Wednesday 30th January 2008

Hey everyone, well... today was AMAZING!!! We woke up and drove to Amber Palace, but on the way we saw a water Palace, it had some great history. The whole Palace was made out of plaster and when the water rose it would flood the first floor. Their planning to turn it into a restaurant for the commonwealth games in 2010. Then we were back in the car until we saw some snake charmers, we hopped out to have a look, and the men were playing some music with interesting looking instruments, while making the cobras rise, but we learnt that it’s not the music that makes the cobras rise it’s the movement of the instrument because the cobras can’t actually hear the music. After we were in the car AGAIN heading to the Amber Palace. YE HAR !!!!!!! Elephants Yay. We finally got to ride on elephants. All the way up to the Palace, with our guide, Gopal we all thought it was an easy name to remember so none of us had an excuse to forget it. He was a great guide he taught us so much. We were toured all through the palace and realised all the graphite on the walls, but Gopal said the government was putting money into the building to get it all neat for the commonwealth games.~FACTS~> Around the Palace there is a wall similar to the Great Wall of China to protect it.> The King had 12 wives and his favourite lived under him.> The wives were not to be seen by any other men because the King didn’t trust them so the ladies had to stay in the Palace and if they wanted to see the courtyard they had to peep in a small window.> The eunuchs were the ones who had to guard the wives.> If enemies were attacking the Palace there was a secret tunnel to the fort up in the Mountain. Pretty amazing, huh? It was a great morning. Mum will take over from here. Maddi xox
Hi, Kaz here. Have I ever told you how much I hate computers... give me a pen and paper any day. OK, after the Amber Palace it was on to the observatory which was a great passion of one of the kings who was considered so knowledgeable that they called him one and a quarter king, a title they still use to this day. The largest sundial in the world is there along with many other astronomical and astrological instruments, most interesting. What an amazing mind. He was the same king who was such a visionary that he relocated the palace to modern Jaipur to make room for the expansion of the town. Then it was onto look at artistic block printing work on fabric being done beautiful designs. Sometimes you feel rude trying to get your point across that you actually don’t want to buy any more fabric, it can be somewhat frustrating at times.Then onto City Palace. This was the new royal residence.
INFO IN NOTE FORM;
The royal family still live there today.They house the largest silver pots in the world [350 kg each]We saw the the carriages that they carried the women in because their dresses were so elaborate that they were to heavy to walk in.Some of the carpet hangings were over 400 years old.In every square inch of this carpet there is 900 knots. They were approx 20 x 12 feet.Kids were feeling a bit wiped so it was time to go home and chill out a bit.
I headed back to the post office later with Govind. It cost me $50 to post a parcel back to Broome. Yesterday a guy offered to do it for the bargain price of $250. Glad I waited...Posting mail in India has never been more eventful. They wrap and tie; then rip up some fabric and sew a pouch to fit; then more sewing; then onto a different part of the building for paper work; Then into the hot sealing wax room; then into the weighing room; Then more paper work is attached; then $ exchanged and wallah transaction over. No dinner tonight just a long hot shower and bed. Kaz.

Tuesday 29th January 2008

After a massage (everyone except Elijah), we drove 4½ hours to Jaipur, checked into “the Maharani Palace” and chilled out watching Indian TV. Dinner and an early night, just what the doctor ordered. Sounds uneventful doesn’t it? But no drive in India is without its full share of amazing sights, smells and sounds. Beautiful women in gorgeous saris digging on the road gang, red-nosed camels with ridiculously overloaded wagons whose drivers look straight out of biblical times except for the MOBILE PHONE they’re using, several incredibly elaborate wedding parades complete with generators for the fluro ligts and loud speakers, 100’s of trucks swerving in & out, coming straight at you, overtaking motorbikes carrying 4 or 5 passengers on roads that are only 4 metres wide (It totally resembles one of those smash-‘em-up truck races you see on the TV ads where the guy is screaming at you to “get your backside trackside!”). Seriously, every couple of minutes you gasp in fear of your life, but to these people it’s totally normal, no one gets “road rage”, they just go around you if you’re coming at them on their side of the road. Actually, on reflection, I don’t think there is a designated side to drive on. Needless to say we have a VERY healthy prayer life at the moment (and a great driver – apart from his braking technique). Pete

