Simon's trip to India

GOA!

2008-04-23T02:20:00.000-07:00

It was mid-term break last week. All the kids go on holiday with their parents, and us IG's and teachers get a well earned week off!

The girls had planned a trip to Goa for Me, James and Josh, and three of the girls, Carly, Emma and Catherine. Bene went to a wedding in Enland (we later learned that he was deported back to England on his return to India - his passport only allowed one entry), and Sarah and Hannah were doing their own thing.

Week took a taxi to Bangalore overnight, keeping an eye out for tigers on the way, the taxi driver has seen a few on the route at night. We didn't see any but saw an elephant that was called Naughy Boy. Apparently it had killed two people recently. We didn't stop to have a closer look.

None of us slept well on the journey so we got a hotel for the day when we arrived in Bangalore, and slept in the morning. We then headed into the centre, and found a big mall where we could drop our luggage while a few of us at a time went shopping. Carly spent most of her budget in an hour or so, which in hindsight was probably a good thing because on our second trip to Bangalore she left her wallet on the bus. Bangalore was totally different to Goa, there were shops everywhere. It was nice to visit but not the best place to go on holiday.

We got a sleeper bus to North Goa, another overnight trip, but this one was longer, about 14 hours all together. As we were dropped off in Panjim, our other bus was about to go, so we quickly jumped on for a 30 minute ride to Calaguate. We took some autos to our home for the next few nights, Villa Fatima. After checking in, we hit the beach, and had a nice long swim in the sea, which was so warm! It was like getting in a warm bath! After we were bored of that us guys all rented out some jet-skis, which was probably not the best idea. We had a good 5 minutes on them before James and Josh crashed, and both their hogs got damaged. Despite this, Josh still managed to find enough power to hit a wave at such a speed that he got loads of air and hit me in the head. I'm not sure how accurate this next bit is because I have lost my memory of the crash, but I think I was put on the back of James' ski and driven back to the shore, and sat on the beach while a crowd gathered around me. I then remember that there was lots of blood on me, and I was then taken to hospital, where they stiched my head back together in the two places it had come open. They said they weren't gonna keep me overnight because of something to do with the insurance (I was well covered, I don't know why this was!). They put me on 3 different types of drugs which I hadn't a clue what they did, and left instructions with the others to wake me up in my sleep a few times and check my eyes to make sure they were dilating or something!

I stayed in bed most of the next day, and the guys told me that they were in trouble with the jet-ski owners. This whole thing lasted though the week, with the owners asking for unreasonable amounts, threatening the guys, demanding payment etc... In the end, James and Josh had to pay 32,000 rupees to get the 3 skis fixed, which is about 400 pounds.

The rest of our time spent in North Goa was on the beach really or swimming in the pool at the hotel. After a few days though we agreed to move hotels as the jet-ski guys were giving us a lot of hassle. We went just down the road a couple of miles to a hotel called Maggies. It was much nicer than the other place, albeit slightly more expensive. It had a nice restaurant in it, heres a photo:

We did some more beaching around, then the next morning went to the Anjuna flea market. They sell pretty much anything there, the market was enormous. There were some strange men there who clean out peoples ears! As soon as we got there one came up to James and started poking around in his ear saying there was too much wax! He didn't even ask, he just did it, but was kind enough to produce a bill for 250 rupees afterwards! I think James paid him 10 just to get him to leave us alone. Carly again spent too much, and for some reason blames me. After a while it can get a bit intense with the sellers all draggin you to their stalls and pestering you, so I went swimming in the sea, but forgot that I had my phone still in my pocket, and now the phone (and SIM card) is broken. Josh bought a drum there, and most of us bought a couple of things, it was good fun.

We went back to the hotel and grabbed our luggage before getting a couple of taxis to South Goa. The drivers took us to a place called Camp San Francisco, in Palolem.

It was a collection of tiny beach huts, about 50 feet from the sea. The beds were rock hard, and the showers didn't work, but what we were paying for was really the location. There were mosquito nets but they weren't really a problem here. Not compared to Cochin, where I got eaten alive, here I got less than a dozen alltogether. This is the inside of one of the huts, behind the curtain is the shower room.

Being right on the beach was absolutely perfect. This photo below was taken literally from the resort, thats how close we were!The beach was amazing. In the day the sand was scorching hot, but the sea was a perfect temperature. Along the beach there were little stalls and shops, where yet again, Carly spent more money. During our time in South Goa, we didn't really stray more than 50 metres from the beach. Why would you want too!?

