Hello all

Sorry for the non-existent entries over the last month!!!

I cant quite believe i have been here almost 2 months now and i leave for a short trip in 2 days!  So i guess i should fill you in on what has been happening ....

Such alot has happened.  Festivals, weddings, childrens groups, school trips, backwater boats the lot!!!

 First off only a few days after my last entry was a huge festival which pretty much shut down the entire of Kerala with its celebrations.  It celebrates shivas son who is a hunter with a bow and arrow.  To celebrate this 'holy men' starve themselves for a month, then put themselves in a trance like state and pierce their cheeks with arrows.  They were also supposed to walk on hot coals and dance, which they did for a short while but took greater interest in hurling hot coals at the crowds of devotees... a slightly scary experience especially when a crowd of over 100 indian men suddenly charge in your direction!  It was a great night and we even joined the procession for a little bit after instruction on the correct kind of dancing!

One weekend i got to go to a traditional wedding ceremony.  It was the marriage of one of the hostel wardens sisters but was taking place in Cochin which meant a 4 hour bus journey.  Arriving just in time with incredibly sore backsides we were swept to the front to meet the bride and groom.  It is a great honor here to have a white person at your wedding so after the obligatory smiles and waves i tried to take a back seat and watch the ceremony.  It could not be less like an English wedding.  There is a series of at least 10 rituals to follow including giving and receiving of gifts, flower garlands, being anointed with oil, walking around the stage several times.  The actual ceremony I think was quite beautiful however it was lost among the 3 huge video cameras with the lighting crew and sound director.  After about 10 mins of watching I noticed that I was the only one in the room of over 400 people paying any attention to the ceremony everyone else was talking or rather shouting over each other!  After the ceremony is completed there is a traditional Keralan feast.  Rice, daal and pickles, all served on a banana leaf.  Less like a feast and more like an eating competition i struggled to keep on top of the mountains of rice they continuously piled on my leaf.  When the curry stopped the pisam began, i guess it is kind of like rice pudding but very very very very very sweet and it has noodle like things in.  I managed to get through about half of the gallon they planted on me before crying off with a full stomach.  All in all it was an interesting experience but it really highlighted the issues with arranged marriage i had as the girl was practically crying through the whole thing.

 Of course it has not been all weddings and festivals.  I have been working hard too.  Over the last month and a half i have been teaching english at the college, running a small childrens group in the afternoons, writing some case studies and creating a report.  Also I have introduced a game of capture the flag every Sunday for the 6-9 standard children which keeps them occupied on their day off.  So far my team (the green team) are the reigning champions.  A quick thanks to the parents for sending out the sweets, the kids went crazy for them?as did the volunteers!! 

You all knowing me so well you know it cant be all work and no play.  One weekend I took off with a bunchof Scandinavian people for a backwaters trip. Not your typical rice barge picturesque trip, we hired a huge ferry 50 bottles of Kingfisher and 2 bottles of rum.  Our pirate experience lasted 22 hour and included a lot of crazy dancing to Dilamo a Tamil hit that is very popular at the moment.  The scenery was beautiful and we even managed to convice the crew to let us swim.  I think it was a first for them but it was the perfect way to cool down after a long hot day spend relaxing with a beer!!

OK I will wrap it up here it has gotten very long again!  The photos attached to this are fromaround Mitraniketan and the beach shots are Kovalam where I joined the school trip for the 5th standard.

Hope everything is good back in good old England.

Take care of yourselves

Lots of love

Claire xxx