Monday 28th January 2008
Yesterday after Lunch we went on a safari but we saw no tigers, although we did see monkeys and deer. We met a guy called Nam from America. The safari went for 4 hours. When we came back for dinner we sat around the fire listening to some Indian people play music and I danced with one of them and then we had some dinner and went to bed. Elijah Kaz got a beautiful handcrafted bedspread, some ear rings & a pendant, some Kashmir woollen shawls for the 3 girls and a pure Pashmiri scarf for moi at the Pugmark’s gift shop. We think we got a bargain but you never can tell. Pete

Sunday 27th January 2008

Sunday 27th January 2008
Up early this morning for a tour of the Taj Mahal. Quick history lesson: Agra was the capital of the Mogul Dynasty which encompassed most of the modern India. In the early 1600’s its emperor was Shah Jehan who loved art and architecture and built most of the elaborate buildings in the area, most notably, the Taj Mahal, recently voted #1 of the 7 manmade wonders of the world. Mumtaj Mahal, favourite of the Emperor’s 3 wives died in 1630 (39 years old) during her 14th birth and Shah Jehan started building the Taj Mahal, her tomb, in 1631 out of white marble using 20,000 craftsmen from Persia. The building took 17 years, walls and gardens a further 5 - 22 in total. The descendants of the 20,000 Persian workers still live in Agra using the same techniques and tools as their forefathers. Shah Jehan’s youngest son Orangeev killed his 3 older brothers in order to be made emperor and then arrested his own father in 1658 for spending too much of the royal treasury. He was held under house arrest at the Palace (“Red Fort”) until he died 8 years later. He was allowed to visit the Taj Mahal on Fridays. Next stop, a Persian carpet shop. Watched the artisans make the carpets. Too beautiful to pass up the chance to grab one, so we did, along with a couple of table runners. Third stop, Red Fort. Another magnificent building, but unfortunately this one has been let go and poorly maintained. Kaz was quite upset and feels called to rebuke the Indian Govt and restore Red Fort. Our guide, RJ, has amazing hair growth on his ears (that’s right, on, not in! Koala ears!) 4th stop, a marble artisan shop. These guys are so clever. They carve out elaborate patterns with chisels and scrapers and then inlay semi-precious stones into the marble. Their work is stunning and compared to home, quite cheap, but still expensive nonetheless. 5th stop, lunch. Sick of curry 3 meals a day. In 4 weeks we haven’t seen any “western” restaurants, so when we spotted the one Pizza Hut in India, the choice was simple. We shouted Govind to his first ever Pizza and headed off for Ranthambore, a trip the travel agent assured me was about 2 hours. Govind knew better and cringed as he told us it would be closer to 6! Go like the Vind, Govind! Longest road trip yet and by the end I was well and truly over Govind’s radical braking technique which threw you through the front windscreen as we approached every one of the 3½ thousand speed humps and potholes on the way. Maddi carsick. Arrived at our 4 star hotel to find it much closer to a 3 star – no hot water, our ‘private pool’ was empty, freezing cold, etc. Hopefully we’ll see tigers tomorrow on our jungle safari! Pete

Saturday 26th January 2008

Turns out its not only Australia day but it’s India’s “Republic Day” too. Most roads in Delhi (India’s capital) are closed for a huge military parade so we can’t go to Agra till 2pm when its all over. So we decided to go see the parade after brekkie. Now because all the roads are closed we had to walk but fortunately one little auto made it through the blockades and found us. Unfortunately he didn’t know where he was going so he drove us around in circles and dropped us off a few metres from where he picked us up and charged us 150rp for the tour! So we still had to walk after all. About 2kms. We found the parade sealed off as tight as a drum and had to line up to go through metal detectors surrounded by armed soldiers. When my turn came they refused me entry because I had a camera. Dag nab it! But we wouldn’t give up that easily. There must be another way in. We found a very seedy, dark alley complete with buffalo, chickens, goats, and the ever present filth we’ve grown accustomed to but to no avail. Got lost down a different, seemingly endless seedy, dark alley complete with buffalo, chickens, goats, and the ever present filth we’ve grown accustomed to. Mahalia cried. Time to get out. Found another auto driver, praise God! He got lost too. Eventually found his way back to “the Corus” ½ an hour later and charged us 250rp for his tour. Time to go to Agra, home of the Taj Mahalia. Govind only took 3½ hours but the real news was who we saw in the traffic on the way. 1.3 billion people in India, 100 million cars in Delhi (well that’s how it feels), and the car directly behind us is none other than Craig & Rachel who left Chennai a day after us! And they’re heading for the same hotel as us! Anyhoo, too late to see the Taj, we’ll do it tomorrow. Yummy curry while being entertained by the complimentary hotel magician (my you’re looking wonderful tonight Mr Peter – boom boom). He makes his money by selling you the tricks after his little show. I must confess, he made a killing with me, I bought the lot! The kids are practising as I write. Pete.

