Hi from Sirutar!

Another week of ups and downs here, some amazing times and good laughs but some more sad news.

Starting from the top, last Friday we visited Nagarkot and stayed at the Hotel Galaxy (cheesy name or what?!) The Hotel is at 7,000 feet and is famed for its amazing views of the sunrise and sunset. The bus journey up the narrow, winding roads was a bit nerve wracking at times. We also saw a goat gettin its head lobbed off on the way, bit of a shock when your looking out the window daydreaming! haha

Unfortunately we were visiting during off season, so it was touch and go whether we'd get to see sunrise or sunset, even if we'd get to see down the mountain! When we first got there it didnt look good, the mist was so thick you could barely see down the road, never mind the sunset! The hotel was really cosy and the food they laid on was really nice too. We made up for the lack of sunset views with some quality banter and card games.

God was smiling on us in the morning and, come first light, the clouds had broken and we got an amazing view of the sunrise. It was like a fireball on the horizon slowly edging upwards until it burst fully into view and nearly blinded you. Prior to the trip to Nagarkot, I had no idea that you were able to see Mount Everest and all its accompanying mountains from where we were staying. We stood on top of a viewing tower and it just blew me away. The peaks of the mountains are higher than the clouds, it's so surreal! Its looks like they've been painted onto the sky. What an experience :)

The trip to Nagarkot also gave me my first real bit of homesickness. The hotel had a decent sound system and they let you put your own music on. James happened to have a tune I really like on his iPod and when we hooked it up it sounded great! At that moment I really wanted to be back home dancing my ass off with my mates! Was still a good laugh here but you can't beat being with your closest friends watching some brilliant DJs on a booming club sound system! That reads back a HELL of a lot cheesier than it sounded in my head but you get the drift!

Work wise we've been mixing it up a little. Whenever we've visited the school to teach, many of us noticed that the classroom for the smallest children is a bit of a mess. Dusty, dirty and junk thrown everywhere. We mentioned this to Khem and he said if we raised some money amongst ourselves he would match it, and then we could use these funds to do a little refurbishment on the room.

Everyone was bang up for it and we raised 6,000 rupees for paint, lino for the floor and tarpaulin for the ceiling. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday fixing the room up and the teachers and kids seemed well happy with it. It was nice to do something for them that was ready whilst we're here. Some of the girls did some pretty cool drawings on the wall, Mickey Mouse and the like. Awww!

As I mentioned however, some more sad news. One of the volunteers, Alex, was told his family had had a bereavement over the weekend and they'd like him to return for the funeral. He was understandably shocked and upset but seemed to handle it well.

Before he went we had a whip round and threw a little farewell party for him in the office. He will be missed; he was a real hard worker, boss for banter and crucially was the only person who shared my love of Alan Partridge! But even more crucially he was a genuinely friendly and intelligent guy and he will be missed. Our thoughts are with him and his family.

All the family and James are still great. James keeps getting his ass kicked at Chess by our little brother Pratik. The family has a dog called Fuzzy (not sure if I've mentioned before sorry) and while we were walking him yesterday, he sniffed out a snake! impressive enough by itself, but this snake also happ­ened to have a frog in its gob! Mental! haha

I'll finish with a funny irony I've noticed out here. All of the skincare adverts we've seen, in newspapers, magazines and on TV, make a heavy point of the fact their product has bleaching and/or whitening effects on the skin. It seems in the West we're all on a desperate quest to look tanned/brown, but in this part of the world people are desperate to look pale/white. Oh irony you funny b*****!

All the best!

Love x