Back to Project!

Written on June 22nd

Being back at project has been a mish mash of emotion, returning back from our travels and seeing some of the faces who also enjoyed their holidays has been great, but as India seems to go - and the laid back ness of the culture it is in some parts such as Ongole, school has gotten off to a very slow start. Timetabled school is yet to start properly as the children come in in drips and drabs. However come next week routine should be on its way again and we can get going with our new syllabus having been granted the new roles of General Knowledge (GK) teachers! 

We have text books to follow, and pages for the classes to fill in, activities to do and prepare , books to mark, and I'm looking forward to the challenge! In the meantime we've been helping fill in names on textbooks, (a process that takes much longer than imagined due to class sizes!) and trying to fill teaching gaps wherever possible.

Aside from school taking a slow run to start, the weather however has taken a fast turn from the scorching hot heatwaves seen in Andhra Pradesh last month to the monsoon rains! It's definitely much cooler, greyer, and cosier listening to the rains from our room, having been in the heat for so long. Not only is India so diverse in its culture, religion and traditions, the weather too seems to make this country so full of unpredictable contrasts. 

Having just returned from travelling we were keen to get straight back into catching up with what we'd missed. With campus' painted, trees planted, a new office for HM sir, little more was missed beside - a wedding!! (Our hosts, daughter.) Therefore keen to see a wedding reception of any sort, Kalyani and Maddam took us along to a Muslim wedding reception. The dining experience was a completely new scene of eating madness - more like speed feeding! The length of the tables spanned the whole hall, laid out with plastic (Merry Christmas!) cups and plates. With copious amounts of rice and sambar the guests all looked happy, full, and content (as were we!).

On the 18th of June we also celebrated Jades birthday. I'll never know what it feels like to have a birthday at project, but I can say I loved sharing the excitement with Jadey - especially with the abundance of cards and parcels that flooded in over the week. Kalyani organised a surprise lunch for us which we had 'picnic style' on our bed, along with a choccy cake, gulab jamon, vada, mysore pak and an array of goodies. 

Talking of goodies, over the school summer holidays, my grandparents sent bunches of stickers and craft material, so it looks like some arty afternoons will be had in the coming weeks! :-)

Travel in Photos

On the 11th of June we are returning back to project to begin our final eight weeks left of teaching. During the school holidays we enjoyed our travels around India and here are some piccies from each place. Jade has written about our time on her blog at jadeindia.blogspot.com if you're interested in reading all about what we've been up to over the past 6 weeks. Looking forward to returning back to project for the start of the new term!

Varkala

Kollam, Munroe Island

Periyar Wildlife Reserve, Thekkady

Munnar

Fort Kochi

Goa

Mumbai

Delhi

Agra

Varanasi

Ajanta Caves

Hampi

Hyderabad

Tamil Nadu Travels

Since the 27th April Jade and I have been off on our travels around southern India whilst the school is closed over six weeks for the holidays.

We began our travels in Mahaballipuram where we relaxed, swam in the sea, saw the 'Butterball' rock and carvings and indulged in fruit salads and the usual western affair of foods! (A real treat after rice and vegetables everyday!). 

We then headed up to Chennai and found ourselves perched in extremely comfy cinema chairs in front of the new Avengers film, (3D) all for just 150 rupees, equivalent to £1.50. Feeling slightly overwhelmed and almost culture shocked by the amount of western shops including The Body Shop, Tony & Guy, M&S we grabbed some black coffee, kfc and Pizza Hut before heading down to the temple town of Madurai the next day.

Madurai holds the Meenakashi Temple - a huge, blue, beautiful temple with four main 'towers'. We arrived on the night of a festival so the town was extremely busy and the temple was lit up from head to toe with bright lights. In Madurai we also visited the Ghandi Mueseum where interestingly the clothes  he wore on the day of his death lay in a glass cabinet, 'blood stained'. It was interesting to read more about his work in India and the change he made. 

From Madurai we headed up to the hill station of Kodai Kanal. A beautiful hill station. The temperature reached the low of 16 degrees on a rainy day, leaving us feeling rather cold (for the first time in months!) treating ourselves to hot chocolate seemed inevitable and the cool air allowed us to have a brilliant time cycling, trekking and shopping - without sweat! 

Kanyakumari was the last place we visited in Tamil Nadu and is the southerly most point of India! 'We made it!', we can say,  and we saw a beautiful sunrise too. 

Mahabalipuram

Chennai

Madurai

Kodai Kanal

Kanyakumari