Friday 25th January 2008

Today we woke up had brekkie waved the boys goodbye and headed off to the Radison Motel where i bought a barbie in a sari. We all freshened up in the bathrooms and then had a delicious buffet lunch which had a chocolate fondue fountain. Our family then hopped on the bus and travelled to the domestic airport for our flight to Delhi on Air Deccan (the cheapest flight in India). We arrived in Delhi and met Govind our driver for the next few days who drove us to the Corus hotel where we slept for the night. Mahalia.

Thursday 24th January 2008
After a good but short sleep (talked with Ashok till 1am) we arrived in Chennai, ate brekky at a veggie restaurant, dropped Rachel at the Blue Diamond for a much needed sleep and headed for the boys home at Orakkadu where I preached to 35 of the IVE preachers and 4 “bible women” with Pastor Timothy as my interrupter. It was very well received and the team all prayed for them individually. The afternoon was spent playing cricket with the boys (they truly are obsessed with the game, and very good too!) while Kaz and the girls really got into the spirit of India by washing our clothes by hand. Pete.

Wednesday 23rd January 2008
More singing and dancing for all of us! Mum, Mahalia, Jenny, Ps. Bev and myself were invited to teach the girls some more dances and songs. Obviously the concert was not enough! After an hour and a half our throats were pretty much numb. ‘tea n coffee’ was what mum, Ps. Bev and Jen were saying. After lunch we went on the bus to the wind farm then came back to play some games with the girls. (link ups, tunnel ball etc..)Before we left for our overnight train trip back to Chennai they asked us to plant some trees in memory of us. On the train we met Ashok Jain, who is a diamond dealer and lives in a palace, with his nine brothers and all their families, plus his mum and dad, 50 people in total. WOW!!! He even invited us to come but we didn’t have time.That’s it for the night. Maddi

Tuesday 22nd January 2008
Today I got off the train at 8:30am and went to a restaurant and had breakfast (yum). Then we went on the bus to the girls Home /School it took 45 minutes to get there. We got flowers and a great welcome and then we went to have a tea and coffee and then went to play with the girls then I went to.... DRIVE in the bus out in the paddock. It was great. My teacher was Morris who is 16 years old, then Nathan had a go. Then at night we did a concert for the girls. And me and Craig did the actions to “who’s the King of the Jungle?” then they did a concert for us and then we went to bed. Good night. Elijah
After meeting with Easupathum and his wife Dianna, the directors of the IVE work down here in Tirunelvelli, and the wonderful greeting Elijah mentioned, we visited the tailoring school/shop they have set up and met with a group of local Hindu girls they are training. What a great opportunity they are providing for these girls to be skilled up and self-sufficient. Maddi, Mahalia, Kaz and I then ducked into town with Bev & Tony to buy some gifts for the Pastor we sponsor over here through IVE, John Victor. We bought a beautiful sari for his wife, a couple of outfits for his little toddler (Leah) and a couple of nice shirts for John. When we got to their house (also where his church meets) we chatted and prayed for them (all with Dianna interpreting). These guys are incredible. They live a very simple life in a very small house, he is in a fully Hindu village and yet has managed to grow his church to about 95 members. They are needing to extend the building as they can’t fit everyone in! It was a very humbling and moving time for us. The concert Elijah mentioned was great fun. The girls did among other things, a traditional Indian welcome dance. Cool. Maddi and Mahalia danced for them too as I managed to beat out a tune on a dodgy 5 string guitar while Kaz & Rachel sang as their backing track. We also taught them all the favourites from primary school RE classes (“My God is so Big”, “Hallelu Hallelu”, etc). Pete.

Monday 21st January 2008
Today we hopped in the bus of freedom with our tummies full from breakfast that Francis the chef had made. We arrived at a village where we met a family that was building a church. We prayed for them in the roofless church and after two girls came and put flowers in mine and Maddi’s hair. We waved goodbye and drove off back into the dust. We arrived in the next village where there was another church under construction, we prayed for the pastors there and had some sweets then left to do some shopping for our sponsored children and ‘Craig’s crew’ went and got some cricket gear for the boys at I.V.E. We were all shocked when we saw a elephant crossing the road in front of us and it made it even more shocking when Jen was screaming “ahhh look everyone there’s an elephant. My prayers have come true”. We came home had some lunch made a veggie soup with Rachel, while Elijah, dad, Bob & Craig played cricket and volleyball (wolleyball) with the boys, and are now packing our bags for a 12 hour train trip down south. Mahalia Hi Girl & Boy Munka!

