"Hellow" said the sign on the back of the lorry!

India. A country that bursts with colour, through the landscape, the transport, the music, the people, the buildings, the food.

So here is a black and white shot of the Jalakandeswarar Temple in Vellore Fort

I have spend most of my Sunday in Vellore, visiting the Fort, buying paper and strolling down the winding busy roads. I stopped for tea and made friends with the male tea vendors. I'm very good at this! Making male friends in tea shops in Asia! Anyway, they told me where to eat lunch after I asked them.

Once upon a time I was know as the Rice Queen by certain people. This was on my return from staying in Nepal for a long time, becoming fat after being force fed rice, of what felt like every minute of the day.

I had flashbacks today, as I was eating my lunch off a banana tree leaf in a cafe. There was rice, dahl and other fascinating pickles and vegetables. There was a LOT of rice and it just wasn't going down. The woman opposite me looked horrified. Telling me to 'eat eat!' Pointing at my untouched rice.

I kept on going, finished the spicy and filling feast and rolled out of the door, back into the hot hustle and bustle.

 

It's been quite a varied week. Workshops have started, as well as more planning at new schools. As this is a completely new project, I am organising everything from scratch, which can be quite daunting at times. As well as exciting.

 

 

Workshops at Kings School proved to be quite chaotic, but resulted in some really exciting results and learning curves for me. I am organising set classes/ age groups to work with. So I can work on long term projects to see them blossom and how they progress.

With each group that I am working with, I have been starting off with a simple and fun workshop, which allows me to see how the children behave in a group project, and just to see how their imaginations work.

I've spend a day making samples for my workshop ideas. So I've had the chance to be making fun and arty things. Eunice and I spend quite a while walking around the office garden, taking rubbing's of trees, tiles, the floor and textures, before I chopped them up to be transformed into a collage.

 

Hunting the garden for ideas!

 

My brain is in complete overload. Constantly thinking what I could and should be doing, and I know once I have settled into more routine, my thoughts will clear!

I'm excited to be working with a struggling school in Arni, just outside of Vellore. There are just over 200 students. Of which probably about 10/15 are girls. One thing I hope to do, is to have weekly workshops with these girls. Because sometimes we just need abit of GIRL POWER!!

 

 

 

I was able to visit another tribal school (photos above), we did the same workshop as the kids in the city school. The whole behaviour was completely different, it took some time for these children to get into the activity. This particular school is currently situated in somebodies old house. 17 children in the whole school when I visited. From ages approximately 10 – 15. If this school wasn't here then the children would be working in the fields after primary school. Children aren't sent down to the city/town school because elephants roam the hills.

 

I could write so much in this blog, but best not bore you all, but here are a few things to end on...

Crunching dried out tamarind shells under my flipflops brings as much satisfaction as stomping on puffball mushrooms in the English Woodland.

As I sit eating Thali, I suddenly notice the amount of moustaches in the room. Perhaps as my well read fella from across the globe suggests... They are all influenced by the late Rudyard Kipling, who sported quite a grand moustache

It is warming up even more here now in the days. Which makes the evenings and mornings seem cooler.

I have a little lizard friend who scurries across my room, bumping his head on things. Mr Lizard is keeping check on me.

 

Lastly... prepare to be horrified and surprised at my hair washing transformation!!!