It has been an amazing day and filled with highs and lows…..highs – learning how to dance the national dance and being taught by the children in our classes. Lows – having to console groups of crying girls!

Its been amazing and over the last couple of days we’ve had more contact with the teachers than we have over the entire three weeks as all of them have been seeking us out to tell us how they are going to miss us and how much the girls have all enjoyed us being there!

We’ve had numerous letters from the girls saying how much they are going to “miss us three mams”!!!!! which has broken our hearts to be honest! It’s been amazing and we all think that the girls who get the opportunity to come back next year are indeed in for a treat!

We have all really warmed to Sister Josephine who we absolutely love now and who has said some absolutely lovely things to us in the feedback sesssions and also in general! She told us yesterday that only God can repay us for the work we have done…….so hold a seat Heaven, here we come!!!!!!!

On a more serious note, we have really enjoyed our time at Presentation and can’t wait to upload some of the millions of photos that we’ve taken of the school, girls and sisters!

P.S. Thanks for choosing us!!!!!!!!!!

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Anna, Gemma and Katie xxx

Eley has just updated and pretty much said everything, but I thought I would blog anyway!

Independence Day was indeed a lovely lovely experience that we felt very proud to be a part of and the students and Sisters seemed thrilled to see us in traditional dress. Eley and Hannah had Sari’s on and looked incredible, and I rather regretted not purchasing one! However I was wearing a salwar khameeze (sp?) so I didn’t look entirely out of place!

The Sister has since had us measured up for some clothes so it will be nice to wear something they’ve had made for us for school. We’ve been having a lot of fun the past few days getting the girls to write postcards to ‘students’ (us!!) in England. Hannah brought some postcards of Sheffield with her that the girls couldn’t get enough of! Tip for next year – bring things from home so that they can see England, they’re fascinated.

We were told today that Monday is a National Holiday and therefore we won’t be in school, which means, crazily, that we only have 6 school days left!!!

We’re going to have a long weekend hopefully exploring up in the mountains now, seeing all we can. We are very much looking forward to being in Mumbai, sightseeing and being with the other girls.

So time is absolutely flying here, and we’re trying to make the most of it!!

Will write again soon

Vic xxx

I must say it seemed a little odd that we would be invited to such an event but when we arrived it became all so clear as to exactly what this means to the country. India seems to embrace it’s history and instead of being bitter about the rule of their country for so many years (and by so many nations), it accepts this and now just celebrates it’s freedom in a way that makes anyone who’s watching it glow inside.

We had a spectacular night on Saturday at our school and felt as welcome as anyone of their other 400 guests. When we arrived we were greeted extaordinarily keenly as we had made an effort to wear Indian clothes, which I must say went down a storm with all that we encounted! Next was a trip to the chapel where they had a very special guest (The Bishop) who had come to take the service. This was lovely to see and the songs were amzing (of course we couldn’t understand the majority of what was said but you can always work out the jist!)

After the service we were ushered across the courtyard where the school band were diligantly playing and marching in their beautiful red uniforms. All around the courtyard on the paths were muriels that had been designed in coloured salt and were decorations such as flowers and the beautiful Indian patterns that we have become so accustomed in seeing.

We were shown into the hall and sat at the very front of the stage with a perfect view of everything, especially the muriel of the peacock on the floor of the hall, once again decorated in coloured salt. Did you know that the Peacock is the national bird of India???? We’ve got plenty of these facts for you!!!!

The service was long (and made longer by periodic power cuts) but not a bit boring. Firstly some of the girls were awarded present for what we can only assume was excellent progress in school, and then came the speeches by the Bishop and a few sisters (including yet another welcome for us girls). After this was when the real fun happened though!

The rest of the night was filled routine after routine of amazing dances from the girls and the outfits were simply stunning! You could see exactly where all of the practice had gone, and with us spotting a few of our own kids within the groups, it made us feel like proud parents. We have photo after photo of all the dances and outfits including a few videos of the truely special moments but are unable at the moment to get them up on the blog. I will ensure mine go up at least after I get home. Better late than never!!!!

After the show we were herded out of the hall by the excited girls and then were struck by children tugging on our Saris and telling us how beautiful we looked in the clothes we were wearing. There was of course then time for some photos and then our pumpkin carriage (actually a small taxi cab) had to come and rush us away.

It was an amzing night and we feel priviledged to have been involved.The girls who come back next year are in for a real treat!!!!!

off now for some chocolate
Jo, Joanna and Melody xxx

Well we have been so busy with school that we have not had chance to update our blog recently so we will try and fit it all in today.

