hi everyone, im in India now!!!

I arrived safely last friday and was met at the airport by someone from my projects organisation. they dropped me off at my placement which is an Ashram - childrens orphanage. its in a village at the foothills of the western gnat mountains. so its beautiful scenery!

there way of living here is so different to anything i have experienced its brilliant. just to describe my day to day activities- in the morning now that the children from my Ashram go to school i go to Yoga classes at 6, then help with the nursery and with tailoring class, ive just bought some material so i can make indian clothes this week. in the afternoon i go and teach spoken english at the middle school and then after that i go to teach at the deaf and dumb school. mainly arts and crafts there. im learning sign language from the children there and am really enjoying it. all the locals are so friendly, always wanting to shake your hand and say good morning. many of the children only know how to say 'what is your name?' so when the children are not at school me and the other vlounteer who is with me, just socialise with the kidsa and try and teach them more english.

meal times are great fun, we all sit on the floor in a row with our legs crossed, we have a banana leaf out in front and people come and place different chutneys and rices etc on to your leaf, you then mash everything up and shovel it into your mouth with your hand. the more mess the better!! their food is nowhere near as hot as indians are in england!!

this week it has been a hindu temple festival so in the evenings we went down to the temple to take part in the ceremony. it was erm very bizarre. coloured powders being thrown etc. theyv been playing very very loud indian music at 5 in the morning through megaphones, which i havent enjoyed.

oo ive been invited to a muslim wedding for at the end of july. i just met this girl of 18 and she straight away invited me mainly because i was white. hehe. they all treat us like queens. always getting us seats and bringing drinks etc, at first it was fun but now i feel quite bad because im not anything special, im just as equal as them but in their eyes we are so important to them.

not sure what else to tell you, so much has been happening in this past week ive forgot it all. i get the weekends off just like i did in Peru, so im just spending this weekend having a look around the closest town of Tenkasi, doing some shopping.

will update each weekend. take care lots of love em xxx