Thursday 15th

...but only because yesterday was Wednesday the 14th..!

''There's no-one here besiiide me''
So it's the first time since I've stepped of the plane that I'm alone.
There is not one person I know around. Actually there is nobody around!
Just me and the bugs.
I can't see King Nibbles and the Ezekiels but they are never far away!
So my options are read, write or sleep. I did the Bible readings this morning and although I'm really enjoying Mandela my head is full today so I'll write =D

Gideon, Suma and I went to Joel's school this morning, riding three to a bike and her side saddle in a sari! The school is amazing, run by Gideon's sort of adopted sister friend, Jyodhi. Se has this one and another one, about two years old and run for poor children from 'lower kindergarten' (goes lower, middle, upper kindergarten, first standard second etc) up to sixth standard with some who go up until tenth (I thought some looked a bit old!)
Jyodhi was explaining how the school struggled to get government recognition because they were asking for a bribe that she, as a Christian, was unwilling to give. However, without paying she could not run the school and this would make the children suffer. It was fine for us to suffer, she said, but not the children.
So she paid this large bribe and now runs a school asking for, comparatively, very low fees (few things in India are free) and takes who she can. The children looked so smart in their uniforms and she took me into a class and told the kids to say hello at which they all stood up, saluted and said in unison ''good morning Madame'', they remained standing until she told them to be seated to which they all sat down and replied ''thank-you ma'am''.
Jyodhi explains that she wants to teach in English but most cannot read and right in Telugu let alone learn more than a few words in English. One buy, she tells me, came t her school not ever opening his mouth, even to speak the local Telugu, but after going there for a while he now talks and talks! She said that his mum was so pleased that she told all her friends and because of this boy ''many admissions are there''.
She asked me to take a grammar lesson there and said yes because I'd love to but have no idea what I'm doing and will probably just end up making things worse! She's thinking an English person will encourage them more than she can.

And finally,
While I remember, the land lady for Gideon's studio is called Bagum.
I should probably be exiled for not being able to hear her name without, in my head, adding ''and tag 'em''.
...PC at its peak...