This week, one of the families, Simon and Sarah, have left for England for 6 weeks, it’s only the second Christmas they will have spent there in 15 years! Rachel and I have moved into their house and will look after things for them while their gone. With only 3 families living here and us, when one is gone they leave quite a hole!

 I only have one day of teaching left before exams, and then its Christmas break! The teaching has been going fairly well, one of my gym classes is extra challenging, but their getting better. We’ve been playing football for the last week, and I resorted to setting them up like a human foozball game, (standing still and passing down the field) hoping they would understand passing and spreading out/getting open on the field. It worked until I then wanted them to play regular football and they all thought they couldn’t run!

W e made a quick trip to Ooty, which is a 6 hour drive from here, to drop one of the children off at Hebron boarding school last week. It was a beautiful drive up into the mountains! We saw 3 camels while driving and had to stop once because there was an elephant, separated from the pack on the road. When they’re on their own they can be quite vicious and unpredictable. Ooty is a very ‘Westernized’ town compared to where we are in the hills, so it’s one of the places where the families can get groceries to make non-Indian food. Always exciting!

Plans for a Christmas meal are coming together, and this year the focus will be cooking a meal for the people with the most need in this area. As of now the menu is emu biriyani, which is rice mixed with spices and then emu meat added in. Will be interesting to see what that tastes like. This will be done on Christmas Eve along with a special service in the evening. Then Christmas day, Rach and I will get to have a traditional Western roast dinner along with the other 2 families here. Yum! It doesn’t feel like Christmas as I know it because the weather is so warm, but I’m sure this is much closer to how it actually was the night/day that Jesus was born!

I would love to put pictures up, but the internet is quite slow, so that will have to wait until I get home unfortunately. It’s been so nice to hear from so many people, really encouraging to know that you are thinking and praying for me!

This week, one of the families, Simon and Sarah, have left for England for 6 weeks, it’s only the second Christmas they will have spent there in 15 years! Rachel and I have moved into their house and will look after things for them while their gone. With only 3 families living here and us, when one is gone they leave quite a hole!

 I only have one day of teaching left before exams, and then its Christmas break! The teaching has been going fairly well, one of my gym classes is extra challenging, but their getting better. We’ve been playing football for the last week, and I resorted to setting them up like a human foozball game, (standing still and passing down the field) hoping they would understand passing and spreading out/getting open on the field. It worked until I then wanted them to play regular football and they all thought they couldn’t run!

W e made a quick trip to Ooty, which is a 6 hour drive from here, to drop one of the children off at Hebron boarding school last week. It was a beautiful drive up into the mountains! We saw 3 camels while driving and had to stop once because there was an elephant, separated from the pack on the road. When they’re on their own they can be quite vicious and unpredictable. Ooty is a very ‘Westernized’ town compared to where we are in the hills, so it’s one of the places where the families can get groceries to make non-Indian food. Always exciting!

Plans for a Christmas meal are coming together, and this year the focus will be cooking a meal for the people with the most need in this area. As of now the menu is emu biriyani, which is rice mixed with spices and then emu meat added in. Will be interesting to see what that tastes like. This will be done on Christmas Eve along with a special service in the evening. Then Christmas day, Rach and I will get to have a traditional Western roast dinner along with the other 2 families here. Yum! It doesn’t feel like Christmas as I know it because the weather is so warm, but I’m sure this is much closer to how it actually was the night/day that Jesus was born!

I would love to put pictures up, but the internet is quite slow, so that will have to wait until I get home unfortunately. It’s been so nice to hear from so many people, really encouraging to know that you are thinking and praying for me!

This week, one of the families, Simon and Sarah, have left for England for 6 weeks, it’s only the second Christmas they will have spent there in 15 years! Rachel and I have moved into their house and will look after things for them while their gone. With only 3 families living here and us, when one is gone they leave quite a hole!

 I only have one day of teaching left before exams, and then its Christmas break! The teaching has been going fairly well, one of my gym classes is extra challenging, but their getting better. We’ve been playing football for the last week, and I resorted to setting them up like a human foozball game, (standing still and passing down the field) hoping they would understand passing and spreading out/getting open on the field. It worked until I then wanted them to play regular football and they all thought they couldn’t run!

W e made a quick trip to Ooty, which is a 6 hour drive from here, to drop one of the children off at Hebron boarding school last week. It was a beautiful drive up into the mountains! We saw 3 camels while driving and had to stop once because there was an elephant, separated from the pack on the road. When they’re on their own they can be quite vicious and unpredictable. Ooty is a very ‘Westernized’ town compared to where we are in the hills, so it’s one of the places where the families can get groceries to make non-Indian food. Always exciting!

Plans for a Christmas meal are coming together, and this year the focus will be cooking a meal for the people with the most need in this area. As of now the menu is emu biriyani, which is rice mixed with spices and then emu meat added in. Will be interesting to see what that tastes like. This will be done on Christmas Eve along with a special service in the evening. Then Christmas day, Rach and I will get to have a traditional Western roast dinner along with the other 2 families here. Yum! It doesn’t feel like Christmas as I know it because the weather is so warm, but I’m sure this is much closer to how it actually was the night/day that Jesus was born!

I would love to put pictures up, but the internet is quite slow, so that will have to wait until I get home unfortunately. It’s been so nice to hear from so many people, really encouraging to know that you are thinking and praying for me!

Hard to believe I’ve been here 5 weeks already! Sorry for the delayed blog post, it’s been a busy month, and this is the first time I’ve had internet on my laptop! It’s been a bit – ok a big adjustment here, but I’m feeling a lot more confident in my role here, thanks to lots of prayer and support from the families here J The first 5 days I spent in the city at a leadership conference with the 3 families that run the project and the other volunteer Rachel. It was really nice to adjust to the culture and be able to buy some clothes before moving to the hills, which is very remote and traditional! The project here involves a Christian school, which has over 600 students, a boys home with 90 boys and then a girls home with 30 girls. From Monday – Friday I teach 3-4 classes a day mostly English and gym but I have a religious studies class and a literacy class as well. It was a little overwhelming at first, but with practice I’m getting more comfortable with it all! After school a few days a week we try to organize games (usually soccer) with the girls at the girls home...they love it! And then Saturdays Rachel and I usually spend some time chatting or playing games as well. This week we all put up the Christmas tree! Everyone was so excited about that J Every school day we eat lunch with the girls at the home, which is rice and usually a lentil based sauce with vegetables. We eat on the floor and with our right hand (no utensils) just like the girls. That took a bit of getting used to!  3 times a week in the evening we go to the home for prayers and rach and I take turns leading them. For supper we rotate through the 3 families houses and sometimes we get to cook as well! It’s a mix of Indian and western food which is really nice! We went to the nearest city (Salem) last weekend for shopping and to visit a small church plant for their evening service. It was nice to meet some more young people there and to get a change of scenery! That was the second time I had been off the compound since coming! There’s a small village that we can walk to from here, but you can only get snacks or drinks there. We can’t go alone, so it’s nice that there’s 2 volunteers here at the moment J Something I would like prayer for is building relationships with the girls at the home, and to have continued energy to put into them while I’m here! Thanks for all the encouragement I’ve received over the past months and prayers! I really appreciate it J