In which I adopt a "Never look up" policy...

It is now mid-afternoon on Tuesday 6th July, so just need to rewind back a little to Wednesday last week, when the Palace on Wheels (the somwhat hyperbolic name of our hired minibus) touched base in the small village of Pillayarpati. The village is renowned for the Sri Ganesh temple which is situated virtually at its centre, and is thus a host to a hoard of pilgrims all year round. As a result the village also boasts a reasonably small yet substantial tourist trade. The place that we would be staying at for the next two weeks was a boarding house for pilgrims of the temple, which, as we soon found out, housed its own herd of cattle. As it turned out cows were not the only animals/insects that we were to encounter during our stay, but I will come to that later!

Lata and I took one of the rooms which comprised of two single beds and a bathroom/toilet. Thankfully the rooms also came equipped with air conditioning, although I think by now I've become fairly accustomed to breaking into constant heat/humidity sweats (lovely!). Mosquito nets went up, and everything else unpacked onto the shelves. The only real problem were the spiders (one in the bedroom, two in the bathroom, and also a small gecko who lives behind the water tank). If anyone knows me, they will know of my severe (severe is putting it mildly) arachnaphobia. But, since the spiders weren't going anywhere, it was up to me to suck it up. Ergo, the "Never look up" policy, and the fact that I drag Lata into the loo with me everytime I need to go!

En route to Pillayarpati we witnessed the first of the Monsoon rains (even though it hasn't rained since). It was literally as though the sky had just opened up and poured a bucket of water onto the earth. The rain fell not so much in drops as in did in sheets! Once the rain had stopped the sun returned in its full glare, and I'm proud to say that I'm now on my way to looking like an authentic, dark-skinned Tamil. That night we went to Paul's house for dinner, situated a short 5 minute walk from our dorms, and met Mrs Paul, who would be our personal chef for the next two weeks. The other person (or half-person) we met I fell in love with at first sight! Rogishkumar, a young boy of around 5 who had been deserted by his parents and adopted by Paul and his wife, had THE most infectious smile/laugh I have ever seen in my life!! It is difficult to imagine the hardships he must've faced as an even younger child, but the life that Paul and his wife are now providing him with is truly heartwarming.

The hospitality of the Ford Trust has been simply fantastic! Indians are known worldwide for their hospitability, but Paul has honestly been the most incredible host to the us all over the last week; from feeding us to the point of food sweats (or are they regular heat sweats - it's difficult to tell) to ensuring that all our needs, however small or trivial (or simply Western), are met. Including stamping on the heads of giant cockroaches at ungodly hours of the night, which earned David the nickname 'The Cockroach King'. The cockroach bloodbath in Maria/Janak's bathroom is ongoing, although we're all slowly beginning to befriend the other insects/minibeests.

After a full three days of travelling we were all naturally exhausted, and so that night I slept like a baby. The next morning we were called to Paul's house for breakfast (Idli, a south indian speciality) and a meeting to discuss our aims and objectives for the volunteer programme. The food is fantastic, but it's been a rocky road in the way of our stomachs/guts acclimatising to constant spicy food (if you know what I mean!) Our schedule for the first week was pretty jam-packed (hence me not being able to blog very often), and I'm pretty certain that I've met thousands of new faces over the past week.

Just going to post this up as it is for now and then continue writing in a new post - the power is erratic and I'm conscious of the electricity going out any minute now! See you on the other side...