On Friday another English group from another organisation working in the area arrived at school to plant trees after many had been destroyed in floods last year.  Together with Sister Florene and the Superior Sister Gemma and Anna planted their very own lemon tree….and Katie an Orange tree!!  It was quite interesting and sad to learn of the devastation that the town had suffered last year and it obviously had hit them hard as nobody had mentioned it to us previously.  After the planting we all went for tea in the convent and the elderly Spanish Sister who is 93 years old came to join and tell us all her amazing stories.  In the entrance to the convent there is a life size replica of the Baby Jesus that is encased.  Sister had flown all the way from Spain 64 years ago with this on her lap!!

After our hectic week we booked oursleves into a hotel in Kotagiri to relax as everyone had gone home for the Independence Day celebrations.  We all enjoyed an Indian head and back massgae and sampled the local cuisine, although we tended to favour the “finger chips”.

We returned to the home on Sunday and organised some acticities with the children including “finger puppets” and “make your own foam freinds” thanks to Anna’s mum.   When the kids went off to study we went to our rooms to play what is now a becoming a very competative tournament of cards (300 rupees up for grabs!).  Whilst playing and Anna being on a winning streak Sister arrived with our Uniform Sarees.  Every Monday in the Nigilris region teachers wear a uniform Saree.  We attempted to fit them on ourselves but after lots of giggling and no luck  we asked Sister and some of the girls for hlep.  They found it hilarious as we had all put our blouses on back to front.

In the morning Sister helped us dress for school and we arrived slightly uncomfortable but looking very glamorous.  The students said that we looked “very cute” and when we entered the staff room the rest of the teachers were thrilled at our new attire.  They said we looked very pretty and one Sister even said we now looked Indian.  We had a fun day teaching and Anna found teaching Drama in a Saree particularly interesting!!

We will be wearing our Saree’s again next Monday and on our last day.

Its now about lunchtime so we’d best head off back to the home….luckily Gemma has a secret stash of Nutella in her bag which is helping us through the meals where we can’t manage the food!!!

Will update again soon

Anna, Gemma and Katie x x x

The girls today presented us with presents and rings as a class which they wanted us to open infront of them which was kind of embarrassing but also amazingly humbling.

Were all really looking forward to the Independence day celebrations as the practices that are going on seem to be extravagant to say the least.

Finally, we couldn’t have been treated better staying anywhere else. Mr and Mrs Sundararaj have been amazing!!!!!! We have had some amazing laughs and are quite honestly starting to get hooked on the Coimbatore equivalant of Eastenders!!!! Indian soaps are hilarious!!!!

Having a good time.
Hope all is well everywhere else.

All the love
Coimbatore

We can’t believe it’s already Wednesday of this week. It seems like we’ve been here ages and also it seems the time is going so quickly.

Our school is lovely although we sit separately from the other teachers, which is a bit sad, but they are all very lovely to us whenever we see them, and the girls are great. They are SO enthusiastic, they sometimes just sit outside of our room and look at us! One girl is constantly bringing us presents which is very overwhelming. We are teaching 45 minute lessons, 4 a day, and we think we are doing alright. Some are very good at English, and some are really struggling.

We went up to Ooty on Sunday to see Anna, Gemma and Katie and met Chris and Jenna there too. We had a brilliant day being driven around in a rickshaw (which we had to push ourselves on big hills!) and visited a tea factory and a very dodgy wax musuem. It was lovely to see everyone – and we are heading up to Mumbai for the last weekend so it will be great for all nine of us to be together.

This Sunday is Independance Day here and the school are holding an event on Saturday which we have been invited to and are very excited. Espesially as we attended a ceremony last Saturday and they put on a really good show and welcomed us officially.

We tried to upload pics on here but the computers in this cafe won’t let us, but we will try again if we find another place.

Next weekend we are going up to Ooty again, hopefully to stay over and see the girls for the full weekend and there are lots of other sights around there that we can go to too – we have been reading about a National Park with elephants which would be brilliant to visit.

Hello everyone else – hope you are all alright and keep in touch when you can.

Vic, Eley and Hannah xxxxxxxx

We even crept back into the western life style with a sneaky trip to McDonalds

we did a little shopping and are even planning our next trip back – maybe another sunday as the trains are quiet!

we have been in school teaching 2 classes a morning of 70mins with 60boys in each class. they are very loud and shout out lots and lots but i think we are starting to improve our behavour management skills.

we are enjoying spending time with the boys in the evenings playing music and showing us lots of magic tricks!

we are off to Dehli at the weekend to see the Taj Mahal which we are all very excited about! so much to do and we are only here for 1 month!

off for some retail therapy now…o the hard life!

From Jo, Melody and Joanna xxxx