Merry Christmas

ok, so this is definatley going to be my last update before Christmas! Just 2 days to go!!! I'm so excited.
This week has been another busy and Christmas-filled week...

Friday was the Anusaran staff's Christmas party. This included lunch on the roof of our hosts house (in the lovely blazing sun - just to make you jealous!) followed by games, tea and cake in a nearby garden. It was lots of fun!

Saturday we went SAREE SHOPPING! There was so so much choice, but we each chose one eventually to wear on Christmas Day. Mine is pink with flowers on - I love it, I just hope the tailor has finished in time for Christmas.

We spent Sunday afternoon at a park in our compound. We went with the aim of playing and getting to know some local children. 2 hours later we returned home shattered from playing frisbee with about 20 kids! It was lots of fun, and amazing that so many children turned up. We hope to continue to do this most weeks to build relationships with them.

Yesterday we ventured into the centre of Delhi to do some traditional last minute Christmas shopping! As a team we're doing secret Santa stockings and so bought each other presents.

Last night was also the first of two nights of Carol Singing. It was the best carol singing I've ever done!! We visted about 10 houses, at each one we all (about 20 people from church) piled into the front room, sanf 2 or 3 songs and said a short message (at one point I was handed a piece of paper with 5 bible verses on and on the spot had to pick one and talk on it!). One person from Church dressed up as Santa... so we had an Indian-style dancing Santa who travelled on motorbike between the different houses! It was so funny!!

Tonight we're Carol Singing again, then it's Christmas Eve and then CHRISTMAS DAY!!! I don't know what the plans are but I can't wait.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Love, Hannah x

Christmas Parties!

So since my last update things have been pretty busy here as Christmas approaches!

Here's a run down of the week:
Sunday: All the staff from Anusaran attended an art competition/fete where we had stall. We sold wall hangings, cushion covers, bags, cards and jewellry and made about 3000 rupees :) It was quite strange being at this fete as it was at a private school, so we saw the richer side of India. Quite a culture shock after spending so much time with children who have basically nothing.
After the fete we went back to church, and the team lead the service. It was fun and went well, especially as we thought it was going to start at 4pm, when at 2pm we were told it would be starting 30 mins and we wouldnt have time to go home to collect our props etc!

Monday and Tuesday: We were at village school decorating and preparing for the christmas party!

Wednesday: City School christmas party. Lots of fun - dancing, singing, games, food, and each child recieved a gift. It was so good to see them all recieving a Christmas present.

Thursday: Village school Christmas Party. A repeat of wednesday, with the addition of a party for the women, where we danced ALOT and ate lunch together. I enjoyed the children's christmas party here more as I knew the children and have relationships with them, whereas I know very few of the children at city school.

In other news:
Our mouse is back! Freddie the second, and he's very clever - managing to eat the food in the trap without getting trapped!

Santa!! One evening last week we were reading the bible when suddenly we heard drumming from outside our flat. We had a look expecting wedding celebrations but instead we saw Father Christmas being followed by drummers! It was pretty impressive (and unexpected) considering we're in a contry that is mainly Hindu!

For those who do, please pray that:
- The staff Christmas party is fun, and runs smoothly (first christmas party outside!)
- Carol singing next week goes well.
- The true meaning of Christmas isn't forgetten in amongst all the celebrations!
- For the team to support each other, as Christmas nears and we're missing home and families.

Merry Christmas everyone. I hope you all have a lovely Christmas Day :)

Love, Hannah x

P.S. To Church people - thank you very much to those who left a Christrmas message. I love it! :)

P.P.S. We were given the wrong postcode. It's 110078, NOT 110075 (but post to 110075 will still get to me, it just takes longer to get to me!)

You know Christmas is coming when....

....you have a cold, made 200 greeting cards, decorated your flat, had a staff meeting discussing Christmas plans and go to Costa for a hot chocolate!

So yeah, my weeks been pretty Christmassy! Monday, Tuesday and today (thursday) the team and a couple of teachers at city school have been busy making greeting cards to be sold on Sunday morning at a fete (more on that later). Between us we made about 200 - some great, some not so great!

We've also started to decorate our flat to make our home feel more Christmassey - at the moment we're in the middle of making a Christmas tree complete with decorations! And we've hung all our Christmas cards up too.

Yesterday was the staff meeting. It was held at our flat, so we had 17 people in our front room. It was very productive, but the best moment was when all the village school girls walked in - we hadn't seen them in a whole 4 days and they were all so happy and excited to see us again. I don't even want to think about the final goodbye in April!!


