Death by chocolate brownie...

The following week followed much as the previous as we settled into the everyday routine of the camp. Some days were more successful, particularly when we came up with new and even more interesting verses (with particularly exciting actions) for 'Wheels on the bus' and anything to do with colouring and other days did not go so well (picture screaming, scratching kids). Stella and I found it much harder to get through to the older girls in the afternoon as we found their boundless energy exhausting and the room we were in was particularly stiffling and stinky (not at all helped by the hanging meat on the washing line outside the room that attracted flies and maggots and was there for a week...yuck...).

On Thursday it was a public holiday for everyone because of some rather boring saint named Francis Xavier whose body did not decay when he decayed, but was instead naturally preserved in a tomb in Old Goa. Whilst some of the girls decided to join the chaos in Old Goa, myself, Dilraj, Julie, Sophie, Astrid, Marsada and Bhavini decided instead to visit the Dudhsagar Waterfalls in the east of Goa. The waterfall really was beautiful and we got to feed the monkeys around it with peanuts (an act strictly forbidden and punishable by 25 years in prison apparently). I also swam in the lake of the waterfall, which I was to regret later.... The water was extremely cold, but so pleasant in the heat. It is also of course worth mentioning at this point the large amount of enormous Russian women parading around in bikinis, as this was the first instance we noticed their overbaring presence in Goa!

After lunch in a fly-infested restaurant (for the first time I feared for my tummy), we headed back on the most crazy taxi journey I have yet to experience. Our red-eyed driver was clearly angry about something and drove at such a speed I was left closing my eyes and hoping my Saint Christopher would allow me to survive!

The following day I was left to teach on my own as my partner Vicky was ill. I played it safe and went for plenty of colouring and singing and it went surprisingly well! The plan for that weekend was to head up north to the more touristy Baga. After the frightful taxi journey the day before we (me, Dilraj, Anna, Sarah, Bhavini, Marsada) decided to take the bus. Naturally there are positive and negative sides to travelling by bus in India. The ups include the cheap fare (22 rupees for a 45 minute journey, approx 30p) and that if you're going to get a crazed bus driver at least you're in the mighty bus scaring everyone as opposed to the baby tuktuk! The Margao to Panjim bus was particularly worthwhile as they actually only sell as many tickets as seats. The downsides to the bus include being touched up by the locals, general perving and unwelcome glances as the locals feel Westerners should not be on 'their' bus. After 3 buses and a grand old 60p later, we arrived in Calangute. The impact of tourism was immediately apparent. For a start the shops there actually had doors. and windows. and even air conditioning! We even spotted a genuine supermarket!

We checked into our hotel in Baga (Angelina's Guest House) and stepped out to dinner to the most amazing restaurant called Jamie's, where I had the first of my three chocolate brownies of the weekend. YUMYUM!

After finally finishing dinner and getting dressed up we headed to the club 'Paradisio' in Anjuna. Free entry for women and free drinks. Finally an upside to being a woman in India! I had my hopes that only the most dedicated of perverts would be able to afford the 1000 rupee entry fee (about 14 pounds), but sadly I was rather wrong. Instead of the stares of the Indians we had come to expect, the club was full of Russians. At the risk of sounding too xenophobic, we found the Russian men and women extremely inappropriate. The men were persistant to say the least and the women wore next to nothing. After being in the more conservative south Goa, we had come to find ourselves with a new sense of modesty that was completely lost on these girls!

In the end we had enough and headed home at the very respectable hour of 2am. The following day was spent on Baga beach. When we weren't being pestered by hawkers or Russians. they day was very nice, although the beach was nothing special. After dinner at our favourite restaurant again (I had the most amazing steak), we continued to basically all the clubs in Baga. Despite the tourist influence in Baga, I found myself to be the only blonde girl in all the clubs! At one point I even had my hair stroked!! We eventually settled in a place we liked where we made friends with the management and didn't have to pay a thing :). We also met some fellow travellers and had an all-round good night that lasted until 4.30am.

Following a manicure and pedicure the next day, we started the long journey back home to Majorda, completely exhausted for our final week of volunteering!

Miss you all!!!! xxxxxx

P.S I also ended up the hugest bite type thing on my leg, which turns out to have been a leech at the waterfall....ewwwwwwww