hey hey everyone

just had time to write a quickie before me and jennifer venture out for our day off. we heard about this huge shopping centre thing about an hour away, so we visited last week and were very happy to find KFC, McDonalds and Pizza Hut in one building. oh my word i feasted. joking. but yeh its about 1 1/6th of hte size of bluewater, but was very comforting being so western. so yeh were going back again today, but just to have lunch and go to the cinema there. im quite excited - will probably be some random hindi film, but still the cinema experience will be fun, havnt done that in a while!

so, the last couple of weeks have been spent settling in. and im loving now. sometimes the business and the smell is a bit too much, but i love the fact that im here, living here for a while. its an amazingly intersting culture, with so much to learn. i love it. and the projects im involved in are so great. theres two main ones i'll mbe working with over the next 3 months, with a couple of sideliners. firstyly, everyday, im teaching at a prescholl which has been set up by Oasis called 'Balwadi'. its right in the middle of the slum area, and is for kids between 3 and 6 from the community area. i love it, the kids are just so so sweet. and its such a great project, providing education for hte kids. its also such a great oppertunity to witness to the mums who come and drop them off. ao yeh i love that- never done childrens teaching but all is going well. spent all of yesturday afternoon making a huge collage about the lost sheep. man there were sheep, tissue paper and cotton wool everywhere. its fun, means i can be childish again. but yeh thats everyday from 9.30 to 12.30.
The second main project im based in is at another school called Radient High. this school was started by the church that I go to (Adenai) for older kids, who have learning difficulties, or are just slower as a result of not having any previous education. but yeh this is an amazing project aswell. been getting to know the kids the last week and theyre great. i teach most afternoons, either a music, drama, games, or dancing lesson. so yeh is awesome - and pretty tailored to the gifts gods given me. its a privaledge to be able to use them as a way of investing time and energy into these kids, who all come from pretty horrific backgrounds.
So, me and jenny are based in the community, which im loving. and jennifer and victoria are based at the oasis offices. here there is a huge project going on called Jacobs Well. this was established by Oasis a wg\hile back. its basically a project to get the women of the community trained up in life skills and tailoring - something to give them an identity and soemthing they can belong to. so, the main thing is tailoring. they make amazing sawa kameez and sarees, as well as bags and purses etc. so yeh they were complaingin of back pain from being over hte sewing machines every day all day, so ive started a stretch out class for them, ehich happens everyday at 4.45. they absoutely love it - prancing around to a bit of music. and its actually helping them a lot. they want me to teach them a dance aswell, typical to england and america. so yeh i'll do a bit of street with them, but i made htem agree to teach me some indian styley dancing too. should be interesting!!
so thats really great because it means i get to build up relationships with those girls who hang at the office doing that. they all have bad stories about abusive husbands and what not aswell. its pretty heart renching.
so ive been loving hte last couple of weeks. bangalore is cool. like i said, theres stuff about it which is a bit difficult to hack sometimes, but hey ive found KFC so im alright. (it isnt the same as home but it will certainly do)

okay sorry it isnt long today, ill write again soon

Top 5 ways to die in Bangalore:

1) Being trampled to death by the huge mass of cows which wonder the streets
2) Falling out of a rikshaw (the mode of transport, these crazy little motorised mini car htings, bright blue and yellow, with no sides and three wheels. these guys race around on the roads its so flippin dangerous. we crash all the time!)
3) From inhaling fumes from the local 'river'. oh my word i gag everytime
4) being electricuted (recently found out that nothing is earthed here. hmmm yes, good plan)
5) falling down under the pavement into the sewers. the pavement shouldnt really be called a pavement, more like a colection of stones and slabs thrown in a kind of random array.

love you guys xx