Yesterday there was a major blackout starting at 2am and as I am writing there is still a blackout.... WELCOME TO INDIA!

After a blackout everyone turns a bit stupid, "I'll just go watch a movie, wait there is no power." or "I'll go make a cup of tea, man! I need power for that."

Without power we couldn't get much schoolwork done so we decided to go to Narela (the local village) for lunch with Ruth (a volunteer). We were going to meet another friend there for lunch. There were no cars so we thought we would take the bus. Then we decided lets go wacky and take the ashram rickshaw!

We all crammed in and Mum, Ruth and Sam all took turns in cycling while I just enjoyed the ride satisfied that I was too small. Along the way people stopped and starred and walked off smiling others said 'hello' and came up to shake our hand. It was a wonder we didn't end up in the local newspaper!

We arrived at the restaurant and sat down for lunch. Soon Praseeda arrived and we all ate.

Sam asked Mum how much she would pay him if he rode all the way back. Mum asked Praseeda how much it would usually cost, she said 30 rupees (70 cents). Mum offered that price to Sam and Sam said "come on foreigner price, not Indian!" Sam took the 30 rupees and we started the 3 kilometre ride back. Sam was really good. He said "Yo, wass up?" to people passing by.

25th January 2010

In this blog I wanted to tell you what the ashram looks like.

In winter the plant beds are growing veggies and you can see patients all over the field gardening. Next to the veggies there is a badminton court.

When you first walk n the ashram you see the clinic and outside of that is where the meals are served. Just off that there is two rabbit enclosures.

Then there is the circle which is pretty much a circular shelter where most of the patients sleep. To the right of the circle is the bathrooms and there is two TB wards.

Then at the back of the ashram there is the mandir (temple). To the right of the mandir is 4 rooms facing each other. These are for the volunteers.

near the volunteers rooms is another building divided into 3 rooms, two of which are liked. Those two is where my family lives. And behind this is the kitchen. Next to the kitchen is a staff bedroom. On the other side of the kitchen is a duck enclosure.

On the top of the clinic is the office and some other guest rooms.

Leading to all the rooms are curved brick paths each going in different directions. In spring flowers are blooming everywhere taking up most of the path.

23 January 2010

In this blog I wanted to tell you about what I did on Sunday, It started off as an ordinary day but soon it changed. I didn't know Bobby was coming with his kids,

Bobby visits the ashram every week or so and talks to the patients and volunteers. But I love it when he brings his kids Sean and Angelie, they are about the same age as me and my bother. They brought their new Dog Eva, who is still a puppy. She is a beautiful dog.

We started off playing a couple of games of badminton. Angelie played with the baby rabbits.

After that Sean, Angelie and I climbed around the ashram wall, We find it great fun and enjoy it. We do it every time they visit and we are definitely getting faster!

Next we rode our rip-sticks ( 2 wheeled skateboards). We played tip on them so you had to touch each others rip sticks. Then we played a game where you have throw shoes under the rip-sticks to try and get the wheels caught so the person falls off.

Soon we stopped and started to watch the cows. We all sat on the wall and tried to feed them anything we could find.

We soon got bored and the boys went off to do something else. Angelie and I decided to make slice. We melted four Mars bars and some butter. Then we added Corn Flakes and mixed it together. we then put it in the fridge to set.

After that we decided to watch a movie. We picked journey to the centre of the earth!

When the movie finally finished, we ate the slice!!! It was delicious. We rip-sticked for a little while longer but then they had to go...

It was a long day but very fun. I am hoping the I between all of this we somehow had lunch...

16th January 2010

I have joined a soccer club this year, my team is called Affinity, which is apparently a hair salon! Our jersey's dark green with yellow piping down the sides, kind of Aussie colours.

We have played two games so far, we lost the first one, but I wanted to tell you about our most recent game.

I started off as the left attacker, then the whistle blew and the game began! The opponent scored after about 10 minutes ... we had to get it back. The coach pulled me off a few minutes later. Soon the half time whistle blew.

We took a break while the coach talked to us. we had to at least draw. She put me on the right attack this time. We kept getting close to the goals but our team wasn't working together and passing.

At last we got the ball and dribbled it up to the goal. Nuckle (my team mate) passed it to Asif, he shoots, he scores! A beautiful goal for Affinity... but wait, the ref blew his whistle , what's going on? No way, you have got to be kidding me, he called it off side! That's it, now we really have to score.

Coach took me off again for a little while, but it seemed like ages. She finally let me on as right mid fielder, but we only had ten minutes left. I somehow got the ball and dribbled it up. I crossed it to Nuckle, he took the shot and scored. Finally we were drawing and we weren't offside or anything!!!

We had a couple of minutes left, it didn't seem possible to get another goal and win.

Soon the whistle blew and the game ended, it was a better result than last week!

They gave us some snacks, oh, I forgot to tell you that in India at the end of the Game they (the parents) give you snacks and it isn't just oranges. Its things like muffins, LCM's and chocolate!!!

A brilliant ending to the game.