Maduri!

On the 28th November we set out from Devnar with 30 children and Anusia
Madam, Lavanya Aunty and Khrisnavenni to pile into autos (9 people to my auto! Maximum 4 people? I don't think so) and rush to Secunderabad station. We all piled onto the train to start the 26 hour journey to Maduri and the 'All India Blind Dance Championships!'. The train itself was such an experience! I thought I'd spend all that time being so uncomfortable but the beds were actually okay and I slept really well even if the kids did keep giggling all night, some things never change!

Welcome to my first Indian sleeper train! 

My Lavanya Acka! (Acka is older sister in Telegu)

Lavanya Aunty gave up pretty quickly

This is Palavi and Ramia who took part in the dance competition, they've just been blessed by Swarmi men in this photo. 

Here are the said Swarmi's. They were on there way to Kerela for a pilgrimage where they live for fourty one days without any luxury. http://www.swamij.com/what-is-a-swami.htm

Me and Pushbar! 

Train food! The food on the trip was actually rubbish- I was so glad to get back to the school meals here at Devnar! 

I absoloutley loved the train journey: this is an extract from my journal that evening;

'Nobody could be happier than I am right now. At the minute I'm curled up in a corner of my little bunk on the sleeper train from Hyderabad to Maduri surrounded by thirty children who keep asking ridiculous questions and trying to steal my ipod. It's cramped and my position on the top bunk is not particularly comfortable- I'm starting to wish I'd brought a pillow! It's noisy as hell as everyone's getting ready for bed but I'm officially in love. Just chugging along, with the beautiful scenery rushing by outside the window laughing and joking with the kids as they settle down into bed is brilliant! Up at 5am tomorrow to change trains at Chennai, so sleep time! Night night chorus 30 hyperactive children!' 

The next day we were up at 4.30 ready to get off the train at 6. The kids were all chatting away and everyone was fighting to brush their teeth at once- nearly pushing the other blind children out of the open train door in the shove to get to the sink! Off the train at 6.30 for a mad dash across Chennai to get to the second train. This was not made easier by the fact Chennai is a BIG city with a heaving central station and we had to get 3- blind children across it or by the fact that nobody seemed to know where we were going. 

We were on the train to Maduri until 4pm- my first 24hr train journey! It's certainly an experience and a good one- when we go to Rajasthan for our next holiday in January we have to get on the train for 36 hours so I'm glad I didn't completely hate the experience! 

In the evening we all went to the famous Shri Meenakshi Temple. It was amazing! It was built by Chramalai Sevvanthimoorathy Chettiar in 1559 AD and is 160 feet high! Nine storeys with 1511 sculptures! 

The sculptures were amazing!! 

The temple was amazing but sadly a lot of the really intricately carved areas were strictly off limits to foreigners, Anusia Madam tried to sneak us in but it didn't work sadly. The temple was beautiful though!

The next day we got up, piled everyone into the buses and set off for the all India Blind Dance Championships! All the acts were brilliant: see examples below! 

So the Gujurati contestants decided it would be a good idea to give the blind 10 year olds bowls of burning fire to carry on their heads while they were dancing. I spent the whole dance praying nothing would go wrong! Luckily nothing did and they took first prize! Well deserved I think! 

After lunch it was time to get our girls and boys ready for their big performance! 

We had to paint the boys faces half black like this for their Michael Jackson dance (not sure if it was taking the piss or not...come to your own conclusions...). They won 3rd prize though! Not bad out of over 50 teams! I did feel awful because that's black poster paint not face paint and trust me it didn't come off very easily! 

Goindamar

Ashvita

Pushbar

Palavi

Ramia

 We had such a good day, sadly the girls didn't win anything but the boys scooped 3rd which was amazing!

The next day we all got up and did a teeny tiny bit of shopping I MANAGED NOT TO SPEND ANYTHING! This is such an achievement! Packed and straight back on the train for another 24 hours! Such a good trip!


Dec 5th. 

Weird day! Woke up expecting a normal teaching day to find the courtyard covered in balloons. Apparently a big time Tollywood producer and his actress friend were coming to celebrate his birthday and we all had to turn out for the occasion. They arrived and the mob of paparazzi that came with them was just incredible! They were knocking children out of the way left right and centre to get their photo!

CHAOS!

Me and Pravalika from my fourth class in our finery to meet the producer man.

They stayed for about twenty minutes and then left in a swarm of paparazzi! We went to head upstairs after everything died down when we heard screaming coming from the office- we ran in to find Gitree from fifth class screaming her head off. It turns out Prakash from my first class had slammed her left hand ring finger in the door and had taken the top centimeter of it completely off! There was blood running down her arm and it was probably a good thing she couldn't see because it was pretty gory! Me and Fidra patched her up as best we could and then we just had to try and calm her down until her father came to collect her. SUCH AN EVENTFUL START TO MY DAY!


Dec 7th

Spent a great afternoon playing stone games with Anita and Ramia- wasn't very good but I enjoyed myself immensely! 

I love my little sisters! 

This is what I get when I asked Anita, 'Nako kavalee Anita's coati mokkom!' or 'I want to see Anita's monkey face!' 

My go! 

In less than two weeks I'll be starting month four in India and I am loving it here. Maybe not every second especially when those seconds involve screaming children or braille marking but in general its amazing. The children and women here are quickly becoming my family and I want to bring so many little ones home with me! There's even a list...I'm not joking. I love India it's just beautiful here. Thank you to everyone whose been sending me letters or who has supported me in any way so I could be here. I honestly cant thank you enough x