Things are looking up!

First of all, I need to tell you all that only today have i read the comments you all put on my blog. So aaron, Janet. Mum, Dad, Chelle, hayley, and louise plus every one else who wrote i have only just found out and i very much appreciate all of them :)

24th - as usual ill go over this again! it was a good day. found om's cafe and it was brilliant. i'm here today infact, it's just a lot more western. we play really cool music all the time and just hang out on the roof. I will take photos because it's hard to describe. Heavenly, in comparison to most of jaisalmer. 30 odd of us went for lunch for someones birthday. Had my first beer, just the one but it was nice. had a nice long chat with my grandma which cheered me up a lot!

245/8/2010 - teaching went a lot better today. we have split the group up more. 3 volunteers take class two, myself and two other volunteers now take class 1 which consists of about 15 children aged about 3-6. their abilities range massively. There was only two of us for this week teaching as the 3rd volunteer is a hypochondriac and believes that a bit of a fever will kill her. ( we all have a fever, you have to power through!) but anyway, despite my bitterness it went well. the kids are getting used to our teaching style and are beginning to behave more. i refuse to tell the other teachers if they misbehave because i've seen with my own eyes the beating it leads too. i have come here to teach MY way, which involves ignoring the naughty ones until they feel left out and join in. it also involves hugging, giving stickers too and pretending to be an eagle with the well behaved ones. it's getting FUN, would you believe it. I hope people don't take this the wrong way, but my personal aim is to make it seem like i am teaching them but really i will be just having fun with them. The teaching methods are basic and rubbish over here, but they're not as developed in england so i have no qualms with the way they teach. However, it is more important for me to leave these kids with a dream, a broader horizon, greater expectations, than it is to teach them how to say cat and dog. indian teachers can do that, i want to focus on what I as a westerner can offer. did a community visit in the afternoon. it was a waste of time, i sat in someone's house in the desert and asked them loads of really detailed questions about the economy, their needs in terms of health, transport and general living. upon my request for questions in return their came none. I left frustrated, i would have rather spent more time with the kids, or at the hospital helping give injections etc. I got my post today off louise however, which cheered me up MASSIVELY as i never thought it would actually make it. Some postman on a little tuc tuc thing just turned up and it was good! I went to bed in a bad mood because i have bites all over my body and the bed is sweaty. it was a good day though, so bugger it i will manage i thought.

26/8/2010 school was ok again. we taught the younger children. the other volunteer was playing a game called i am a square, which i loved as she kept referring to herself as a square. as you can see my level of humour is not high. I have found a child who is my favourite. His name is Chanda, although i call him Charmander as it sounds cooler. He has massive learning difficulties, but he is clever, loving and funny. I intend to take him under my wing because i see real potential in him. after the lesson i spent a while taking photos with the kids and they seemed to warm to me once they got to have fun with me instead of just learning. the bites have got painful now, they're not even mosquitos. they are like bed bugs of some kind. lunch was potatoes and soya which over here is a 5 star meal. camp morale rocketed upwards. i exchanged about 40pence worth of rupees for another volunteer to wash my bed sheet and pillow case. wow did they wash it, it was filthy. had a big discussion about gender for a couple of hours. i won't go into it, but things that were discussed were bride burnings, foetecide ( backstreet abortions) how religion in india will stop the kind of progress english women went through in the last century ( suffragettes etc) and it was inciteful. some of the facts are hard, 20 million kids have been killed by their parents in the past 20 years for being female. thats just the ones we know of. anyway, enough of the hard cold truth. it hurts! back to lightheartedness, i had a big discussion with another volunteer in my group about what she felt i had done well and not so well at during teaching. i went to bed feeling rejuvenated and with a much clearer vision of the next few weeks with regards to teaching.

