangam and make posters which can decorate the walls of our new building :)

12/09/09

Me, Kylie, Linnea and Sara went to Koregaon Park for lunch today - slightly uncomfortable as a random guy started to talking to me and I couldn't escape :S There were loads of people from Osho clearly identifiable in their maroon robes. After lunch we set off to walk down Koregaon Park, 1st passing a camel and then an elephant. There was an array of jewelery shops and all of us managed to find something we loved. We also managed to find the cake shop Eszter kept on raving about, lane 8 not being after lane 7 but behind all of the lanes - which obviously makes complete sense. As we walked along lane 8 and into a quieter part of Koregaon Park it was clear that we had stumbled upon posh part of town - all the houses/villas being closed off by huge fences surrounding the perimater and BMWs driving past every so often. We also went to investigate were Osho is situated - we wanted to have a look around the gardens as apparently they are amazing but Sara was lagging so we went to Mocca for some drinks, they have the best Lemonades I have ever tasted!!!! I can tell that going to Mocca for a lemonade may have to become a regular occurrence. Whilst we were in Mocca the rain really started to come down and even caused the lights to keep turning on and off, it felt as if we were in a disco. We met up with Gwen, Jill, Manisha, Jane, Grishma and Grishma's boyfriend at Adlabs to watch the Ugly Truth (a film). We were expecting a chic flick but were rather surprised by the films content but thoroughly enjoyed it all the same.

11/09/09

Lesson plan for today - English. We started off with the alphabet to get a grasp of everyone's ability, and then we started the older ones off with simple words. We got the 2 boys who go to school to draw a picture next to the words and found that they generally drew the correct picture which was brilliant. I also did some maths with them as they asked me to, one of the boys even got me to do some division just to check whether I was any good :) After lunch we ended up waiting around for ages as the creche didn't re-open as apparently we are actually moving TODAY!!! Speedy or what? We tried to help pack up but it was evident that they had a system and we were getting in the way so we ended up sitting around for a few hours doing nothing, which was rather tedious. Only benefit was we did get to go home early which meant we had loads of time to get ready for the Maharastrian dinner. For which I borrowed one of Kylie's saris just to see i might buy one - which i probably will now :) After dinner we had a campfire around the pool, managing to float some candles on top of the water - 2 of the trays the candles were on sank which was rather amusing as it meant that after the campfire me and Kylie had to rush and get our togs on so that we could go and get the trays and the candles out of the pool.

10/09/09

This morning on our work to the creche the traffic seemed more aggressive than usual, 1st an army truck tried to reverse over me and Kylie and then a bus actually changed course directly towards us which was to say the least rather scary!!! In the morning we worked with the older children drawing things which grow in the ground, we then got them to paint a huge tree using 3 A3 sheets of paper. In the afternoon we got the younger ones to paint leaves which we are going to stick onto our tree. Their faces lit up when they saw that they were going to be able to paint, it's difficult knowing that all the little things we take for granted can bring so much joy to those who have so little. I concluded that I must provide the children with as many fun and memorable experiences as possibly. Today we were told the creche is going to move buildings soon and the preparations have already started. On many occasions we had to close the door of the creche 1. because of the started demolishing the building right next to use which meant there was LOADS of dust 2. They started to either solder or cut a metal bar, I didn't get to close because there were loads of sparks flying everywhere. The worrying thing was that the children were rather eager to go and investigate what was going on :S Also every so often you could see the footprints of the guys walking on the tin roof, I was just waiting to see a pair of legs dangling from the ceiling, thankfully it never happened. We had dinner out with the participants and I sat next to the new Programme Volunteer, Jane, who has only just arrived - it was great to start to get to know her.

Cooking lesson!!!!