The only time we really left the beach was to go fishing. We all got in a small boat and the men took us out a mile or so from the beach. We were all given lines and bait, and in a couple of hours before sunset we caught a couple of dozen fish, which was apparently really good! Me and James realised this when we went out the next evening with a couple from New Zealand, and we caught 1 fish between us. The day before, we all caught at least one fish. I caught a poisonous sea snake, and the fisherman bashed its head in with a club to kill it!

At the resort the food was amazing, I got mostly sea-food as it would never be fresher. It was lush. Josh ordered a whole tuna fish, which could apparently feed 5 people. We had a lot of steak on the trip too, after not having any since being in England.

The morning after our first fishing trip we went out on a dolphin trek, early in the morning. We saw lots of dolphins, about a dozen or so, but they were hard to get a picture off. Heres the tail of one of them!

The week all in all was amazing. It was so relaxing, and now we are back at the school teaching kids again! All good things come to an end.

SC Event

2008-04-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

Every year around this time, the students elect a student council. There have been quite a few parties trying to get the position, and at the moment I think there is a tie between the two. The council put on the Student Council Event, which has just finished! The theme was the Wild West - everyone in cowboy outfits basically, apart from the few people with an imagination who thought outside the box! Hannah was a tin of beans, and Sarah was a sunset, although not many people got that. The whole afternoon was spent setting the stage and stalls up on the big pitch. We had to buy coupons which we could use at the stalls to get food and drink and play games and stuff, it was all good fun. The stage had different acts the whole night, one of which was a few of us IG's, doing a skit called Flicking Channels, a short sketch where we each dress up as a different occupation (cook, nurse, mechanic and gardener) and we would present our shows but the channels would change, and we would interupt each other, and the sentence would be bizzarly completed (...(nurse) if the baby still won't keep his arms and legs still - (gardener) cut them off at the root with a sharp knife!)... that sort of thing, if you get the jist. It started horribly, the mikes weren't working or were too low, we forgot lines, the whole shebang. But we started again and nailed it, and got lots of laughs which I was happy with :)

This coming week is parents week. This means lots of hard work for all the staff and IG's, but we get the week after off. We have planned a trip to Goa, which should be fun! The parents have started arriving, and some of them I can tell who they are because they look just like their kids! Its good talking to them, as most are missionaries, and they all have interesting stories about their work.

I have been bugged loads (by Sophie mainly!) to put a photo of my dorm on here, so here it is:

Its not very clear on here, if I find another way to put it up then I will do so. Anyway, as far as names go:

Far left standing: Mrs Payne (dorm leader) and Abi Payne
On sofa left to right: Rohan, Tahan, Nishant, Anish and Nathan (Tahans brother)
Standing left to right: Miss Abbot (dorm helper), John Riley (staff kid), me, Niveen, Ben
On floor left to right: Ghayn, Simon, John, Fergie, Anand, Josh Payne (little kid), Danbeer, Kieran, Jonny (wearing blue, another staff kid), Lucas (the head behind him), Tasmay (head next to him) and Damin.

There are a couple of people missing: Mr Payne (Dorm leader), Queleb Payne (Josh's twin), and Josh.

April Fools Day

2008-03-31T22:10:00.000-07:00

Back at home, April Fools goes by and no-one really remembers to play pranks on people. In the Hebron Guidelines, there are rules of what people can and can't do, which makes things worse, as the kids just try to think up the worst thing they can do to someone without crossing the line (or going over it just a tiny bit). I was woken up today with bangs on the door, and then a rendition of 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas!' Then more cherry knockers came along. Then we were told that the buses from Selborne had to divert off the drive onto the big pitch. Apparently the guys had put loads of tables and chairs and food in the middle of the drive and were having breakfast and stuff, as if it were an everyday occurrence!

Last night some of the girls pinned down a teacher and put hair removal cream on one side of his beard. There are patches in it now, the poor bloke. I was helping out in his lesson, and I was admiring the girls ingenuity with the hair removal cream, when I got a water balloon popped over me!

Staff won the football again 4-0, we are on a roll now, two in a row. I lost the golf yesterday miserably though. I also got electrocuted off the mains a few days ago, but I'm still alive.

Easter

2008-03-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

On good Friday our dorm, plus the Standard 9 girls, all went to Farley, a small Christian centre in the woods. I cycled up with a couple of the lads in my dorm, but it was so uphill that we weren't much quicker than on foot. We arrived in the afternoon, and were all given a large plastic sheet and some rope, and was told to make a tent for the night! We split into about 8 teams of 6, and were given a few hours on it. My groups tent was by far the best, D of E paid off for once! Despite that, the biased judges gave us 2nd place. Evil people.