27/8/2010 today goes down as by far the best day in india so far. one of the best days of my life too. I woke up really happy for some reason, and not tired. I Think ive settled into 6 0 clock mornings and 8 0 clock bed times now. someone gave me some nutella for toast which was an unbelievable treat. got to school, id planned the whole 2 hours of teaching myself. However, India being india it threw up a new challenge of sorts. there was a festival, so most kids went playing and not to school, this just happens and noone but the english seem fussed by the lack of perfect precision in planning. Anyway, it turned out great. i took 4 kids, got a huge piece of paper, and drew with them, taught them words, and ran round the room pretending to be all sorts of automobiles for 2 whole hours. by the end of it they had had loads of fun, and knew about 10 new words. success, i LOVED it. LOVED it. The kids are starting to like me, i'm getting more confident, and they are starting to learn. the teachers dont like our methods. in a polite way i basically told them that their presence was not needed as i was here to do things my way, they didnt like it - but they left. they were mean to my colleague so my stubborn ways set in and i had a bit of an argument with a teacher, my exec translated it. at the end of the day if they dont like how i teach then why dont THEY teach rather than drinking tea all day? i'm not bitter, i promise. there was bland dry pasta for lunch. again this was highly appreciated. it had no flavour, but i could fill myself up with it so i was grateful. on many occasion meal time is not fun, so this one was great. spent an hour making a lesson plan for all 5 sessions of the week so now i feel really relaxed and at last i know that im going to enjoy teaching. i really havent so far, but i know it will never be the same. i even know loads of the kids names. despite that, i do morph them into the names of pokemon or well known super heroes for my own asmusement. my day concluded with a bucket of cold water ( shower ) i went to bed with clean sheets, a happy boy. oh i almost forgot, i walked to a lake with a big axe thing, and got loads of clay. spent about an hour with some volunteers making clay shapes it was thereputic. i might get more for the kids to do an art lesson.

28/8/2010 well that's today. did not have to be up until 9, but woke up at 6.30 not feeling tired. indian james feels very old! english james never wakes up early. any way, i washed my clothes in the bucket and i filled in the minutes of yesterdays meeting. ( yesterday we had a a big 1 hour meeting about camp issues. i was the chairman, and i had loads of good feedback. if people spoke out of turn i ignored them and let those with hands up speak up so i annoyed some people but in general my style of leadership went down very well). today will involve me spending loads of money on resources for the class, and going on a boat ride on a lake, and also some pasta at an italian which should be nice.

CONCLUSION - settling in. much happier. enjoying teaching. getting somewhere with the kids. tuesday is the start of week 5 and i feel like somewhere in the distant distant future, i can actually see home! anyway, im now going off here and to all facebook users im going to TRY to upload about 200 photos on to there. then my mum might put the best ones on here. please remember that if the photos work, theyre just a drop in the ocean. there are thousands of pictures of me on, theyre just on everyone elses camera. you might get a little snippet of india but when im home and you see the whole lot, then youll be able to add images to what youve read over these ten weeks. hope youre all ok, i miss EVERYONE and thanks as always for the support. a more upbeat, and appreciative james signing off for another week :)

Another hello from Jaisalmer

I have found a much nicer, quicker internet cafe. My blogs might be better and more frequent now. Time will tell. Week 4 starts today, and whilst I would not say time is going quickly at all, I think the last 5 weeks will go very quickly because then the countdown begins and by week 6/week 7 it will fly by.

I'll go over the 21st again, because I was half way through the day last time I wrote. Spent the day with a guide and a couple of volunteers going round the fort and the palace. It was beautiful and the views were breathtaking. India is so vast, I'm seeing such a small part of it. There are people, EVERYWHERE! Loads of us went for lunch at Milan. We have adopted it as the place to go. It sells good chicken, and if you have meat once a week you just go to wherever you know it is good. There are hundreds of restaraunts but I like Milan, so I'm staying put. I bought a couple of presents for people in the market. I chewed some tobacco with a couple of other volunteers. It was crap. It felt like chewing a cigarette and I spat it out after 5 minutes when you're apparently supposed to chew it for ages. I also stepped in cow poo, but being that there are as many cows as people wandering the streets it's bound to happen. We had a silent disco at night. For those who don't know, you all put earphones on and put your favourite song on and dance to it. It was absolutely top. It was pitch dark and we stood on a really high wall. About 20 of us just dancing like nutters and singing at the top of our voices for about an hour. I played a mix of The Beatles, Wham, David Guetta, Gracious K (whose cousin lives in camp) and loads of other stuff. It was brilliant, after a couple of phone chats with people from home I slept very well that night.

