Typhoid, Typhoid, Typhoid.

So when they said don't drink the water they were being serious! ..oops. Don't panic everyone it's all over now, but it was a bit of a tense moment sitting in the Indian hospital waiting room awaiting blood test results - Milly is now totally vaccines 4 life (soz mum).

In other news: life is much the same, we have quite a structured rhythm; with Lucy and Ana the chaos continues with the added trauma of surprise end of term exams, unbeknownst to them. Milly and Liv have a little routine going at the school: in the morning helping the struggling or "dull" children and in the afternoons setting out to complete the mammoth task of sorting and documenting the entire library. In both schools the archaic disciplinary methods continue to astound and disgust us. Lucy and Ana decided to vent their frustration in a more nuanced fashion - prodding the children with vegetation and pouring water over their heads.

Talking of discipline, we had an encounter of our own: the head nun (Sister Pratiba), who had attempted to change our bed sheets but had had to retreat due to the "unsightly  mess". On coming back to our rooms we realised in among the clothes and various other shite there were two plastic cartons of port (the only alcohol we could find in Banga - swiggin' it pirate style) and many a strewn cigarette packet very much in her view. We live in hope she'll forgive us for our sins.

We also embarked on a spontaneous trip to Mysore - bundling the four of us in the back of a Jeep with a nun in the front - N.B nun-networking is a great way to travel on the cheap, if you're willing to endure 5 hours of sweaty bum sliding around and dusty wind in the face. Image of the day: A Nun really going for that Cornetto (clearly struggling with the celibate lifestyle). We sore (Mysore!!) the sights - Ana nearly married a perfume seller - Hi Sayed, and stayed in a Hotel full of ants. After the most horrific journey back - Milly's fever flaring, we never knew we'd be so happy to return to our sisters and straw beds.

Birthdays happened - and did we party? or did we party? - our grungy traveller appearance was obviously noted, and Lucy and Liv received nice new birthday suits, which they had to wear all day even though the sizes were compromising and helped them feel the heat. The extent of the Par-tay was sitting on the candlelit convent roof rebelliously smoking and eating a jar of olives bought at great expense and a cake given to us by the sisters.

Easter means only one thing in a convent - A MASS OF MASSES - and not a chocolate egg in sight. Day 2 of Easter celebrations - total hours of Mass sat through - 5. We've been told we're baby devils for our lack of belief and were prayed for.  Another feature of holy week saw us on our hands and knees in a flooded nunnery scrubbing the floor - such fun! Not only are we providing world-class teaching for the under-12s but we've also made some lovely friends in the older girls here - in particular Asha, who's 23 and hates everyone here and is generally bloody hilarious.

Sorry for being shite bloggers - Typhoid was a bit of a distraction - shout out to all our fans, you know who you are ..hi mothers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX31fJYHySI

Week One

So after a day of searching and failing to find an internet cafe in the heart of India's technological centre (Bangalore) we eventually found one right on our doorstep - typical!

After a G&T fuelled flight and landing to Taylor Swift's 'I Knew You Were Trouble' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNoKguSdy4Y - banger.) we arrived at the nunnery (!). The first day was spent meeting all the nuns and children, and later enjoying the first of many many curries. 

Probably one of the most alien things is that we're literally treated like celebrities - signing autographs, being gawked at literally all of the time and the fact did our own washing up was the point of much amusement.

In the week days we're split between teaching at here at the 'Infant Jesus Children's Home' and the 'Divine Mercy School', our experiences have been different in that Lucy and Ana were abandoned in front of 20 raucous kids whose attention span seems to record at 20 seconds, whereas Mil and Liv's has been squeezing their bums into wooden benches designed for 5 year olds; watching them revise, teaching them the occasional song or rhyme and enduring one of Father Gerrard's sermons over lunch. We get our dose of madness riding on the school bus, each seat stuffed with five or more children all eyes on us!

Living in a Catholic convent, it was only a matter of time before the inevitable question: "Are you religious?", to which our answer was "Umm, kind of!" and found ourselves in mass at 7 o'clock on Sunday morning in an attempt to repent for our lack of holiness.

Although Bangalore is said to be one of the milder Indian cities, our experience was pretty hectic; everything resulted in taking about 8 eight times longer than it should have; from crossing the road, to negotiating a rickshaw ride, it was quite an assault on the senses but also hilarious. Health and safety goes out the window, quite literally in the case of Ana hanging out of a rickshaw so we could all fit in. 

On following the Lonely Planet advice we went for a "traditional Indian meal" and wound up 13 stories high on the rooftop terrace of a Brahman filled buffet - not quite the 'real' Indian experience we were looking for, but nice enough :) 

PS. The imminent  'Delhi Belly' has yet to arrive (touch wood) and Chai is slowly becoming our fave beverage!