And finally a hot chocolate in Costa - Christmas is not complete without it! ALthough it was a very strange experience. Stepping in it felt like we'd just been teleported back to the UK - it looked the same and smelt the same! Over our hot chocolates we discussed our highs and lows of India so far. As soon as we stepped out of coffee, India hit us and we were back in reality! It's nice to know there's somewhere we can escape to if we need though.


This next week is going to be pretty busy...
- Saturday the team are preparing for the service we're leading.
- Sunday is the fete. Anusaran have a stall at a local fete to sell bags, wall hangings and greeting cards. We're also leading the service on Sunday
- Christmas parties are happening at both the village school and city school
- Rehearsals for Carol singing the following week

So prayers for all of next week would be good, just that everything planned goes well.

Hannah xx

P.S Don't be alarmed if I don't update for the next few Thursdays as we'll be out of routine!

December in Delhi

So December is here! And it's actually beginning to get cold in India. Still pretty warm during the day but huddling in blankets is required in the evenings!

This week has been a good week for several reasons:

1. I have henna! I love it :)

2. We discovered an amazing ice-cream parlour. No doubt we will become regulars!

3. Our Christmas presents have been sent home! A lot of effort though as we had to stitch them in white cloth then seal the edges with wax.

4. We spent yesterday decorating the church/village school, which was lots of fun.

5. Holidays plans are underway and train tickets have been booked!

6. We've been told that we'll be spending more time at City school. Probably teaching the children or women. This is good as we wanted to do more for Anusaran.

For those who do please pray:
- That Delhi belly will go away and stay away for all the team.
- God will continue to reveal his plan for our time in Delhi
- Christmas preparations at the schools and church will go well.


A short and sweet update today!
Love, Hannah xx

P.S. If you feel like sending me a Christmas card here's my address!! :)

Hannah Burfitt
c/o John and Abha David
Anusaran
House no. 257, DDA Flats, Pocket 1
Phase 2, Netaji Subhash Appartments,
Dwarka,
New Delhi,
110075,
INDIA

Longest train journey ever!

This update is just going to be about my weekend, as it was quite an adventure and I haven’t done much else since my last update!

So on Wednesday we suddenly planned to go away for the weekend to Amritsar (North-East of Delhi, near to the border of Pakistan) with Nikki (the girl from America) and Raman (a girl who goes to City School). So Saturday morning at 2.30am our alarms went off to get us up to get to the station in time ready for our 4.30am train (which was then 30 mins late)! The journey took 12 and half hours, and was yet another Indian experience! Although not a particularly nice one – it was a sleeper train so it was very weird sleeping in the early hours of the morning on a bunk bed surronded my lots of Indian men snoring close by. At one point I opened my eyes to see a man in handcuffs walking by followed by a couple of important looking security type men. We finally reached Amritsar at 5.30pm, and caught a rickshaw to the Golden Temple (New record – 6 people in one autorickshaw!). After about 45 minutes of wondering back and forth between several apartment buildings (which had free accomodation) we discovered that there were no available rooms. In the end we had 6 beds made up in the middle of a big empty corridor. After setting up our beds we headed to get some food, and then walked around the Golden Temple. We didn’t actually go in, but it was amazing from the outside especially all lit up in the dark. We then headed to bed for an early night ready for another early morning.

We were planning to get up at around 3.30am, ready to be inside the temple at 4am to see the Holy Book being brought out, but we woke up a bit late and got outside 5 minutes too late, so just went back to bed again! Sunday was a pretty packed day, we started off by having a huge breakfast and then went inside the Golden Temple. It was pretty incredible – lots of gold (suprisingly!) and very detailed decorating, it was beautiful. Part of the temple is now also a museum of painting of previous Guru’s and fights between India and Pakistan. Some of these paintings were pretty disturbing to see what terrible things the Pakistan Army did to the Indians. Our next stop of the day was some a nearby garden where many Indian martyrs had died. We then caught an autorickshaw to a Hindu temple we wanted to visit, but we were taken to the wrong one. This temple was a bit of a disappointment to be honest, the one we visited in Birmingham was more impressive! So we then went to the right one which was very interesting… it reminded me of a fun house at the fair. We had to follow the path around which took us past lots of statues of Gods, made us crawl through these rock-type things and paddle through a stream of water. It was yet another interesting Indian experience!

