Day eight started in the middle of the night. Our alarms were set for 3am with the plan that the bus would collect us from the main road at 4am. Often things don't quite go according to plan so at 4am the bus driver had realised that he couldn't get the bus through the school gate, this meant that all the contents of the school kitchen were carted out of the gate and onto the bus, as was all the food. The staff from the school and the children who were accompa...

One arrival at the school we had my favourite breakfast of semolina made with dried fruit and nuts and sweet chapatti that are very similar to pancakes. Some of the older boys help serve our food and they make it a game to try and get us to eat more. I have finally learnt that Aak Da means only one - so maybe saying it in Bengali might stop them trying to give me 3! The coach arrived to take us on our cultural trip into the heart of Kolkata. The strodies lo...

I arrived back at the Mathieson Music School in Kolkata for the third time on 8th February 2020. This time accompanying our second group of students from Strode College, Street, Somerset. We were greeted with the usual enthusiasm from the children in the school but something was wrong. There are no girls here. (Well one girl Brihspoti, who still lives locally enough to come to the school as a day pupil). On 9th August 2019 government officials descended on ...

I simply can't tell you how lovely it was to stay in bed until 7.30am. In fact I had even stayed asleep until one of my room mates turned the light on. Oh to joy of not being in the first car to the school. We are dropping into a good pattern with the school day of arriving, eating breakfast and then joining in classes and helping the children with their English reading and writing. When I visited the school last January I brought home with me letters from al...

Day Four As I write this it is coming towards the end of day four. As I am sure you can imagine our days are full of all sorts of things that you won't get to read about but mean that I don't always get around to getting the blog posted as quickly as I would like - also with 14 of us all using the wifi it means that posting pictures can be a little problematic. Also every time I sit down at my computer to write the blog I am surrounded by a little crowd of child...