Well as usual we had a Hindi lesson - I'm really enjoying learning a new language and can't wait to put it into practice, which is sometimes difficult as I keep on forgetting what to say :S We went to Laxmi road and Phule market in the afternoon, which was fun even though it took us a while to find one and other after our rickshaws took us in different directions. After some searching we managed to find bangle alley, which meant i could finally get some glass bangle :) We also went to the fruit market and I brought some pomegranates (6 for less than a pound - I'm still shocked about the cost of things here, however, you have to be wary as some traders do try to rip you off as your not a local), fresh fruit ad veg is the one thing I am really missing at my stay at Sangam so I was thrilled with my purchase. For dinner we went to Kirti's, who is our; yoga, embroidery and now cooking teacher. The dinner was also a cooking lesson, we learned how to roll a chapatti, how to make chai and a several other things. It was really nice to have dinner out in an environment other than Sangam or a restaurant. We had dinner with Kirti, her sister and her brother they were all very welcoming and it was great to have a different group of people to talk to. They also suggested loads of places we might want to visit which was brilliant and made us think that we better start planing.

08/09/09

This morning we took part in in the event, as Mina thought it would be good for us. The first part of the morning went rather slowly - I was in need of a good nights sleep which for some reason was evading me. After having some lime cordial I perked up and found the next part of the morning extremely interesting. First Sean (Donna's husband) gave a talk on migration patterns from central America, through Mexico, with the final destination being the States and the guest houses the migrants can stay in along the way. He showed us a film which his friend had made and you can find it on her myspace by searching Marcela Moran. There was then a talk from the CEO of mobile creche which gave us an insight into the lifestyles of the children I'm looking after and their families. Apparently some of the workers are purely there to pay off debt and may not even be given a wage for their work.

In the afternoon we went to mobile creche for a few hours and did some maths work with the children. Despite the language barrier (which does make things difficult sometimes) I'm really enjoying the work. We had a nice relaxing evening - just watched a film and chilled out in the lounge.

7/9/09

Me and Kylie decided to walk to mobile creche this morning, stopping to buy guava from a stall on the road on our way. We had prepared some colouring in with the theme of soil (which is the creche's theme of the month) which the children did in the morning. In the afternoon we went to the mobile creche office. To get there we caught the bus (another new experience), which we had to quickly jump on before it sped away. I have to give it to the bus driver as he managed to squeeze into a space between to cows which i didn't think possible. When we got to the office we somehow got roped into a staff meeting - which was all in Marathi, despite this we could easily tell that the teachers where being told off for some reason or another, which made me feel rather uncomfortable. The worst part was that we couldn't escape as we felt 1. That it would be rude and 2. The route to the door was blocked with people. Eventually after nearly 2 hours I pretended to go to the toilet so we could make our escape. I felt completely drained after the meeting and had to have some sugar to perk myself up again. In the evening it was the international night for the event which is currently going on - we decided that we would go and investigate what was going on. There were lots of performances, from Indian dance to the story of the princess and the pea. It was great fun and I somehow managed to be given loads of swaps even though I had little to give.