Having looked around these temples we then travelled about 45 mins to reach the border between India and Pakistan to watch the closing ceremony. It was VERY busy, and not the place to be if you don’t like crowds. There didn’t seem to be much of a ceremony though – just lots of chanting and the guards closing the gates and putting down the flags, but I guess I can now say I’ve been about 100m away from Pakistan!

Sunday evening we decided to go back to the Golden Temple to see the Holy Book being put away, but about 10 minutes before the ceremony began I felt ill, and fainted so left the temple straight away and missed it all, which I was slightly annoyed about. (Though I doubt many people can say they’ve fainted in the Golden Temple!!)

Monday morning we then travelled home on a very squished 8-hour train journey! I was relieved to finally be home and rest. The rest of this week I’ve had to miss school and stay at home, as I’ve been suffering from mild Delhi belly (I think I spoke too soon in my last update!!). Even though I only missed 3 days, I really missed all the girls and children there! I was very glad to be back today!


And that was my weekend… anyone beat it?!?

Hope you’re all doing well, and it’s not too cold in England!! (Less than one month until Christmas!!)

Love, Hannah xx

Christmas shopping in India

Hello again!
I think this is just going to be a quick update as I don’t think I have all that much to say because we’re getting into a routine now.

School is going well. I’m really eanjoying teaching one of the girls, Pinky, one – to-one. She’s about 19, and knows the least English out of all the girls so at the moment we’re learning the alphabet. Being one-to-one means we can take things at her pace and hopefully form a good relationship with her. Teaching the children is going well too. I’m learning names (slowly!) and getting to their charcters better – they’re fantastic children. This week I’ve most enjoyed just having fun and playing with them – skipping, kho-kho, teaching them hand clap games and dancing with the girls. This week we’ve also enjoyed a couple of games of cricket with the women, and one of them, Shushi, is now engaged (by arranged marriage). The wedding is going to be in February, so hopefully we’ll get to go to an Indian Wedding! But prayers for Shushi as during the lead up to the wedding would be good as I imagine it’s hard getting married to someone you’ve only ever met for 15 minutes and her own family and her husband and his family are all Hindu’s, whilst Shushi is a Christian.

Church is good. I’m enjoying the Sunday morning services, even if they do last nearly 4 hours! Bible Study and Bible Talk are going well. We’re getting to grips with singing in Hindi and all the Church members are so lovely and welcoming. It’s so great to hear how God’s working in everyone’s lives so much.

My team are continuing to work well together, no major arguments – just about who left the light on or who didn’t do the washing up properly! This week we’ve been dicussing ways that we can make the most of our time here and how we can reach more people with God’s love. Oh, and thank you to all of you who have been praying for our health – it’s amazing that none of us have got ill yet! (The only Delhi belly we’ll be getting is a bigger tumm from eating so much food!) God’s really looking after us.

On the food front – rice and dal are beginning to get boring when you have it for lunch and tea everyday. But breakfast is pretty exciting, we’ve had everything ranging from jam on toast, to breadcrumbs with onion, to omlette sandwiches! We’ve all fallen in love with ‘Jalebi’, which is basically deep dried sugar – but it’s so good! Why hasn’t it reached England yet?!

And finally Christmas shopping… On Saturday we went into Rajiv Chowk to buy our families at home Christmas presents. There’s no sign of Christmas here, and I don’t feel at all Christmassey but it had to be done in the hope they’d reach home before Christmas, or before we do (post is taking so so long to get from India to England). We had lots of fun in the underground market using our haggling skills!

That’s it for now, thanls for reading. Please feel free to let me know what you’re up to or anything I can pray for.

Love, Hannah xx

Discovering Delhi

Hello everyone!

So I’ve now been in India for 4 weeks! It’s gone so quickly, but I’m loving it. It’s such a crazy and laid back country. In these first 4 weeks I’ve learnt a lot, experienced a lot, seen a lot and smelt a lot. Delhi seems to have it’s own scent wherever you go – a mixture of pollution and spices!

After my last update the team celebrated Bonfire night – fireworks on the roof and a BBQ. It was good fun, but not you’re average bonfire night. Hope you all had a good one!

School’s been going well this week. We’re getting into a routine now and getting the hand of teaching. I’ve been teaching my class short sentences to describe their day, and they seem to be picking it up which is always a good sign. I’m also getting to know the children individually and slowly learning their names. It’s so much harder to learn 30 Indian names, than 30 English names!

