Well it was back to work today after a very welcome long weekend. My new child Sanjay started this morning, but as he had been at the hospital his mum brought him at 10, rather than at 11.30. This meant that we had Bhuna, Santosh and Sanjay all at once, Metilda, Joel and I did a circuit each working with a child for 20 mins then passing on, it went really well and was a good taste of what life would be like next term for Metilda. Tomorrow Sanjay will come at 11.30 and be with Anand which should be good. You've heard a lot about Joel, so here he is working with Mariam this afternoon.
We're back to heavy rain and thunderstorms again here, last night the thunder knocked the power out for about an hour, tonight we just had long peals lasting around 2 mins. each. It all seems to have been a bit much for my frog who seems to think being in my house is a good idea. He comes in under the sink in my room which has a hand washing sink and dishes storage. I've put him out around 3 times recently. Ads you can see he has grown into a big boy! he is now 3.5 inches long whereas he was only around an inch when he first moved in. The fruit on the palm leaf is of the inside of palmyra fruits, palmyra is a round brown nut which grows on a palm tree, around 4-5 inches in diameter. The edible inside of the nut is a little like Lychee in texture and not dissimilar in taste either although each piece is about 3 times the size of a lychee.
Tonight I visited an orphanage for girls run nearby. The owner's parents started the orphanage in the 60's and it is now run by a son and his wife who are around my age. There are 60 girls aged 5 - 18 and I was made most welcome, the girls did a dance and sang some songs for me and I taught some songs in return. I then talked to the girls about what I did and why I was in Tirunelvelli. 5 of the oldest girls are doing a 1 year training course for nursing assistants and recognised me from my visits to Bell Pins Hospital. The were very excited about that. My visit seems to have caused general interest and amusement! The pictures are of the girls in the orphanage and of two of the dancers. I had a great time and the evening finished with a delicious meal, to which I never say no!
