22nd Feburary 2012... Thinking Day! Thinking day was so exciting!!! We got up early for breakfast and then it was time for a special TD morning with 500 Bharat Guides and Scouts, plus everyone at Sangam. It was amazing! There was a big ceromany and then we did loads of songs, games and activitites with the guides and scouts. During the afternoon we went swimming which was awesome!! In the evening we had a really lovely ceromany which was live streamed on facebook ooooo! :D we floated candles in the swimming pool and lit lanterns representing each world centre. After some singing and reflections the day was almost at an end. The day so far had been incredible although a little sad because Alsion was stuck in hospital with some virus thingy- not to worry though she is totally fine now!!! It got to the early hours of the morning and it time to turn on the pc and skype with my Guide Unit!! It was so fun and really great to talk to them. Some of their most random questions included "Do you have a boyfriend?" and "Do you have a tan?" hahaha they did make me laugh!!

So since then we have been really busy, esspecially at work! Everyday is incredible and I'm loving every minute. This does however mean that each day seems to be passing quicker and quicker! This week we made humptey dumpteys, masks, name tags, pencil toppers and colourings and played games and sang lots of songs. It was awesome and I really don't want my time at Ramtikadi to end. We spent Thursday afternoon at Disha (HIV project) making recycled wallets from juice cartoons which was great, the ladies are alot of fun and really interesting, we are hoping to be able to sell them to raise money for Disha project. I have been spending alot of time with one of the tailoring classes the last few weeks. Teaching english has been really rewarding because at the start many of the girls spoke no English at all and we can now have simple convosations. We also made recycled wallets and have done colouring too, it suprissed me just how mich they enjoyed it, so I have promised more fun acctivities next week, thinking of making paper beads with them.

The beautician class is always a laugh. The other day Adri had full make up do and she looked really pretty afterwards, they even tried to convince one of the older cooks to have hers done, but she was like no, no, no my husband won't like it!

At the coaching class on Fridays I have such a great time! On Friday I stayed an extra hour so we could do more activities! We have made animals from toliet rolls, catapillar pencil tops, and done colourings, of course we have done lots of singing and seem to always send everyone home super hyper!! I think yesterday we got told to keep the noise down because we were disturbing other classes in other rooms!! :D I geuss the kids must have enjoyed it then! :D :D

Working with the creches is a big part of my life now. The teachers are incredible women and I love our chai chats at the end of the day when all the kids have gone homw or are sleeping. Sangetta has already said that she wants to come to England for my wedding!? She's totally welcome although I think she is expecting it sometime soon!! They saw the wallets we had made at Disha so now we have to make some for them all! The kids continue to be fab, it's so easy to become so attached to them esspecially now we know their stories and their personalities. It would be fair to say that it doesn't matter where in the world you are or what community you are in kids still, on the whole, don't like eating green veg! Sometimes the staff buy spinach or other green veg and add it to the rice and dal (thick soup type stuff that you eat with rice) and so many of the children spend half there time picking it all out and putting it on the floor, when they all go to brush their teeth poor Sangetta has to clean up this ricey green mess!!

I found out the other day whilst working at another of Deep Griha's creches in the community that at milk time they only had 6 cups for almost 20 kids so had to take turns and then at lunchtime it appeared that they had no plates at all but only a lunchbox and 2 tiffins, they had to take turns to eat their lunch. I found this pretty sad considering eating from a plate is something I take completly for granted let alone eating at the same time as my friends! Not to worry though Sangam is already working on a solution- added to the wish list and Mum's work is on the case!! Thanks guys!!! :D :D

Adri and I had a moment at the creche on Thursday... So there's this girl called Kushie and she's awesome- really lovely and one the ball, she's about 6 however has some kind of growth problem so she is tiny for her age and for that reason she was not in school, it was sad because she was mentally totally ready to be there. But on Thursday she wasn't at creche- unusual because she usually is... It came to lunchtime when school finishes (girls in the morning, boys in the afternoon or vise versa depending on school.) and in walked Kushie, with her sister in her brand new red school dress and back pack. She had started school. Even now writting this is makes me tear up- I am so pleased for her and she looked so happy. I think she is doing a few days a week but it is fantastic that she is able to begin her education!! :D

Hindi lessons are going well. It was on Thinking Day that I realised how much I had taken from them. Back in January when we had the Children's camp, I spoke no Hindi and it was harder to comunicate, at Thinking Day when we were with the Guides and Scouts I could talk a little with them and compared to the event participants staying at Sangam who hadn't had this opportunity I really felt proud of how far i'd come. Kalpana our teacher also comes out with some cracking lines... One day she asked us what a word meant, she then went "well of course you don't know, I haven't told you!" The expression on her face that went with it really made this moment- it was so so funny!

This week my drama 'skills' were called on once again as it was time for International evening. It was alot of fun and great to learn about other peoples' lives. The Tare decided we should take part and add to the festivities. Elly, Bec and myself performed an interesting rendition of King Arthur. It was so so funny- I tried not to laugh throughout, can't say I was too successful, but we all enjoyed it. I was King Arthur and Elly was Guinervere (sorry about the appaling spelling- here and throughout!! :P) and Bec was English for the evening and was our narrator/Merlin. The story ended happily, Arthur pulled the sword from the stone, became King, got married to Guinervere and they all lived happily ever after!

It's time for chai now and I hope I have wrote enough to keep you occupied for a while!!! :D Take care xxxxxxx. :)