We played some games outside and then had dinner. The woman who ran the place had made lots of bread dough, and we had to get a lump of the stuff, wrap it around a stick, and cook it on the fire. When it was cooked, it came off the stick and had a hollow inside, which we filled with chicken or beef and cheese. It was awesome, except half way through the rain started again. The past week has been non stop torrents.

We went inside and watched a film, then went to bed. Because of the rain, the boys, who were originally going to sleep outside in the tents, had to squeeze into the living room, all 20 or so of us! The girls of course, had their own comfortable rooms with matresses. I got only a couple of hours sleep that night, it was so painful sleeping on the wooden floor with no roll mat or matress!

The next day after breakfast, because it was still raining we played lots of indoor games, and danced to some cheesy songs. After lunch, we headed back: a much easier cycle as it was downhill, but the rain was still going. I caught up on sleep that afternoon, and then was told I was sleeping with the dorm that night! They were all playing football games on their PSPs, so I beat a couple of them. Then afterwards I played them on the football games.

On Easter day, we went to church as normal. It was NBC (Nines Bible Club) as usual as well, but it was a bit of a disaster unfortunately. We couldn't use our normal room, so we had to go outside, where it was wet, there were people cooking food right next to us, loud music coming from somewhere, and there was traffic on the road next to the garden. Everything went wrong, but the kids said they enjoyed it!

Yesterday was our Monday off, so we went to Black Thunder, a water park in the jungle. It was a few hours on the smelly bus, but worth it. It was really good fun, some of the rides were terrifying, some were really dangerous too, but that just added to the fun. Jimmy and Elana cycled there, and it took about 4 hours! We had lunch there, and an ice-cream. Halfway through, an Indian couple pulled me aside from the group and gave me their baby! I thought they were walking off but they took a picture of me holding their kid! It was quite weird, they shook my hand after. I went to tell the guys what happened and they said that apparently they believe it brings the child good luck if they are held or touched by a westerner!

It was a great Easter, the only thing that was missing was Creme Eggs :( I would give my right arm for one now.

Our weekend off at Fort Cochin...

2008-03-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was Youth Fellowship camp for the kids at Hebron, which gave us IG's the chance to take the weekend off. Hannah arranged a trip to Allepey for a trip on the back waters and then the rest of the three days at Cochin. We took rickshaws down to the bus station (James' and mine broke down on the way) and then caught a bus to Coimbatoire. The bus down was the worst part of the whole weekend, it was really cramped and uncomfortable, and their was an Indian film on the TV, with the speaker right above my head on full volume! It took a few hours before we arrived and made our way down to the train station. The train was much better, exactly the same type and class as the 26 hour journey I did last time I was in India. We got some sleep before we arrived at Ernakulam 8 hours later. When we arrived in Kerala, we took rickshaws to the back waters for a trip on a boat. (Below is a photo half way through our tour, and the locals were hitching a ride on the back of our boat because we had a motor!).

There were dozens of these enormous wooden house boats, and the locals kept trying to get us on one for the day, for an enormous fee. But we had a smaller boat booked which we took round the waters for a few hours, which was so relaxing. We stopped on the journey to buy coconuts, and there was an eagle that had its wings clipped, so was just perched on the side. The woman let us hold it, and it tried to eat my bracelet.

The coconut juice was disgusting! I tipped most of mine away, it wasn't as nice as I remember it being. Our round trip took us back to the mini harbour, and we grabbed some lunch and then another train up to Fort Cochin. It was quite late when we arrived, so we went straight to our guest house and checked in. The rooms were nice, the 5 girls shared one and us 3 boys shared one. (Our rooms are in the photo below). Our first nights sleep was really warm because I couldn't figure out the air-con! During the night I became food for the mosquitoes, and woke up covered in bites. In fact, I ended the weekend with about 40 or so, while other people seemed to get hardly any! Don't worry Soph, I did take anti-malarials :)

We found a nice place for breakfast and then went on a rickshaw tour. The men took us round Cochin for a good price to all the places of interest. It was a really good tour, the visits to the places were kept short and sweet, which was good because it was so hot! We had to stop for drinks at one point, so we told the drivers and the sly men took us to a government store where they give you a free coke! Our tour took us to a spice warehouse, Dhobi place (where they clean clothes), a Dutch palace, and a Hindu temple amongst others. We were promised a snake and mongoose fight at the end, but for some reason there was no mongoose, so instead we watched the man make three cobras dance. They were all trying to bite him and escape. I will post a video up of it later.

