Kumbaya

Hello everyone. Life in India today was nothing short of mad.

Visited a sewing class today. It’s where salwars are made. It’s run by a woman called Venetha and the girls there really seem to enjoy it. Kirsty, Stacey and Laura picked up beautiful salwars and paraded around with them after they had changed. They looked very elegant. Stacey said hers was the best! Kirsty has gigantic parachute trousers but John said that they will shrink in the wash so hakuna matata.

We also had the chance to top up on supplies for our 8 hour journey to Dundigal. Getting the train early a.m. on Saturday morning. Can’t wait to go up into the mountains. We went for lunch at an Indian restaurant and I decided to be more adventurous than I usually am and ordered cream of tomato soup. But I did try a vegetarian Jalfrezi curry with vegetarian noodles. They were lovely but the jalfrezi was so spicy it was as if someone had a lighter to my tongue. I’ve hated curry dishes since I was a young boy due to my auntie and cousin constantly force feeding me it with a wheelbarrow and shovel. But today it tasted really nice. I still think I do better with milder food too. Stacey also enjoyed her food and OWEN ATE NUTS! And he IS still alive. He didn’t even notice he had eaten them and he had no allergic reaction at all.

Also had a trip to a Baskin Robbins for some well deserved ice cream. Stacey had a sherbet orange flavour and I had the mango. Once again it was scrumptious. We also made a donation to the sewing class today to help them buy a new machine.

I think a few of us as starting to feel a touch homesick as our ‘Scottishness’ is becoming more prominent. We’re only really missing our loved ones (and western toilets). Surprising what you realise you don’t need. I feel blessed to have the opportunity to be on this trip. I already feel myself growing as a person. The others seem to be feeling very emotional about things too and I mean that in a good way. We probably don’t realise it just now, but this trip will have a significance on us that will affect us for the remainder of our lives. Meeting people with a completely different lifestyle here has been incredibly interesting.

We did spend all day with Raj and Sharon and Vanitha and they were fantastic company. Raj’s sense of humour rubs off on his family. Tonight we were invited to share dinner with John who is the son of Sunderaj. The food was lovely and they were making us feel like royalty. Stacey loved the fish. I got to play some guitar and we sang some songs as a group. The time flew by. That’s us just back at the hotel. More tomorrow.

Minty & Stacey