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Thursday 16th February

Posted: Feb 16, 2017 by: dmanton on: India Blog 2017

Another action packed and extraordinary day at Bachpan and we're not sure where to start! We began the day with a Sports Assembly on the terrace at school. The children, dressed in their impeccable white, performed drills, yoga, karate, gymnastics and more. So many children were delighted to show their hard work and reflect a lot of practice in what they were doing.

Here the children use one of their human pyramids to build a bicycle! The yoga display was impressive too - yoga is a really important discipline here in India and there were many skilled children who displayed their yoga talent. See how flexible these children are?

After the assembly we were treated to a ride on a tuk-tuk auto-rickshaw. The ride, although short, was extremely bumpy (the roads really are struggling around school at the moment) but nevertheless this was great fun - even though it is hard to imagine how 12 children can squeeze into one on the way to school! It is the most popular form of transport for Bachpan.

With the boys indulging in another game of cricket (ouch, getting hot) Mrs Smith, Lottie and Miss Tomlinson were able to have some mehendi patterns, artistically painted onto their wrists and hands. Don't they look good! The henna takes about an hour to dry before it is picked off - and then the resulting pattern can last for over a week, especially dark when the hands are warm! 

We taught a number of lessons and Mr Manton was completely overwhelmed by the generosity of Year 1, who following his story telling assembly, provided so many lovely flowers and chocolates - its going to be a tough team effort to eat these this afternoon!!

As the sun went down we went out into the local countryside to look at a farm. As well as cattle for milk, we saw large areas of cotton (just harvested) and wheat (just ready for harvest) - as well as a host of other vegetables like aubergine and onions. All the crops depend on an intricate system of irrigation as water has to be brought in from the river and wells to support the crops - it hasn't rained in Gujarat since August!!

We enjoyed a hugely welcoming meal with Chintan (who is coming to England) at his family home - the expression in India is "Guest is God" - and you are certainly made to feel like one. We ate outside under the stars, on Chintan's balcony overlooking the remains of a 3 day wedding plot. It is wedding season in Gujarat, and the horoscopes suggest this is a great time to wed. These cows agreed!

We have to set off home today after our morning in school, so this will be the last post! Thanks for joining us!

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