22/8/2010 Sunday was very chilled. Most people were at hotels so camp was quiet. We had pancakes for breakfast. Not that nice but, edible which is enough to make me happy. Played loads of chess, cards, listened to music. If Jordan is reading this or anyone who knows him, tell him to download music by Immortal Technique because I can't think of any other friends I have who might appreciate it but you're all welcome to check him out. Not much happens on Sundays which is the beauty of them. We just wash clothes, read, talk. I'm about 100 pages through Roots. It's a difficult book so far. I have a long list of music and authors to research when I get back. You learn a lot by listening. There are some extremely intelligent people here. I make alot of them feel really old because I haven't heard of the telly they watched as a child, and when they talk about where they were on the millenium for their night out. I can only say, I was 6, I don't know. It's quite funny!

23/8/2010 Today was a lot better at school. It is the brother/sister festival tomorrow so most kids were too excited to come into school. I played cricket for an hour with another volunteer and about ten young boys of whom I reckon 3 actually go to school. We won, anyway. Actually we destroyed them which was funny because they expected us to be rubbish! There are some Indian children who are about 12, and they bowl quicker than me. Later, we moved rocks for about 2 hours in the boiling sun. It's pretty pointless to be honest but we put music on and chat and have a laugh, and take photos, so it's not the end of the world. I  then went for a walk in the village and got lost, I walked into a womans home in the middle of nowhere. I apologised in hindi and quickly made my escape. Spent about 2 hours discussing who would win in fights between animals/religious gods/superheroes with the guys. I've probably not laughed so much in my life. There is one person in camp who keeps making stupid comments about my weight, and it's bringing me down. Because for 1, I eat alot, I just have a quick metabolism and 2, we ALL have lost weight over here. So, she's making me feel a bit down, but at the same time.... every time any of the older ones make a comment about my age, they are the first person to defend me and to say I'm mature so I dont know what to do about the situation.

24/8/2010 Today is the festival, so were off. I've come to town so I could come on here and it's someones birthday so most of us are going for lunch at Milan to celebrate. I will do this day again when I come back on Saturday, but I assume it will consist of lunch, a shower, socialising and bed. I'm spending the next week just teaching the 3-6 year olds so I'm going to throw myself into using whatever crazy method it takes to help them learn. As my aunty said to me in an email, even if they don't learn loads of stuff they will hopefully have a broader outlook on the world and what they can achieve.

Conclusion - I miss football and news in general, but I'm settling in. I'm counting down the days, but I feel lucky to be here. The camp is ALOT less ill now, in fact 35/44 of us are very healthy now. We all seem to have a cold, which in the desert is weird but we can get over that. I had fried eggs on sweet bread this morning. YUM. Along with this, electricity levels have shot up. We have it like 30 percent of the time. We watched Harry Potter this morning. How i love electricity. I am going to come back as a tree hugger i think. If I see anyone say they're poor, I will be one of those annoying people who says how ungrateful they are. I am SO SO SO SO lucky, we all are actually. The opportunities we have in England are unbelievable. I'd like to get a moped when I'm back too. Anyway, keep emailing me. They're making me really happy to read..

Special mentions to michelle, Amy, Lauren and Chloe, Grandma, and everyone who can be bothered reading this. I love you all. Yours sincerely, a chirpy, indianesque James

hello again everyone

about to write again. i think my blog will become alot more boring now. im in a routine where i teach every weekday, and then have the weekend off. so other than teaching the kids, alot of socialising in the camp not much happens out of the ordinary for most of the week. im fine now after my hospital trip. also, i got an A in history, and two b's. if any of my friends could do me a favour, ask all my mates their results and email them to me because id love to know. also, you can all get international calling cards. they cost 5 pound and then you can talk to me for like `15 hours on it. ask louise for my number in india if you wanna get one. right, onto the updates.

18/8/2010 - ill go over this because i was halfway through the day last time i did it.woke up feeling better, hospital was a worthwhile trip. did ten green bottles and sentence with the kids today. its frustrating, they dont even really like us. they keep saying stuff like, 'this is my india, go to your england.' if only they could learn some other sentences. im only trying to bloody help them. some are sweet kids, but the language barrier is currently too big for any real progress. i always knew it would be slow and hard, but my group is determined. the girls are great teachers so in 5 weeks maybe theyll have got somewhere. went out into town as you know, got a torch a bucket etc. went to jhoda in the afternoon where iwork and just spent a couple of hours chatting to a family. there are goats everywhere in the deserty its quite funny. they just walk on the buildings. stayed up really late with 3/4 volunteers talking about all kinds of studenty rubbish. had a lot of fun!