The most exciting day since last Thursday was Saturday. It was our day off to we decided to do some exploring of Delhi, with Nikki (the 20-year old who’s helping at city school for a month). First we caught the metro up to Chandi Chawk, Old Delhi. As soon as we got out of the metro station was hit with the culture. Old Delhi is a much poorer part of Delhi, and that was obvious… there were beggars lining the steets, with various disabilities etc. For those who pray, please pray that I’d be able to do something – I can’t give them money, and I can’t even talk to them because of the language barrier. In Old Delhi, we visited Red Fort which is a huge palace where the emperor of India used to live. We visited a Jainism temple and bird hospital, and also a Sikh Gudwara. The Gudwara was another beautiful place, and very interesting to look around. At the back of the Gudwara they have a ‘community hall’, where food is made and given out for free. Somehow we ended up here – first we started off by stirring huge pots of dal, we then sat down and were given some of the food (which was good food), and finally we helped a couple of the ladies to peel a mountain of courgettes. We then decided to head back to Raviv Chawk (the centre of Delhi) but on our way to the metro station we saw 2 elephants – we all got very excited at seeing 2 elephants in the streets! We were given the option to ride one, but the shock of seeing one was enough, never mind riding one but we’ve made a deal that next time we see an elephant we will ride it!

In Raviv Chawk we went to a yummy bakery, and went to the underground market to buy a couple of things and practice our haggling skills! We also wanted to visited India gate (India’s equivalent of the Arc-de-Triumph) so we started to walk to it, discovering half way there that it was 20 minutes untill we needed to be on the metro again, and it would take about and hour to walk there and get back to the metro station again. Out best bet was to catch our first autorickshaws. We managed to fit 5 of us in the back of one rickshaw! India Gate itself wasn’t all that interesting – just one of things you look at, take a couple of photos and move on! We eventually made it home in the evening, shattered from our day out.

I think that’s pretty much it.

For those who do, please pray that we’ll continue to grow as a team and that we all get into teaching even more. Especially for Lousise and Lydia who are sturggling with a huge class of 60 2 – 6 year olds.

Thanks, Love Hannah

A hot November

Ok, so here I am again on a Thursday telling you about my week. I can’t believe it’s already been a week since last time, and I can’t believe we’ve already been here over 3 weeks… it seems ages ago we were on the plane and arrived here, but the time’s going so quickly – it’s weird!

So since last time what have I done…? Friday was funday at school. In the morning we cleaned the front of it. It’s just so so dusty (due to complete lack of rain). Even this seems like this is a very boring task, it was yet another new experience. At first it was difficult to help – as soon as we picked up a brush to join in one of the girls who worked there would take it and clean for us, it was a task just to be able to join in! Eventually they let us, through doing this and washing down the front of the school (which takes a while when you only have tiny buckets to wash down quite a bit area) we were able to have a bit of fun and get to know the girls even better. In the afternoon all the children arrived – and as it was funday Friday this meant games! I learnt a new game called ‘Cocoa’ – it’s tig with a twist. After having fun with the children at village school we went straight to city school (30 min drive away) to run song practice. Here Lousise will be teaching a couple of people guitar and Tabi, Lydia and I will be teaching the children songs. The theme song at the moment seems to be ‘Jesus love is very wonderful’ – we’ve sang it so so much. Also beginning to pick it up in Hindi too!

After a very full week Saturday was a day to relax and regain some energy. We spent most of it in our flat, only venturing out once to the market to get a couple of things. A trip to the market is always an experience – it takes about 20 minutes to walk there (with stares from everyone!) and then we have to barter for fruit and take about 20 minutes to find toilet roll! And of course go to the incredible sweet shop! Trying to get a rickshaw home was interesting – we started off talking to this one rickshaw driver trying to explain where we wanted to go, but her didn’t understand so another man came over, and he didn’t really understand either. It ended up with about 10 rickshaw drivers all talking away to Hindi to us! Eventually we understood each other and were able to get a rickshaw back home, where we collapsed for the evening. We attempted to watch a film, but the DVD player didn’t work, so we ended up each jam and biscuits (we have a bit of an obsession with jam at the moment!)

(oh, and before I forget, our mouse called Freddie Mercury(which I may or may not have mentioned before) has just been caught in our (human) mouse trap – yay!)