Sara's 20th

04/09/09

Today me, Kylie and Katsuko spent the whole day at Katsuko's mobile creche site. The site was probably double the size of the last one and had fewer children to look after. It also seemed to have more equipment that my site. Also the teachers seemed to enjoy being there more than the other sites staff. However, I can't make assumptions it may have been because these staff were more confident English speakers and we didn't spend a whole day on the last site so i'll just have to wait and see. I really enjoyed being on the site and helping out - I just can't wait till Monday when we start properly. At first I think Katsuko was a bit disappointed with the site as there are fewer babies but the teacher were very welcoming and she soon settled in. Whilst we were there the computer bus which has been donated to mobile creche arrived. It's a brilliant idea, basically a bus filled with computers visits the different sites on appointed days, enabling the children to learn how to use a computer and play educational games on the PC. Friday at mobile creche means English lessons, so we helped teach the alphabet. One little girl sat next me for the duration of the lesson, to help her know how the letters are formed I wrote out some letters so that she could draw of them. It was wonderful seeing how happy she was when she got it right. By the end of the day she was calling me Didi, meaning big sister, which I rather enjoyed being called. We stayed at the creche a little longer than expected so that we could watch the children parade the Ganesh (they had made) around the housing area and then watch the immersion of the statue. It was fun taking part in the festivities and to see the children enjoying themselves. As there wasn't a river nearby they immersed the Ganesh into a bucket which was.....different, but the children thought it was great so that's what counts :) The pics are of the precession, the movable shrine the children made (the chair at the top) and the immersion of Ganesh. When we got back me and Kylie secretly decorated the lounge for Sara's Birthday, so that after dinner we could surprise her. Just for the added effect we sat in the dark waiting for her to come looking for us :P rather amusing as we weren't sure whether Sara would be the first one to come in and find us. If she wasn't it would have been rather amusing 3 of us sitting there in the dark with party hats on, luckily that wasn't the case. She seemed thrilled we she found her surprise (we had alreay given her a present - a dot to dot colouring in book, very befitting for a 20th Birthday :) and some chocolate) especially the butterfly me and Kylie had managed to create out of balloons. We then settled down to watch Bollywood movies and eat popcorn - brilliant fun!!!

03/09/09

This morning Katey's boyfriend Sid came over and brought 3 cakes to celebrate Sara's birthday which is tomorrow and Sayali starting college both of which is tomorrow. We went out for lunch at a place in Koregoan park - the food was great apart from the diaspointing side salad which should really be called a micro salad. It started to ran after lunch so me and Kylie jumped in a rickshaw to MG road to check out the international supermarket (the only place you can find diet coke) and to get party bits for Sara's Birthday celebrations. As it was the last day of the Ganesh festival we were going to meet up with a local family, the tiver, to immerse their Ganesh, only problem was the horrendous traffic. It appeared everyone else was out doing the same thing but eventually we got to the river even before the others had arrived. The crowds were large than the last time we were down, there were even arm men acting as crowd control. It appeared that me and Kylie had loads of time to spare so we decided to walk towards Sangam and meet up with the others along the way. On the way a guy ranted on about why weren't we waring masks to protect against swine flu and Kylie politely replied because it's a proven fact that they don't do anything to protect you - I don't think he really new what to say about that but kept on blathering on anyway. It was rather amusing really. We managed to meet up with the others and paraded the Ganesh shrine to the river, where a very quick ceremony was performed, before the Ganesh was immersed. There were less people around when we arrived for the second time that day, the crowd had lined and the army people dispersed. This meant that we didn't have a recurrence of the previous evening and get overloaded with prasad but got just the right amount. I do love all the food here - probably a bit to much :)

1st day

2/09/09

Me, Kylie and Katsuko visited the site where me and Kylie will be working at today. The creche is actually on the building site and is about 10m away from the building work in the picture. The creche is a single room building which has a partition at one end forming a small kitchen area. Along one of the walls there are small hammocks in which the babies are put in for naps. The creche looks after a varied number of children each day but there was about 60 there yesterday. Ages vary from less than a year old to about 10 years old. In the morning the girls are at school and in the afternoon the boys go to school, this also means the creche's numbers vary from morning to afternoon. The children are usually split into different groups and sit in different areas of the room depending on their age. We didn't do any work yesterday, just had a look around and observed what usually happens. Many of the children can't speak Hindi so it's going to be challenging but they are eager to learn had have fun so I know the experience will enjoyable. I loved finally going to the sit as it felt like my journey had really begun. I realised early on that when looking after the babies I need to constantly be on my guard as they don't wear nappies - the baby Katsuko was holding had a little accident though :S Some of the younger children weren't sure what to make of us at first with our pale skin being unfamiliar and foreign but they slowly got use to us and then became interested in the new people :) I managed to start a craze with some of the older kids, as once I drew around one of the boys hands everyone started to draw a hand, which was nice. One girl even drew Mahindi on hers. When I moved to be with the younger children some of the older ones followed me with their chalk and boards so that they could have my attention for a little bit longer, they seemed eager to befriend the new person :) When I was with the youngest children one girl seemed to become fascinated with my finger nails and their length and once she started examining my hands all of the others wanted to as well, which was rather amusing as my arms were pulled in all directions. Whilst we were there the younger children were weighed to check they were healthy. All of the children were also given lunch which was brilliant as I'm not sure how much food they get at home. For the babies their mum's popped in on their lunch break (they worked on the building site) to feed them - only thing was the crying started when the mum went to leave but it quickly stops when another child comes over to entertain them. One little girl was so tired that she kept on nodding off whilst she was sitting up, and then was jolted awake when she nearly toppled over - sweet really, so determined not to go to sleep but eventually she had to give in and go and lie down.