19/8/2010 chilled out for hours. got a level results off louise. we both got ABB and im proud of both of us. it just feels a bit lonely out here because a levels to all these uni students arent a big deal so i feel a bit left out. thats noones fault though and i will be happy to see my results sheet when i get home. i hope you all did well students! been thinkin about home alot today.

20/8/2010 split the group of kids up, did loads of maths. most of us have a really bad cold now. its frustrating that were all so ill all the time but the conditions are just awful. i feel lucky that i dont have to endure it for ten weeks, you guys have it so good in englnad next time you poor water from a tap think of me as i have none! had a long chat with louise on the phone which made me sad, happy, stressed, and calm. but i do miss her alot, im starting to miss her, and everyone, and home. thats expected but it d9oesnt make it any easier. i think i will come back alot more grown up than i left

21/8/2010 today has been absolutely awesome. spent the day with 2 volunteers, we went round the massive fort in jaisalmer. saw amazing views, museums, got invited into loads of shops and homes. had lunch with about 20 other volunteers, then the three of us went on a big adventure in to the middle of nowhere and met loads more indians willing to tell us their tales and chat to us. tonight will consist of chilling out, more talking.

conclusion - im doing ok. 3 weeks are done after monday night. im pretty feverish but most of us are. im happy and occupied alot of the time but i feel ( as most of us do) were not having much of an impact whatsoever. it feels like we should be teaching the older children, the younger children need supervision, they dont even speak hindi properly yet. overall im taking as much of india in as i can. i hope everyones ok. thanks again for all the emails theyre keeping me going, love from james

next chapter

i'll briefly go over the 14th as i wrote that before the day was over. i sung some tenacious d songs in the common room to the group but some people got offended as they can be rude! shopped a lot, got violent diarrhoea which a whole indian family heard and gave me an awful look for - embarrassing! apparently the night before i was sleep talking, but most of the lads have been doing that, or snoring so its ok. i had a good chat with the indian staff about the history of india.

15/8/2010 spoke to family on the phone last night which was great, and louise as well :) most people went to celebrate independance day in their village. i celebrated on the camp, im on the photos with the staff, i was topless so i covered my nipples and everyone laughed at me. i forgot to put one on before i went to brush my teeth and i stumbled on their national anthem photo - oops. diarrhoea got much much worse. went about 15 times during the day, spent alot of time chatting and hoping to get better. people keep arguing with each other so im just staying out of the way because its over silly things like who has the bucket or the soap, i dont care who has the bucket, or the soap..... its just a bucket, and soap. theres been a lot of rubbish humour, but it makes us laugh because the rubbish jokes were all making get us through the day. we all keep touching stuff that turns out to be alive and its so hard not to hug anyone or touch anyone at all, because you just cant in india. its socially unacceptable. not shaved yet, starting to get a strange hairy face. woke up at half 5 had to go diarrhoea in the middle of camp outside, noone knew so it was ok.... but it was worst moment of my life. i have a fever too. gonna go hospital tomorrow.

16/8/2010  went hospital. they said i had dangerously low blood pressure. andi had to stay for 2 or 3 days. the story of my trip tohospital isnt a niceone. i was scared. to cut it short. i stayed for 25 hours and ah alf which is a camp record. i had 8 litres of fluid put in my iv drip. about 20 injections, i got a huge blood clot in my arm so i was surrounded by doctors injecting me with yellow stuff and it hurt so much. the bloodclot went though, thasnkfully. i had anawful time there and felt very ill and alone. with no credit to ring anyone, wishedi could go homeat this point.

17/8/2010 woke up in hospital, yet more fluid had to be dripped into my body. i got back at like 1pm, every1 was like OMG YOURE BACK cause it was a big worry on camp that i was dangerously unwell. i was chuffed that people were so nice to me. i felt loads better, still have diarrhoea but 5 times a day rather than 20. also hes given me lots of pills. feeling alot better now!!!