When our tour finished we wandered around the huge stalls on the side of the street, and then headed back to watch the footy. We went out for an Italian that evening, where they did amazing pizzas. That night I managed to get the air-con working, so I had a much better nights sleep :)

The next day, our last full day in Cochin, we had breakfast at the same place then we headed off to a hotel to swim. Sarah, who had been to Cochin before recommended the Infinity pool at the Taj Malabar, where the sea is parallel to the pool, but when we got there we got shunned by the evil receptionist who told us that it was for guests only (the Lonely Planet guide lied to us). We went to a different hotel where they were much nicer, and they showed us to a really warm pool outside, where we stayed for 4 hours. We got back we had a game of poker and watched the footy again.

We checked out at midday and got the train back to Coimby, and from there we had a hired mini-coach! Which means that over the course of the weekend we had travelled by rickshaw, on foot, taxi, bus, coach, boat and train! Credit to Hannah for organising the trip, it would have been a mess if it wasn't for her! We got back at about 1am this morning, all shattered and covered in bites! It was worth it though :)

The last 10 days in one post...

2008-03-02T06:28:00.000-08:00

I have been charged with the IT side of a yearly project that's coming up, the Hebron Highlights magazine. Its about 150 pages long, and each student and member of staff is given one at the end of the year. The magazine is a mammoth task, and as a result we have seven people, including myself, putting it together this year. Every years magazine is better than the years before, so I'm not allowed to mess it up or I will get shot. Or worse, put on extra dinner duties.

I've also started, with Carly, to help out with Nine's Bible Club. Its basically a group of Standard 9's that meets during church so that we can study the Bible more interactively. Today was the first day I did, and it started of with Carly and I acting as hoops for their game of paper basketball. For some reason the kids were throwing chalk as well. I will look back on that with painful memories. After acting out the bible passages, I closed in prayer, but the guys in my dorm started hitting me, tickling me and put grass in my mouth while I was praying, so it came out muffled with occasional laughter. Bad news is that it is every single week!

Clubs started up last Tuesday. I'm helping in Computing club, which despite my initial thoughts of taking computers apart and stuff, its actually making cartoons on a story board with aged 5-8 kids. They all know what they want their story to be, so really I am just their to help with spelling! Something I'm not to srtong on myself.

Tomorrow is our day off, and I have no idea what we are doing! Next week is our weekend away to the beach, and last week we had a picnic and went to the tea factory, which was about 15 minutes up on the scooter. On the last little bit it couldn't get up the drive, a local had to give me a push up :) The tea factory was very similar to the one we visited two years ago, but much smaller. After that I went exploring on the hog and got totally lost. I carried on past the lake for about half an hour, and then couldn't find my way back and had to get directions several times. I might go again, but take the camera with me, as from the top of the hills theirs some good views.

My foot is healing up nicely, but for some reason I can't bend my big toe at all. I had to play in goal for our fortnightly game against the students, so that I didn't wreck it again. And what do ya know, I switch positions and the staff win! I am obviously not needed in the midfield. The students always mock us because they win every staff student event. One kid was telling me that as far as he can remember, staff have only ever won a single game of cricket. Well we beat them 4-1, so we can mock them for at least a couple of weeks :)

Just did a spell check and it didn't like the word Hebron. It suggests that the correct word is heroin. I'll stick to my spelling on that one.

Travels with my foot

2008-02-20T00:28:00.000-08:00

I know that I said in my last post that I had not done anything stupid yet, but since my last post post things have changed. I hired out a scooter again and took James into town, and the bike slipped when we were going down the drive, and the back wheel started to come off the road. I managed to correct it by sticking my foot out, but I was only wearing flip flops, (which I rarely wear, it was just bad luck that I had to be wearing them on that particular day), and I scratched my foot a bit. Worse of all, I damaged my right flip flop. I'm gutted about that.

We did a murder mystery the other night, which involved getting dressed up (myself as Doctor White) and going to various places on the campus, answering the kids accusations when they came hunting for us. I was sitting in the meeting room watching a film (Erin Brocovich - in my defence, it was the only DVD I could find), and it turned out that Mrs Payne (my dorm parent) was the murderer :)

We have started to get into the routine of school life and lessons. I have a few more things on my agenda now that I have asked for some more work. I've started helping in other maths lessons, specifically with Jounty, who needs some extra help with his work, doing some jobs for the Chemistry department and updating the sports board. I took over the sports board from Josh, which he has quickly come to regret now that I have posted a big article about Liverpool loosing to Barnsley in the FA cup :)

Emma got ill!

2008-02-15T00:57:00.000-08:00

Which means I win! I am the last healthy IG left, and I plan to stay like that!

