Mango and Monkey Madness!

 

It's amazing to be here in India now. OK, so I have just survived the hottest time of year, but check out all of the mangoes!! It's mango mania! They line the roadsides, fill the fruit stalls and happily end up in my tummy. Who would have thought there would be so many different varieties. A mango or two a day...

 

Not a day goes by in India when something eventful doesn't happen. For example, after a tiring workshop in Arni and a relief to drink some cool water (the ice man from before treated us to ice packs with a warm smile). We climb on the bus. Then whack, I smash my head on the corner of metal shelf on the bus. I am always hitting my head.

Yes it hurt, but I have a good pain threshold. Sam then told me, there is blood and whipped out her first aid kit! Oh no! The man sitting near to us also informed us of blood. I think he and his neighbour were quite enjoying the show. The whole procedure had us in hysterics. Sam only had massive dressings and pulled on some gloves. It was when Sam told me she had stuck the glove to my sweaty head, that I could feel the tears in my eyes from laughter, or was it more sweat? She was being extra pre-cautious and if it were just me alone, I would have just left it!
As I walked back to the house with what looked like a massive strip of masking tape on my head, the locals that recognise me all asked “What's happened?”
To my amusement when I pulled off the gigantic dressing, it was a tiny but deep cut. Nothing very impressive. Well, I filled that cut with turmeric straight away.
The father of the house advised me to stop daydreaming about my boyfriend and to walk around like this...then demonstrated a movement that could easily have been an impression of the hunchback of Notre Dame.

 

The drama and Art collaboration between me and Sam began this week at both Kasam on Monday and Arni on Tuesday. A mixture of productive and challenging creativity as well as uncontrollable glitter fights!

 The boys hostel continues to be splashed with colour.

 

 

I love my Wednesdays with The Girls Project. I am super proud of these girls! 2 girls have left the school, but 2 more younger ones have joined. One has as much sass as Beyonce and the other is just the cutest thing!

 

This Wednesday I took them for a double workshop and got messy and creative with tie-dye. I always have fond memories of tie-dye as a child. I come from a family who love tie-dye. My mum or dad would choose only one colour, so we all would be matching. It's funny to see photos now, in our faded orange t-shirts.

 

The workshop with the girls was abit more advanced compared to what we would create in the Mytton garden. We coloured a lot of fabric and tried techniques I had never experience before. These pieces of art will be transformed into bags over the next coming weeks. And how beautiful! A couple didn't work, but that doesn't mean we can make a cool bag for the girls to show off proudly around their village.

 Whoops... and we were wearing gloves!!

 

 

I felt very happy on Friday when I had put together an art workshop for the children down at the disability school. More children have joined the school, and with many different abilities. So we formed two groups, and although they were being arty in separate rooms, doing different things, they were actually working together and for each other to make a final piece. It was a great success.

 

Yoga now wakes me up earlier, but I really enjoy the practice. Especially when my teacher praises me and says 'Very good' 'You're improving!'

My yoga teacher is a woman I can look up too. A very natural woman. She always tells me about these interesting things, I helped her collect bamboo leaves the other day so she could make a drink, 'It'll make the body strong!' So I went to her for advice when I was feeling worried about my hair falling out. The next week she rocked up with some magic coconut oil mixed with many plants and seeds.

Sitting on the rooftop at the weekend. Minding my own business reading from my kindle, I felt the urge to look to my right. Staring at me was a young monkey, only about a foot away, it gave me a jump and I stood up to see 2 big adult monkeys sitting under my seat, also staring at me. I could tell they were thinking, 'what is she doing here?' I backed away and observed from afar, I know and have seen how unpredictable and scary monkeys can get. They were obviously on their daily commute, crossing this rooftop, having a snack on some of Jhansi's plants, and giving their bums a good scratch! It's quite incredible really, to experience this, I just need David Attenborough narrating for me.

 

Since I last wrote I have also been baking cheese straws and courgette cake and finally collecting recipes from Jhansi, a divine cook.

I sat next to an elderly man on the bus, only to notice how wide apart his legs were and how I had squeezed onto the tiny remaining piece of seat. I thought to myself, maybe he has something really big down there. I continued chuckling to myself for the remainder of the journey.

I have decided Tamil is quite a hard language to learn, I try but struggle to pronounce the words, as they roll their 'R's. I try what I can, but sometimes I have to say one word about 6 times in different accents. But even though what I know is very basic or badly pronounced. Everyone seems impressed with my efforts.