Sunday, was church as usual – although we didn’t get home until 3pm after chuch. The service is fairly long and Indians do like a good natter! The little of the afternoon left we spent relaxing and planning for school this week. In the evening we went to ‘Piggery Farm’ – the nearest place to buy meet, about 50 minutes away from our home. Here we bought sausages and bacon ready to cook a full english breakfast on Monday morning.

We invited our host family over in the morning for this breakfast, it took us 2 hours to cook but is was so worth it! Meat, and food that wasn’t spicey – an english breakfast has never tasted so good. And it filled us up for the rest of the day. Monday was yet another holiday so no school, instead we planned and in the evening played badminton and had a bible study with people from church.

Tuesday, Wednesday and today we’ve been at school like usual. Devotions, teaching english to the teachers and to the chilren, playing game and learning Hindi and various church activities in the evenings. We’re all starting to get into the swing of things now, and India is definaltey becoming out home.

Tonight, we’re going to be celebrating Bonfire Night with our hosts – a BBQ and fireworks India style – on top of their house, about 3 meters away from where we’re standing!

I could ramble on forever about all the experiences I’m having but I think that’s enough untill next time!

Take care everyone, Love, Hannah

Busy week

Hello everyone,

Here’s my next update from Delhi.

On Saturday we went more towards the centre of Delhi. We travelled my metro – which is a bit like the London underground but a few feet up in the air with views of Delhi (so not really like the underground at all…!) Once we’d arrived we had a picnic lunch, did some shopping and just generally looked around a bit. We went to an underground market, where every single second there was a shop keeper saying ‘Hello, look at this. Only 100 rupees’. It was quite funny to begin with, but then just got annoying not being able to just look without being persuaded to buy!
Sunday, we were at church which was very similar to last week but we enjoyed it more as we’re beginning to get to know everyone better. We’ve been really busy since Monday – we’ve been at village school everyday and various things in the evenings. School seems to be going ok, gradually getting into in. The day usually goes: Devotions with the teachers are older girls from 11am for 30 minutes. Then we split into two groups and teach them English. Next in lunch, followed by the team having a Hindi lesson (we’re slowly improving). In the afternoon from 2.30 – 4pm we teach the children. I’ve been teaching 25 – 30 children aged 7-9 years. I started off a bit unsure of what how to teach so many children when I can’t speak much Hindi, but I’m beginning to get into it and really enjoying it. Tuesday evening I led ‘Joti group’ which is a group for women and girls, to encourage them as most of them have difficult lives. It’s so special to help them and get to know them a bit. It’s hard though as there is a lanague barrier (so prayers for that would be good). Last night was fun – we went to ‘Bible talk’ at church, where we did a puppet show of Jonah and the whale. We had fun doing it, and everyone at the church loved. (On the way home we stopped at this amazing sweet shop, totally different to anything in England. It was so yummy!)

It’s so hard to describe India and the expereince to anyone. Everything is just so different, and I’m seeing new things and experiencing new things everyday. Definatley a steep learning curve, but I’m enjoying. And praise God that he’s been looking after me and the rest of the team – we’ve all been kept safe and no delhi belly yet!

This weekend will probably be full of planning for school next week, church and learning how to make Indian tea (which is so good!)

That’s it til next week!
Love Hannah x

Settling in

I’m beginning to settle in now, and it’s becoming home :)

Since my last blog we’ve been up to quite a bit. On Sunday we went to church – it was a relatively small church – about 20 adults and 20 children. It had a very close community though, and us girls were very welcomed. I can see myself spending the next 6 months at this church very easily :) Everyone appears to have a very strong faith here and very bible focused. Which in itself is fantastic, but particularly so as 90% of people living in India are Hindu’, and we find it hard being a christian in England at times!

Monday was my birthday, and a very good birthday it was. I was woken up by my team singing happy birthday to me, and then walking into the front room to see it all decorated and a pile of presents and cards on the table. They had bought me some chocolate (Thorntons at that – so I shall be rationing them!), some scooby strings and some Indian sweets! The morning was spent learning Hindi. We’re getting on pretty well with Hindi so far, we know basic phrases, fruit, veg, colours, relations and body parts. The afternoon we went to the market and bought a couple more salwars. In the evening we had a bible study, and then spent the rest of the time with John, Abha, Arnold and Christie at their house. We played a few games, had tea and I had a chocolate birthday cake with candles in!! Once back at our flat I spoke to my family and PJ which was a nice way to finish my birthday off.