We also worked out that I'm the only person who has yet to do anything stupid :) Everyone else has had some daft mishap already, but I am immune from idiocy and disease!

Why do kids run everywhere!?!

2008-02-12T02:15:00.001-08:00

They are like small, unstoppable missiles! I have been struck by two of the little darting things today!

Forgot to say in my last post: We had a commencement service on Sunday. It was just a short service in the Sports Hall to kick off the new term. Prayers, bible reading, and a skit by us IG's, about Jonah, Moses and Jesus. Carly was a whale, and I was playing the role of God, so all was in order for the casting. It was a terrible play and I was amazed to hear people laughing when we performed it. They were most likely laughing at Carly I guess...

I wasn't too hot on my lines, and had to sneak a peak during the skit, when they were throwing Jonah out the boat, but I don't think anyone noticed :) We rushed back to watch the Manchester derby, but much to James' dismay, City killed them.

Mondays have never been so much fun

2008-02-11T09:07:00.000-08:00

Today was another day off (every Monday for us IG's), and we had planned to go back to the go-karting track, but get slightly more than the 11 laps we did last time. Bene and Josh got a rickshaw down, and I went on the back of James newly hired scooter. It cost him about 350 rupees to hire for the day, and they didn't ask for a license or anything, just his name and address. After the careful drive down (in which we wore full safety gear, did not come of the bike on some potholes, and did not almost die when overtaking a bus and taking a corner too fast) we each did 50 laps. 25 laps, a short break to criticise each others driving and to swap cars, and then another 25. The first half was quite mellow, and I was the only one to come of the track thanks to some reckless driving by James. The second half was absolute carnage, tyres were everywhere, and most of my 25 laps, Bene, James or Josh were routinely buried into the tyre barrier. We finished covered in mud, but it was all good harmless fun! I drove the bike back up to Hebron and now I want one when I come home.

A quick lunch at Sidewalk and a lazy afternoon, then we all went to Selbourne, where we watched a film and toasted some marshmallows :) I'm feeling quite ill from them, but, in keeping with the rules, Emma, you still have not won :)

EDIT: Emma fell down a man-hole. Drinks all around.

Brand name clothes cheaper in India

2008-02-09T08:19:00.000-08:00

But they may not be authentic =)

I spent most of today hanging out with my dorm. In the evening, we went to Shinhows chinese restaurant, which was quite good. A plateful of different dishes and a drink for 95 rupees. Although you can do better for prices than that in Ooty, they come with a side dish of vomiting and other nasties.

We watched some TV when we got back, but most of the guys were playing on their PSP's. I reckon over half the dorm have them. At least they were busy playing on them instead of drinking shower gel like yesterday. Nutters.

It rained!

2008-02-09T02:05:00.000-08:00

I'm so gutted. Sophie totured me mercilessly when she went to Crete about how good the weather was, and so I was in the process of getting my own back with 3 weeks of nothing but sunshine and warmth, and it goes and pours all through the night!

Because of the unexepected wetness, most of the dorms had to change their weekend activities. We were planning on having the Y9 girls over and thrashing them at basketball, but instead we went to Selbourne, as they have a sheltered court. We worked out teams, and for some reason I was made ref, the worst decision of the day, apart from the fouls I blew up for, as they were all wrong. My dorm boys were quick to point this out, and it didn't take them long to figure out I didn't know the rules of basketball! But we got our own back by getting a staff team together and playing the winning team, and we whitewashed them ( cough 5 - 4 )

Now all the kids have come, our timetables come into effect, which put me in Mrs Singh's maths lessons. The first day was only a half hour lesson, to cram assembly in, and the kids were getting taught, so I sat at the back not being a nuisance. The day after though, I got a chance to get stuck in. They were all given questions out the book (alegbra, my favourite), and they were all shooting their hands up with questions, and it was my job to go round and help the guys who got stuck, or needed their answers marked, or were so brilliant that they had done all the questions, and needed a really hard question, which they did with ease. It was really rewarding work, and for the first time ever, I'm looking forward to maths lessons!

I have also done a couple of lessons of Design Tech, but it has all been theory so far as Mr Taylor hasn't arrived yet. So far we have been doing drawings on isometric paper.

Carly has been assigned swim lessons, and is complaining about how cold the pool is. The next time she moans, I'm chucking her in =)

Picture time

2008-02-08T04:36:00.000-08:00

I have been moaned at for not putting any pictures up, so here goes, enjoy people...

This is the view from the top of the school. Just outside the shot is the big pitch, trampoline courts and the houses. Most of the students come here to chill out or study in the sun.