Sunday 20th January 2008
Well...This morning we headed off on the bumpy road in the ‘bus of freedom’ (as Craig would say) to the girls home in Andhra Pradesh. On the way we bought about 800 bangles, 600 chocolates and some balls for the girls to play with. Once we arrived after 2hrs in the bus we were greeted with yet some more flowers by about 90 beautifully dressed girls. They were all ready for Church so the staff took us up to an open area where we had a church service. They all sang for us, we sang for them (Lord I lift your name on high), Dad preached on Jesus having a plan for all the girls lives and not to let the ‘storms’ of life discourage them (with an interpreter), and we had communion. The girls did some dances for us and we gave the girls four bangles and three chocolates each! YUM! They were very grateful. After lunch we taught them some games with the balls we gave them that kept us all occupied for a couple of hours. I met a girl named Anitha, I was glad because when you meet someone they always come up to you later on and say “what’s my name?” to make sure you are their friend and because their names are always so long you can never remember them. But out of all the girls I could have met I met someone with an easy name!!! She was 14yrs old and she had been going to the Andhra Pradesh home for 8 years. She was nice. Later on they were presented with their certificates and then we had to go. Maddi xox
The road trips here are amazing. Today we saw a duck shepherd with about 300 ducks marching up the road with nothing but a long stick to control them. Very cool. Pete.

Thursday-Saturday 17th – 19th January 2008.

Ok, pretty much 3 days of travelling at ungodly hours in Indian trains. Morning 1: leave Bargarh for Muniguda at 3.30am-ish. Train 1½ hrs late. Sat waiting on cold platform surrounded by perhaps 50 people wrapped in smelly old blankets who LIVE HERE! No mattresses, No electric blankies, not so much as a hot water bottle. The poverty is overwhelming. Nothing like this exists in Australia. (Note to self: Never again complain about uncomfortable beds). Arrived Muniguda 5.30am, slept and relaxed all day. This is our last day here so the kids played some cricket and put on a nativity play for us, after which the team all went to Eliazar & Ruth’s house for a wonderful prayer time for New Hope and one last New Hope curry, the best yet. Morning 2: leave Muniguda for Visakapatnam at 3am-ish. Train 1 hr late. More people living on the platform. Unbelievable. The staff at New Hope couldn’t get us enough sleepers on the train so Bob and I sat up all night looking at photos we’d taken. Tired, but not complaining. Spent the day shopping in Visak. I bought New Hope 2 large truck batteries to run their disabled kids facility “Namistay House” when they lose power, which happens frequently. Kaz and I also decided to buy Eliazar & Ruth exactly the same camera as we have since all the kids and people at the colonies love having their photos taken and then being able to see themselves on the LCD screen (especially the tribal people. They are really happy and always smiling, but as soon as you point a camera at them they do the “blue steel” pose – serious face, no smile – then burst into laughter when they see the resulting shot). Afterward, Mahalia, Elijah and I went to a “fun park” and went inside a real Russian submarine. Kaz also went shopping for material and jewellery with Ruth. Had dinner with Ruth & Brother Paul at “the Park” and said our final farewells. Morning 3: leave Visak for Chennai at 3am-ish AGAIN! We all got a sleeper this time; definitely not complaining. 14 hour trip on a train! So we’re back in Chennai where we initially arrived nearly 3 weeks ago. This is where we join up with the IVE people to visit the work they do in the orphanages and churches that BCF help support south of here. Pete.

