Still here!

We hae been quiet for a while because so much has been happening. We moved house and are now residing in a very swish 2-storey place that has just been built. It has taken a while to get set up and we are now cooking our own food and we have cable tv so it feels a bit strange. We may not want to come home!

I wasnt so positive a few days agot though. India is a hard place to get to know. Transport is difficult - it is chaotic and until you learn the systems you are a bit lost. Shopping is also hard. So much relies on small corner stores and tiny little shops. I guess we are used to going to the supermarket or even the markets and getting everything we need in one shot. That isnt so easy here and without our own wheels it is a lot of work to achieve what feels like very little. Needless to say we are all exhausted by tthe end of each day.

I am well and truly into the swing of work here now too and I am loving it. I am still treated like a tourist and I hope the 'special' turns into slightly more of a colleague soon. I am sure it will and it gets a little better each day. The projects we have seen so far have been amazing. So much of the work is really simple, but when there is so much poverty it achieves so much. We have met groups of women who have been trained in sewing and now with their own machines have established small businesses and can now send their children to school. Then there are women who have joined savings groups and they each contribute 25 rupees a week (roughly 65 cents). They then open a joint bank account and can take small low interst loans. SOme used loans to have operations or get medical treatment. Others paid for school fees or covered family emergencies. It is really great to see what I have read and heard so much about.

I dont have much time so I will put up some pics in a separate post in case I run out of time. We are all good (Nick has the cold that I had a week ago) and Jack is loving India. He told me he belonged to India last night, but he cant wait to go on a plane agin.

Love Sarah x x x