Hello Friends!
The past few days have been pretty eventful, fun and rewarding! First, let me fill you in on the school beautification project! What was once a drab, dull, building with grey cement walls, prison bar windows and peeling cement has been transformed into a haven of learning, with jungle and ocean themed rooms. The classrooms are, though I say so myself, AMAZING. (See Images below- hopefully they work!) It's amazing what yoyu can do with primary colours, primative paint brushes, a couple of girls who are good at art and a bucketful of enthusiasm.
The past few days have been pretty eventful, fun and rewarding! First, let me fill you in on the school beautification project! What was once a drab, dull, building with grey cement walls, prison bar windows and peeling cement has been transformed into a haven of learning, with jungle and ocean themed rooms. The classrooms are, though I say so myself, AMAZING. (See Images below- hopefully they work!) It's amazing what yoyu can do with primary colours, primative paint brushes, a couple of girls who are good at art and a bucketful of enthusiasm.
Saturday saw the official opening of the classroom which was deffinately an experience! The politician arrived late, looked very uninterested and showed very little enthusiasm to anything. The Himachal Aggricultural Dept. were present at the ceremony also to give out free seeds to farmer (and I think that was what made the ceremony so well attended!). Also at the ceremony we managed to get coaxed into making a speech (I don't know how we did, but we did!) and ended up on local T.V. and in all the local press. Only in India...
As you probably are aware, Saturday was also the Islamic festival of Eid (Eid of Sacrifice- to do with the story of Abraham nearly sacrificing hislong awaited Son Isaac but in the end God spares Abraham the trauma and permits Abraham to sacrafice of a Goat- it appears in Genesis in the Bible). There's 2 Muslims in the house and so we were planning on celebrating Eid the tradtional way-with our own goat sacrifice. This plan fell through at the last minute when the goat seller refused to sell the goat if it was going to be killed so we decided that we'd BBQ chickens instead (don't worry guys- most of us bought our chickens dead, but the Muslim guys did kill their chickens to ensure they were Halaal). We maranaded our chicken Tandori style and cooked it on a fire outside the house, using a gril we made ourselves and served it up with some yummy veg steamed backwards style. I can 100% say that it was the BEST chicken I've EVER EVER EVER eaten and I'll deffinately be whipping it up when I get home. The Eid atmosphere in the house was surprisingly (?!) similar to Christmas and it felt pretty good!
On Sunday a few of us headed out for lunch to quite a posh place in Palampur (if the same restaurant were in England I don't thinkI'd be able to afford to eat there!) and then hung around town for a little while- playing basketball with the kids and learning how to fly traditional Indian kite (it's pretty difficult!) All in all a pretty great weekend!
In other news, I've finally had a shave (I was growing abit of a beard , just to try and prove my masculinity but it wasn't really working for me!) and I'm currently hooked on the T.V. show "24". We've been watching 4 episodes a week for a couple of weeks on DVD and we're currently on episode 13/24. It's really good but addictive. Also, went to yet another wedding today. It's strange that I've been to one English wedding in my whole entire life, but 5 Indian ones in the space of 6 weeks! Can't complain though... the food's good and Indian hospitality is amazing.
Hope everybody's feeling happy, well and blessed by life!
Callum <><
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