Facing the other way, this is the entrance to the school, which houses the staff room, administator rooms, and dining hall.

This is the big pitch, facing the school. The other way is the 'titch pitch,' which hasn't been used since we arrived. The big pitch is used for criket, hockey, football and a few other sports. The ground is like gravelly clay, it really hurts if you fall on it. My left arm will testify to that.

Heres the pitch being used for girls hockey. As I took this picuture, the students were killing the staff, which apparently is the norm. I have played a staff v student football match, and we lost miserably (although we deserved to win, our keeper was just having an off day!)

This is the 'High Street' of Ooty, the best shots are down this road.

Goats and dogs are everywhere! They are fading away too, eating whatever is on the street.

Here, market stalls litter the route into town, selling mostly junk. I have bought my fair share already.

I will post up more when I get the time, but right now I have to go and reherse for the IG skit in the commencement service. I'm God :)

Golf and the arrival of the kids

2008-02-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

Early in the morning I broke my promise to Sarah and Hannah (sorry girls). I told them the night before I would go swimming with them at 7am, but when that time arrived I was in my nice warm bed and did not want to get out. They suffered the freezing cold pool (which in the mornings is about 15 degrees, which sounds ok but it feels like ice. That temperature is illegal in the UK).

An hour later though I was up, on a drive across Ooty to the golf club. They sent us home the first time we came, because we were not wearing collared shirts, and I was wearing flip flops, which I only wear about once a year, so it was just bad timing. This time though we came with the teachers, dressed appropiately, and all went swimmingly. James and I hadn't played much golf, so we paired up and hired two caddies, Javier and Ebbenezer, and Roger and Jeremy (teachers) and Bene took a caddy and went ahead.

I was quite poor, but redeemed myself slightly with a couple of beautys dotted around the course, for which I got 'The Hand' (James knows what I'm on about) but other than those shots, I was hitting about 2 over par every hole. We finished with some ommelete and chicken at the club house, then went back to the school, where we were greeted by a sea of new faces as the boarders came back for their 2nd half of the year.

After a trip round town, and a quick IG meeting and tour of the library and Hoz (the campus hospital, which Emma will soon be visiting) I went to Ebennezer dorm, and all the Y9 boys were there. I was introduced to all of them, then interogated by them! After a storm of questions we watched some TV and then the guys went to bed. A couple haven;t arrived yet, but so far they are all really cool, albeit very excitable about being back at school. I have already been scheduled to play football with them twice tommorow!

No complaints there!

A day off!

2008-02-05T02:57:00.000-08:00

We were given the day off today to re-charge before the students come tommorow in their multitudes. After a nice long lie in, we went into town to a restaurant, had some lunch, then took rickshaws to the lake, about 10 minutes away. We hired out some pedal boats and burned our legs out taking them around the lake. When I did this two years ago I went in a two seater with Chris, and it was much easier to pedal. These 4 seaters were a nightmare! After our half hour of painful fun, we got back on dry land, and went on the dogem's! They were not as fast as the ones back home, but much cheaper. So much so that we had money left over for two fair ground rides, which made James' stomach turn, and a go on a buckaroo, which I'm proud to say I failed miserably on.

We then walked down the road to a go-kart track, where we had a few laps, massively enjoyed it so us guys went back on for another dozen! James and Josh were having a duel on the track, on some laps I would see them bash into each other, and one would spin off the track. Another lap and there would be tyres littering the circuit where they had rammed the other one into the barriers! In between us guys racing, the girls went on, and Sarah got a bit overenthusiastic. Think car, think speeding, then think tyre wall, and then you have the picture =)

After the go-karting we walked round the rest of the very small park. It looked like they had played the go-kart hand, and didn't have enough money to fill the park with anything else. A couple of stalls were set up, where I shot my way to a pair of binoculars, but other than that, there wasn't much else, so we hit the auto's to get back to Hebron. On the ride up the steep hill we saw the 2nd rickshaw being pushed by Josh! We thought it had packed up but apparently he just wanted to stretch his legs!

Off to have pancakes at Selbourne now!

Going Banana's!

2008-02-03T23:31:00.001-08:00

For the last few days, all the IG's have been running a day club for the staff kids, while their parents are on retreat. We picked the club when we met up in England, but didn't give it a second thought until we came here and were told we needed to transform the Junior Library into a tropical paradise and entertain and teach the 25 or so kids for the week.

