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I have moved again!
I’m still with the same organisation but have shifted to another of their field offices in a place called Shivpuri. I’m still in Madhya Pradesh (it’s a pretty big state), but am now away from the rushed, loud, rubbish-everywhere ambiance of city living and am back in rural India – the slower, quiter, rubbish-everywhere type of life.
Seriously, I wake up daily from the screeching of hogs outside my window. They don’t belong to anyone, they just living in the piles of cr*p that accumulate outside the office and hotel in this block. They are repulsive. Seriously. I once saw someone from the hotel throw out a pile of – something – and about 20-30 of the creatures hurried to the site to immerse themselves in it. Why doesn’t someone just cull them all? I will forever wonder!
I don’t understand why it is difficult for the state administration to sort these things out. Just put public bins around, get over this ‘sweeper caste’ nonsense and give someone a decent salary and a thick set of gloves to empty them, and sort out your waste site. Why do we continue to live amongst our sh*t? I have no idea!
Anyone, other than the pigs that haunt my daily life here, Shivpuri is quite nice. I’m staying in the hostel above the office, so have got quite a lot of privacy having managed to escape the all-seeing eye of the Indian landlord, and get on really well with the staff here. I sleep under the stars on the roof at night, because it’s too hot to sleep in my room. It’s lovely – despite the mozzy bites, but I took a Malaria test and I’m good to go.
I get on really well with a girl called Baby, who I swear is the Indian version of CJ. She’s so funny. I showed her some of my photos from England, and the ‘Oh Mandy’ video and she hasn’t stopped screeching ‘hoop hoop’ yet. She’s determined to see me off my pulling down her lowers and holding a ‘Hoop Hoop’ sign over her bum. I don’t think that would go down too well in India! I’m not ever sure that goes down to well anywhere. Anyhoo, she’s wicked and we have a lot of fun, and she works really hard as well! I keep telling her she should come and work in England, but I don’t think she’s keen on the idea. She’s the first girl I’ve met that I’ve properly respected in terms of what she’s doing – she’s away from her family, living alone, and is a project coordinator at the age of just 24. I’ve not met another girl whose doing this and not moaning daily about how difficult it is, so hats off to the girl.
Shivpuri is a bit of a tourist hot spot so I’ve been to Chatri, a summer retreat of the Synthia Royal family of Gwalior (I think). It was very beautiful, and much like the Taj, accept the shrines were to someone’s Grandmother, or something along those lines. I should pay more attention, but I’m too distracted by the pretty designs.
I’m also back working in villages which I’m very pleased about. I don’t know why I prefer them to slums, but I guess it’s the surroundings that I take pleasure from, rather than the people being any nicer that slum dwellers.
It is hot, averaging about 44° at the moment, but I’m really not suffering with it as much as I was expecting too. No, it isn’t pleasant being constantly damp with sweat, and having to wait until 10pm to wash because the water is too hot any earlier, but I’m just getting on with it and not noticing it too much. I’m coping much better than when I first arrived in September, and I think it’s hotter now than it was then.
Surprising how the body can adjust to things!
10 weeks till I come back to the UK – I’m trying to mentally prepare myself! I am very excited!
Lots of love
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