Wednesday 16th January

Today we went to another leprosy colony called Burla and we gave the kids a cricket bat and some balls to play with, then Ps. Bev and myself were bought into the handclapping hypnotism with the girls and Mahalia gave some small sweets to the oldies. We were only there for one hour. [editor’s note: I have never before seen anything like the gross deformities of hands and feet that I saw today. Leprosy is a most cruel disease. Even though these people are cured of the leprosy bacteria, it continues to ruin their lives because the nerve damage that was done is irreparable, so they continue to injure themselves by simple steam burns to the fingers, thorns in the feet, stubbed toes etc, but because they can’t feel any pain, they don’t attend to the injury, therefore infection sets in and gets into the bones. Ulcers are also a major problem which can be caused to their sensitive feet simply by wearing shoes that rub a little bit in the wrong place. One lady I saw had 4 gaping holes in the soles of her feet that will never heal, another ladies toe nearly came off in my hand. (seriously!) The New Hope crew are training up one of the lepers who still has fingers to be the official “wound dresser” for the colony. They also give everyone a small mirror to put at the foot of their beds so that they can self-inspect the soles of their feet for any damage each night.]
For lunch we went down to a HUGE dam. Beautiful. High, higher even higher... walking all the way to the top of a tall tower, we could see the whole dam and more. If only we could take some photos, but we weren’t allowed... everyone was tired and worn out so we went back to the hotel for a nap. Dinner and then bed. Xoxo Maddi(Don’t forget to keep posting comments because i want to hear from you all)

Tuesday 15th January
We arrived in Bargarh last night so that today we could visit the Jhan Jhour leprosy colony. This is the place that we donated the money for new houses to be built a couple of years back since the railway are reclaiming the land that the most of the colony is built on at present. Once again we arrived to an overwhelming welcome of warbling tongues (similar to the hollering or ooh ooh ooh-ing of American Indians) and huge smiles, this time however it was accompanied by the unmistakeable drums, cymbals and dancing of the Hari Krishnas. This is also where all the “love bundle” donations from Broome at Christmas time were for. We handed out the bundles, to these very appreciative and beautiful people and also got to give them all a new pair of shoes each which we fitted individually. One lady only had a stump at the end of her right foot due to leprosy but the special “shoe” that was made for her didn’t fit quite right so I organised to have a cast made of her stump so that the cobbler can make a perfect fit shoe especially for her. Total cost of said shoe; $9. The colony itself is an awesome little row of mud huts that could have been teleported in straight from Neanderthal days (or at least the dark ages), and the people are wonderful. They even joked around about the fact they have to beg in the town each day just to eat. By the way, you’ll never guess what we had for lunch at the colony today...

Monday 14th January
Today we’re off to Bargarh (pronounced “Bugga”) on the train, but first we got to hand out love bundles to the eye patients who are heading home after their surgery. They were extremely grateful as they received their sari and soap and headed off to don them. It was the funniest thing I have ever seen. They still had their eye dressings on so they literally headed off in all wrong directions... into bushes, down cliffs, into walls. It looked just like the start of the crab races at the Satay Hut back home. We all jumped up and ran to help those who were in the most imminent danger and lead them by hand to their change rooms. I still laugh just thinking about it. We were also greeted by the tribal people that had stayed the night. They had stripped every flower off the bougainvilleas and had decorated their hair most extravagantly. An amazing sight!

Pete

Sunday 13th January 2008

This morning I got to see a real live eye cataract removal operation. The surgeon comes in by train to operate on the tribal people who have no means of paying for it. At the moment they have the money, provided solely by BCF people, to do 60 per month but they would like to do 100 per month. This truly is an amazing place. 12 years ago, Eliazar bought another block of land and has turned it into a farm which provides some of the food for all the kids and patients at the main centre 15 kms away. We went to the farm with all the kids and patients for a picnic where Elijah perfected his carom skills (a board game resembling pool), the girls danced, I gave them a guitar I bought over here and taught this kid (in the photo) who has Polio how to play it, and we ate yet another curry. In the evening we strolled through the Muniguda town centre itself and came home to be met by the distinctive drum beat of the tribal people who had walked down from the hill country (3 hours) to thank us and perform a traditional dance around the fire. 16 girls and 4 boys. I was acutely aware that very few white people have ever seen this, and here we were getting a personal performance. For me, the highlight was when they invited Mahalia, Maddi and Elijah to join them. Sublime! When it was all over, they stayed up till 3am watching Bollywood movies and Indian music videos on the projector we gave them. Pete

