july 21

here's gayle, cynthia and me. i've been helping gayle with her home-ec study today.

it rained all night, we've had at least 500ml in the last 24 hours. we've had 71cm since sunday.

it has only just stopped raining this afternoon and we've had no power since this morning.

the kids were off school because it was flooded and the kids who come from the outside couldn't get in to the farm either.

so this morning i helped make the bread again, and i'm teaching the girls some techniques which are producing great results.

we then had a craft morning this morning where the kids made thank you cards for all the businesses that contributed to our fundraising.

potato and egg curry for lunch, then this afternoon we went for a walk to see the river which was dry only a few weeks ago. we started off by wading through the cow house...nice... then around the back of the buildings through calf deep swamp water which has just come up in the past few days. the young boys were such gentlemen, holding our hands to balance us as we slid around. sheila got stuck in the mud and we all had a good laugh! as it was chucking down with rain at the time, our rainjackets and umbrellas proved pointless.

after circling the farm, we headed off through the fields, through the nomadic community who use some of the land and into the jungle. mud, sludge, slime, floodland, swamp. i'm really not sure how to describe it. like nothing i'd seen or done before. we just waded through the jungle knee deep in water, with the kids periodically slipping and falling into the 'puddles'.

we finally made it to the river and it was amazing. we stood on the banks in sinking sand and watched the water rush past. it was a good 20 or 30 meters wide.

on our way back, some of the older boys had driven a tractor-trailer down to pick us up and took us on a hairy ride back. a nice hot shower in the guest house and cup of tea to welcome me.

finally we've got power this evening, and have enjoyed a lovely dinner of chicken and liver soup, beans, daal and chipatis.

did i mention i learned to roll the chipatis...im not very good at it mind, but sheila and i figured out the mechanics of rolling it and ill get better with time and practice.

im loving spending the mornings in the kitchen with the girls, getting to know them and learn to cook indian style.

the children are gorgeous and ive spent lots of time with cynthia again today...x