18/8/2010 thats today, i kicked arse at work today. i told all the kids i was doctor evil and i basically just made the kids laugh but i taught them stuff as well. been to town had some amazing chicken. i forgot what meat even looked like. bought a torch and a bucket and stuff like that, and like 5 pinapples. ill write again at the weekend . i will alwayshave to write at the speed of light so it may be unclear.

conclusion - thanks again for all the emails its making me chuffed to hear from everyone. love and miss everyone :)

a recap of the first 11/12 days

okay, hello to anyone following this. first things first. im okay. i miss you all. and to everyone whose emailed me i dont have time to reply but keep writing as i appreciate it lots. i should be able to update this once a week from now on. i will try to write my diary on here from day one, and so might repeat myself a bit from last time.

3/8/2010 met everyone and got to know a few people. definitely feel like one of the youngest. plane was huge, people on it were praying. there was a bit of a bomb scare literally on the seat next to me. but everything was ok as proven by my being alive.

4/8/2010 a woman spent two hours asleep on my shoulder on the plane. it was disgusting. in the end i gave her a good talking too and she stayed awake and sat up then. chatted lots to the volunteers. when we arrived my stuff along with another lads nearly got sent to antigue, luckily it didnt so were ok. the 7 hour bus journey showed us alot of the country. people were trying to sell my coconut in the middle of the motorway. indians are NUTS. and seriously this place is so over populated. finally got to our homestay/ big family, huge beautiful house. i mean, it was like a little mansion for gods sake and im not exaggerating.

5/8/2010 struggling to eat because in india you cant use your left hand for anything (they wipe their bum with their left hand) the state of indian loos is another story which would take too long to discuss. we got a taxi to our meeting point which got lost. there isnt much law on indian roads, everyone just does what theymean, its scary but there are no crashes. organised chaos in the extreme. apologies for all spelling mistakes AS ALL ELECTRICITY IS SLOW AND  RUBBISH HERE. spent 3 hours at a school, bought clothes and played games with the kids. i  danced with them and did headstands and played cricket. one kid gave me a best friend bracelet i nearly cried :( we went to some godawful slums. they are wretched. we were all quite saddned by it. they kept trying to rob us and i dont blame them. weve been treated like celebrities in most places. had a bucket and scoop shower, it was lovely. and the only time in the day you can be cool as its about 45 degrees or something silly. seeing many rats frogs cockroaches cows monkeys elephants geckos you name it, its here. tea was nice, played cards for a few hours with the lads staying in my family home then went bed.

6/8/2010 got another taxi to meeting place. kept nearly crashing again. had a hindi lesson. there are 2000 versions of hindi, so its hard. there are so many volunteers its hard to learn names. spent most of the day learning about the rules and all that boring stuff which has to be done. i crossed a busy indian road which is much braver than it sounds, i was proud to a high degree. theres hardly any women but theres men veerywhere, they wee in the street freely. even the wealthy ones. the culture in terms of religion clothes traffic gendr priceand shops is a complete opposite to england. its like another realm. there is so much poverty but they areso welcoming and smily. the level of english is excellent in general. my family gave me ice cream. yum. we have a finnish man named lorrie staying with us. he is a mean person i dislike him alot. i had an indepth chat about hindu and muslim politics with one of the house elders. it was interesting. early night tonight, i had loads of aubergine at tea which mum if youre reading i expect you to be proud of.

7/8/2010 showered. said goodbye to host family. got an overpacked bus to the amer fort. we were told it wasl ike a double of the taj mahal and oh my god was it. i was overwhelmed at the scale and beauty of it. i suggest you all google it. so many beggers selling stuff. i just kept saying bog off in indian basically. i enjoy using my hindi knowledge. i rode an elephant with another group member it was so much fun i was giggling like a girl. spent a while round the fort. had a lot of great conversations with the other volunteers. i understand why we were picked now. weve all got teaching experience in some way. in my case sports leader. most have degrees and we all spend hours discussing music, politics, war, religion, life. just unbelievably intellectual discussions which makes me feel like im around special people. its been nice. were all very passsionate people which is why i guess were here and not the ones who were rejected. who knows, i know im lucky. apologise once again for the spelling. this keyboard may aswell have a jar of honey on it. i kept trying to rip the beggers off which made everyone laugh. i held a bloody cobra. only 3 of the 44 had the guts to do it and it was frighteneing. there are thousands of stray dogs, but there is a high risk of rabes so we have to stay clear. we went tosee a bollywood film. outside theyre all really quiet because the culture and religion makes them be that way but in the cinerma they were all laughing n clapping it was funny. wandered off half way through to a market with some of the other teachers but girls couldnt go in so we all had to leave. (girls have a shit life in india, excuse the language but its true). saw a mcdonalds, there are cows everywhere, as theyre sacred. there are cows on all the motorways but you just drive round them. we waited for the train. i had a huge like 4 hour chat with some volunteers. a one armed man was sick on me. it was not nice. i heard a french family talking, so i used my yr 9 french and had a full conv in french with them. dad, and mum, please be proud because i pulled it off with the accent and everything. magnifique. spent ages getting shuoted at on the sleeper train cause we were all just messing about and laughing hysterically while the indians were trying to sleep. train was disgusting, narrow, and huge. got about 5 hours sleep. 14 hours later we got there.

