Day 12 - Wednesday 31st July

Another day of teaching commenced. However, it seems tiredness has taken its toll. Two new Year 7 classes also proved to be rather challenging as they were more advanced than we had anticipated. Father Hunt, an extra push of motivation, is getting us through it. 

This afternoon, we had the privilege of singing with the Head of Music, Jesus. He is very well known in India for combining Indian classical music with Western classical music which I found particularly interesting. Never did I think that an Indian riff would work well with Journey’s ‘Don’t Stop Believing’. The choir is sounding really good and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. At first combining the Indian music proved difficult because Jesus doesn’t speak a word of English. Ewan is doing a fantastic job conducting the choir and making sure everything is done to perfection. The performance next week is going to be of a very high standard. We’ve set the bar high for next year’s trip.

The silver savouring grace of our day came in the form of the Western Food Imported Supermarket named Pothy’s. It was a race to see who could get to the Tropicana first or who got the most amount of Oreo packets (Tom McC won with 10 packets). This was an invaluable trip as the endless sugar supply will keep us going through till the end of next week (well maybe not the whole week…). Baskets were filled with juice, Oreos, Dairy Milk chocolate, Nutella, Sprite, Fanta… you name it, it would have been bought. In India they have an unnecessarily confusing way of paying: one person will scan in your purchases, one will pack your bags, another will stamp your receipt and then you go to someone else to get your change who is on the other side of the store. There are then two other people who check that you haven’t added anything to your bag in the process of this maze. One could easily get very lost.

The day finished with the Emanuels, trainee monks and tsunami orphans all joined together again in the evening at the restaurant ‘MH’. Reading through the menu almost brought tears to eyes through the likes of burgers, pizzas, chips and Kentucky Style Fried Chicken. Everyone sat down and got chatting to either kids we were looking after at the fair or meeting new kids. It was a lovely evening. However, at 9.00pm our food hadn’t arrived despite us being there since 7.30pm. This stirred up many rumbling tummies and a few frustrated face (in particular Mr Hunt trying to sort out the bill). But we decided it was all part of the experience of India. Everything is played by ear and most of the time, there is little point in having a plan because chances are something completely different will happen. For example, some of the boarding girls ordered chicken noodle soup and instead got a hug bowl of chicken noodles. A few dishes never turned up but those that did were very tasty! Some of us ordered curries that turned out to be considerably more spicy than we anticipated so spent the duration of the evening drinking as much water as was available. 

The journey home was interesting because the Indian kids were all falling asleep yet their teachers said that they all had two hours of revision to do when they go home. Even the boys that have the national selection trials for the Indian Basketball team tomorrow morning. It made us realize how much they value education and how seriously they take it. Another eye-opener indeed.

By Hannah

[Just a quick note to say we’re leaving for our weekend trip to Kodaikanal early tomorrow (Friday 2^nd) morning. If we manage to get wifi we may be able to publish some posts, if not, the blog will have no new posts until Monday evening at the earliest – Kimberley]