Since Tuesday we’ve been at a Christian counselling course. It’s been interesting, apart from when huge chunks of it are in Hindi and we don’t have a clue about what’s going on. The teachers from Village and City School have been going along too so it’s been great to get to know them a lot better.

Thanks for all the prayers. On the teaching front, we now start on Monday (it was postponed a week due to this course – Indian’s are very laid-back and easy-going!) And I’m teaching vegetables, which should be ok since I know both the English and Hindi word for.

Prayer points:
Just to continue to settle in, get used to the increasingly spicer food and to get to know the teachers and children better.

Hannah x

Namaste!

Namaste! (Hello in Hindi)

Just to say we’ve arrivied safely and beginning to settle in. John and Abha (our hosts) and family are so lovely and very welcoming.
Our flat is ok – very basic with intermittent electricity and vert thin walls so we can here everything going on!
We’ve learnt a bit of Hindi and have been wearing our Salwars (or suits as they call them). The food hasn’t been too spicey (yet) and the weather is hot!!
Yesterday we visited the village school that Anusaran run. It was great to finally meet some of the girls and see where we start teaching on TUESDAY!!! I’m going to be teaching about 30 6 – 8 year olds (prayers for this would be good please!)
Today is Diwali, so celebrations and LOADS of fireworks all round.

Just a short one for now, but don’t forget to check our blog on the BMS website!

Hannah x

Training!

So here goes my super long blog about training. It'll be hard to convey what it was really like, but I can give it a go :)

Arriving at the IMC (International Mission Centre) was surreal... I had finally started by gap year, there I was with my Delhi team training. Everyone there was lovely - staff, MIFTs (Missionaries in full-time training - Adults who are going away for 2 - 10 years), and other action teamers. It didn't take too long to settle in and IMC became home.

I have an awesome team (nicknamed the Delhi Divas). We were the girlie team out of all 6 teams. Lydia, Tabi and Louise are the three girls I'm going with - they're all amazing and we work well as a team. One person's weakness is another's strength.

During the month we did:

• Devotions - Every morning we had devotions, each country team and the staff led these. Often included worship, a talk and a prayer activity. Sometimes a drama or a game. Delhi were the first team to lead devotions, and it was the same day as our 'culture day' (see later) and the day that the board of trustees were there (very very important BMS people) but it seemed to go well. I really enjoyed having this time every morning and it started the day off well.
• Team building - we did games and challenges, as well as learning how each person in our team works.
• Culture conscious - in these sessions we were made aware about how things can differ overseas. We didn't do any specific to India, but we were made aware to keep an eye open. As part of this we had a 'culture day'. During this day girls had to wear a skirt below the knees and blouse and guys had to wear suits. Girls had to do all the manual work, whilst the guys just sat there and did nothing. Males and females had to sit separate sides of the room and we had to address everyone by their surnames. It was an interesting day, and challenged us as some of these 'rules' we could well experience in India.
• Min-Y-Don - We spent 4 days at a christian activity centre in Wales. It was a hard week but I enjoyed it. We did crate building, hill walking, canoeing, problem solving, night line and low ropes. But I think my highlight was the second evening - at dinner time all the action teamers had congregated in the dining room all ready for dinner, only to be told that we had 5 minutes to get a cup, spoon, sleeping bag and one torch per team. We weren't allowed watches, phones or anything like that. Each team was then taken to a clearing in a wood, where we were given tarpaulin, rope and string to make a shelter.... my team just about managed this, but if it had trained then we would have gotten drenched! After making our shelter it was time to collect tea, which I thought would just be meeting someone who would give us some pasta or something, but nope... we walked to a lake where Tabi and I had to swim half way across it to a person sat in a boat who then gave us our pasta, rice pudding etc, we were also given a rabbit for tea. We then made it back to our camp where we built a fire, started to skin the rabbit and make some bread. About an hour and half later we finally had tea ready. The rabbit was ok... bit chewy and tasteless and still had some hair on it which was a bit rank! After we had eaten out 'delicious' tea we finally got into our sleeping bags under our 'amazing' shelter. However, after about half an hour of snuggling in our leaders woke us up saying we had 10 seconds to get out of our sleeping bags ready to walk. It turned out that we had to go and do some orienteering around the local village. At this time we all thought it was about 1am, turned out it was only 11pm. Our sense of time was right out the window. Then eventually at about midnight (which we thought was 2.30am) we finally got back into our sleeping bags and stayed there for the rest of the night!
• Training church - Two of the weekends we spent at our training church in Evesham. The first weekend we were there we were just able to get a feel for the church and youth group and how they did things. This first weekend all four of us were able to stay in the same house... a massive house at that. We were on the top/third floor, with two bedroom, a bathroom, kitchen and living room just for us. It was just like our own flat, and the garden was huge to! The second weekend we lead the youth group for yr 6 - 8s on the Friday night, as a team we were worried about this because when we had been before everyone was running round wild and it was insane. Luckily we managed to control them, and it seemed to go well. We also lead the church service on Sunday morning which seemed to go down well. After leading the service we stayed fora church lunch and went on a prayer walk with them (during which there was no praying!?!?) and ended up at a families house in a nearby village... This is when I met some more Burfitt's! I'd never met any other Burfitt's before so that was quite exciting. The Delhi team then led another, older, youth group. During which we were quizzed on a range of questions. On Monday we lead 2 year 9 classes and a year 8 classes. Overall they also went well - we did quizzes and questions, and got them to like about culture and Christianity. The biggest challenge with this was that we had planned to run the lessons all 4 of us together, we each had our own parts and were all included, but when we got to our third lesson the teachers in the school asked if we could split into 2 groups... so we went for it, we had to improvise a bit, and use our initiative but this also went well. God was guiding us for sure during this weekend!

