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