Each day followed a similar structure. The kids would come about 10am, we would do a creative activity with them, then go into the library to sing 'The Banana Song'. The whole event was themed on banana's! Don't ask me why! I played piano with Bene on guitar, and we would do some other songs with them. There were plenty of games dotted around the bible teaching, where each day, a different character would come out of the 'Banana time shed' and would be interviewed by the Banana boys (Katherine and Sarah) and then do a short talk. Noah (Emma), Gideon (Me), Elijah (Bene), Zaccheas (Josh) and Jemima (Hannah) all came out of the shed over the 5 days. More songs and games followed, and then we tidied up the mess!

We have just finished the last day, and we are all pretty knackered! Now its time to turn the tropical paradise back into a library. I will post some videos up soon, so everyone can see the mayhem we made!

Before the club is usually devotions in the staff room. Its like a small family service cos the kids are in.

The kids arrive in a few days, so we have no commitments tommorow, its our day off! Apparently we will learn to appriciate them!

Mispah Home

2008-01-29T07:21:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago we took a short trip to Mispah home, an orphanage on the outskirts of Ooty. When we arrived we were served tea, and the children were told to come in, and they all stood in front of us, looking a bit shy and nervous, when we were sat down. We talked to Jennifer, the wife of the owner of the orphanage (who used to be a cook at Hebron) and she told us about the children and Mispah. Most of the kids are orphans, all aged between 4 and 18 (although the 4 year old insisted he was 5!), but their were many of the 20 or so kids who had one parent. However, the typical scenario we were told, is that the parent has to earn money, so go's to work, and in the 12 or so hours they are working, the child is locked in a cupboard until they return. Cases like these were brought to Mispah Home, as it is cruel on the child. When you see how much fun and how happy they are with their new friends, it makes perfect sense. They sang a couple of their favourite songs to us, then we were shown around the site. Its not a big place, and it is very basic, no TV's, DVD's or anything, but the kids have so much fun. Mispah home have tried so hard to make it more than just a bed and food for the kids. They all go to school and church, and are educated well, so that there is a real chance that they will find a job when they leave. For the last half hour of our time there, we played games with the kids and it was amazing, I just couldn't get over how happy they all were, and playing the games with the kids has been my favourite part of the trip so far. We were only there for a couple of hours, and before going I thought that those hours would drag uncomfortably, but it was completely the opposite! I really didn't want to leave when Alistair came in the bus to take us back to Hebron. I have no doubt the others felt the same, so I'm sure we will go back their soon.

Nearly all the IG's have arrived now. The group is now made up of myself, Carly, James, Josh, Bene (my new roommate), Emma, Sarah, Katherine, Hannah and Alix. The only two left to come are Tom (Alix's husband, who comes next month) and Anna Rosenbaum, who is having trouble acquiring her Visa because she has been recently married, so please pray for her as without it she can't come out.

We visited CMS (Christian Mission Service) in Conoor yesterday too. The site used to be called Silverdale, and was part of Hebron until 1974. It housed the Girls and Junior schools, and was amalgamated with Lushinton to form Hebron as we know it. The tour brought back memorys of the tour a couple of years ago on my last visit to India. Very little had changed, the same applied to Brooklands guest house, the next place we visited, where we had lunch and went shopping in Conoor. On the way back, it almost rained, but then decided against it. So far, we have had one very sunny week without a drop of rain!

Today was spent learning about Indian culture, and planning for the Holiday club. The HC is an event over 5 days for the staff kids, while their parents are on staff retreat. It is themed on a desert island with a time portal, and for some reason, loads of bananas. We teach them about Bible characters, sing songs and have fun with them.

The day was broken up with an awesome lunch: curry on a banana leaf. We were taught how to (properly) eat with our hands, which was tricky to master. We had poppadums, loads of rice, curd, curry, pickle, melted butter, and a strange peppered water, which I was served gallons of the stuff. By the time I had finished my meal, my fingers had wrinkled.

The Standard 11 kids came back today to get ready for their mock exams. The others come in a week.

Tommorow is more HC planning! Banana-tastic fun for sure.

The kids are coming back to school soon!

2008-01-26T03:04:00.000-08:00

The last couple of days have been geared towards our training in preperation for the return of the school kids, who come next week. The other IG's, with the exception of Bene have arrived. We took a tour of Selbourne campus yesterday. Selbourne is the site about 10 mintutes away that houses the senior girls, plus Carly, Emma and Katherine, the other IG's. The campus has a huge enclosed basketball/5-a-side pitch, with a huge trampoline. We had lunch on site, and then a prayer session afterwards. We had dinner that night with the Buckinghams. Its good to meet all the teachers before the term begins, as they are not as busy in the holidays.