Other highlights of the month:

• 'Walk thru the bible' - On one of the days we spent the day going through the whole of the Old Testament, learning it all with 77 phrases/actions. So I now understand the Old Testament a lot better now.
• First Aid - I am now first aid trained. I've wanted to do it for ages, and now I finally am. It was orientated for overseas, which made it slightly different. For example we were given scenarios such as... 'you're being driven along a dirt track, and you pass 2 guys lying on the ground covered in blood, both with machetes. The nearest hospital is 8 hours away. What do you do?'
• Talking to random people of the street - This was a particularly good morning for me. The theme of devotions that morning had been community and unity, during which we had to write down a prayer that would help us to help the community, and I wrote that I'd like the courage to talk to 'random' people, especially if they look like they're struggling... to make connections and relationships. And so that morning the action teamers were split into two groups - one group had to plan to run a pre-school session, and my group went into a slightly rougher area of Selly Oak, and had to talk to random people about community and church. Exactly what I had prayed that morning. We went round in pairs so Lydia and I ended up talking to an elderly man about what he thought which was interesting and then ended up talking to a group of elderly people at a local lunch club. They really enjoyed our company and want us to visit once we're back from India!
• Christmas Day - On our final evening the MIFT's had organised christmas day for us! An amazing christmas dinner, queen's speech (with lots of private jokes in), Father Christmas, Happy Birthday Jesus party bags, presents, party games, a nativity, christmas carols and watched a Muppets Christmas Carol. They worked so hard for us, and it was a very special last evening together :)

So that's my amazing month of training summed up in one blog. Obviously, it's pretty brief because we did so much and if I was to write in detail about everything then I'd be sat here forever.

Overall, training was amazing - at times it was hard, but I learnt a lot.

Just 6 days until I leave for Delhi! Feeling both excited and nervous...

Hannah x


Oh, and also you can go here http://www.bmsworldmission.org/ProfileContent.aspx?id=84900
Click 'sign up for updates' on the right if you'd like to recieve our prayer letter. Or click 'India Delhi Action Team Journal' on the left to read our team blog (when we get round to writing one!)

Tomorrow!

So this is the blog that I'm going to try and keep during my gap year. I have no idea how updated it will be - it depends on how much time I have and have often I get internet access.

I leave tomorrow so thought I would first write a little bit about what I'm doing incase you don't already know...

I'm going with a christian organisation called BMS, who run a program for gap year students called 'Action Teams'.
From tomorrow until October 3rd I shall be at their Mission Centre in Birmingham training and team building.
13th October to 3rd April I shall be in Delhi, India with 3 other girls working with a project called Anusaran. This will include teaching children Maths, English and craft, youth work at a church and women's empowerment projects.
13th April to 26th June the team shall be touring the UK, visiting schools and churches - running workshops and leading services.

So there's a brief run down of what I'll be up to over the next 10 months.
I'm really excited about leaving tomorrow, as well as a little bit nervous.

If anyone reads this blog feel free to leave comments and let me know how you're doing - I want to know what you guys are up to too!

Hannah x