Saturday 12th January 2008
Woke up this morning with the runs. Everyone went up into the hills to visit a tribal village and show them a health DVD on the new projector and PA we bought them. I stayed behind and made close friends with the loo. Yippee! Pete.
After an Indian breakfast in a makeshift tent we piled into the jeeps and headed for the hills (the road itself was an adventure – who needs a destination?). After travelling as far as the road would lead we crossed a river on foot to where they had sent the lunch party earlier on in the morning and a scrumptious Indian feast awaited us. After hot chai we headed up the mountain on foot, a 2 hour walk. The extremely isolated path, usually only used by the tribal people, meandered along a beautiful river named by one village after a local running bean. Up until now, New Hope has carted a full size TV and a generator to these villages showing immunisation and other health videos to them (Polio is still quite a problem here. New Hope has many children crippled by the disease) so our church bought a projector and with a large sari suspended in a tree ... Wallah! Outdoor theatre! They were very appreciative, especially the guys carting the jolly thing. Secundela, originally from a tribal village was trained by Eliazar and Ruth several years ago and now she oversees over 36 villages in the remote hills regarding health issues (cataracts, Polio, etc) and birthing packs (birth survival rate is now much higher. E.g. they used to cut the cord with arrow tips, sharp rocks or crusty knives, causing fatal infections). The 1st village we came to consisted of 8 houses, some were thatched, others were a dull gray/silver colour as they were made of mud brick and then covered with graphite, just like pencil lead! Every hut had an old dilapidated piece of wood erected like a small pylon out front. We were informed that that was their god. Elijah made sure I didn’t sit on him. I told him the lap of my God had arms connected. We then headed off to our final destination, another tribe further up the mountain. We were greeted yet again with more garlands of flowers, you are just going to have to see the photos attached. They invited us into their huts. Eliazar shared with us some of their customs; marriage, dowerys, communal eating, farming (most interesting). We met the chief and as time was getting away from us we left some guys to stay behind and set up the DVD. We ventured back down the mountain by torch light, crossed the rivers, [NEWS BREAK sitting in hotel room at the moment typing this out just met our Christian room service man named Jackass] OK back to story just had to tell somebody that line was specifically typed for Todd Chapman. Now back in the jeep and homeward bound. The work of New Hope is ground breaking, their love and respect for the people is so inspiring. Too many stories can’t tell them all. Love to all. Kaz... Kids are fantastic.

Friday 11th January 2008

After arriving last night unloading into our rooms and consuming yet another yummy curry around a crackling bon fire it was off for some shuteye to rejuvenate for the next day. Now if there is anyone on the face of the planet that knows how to welcome its the Indians. After being laden with enough flowers to bend a small child’s back we were taken on a tour of the campus to meet the locals and see first hand the work of New Hope in Mudiguda ,and what an amazing work it is. Elijah and Ruth are the loving parents of a huge family... Here’s a brief run down of what’s on campus... Class rooms and dorms for all the kids, a Tailor shop, HIV unit, Hospital, Accommodation, Offices, and small shops that are situated at the front of the property to sell to locals teaching new hope kids basic business skills. New hope Muniguda predominately works with orphaned handicapped children educating, feeding and clothing them. Also cataract eye surgery for local elderly villagers where losing your eye sight can ruin your livelihood. It is an amazing sight to see the elderly tapping their way down the street being led by the seeing coming in for surgery. 250 people came in today, some for checkups and others were coming in for cataract eye operations. This line of New Hope work is completely funded from Broome Christian Fellowship which we’ve always known but to see it first hand is the most amazing experience. 250 tribal oldies squatting on the ground greeting us with their warbling tongues and amazing nose jewellery; one through each nostril and one through the middle like a bull. More flowers were given then we handed out love bundles which consist of a sari, a towel, a comb, soap and hair oil. We also gave them a 10 kg bag of rice, daal, salt and cooking oil plus a blanket. In the afternoon we helped wash the woman’s hair ready for surgery the following day. They were given a local anaesthetic, the cataract was measured and all info recorded. Even Elijah donned a doctor’s uniform and helped wash the men’s hair. The kids all helped serve them dinner that night. Then back to the campfire for more tasty food. So much for losing weight on this trip. Let’s just say the Punjabi is a very appropriate dress for the diet. The other main wing of New Hope is those that have been infected with the aids virus. They call the place where the children sleep the rainbow house. A lot of these children were dumped at the train stations because of the fear and stigma of AIDS, so New Hope would be called to come in and collect them. We also visited the wards where people who have had leprosy were staying. They were having corrective surgery on their hands and feet so they can work and look normal again. We were introduced to a man today called Hero who was a leper and because the disease damages the nerves he was severely burnt by unwittingly staying too close to the fire. He was brought to New Hope in a sack hanging from a bamboo pole carried by some local villagers. His wife and family had rejected him. 10 years later, he is now overseeing all of the grounds on the campus, he is well respected in the community, his wife has since returned to him, and they have had a child. The work goes on, there are so many things to share, and that is just one day. Love Kaz xx