When we got back we found that our uniforms had arrived!!! I have to admit that we do kind of look like nurses but it feels nice to have a uniform. I also went and topped up my mobile, which was a bit of a challenge, but a nice customer in the shop helped us. He also guessed me and Linnea were from Sangam because apparently you only find foreigners in 2 places - Sangam or at Osho, the ashram.

People

I've just thought that you may wish to put a face to the names in my blog so here are some pics;






Sara - Sweden (at the Maharastrian dinner)







Linnea - Sweden (she was given an English flag on the international night)









Kylie - New Zeland









Katsuko - Japan

After lunch all the participants, apart from the 2 Scots left - quiet at last, the joy of being in a more peaceful environment. It felt slightly empty at dinner with only 15 people dinning - compared to the 60 that where here during the event. In the evening we went out to The Hard Rock Cafe for a few drinks and a 2nd pudding :) It was great fun and half way through the evening the staff (waiters, people from the kitchen and even the chef) got up onto a platform between the tables and danced to the YMCA - twice. It was pure comedy!!!

30/08/09

Today we were set the challenge of collecting the items required for ceremonies using prasad; a coconut, some Kum Kum powder, incense and a sweet. In the afternoon we were taught the art of Rangoli and we were also given Mehendi in preparation for the evening meal. That evening we had a Maharastrian dinner for which
everyone wore their new saris or Punjabi suits, sat on the floor next to their Rangoli art and ate their meal from a plate made of leaves. It was great fun and the atmosphere during dinner was fantastic as you could tell everyone was really enjoying themselves. The evening ended on a high with everyone being taught a stick dance by the local guides and then the guide performing a more advanced piece for us.

29/08/09

My favorite part of today was going down to the river and watching part of the Ganesh festival. Families 1st paraded their Ganesh shrine to the river and then performed a final ceremony before submerging their statue of Ganesh into the river. Whilst we were there a family invited to take part in the final blessing of Ganesh. Everyone was extremely friendly and I loved being part of the festivities. The atmosphere was amazing, all the crowds converging at the river creating a hive of activity. I was given so much prasad I felt like I had a 2nd meal.

28/08/09

We didn't do much this morning and I some how managed to fall asleep between yoga and breakfast. I have noticed that I have become more tired during the last couple of days, even though I haven't been doing much. We performed our play today as well and were applauded for our human pyramid :) After tea we had a Bollywood dance class which was great fun - even if I wasn't that good but me and Kylie stayed at the back so it was all good. Apart from Gwen recording us - cringe.

27/08/09
We were set the task of creating a play about the festival Dahi Handi - a festival which celebrates Krishna and how he liked to steal Makhan (curd) with his troops the Makhan Chor. People usher in the festival by enacting the role of the Makhan Chor by creating human pyramids to enable them to smash as many Dahi Handi pots as possible. It was great fun and we just have to sort a few things out before we perform then tommorrow. After lunch my Punjabi suit arrived WOOOOP!!!! I love the trouser there fab. All the participants went to watch a Bollywood movie in the afternoon. There was a slight twist as the whole movie was in Hindi and there were no subtitles - which made it interesting, well rather amusing, as I was somehow able to understand what was going on.