Today was the tour of Lushington. We had explored most of it all ready, but we saw the (freezing cold!) swimming pool today, as well as tours of the classrooms where we hadn't been yet. We have two huge folders and a handbook to read through, with everything we would ever possibly need to know about Hebron, Ooty and being an IG. They are very useful but a lot of reading!

I worked out how to get hot water from the shower yesterday. For the last few days they have been freezing, but if you turn the cold tap, then hot water comes out! The guys were very grateful for my discovery.

We were looking through the old yearbooks earlier today, to find James' mum, and I came across a Mary, Kath, and Peter Sanders! Mum was in there for winning a rosette, I can't remember which, I will post up when I have had another look. Aunty Kath won a sweet making competition, and got good O Levels, and Peter was named in the book with everyone in the year. I will hunt again later and see if I can dig out more names. (By the way Peter, I have looked for snake lizards but so far haven't seen any.)

We have found the squash court, so we have been playing lots recently. Some of the teachers play too, and are quite good! Give it a few months though... :)

I'm having trouble getting my photos up here, but I will try again later. Bye for now!

Arrival and first couple of days

2008-01-24T01:43:00.000-08:00

I have arrived in India, and have set up this blog to keep everyone up to date on whats going on...

We got up at about 3am on the Monday morning, and after the drive down (thank you Carly's parents!) we caught the 9:40 BA plane to Chennai (on the East coast, about 2/3rds of the way down the map).

The flight was 9 hours long, the food was awful but the entertainment was good. When we landed, it was about 00:10 local time. After a very awkward check in to our internal flight (Chennai to Coimbatore) we had a few hours to kill, so we had a couple of drinks at a restaurant and kicked a football about outside the airport (until a man with a uniform and gun turned up and started watching us).

The internal flight was good, it was in a small propeller powered plane that only seated about 30 people. No food, but it was only a short flight. You can see where we flew on the map below.

When we arrived in Coimbatore, a man was waiting for us in a big taxi that needed a few people to push start it down a slope to get it working. The taxi journey took 3 hours, which was 3 hours too long. The driver was mental, much worse than I remember Indian drivers being. He was playing chicken with buses, rickshaws and bikes, horses, monkeys and dogs, but somehow Josh got quite a bit of sleep. He kept banging his head on the window though because there were so many hair-pin bends, but he didn't wake up until we were near the top. From there you could see miles and miles of the Tamil Nadu state, a vast amount of it were tea plantations.

We finally got to Hebron School at around 10am (website is http://www.hebronooty.org/) and were shown to our rooms, and they let us crash for the rest of the day. We got up in the late afternoon and were invited to have dinner at Tony and Esther Payne's house, with their 3 kids and a friend of theirs. Carly was at Selbourne, and apart from me only James and Josh were there. Tony and Esther are dorm parents of Ebenezer, a dorm of about 15 boys in Standard 9, all about 14 years old, and all into football :) It is the the dorm I have been assigned to for my 6 months here.

We went for a night time drive around Ooty, and the shops were all open, they close around 10pm. The good shops were pointed out to us, as well as a cinema where the best seats cost 30 rupees (about 40p). I Am Legend is on at the moment.

I slept ok that night, but kept waking up. I am in a room by myself at the moment, as one of the IG's (Internation Guests) called Bene hasn't come yet. James and Josh are sharing a room, and Carly is staying at Selbourne. (Selbourne is a different campus of the school for the girls, about 10 minutes away on foot or 20 rupees on an auto-rickshaw.) The other two woke up and decided to go for a walk around town at 3am, but then got scared by a dog and an angry horse that tried to kick them, so they went back to bed.

The next day (23rd) after breakfast, we played football with the staff kids, and then went into town for a bit to get stuff we had forgotten to buy. Josh got hit by an auto-rickshaw in the shoulder, we have already marked him as the accident prone one. Back at the school we played football again with the cooks, but lost miserably! They play every day after they have cooked lunch, so there is lots of football going on :)

We got our computer accounts set up by Roger Webber, who we had dinner with that night. After we played wide-games with the staff kids.

Today we went to the golf club, but they wouldn't let us play because we weren't dressed smart enough! So we played football again instead, and won this time :) We had a game of hockey in the afternoon too.

In a nutshell, so far it has been loads of fun, the weather is really warm and sunny, and everyone is really nice. Right now we are playing it by ear until the other IG's arrive, which should be tommorow. After that we start our training, and in a week and a half the kids come back to school!

I will post some pictures/videos up for everyone later, my camcorder is charging right now.

Feel free to post comments up or email me at simon_lambert13@hotmail.co.uk