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
Wednesday, 23 December 2009
Thursday, 17 December 2009
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!)
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!)
Thursday, 10 December 2009
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!
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!
Thursday, 3 December 2009
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
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
Thursday, 26 November 2009
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
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
Thursday, 19 November 2009
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
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
Thursday, 12 November 2009
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
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
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