8/08/2010 i helped about 20 girls unload their cases. the lads have been helping alot, 8 lads plus nearly 40 girls = hard work for the boys. it was hot. and hard to carry stuff but after a long bus journey we made it. kind staff, volleyball nets. huge grounds, unpacked. boys have a far bigger and better room. things generally wowrk this way in india. spicy pasta for tea which went down well. girls were all going nuts over the bugs which was funny. there is no electricity which means. darkness after 6, no fans, no runing water apart from a little well. ( in the future there will hardly be any electricity). played footy for ages with thelads it was good. and frizbee. the loos are gross, full of maggets. there are beetles and hornets and wild dogs everywhere its ran. my mosquito net has bloody holes all over it. there was a kind of monsoon outside. its like terrential rain and a lightsshow, it lasted hours it was beautiful to see on our first night. its hot and sweaty in the room.

9/08/2010 toast for breakfast, could be worse. about 20 people are seriously ill. im ok atm but most people are in need of hospital attention. again i must stress im not exxagerating. i had papaya at lunch. again parents please be proud. played cricket with the staff but noone else did as theyreboring. im more relaxed than most people so far. i had a dance tobob marley with somevolunteers which wascool. we went into jaisalmer for a look round. kind and friendly people. lots of european tourists. lots of the army too, i kept nodding at them pretending i was some sort of millitary presence. been learning some dance moved off people. played lots of silly games and had hours of amazing conversations. people say theyll have a party for me and amy ( other 18 yr old) on al evel results day which would be top!!! one girl saw a wild dog in the dark and screamed. there was pandamonium cause none of us could see so we thought it was something scarier.

10/08/08 omg, we have elctricity for the FIRST time. mood in the camp is much better. even with electiricty there will never be internet so i cant get on until weekend really. i appreciated thechance to charge stuff up and sit under a fan and use a tap quite alotthough. most people are ill now, im one of about 5 who has held out. i went to a private hut on my own and sung for about half an hour to try and calm down a bit. did some kick ups with the lads, got put in my work group. im working in a school called jhoda. its 3-10 years old. theres me one lad and 4girls to about 40 kids bt some times less. we went to see the school. the kids are mental. i was a bit down when i got back but many volunteers arel ike 6 years older than me and very very good people so theyve looked after me. louise if youre reading i really am in good hands. also i will point out that most of the camp know about yourl ife story as i dont shut up about you. anyway, i talked for hours with people and then some indian kid did a singing show for us, then sleep!

11/8/08 - pancakes! mmmmmmmmmmm. first day of teaching. it was nuts to be honest. kids are mental, have no respect. theyre the same as english kids, hyper and naughty. except they speak a different language, they all asked if i was married as by 15 most of them tend to be. i said no but i have a gf called louise and they seem satisfied enough. the staff kept hitting the kids, it was not fun to see. had lunch, spent a few hours in the hut listeing to music and chatting. went back to do construction work. ( moving rocksfor an hour and ahalf) again, im serious. so you all know i work 3 hours in the morning teaching, and 2 hours in the afternoon doing stuff like moving rocks. the middle of the day is too hot to work. i have weekends off. the coach driver killed a goat by accident. 6 of us were on the coach, 4 girls me and one other lad. we were all gutted but only i cried. i cried for a bout an hour, all the other teachers were very niceabout it though and give me tissues and that. had a really good night chilling with the volunteers, after 6 at night we have to use torches tosit outside. im of a rare breed of people that havent been ill yet. its like a war zone, people keep going hospital. there are gross bugs EVERYWHERE. its hot, its rubbish, i went to bed!

12/8/2010 got about 7 hours sleep which is the most ive had up to now. there are thousands of flies everywhere. youdont even notice now, theyre just EVERYWHERE. samas the frogs, dogs, beetles and anything else youcan think of. went to teach again. bit better kids have no respect but i tought them acouple of shapes so im getting there. played a few games at lunch and then learnt about aids. had a massive bit of pinapple and loved it. i now love pinapple. again i would like to invite parents to be proud of me for trying newstuff. had a shower outside with trunks on everyonelaughed at me butidont care because i cba being shy.

13/8/2010 had a big sleep. i tought for an hour by myself today. it was so hard. but i taught thekids alot more than i thought iwould. i did adding subtraction shapes, cars, youname it. i am reallty strict because im not there to be there friend. the sunsets annd the stars areb eautiful. lots of shooting stars. im hoping the wish i made on my chinese lantern i did with louise comes true! had a big group meeting it was poo cause every1 argued so i just chilled out. played volleyball with the staff who were sooooooooo good at it, the lads lost 15-12 so we gained alot of respect from them.

14/8/2010 well thats today and i havent wrote mydiary yet. all there is to say is that its my first day off. went into town with two other teachers. ate western food. im SICKof curry. its curry and rice for two meals every day and its making us all feel sick to eat it. ive had really bad diarrhoea today, but im like 3rd to last to get it soivedone well. i may go hospital. im ok, this is normal out here. ivebought moreclothes, im pissing the shopkeepers off cause i barter too much. i went with some random strange indian in to the middleof nowhere just to see some peoplehouses,, scary but fun. andhe didnt rob us so its all good. up to now im about to go buy a pinapple, get ataxi home and go bed as im ill.

CONCLUSION FOR NOW - im ok. im safe. everything is dirty and doesnt taste good. the people are very kind. and im workng very hard and getting alot out of it. it couldbe worse it could be better. but this will surely be the hardest thing i ever endure. once again i miss all friends andfamily, youre on my mind lotsand as usual special shoutout to louise i love youso so much and i wish you goodluck on results day, same with all my other osfc friends. ill update nextr week. bye xxxxxxx

3 day trip to jaipur

this will be extremely short. i have fought off many people to get on here. i'll write more extensively soon. been in jaipur a couple of days. its hot, its like another world. been to the slums, spent hours playing and having a laugh with children. learning hindi. there are about 1000 other things which i will put up on here soon. i have a diary so i'll write everything off that. in such a rush. the main thing to say is that it's like being on another planet. we're like celebrities. and so much is happening all the time that my mind feels numb. the group is fine but most people are 5 or so years older so whilst i dont feel like an outsider there is definitely a noticable difference in age. but that won't matter, we're going to our place for 9 weeks on a sleeper train tomorrow night. going to ride an elephant, watch a bollywood movie, exciting stuff is happening all the time. i muight eventually be able to see the taj mahal too. i bought some indian clotjhes, i look silly! sorry for the bad typing this is a huge rush. the indian family im living with have a HUGE BEAUTIFUL house. would be worth millions in india. everything costs nothing, a taxi is 50p, a coca cola is practically free. food is stunning but might get repetetive. lots of curries chickpeas lentils bread etc. had my first toilet trip today and delhi belly hasn't hit me. gross as this sounds diarrhoea is common so i'm lucky to be ok so far. i have been in many rickshaws ( taxis ) and they are mental. the roads are crazy. everyone is beeping nonstop and india has like a billion people so you can hardly move but if you walk in to a road everyone just goees round you. organised chaos. rode on top of a truck through the slums, most people were too scared so i stepped in and risked my life. WORTH it! Seeing monkeys parrots wild dogs elpehnats camels cows just wandering about. as i said i will write in a more clear and relaxed fashion soon. but so far it has been non stop activities and meeting people and chatting so i'm quite excitable!! love you all especially louise

Setting off tomorrow.

Finishing off packing. Got a few last bits to pick up like really strong sun cream. nervous but looking forward to meeting 45 other 18-25 year olds on the plane tomorrow :)