A very Delhi Christmas

2013 definitely held host to the most surreal Christmas I've ever had. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary happened but when you break lifelong traditions for the first time it feels pretty strange. I am a huge fan of Christmas, I love everything about it (ok, so maybe not the tv adverts) but the main things for me at Christmas are good food and spending time with my family. We did manage to organise a nice enough Christmas dinner but it was easy to see that we were all missing our families.

I spent Christmas with my two British friends out here and I think we managed to make the most of a tough situation; one of the things we've definitely learnt out here is to make the most of what we've got! We did manage to keep to one Christmas tradition though; we spent the majority of our time eating and drinking much more than usual. We all got chance to Skype our families too, which put me in such a great mood, I'm really glad that talking to my family back home makes me giddy rather than upset as I'm terrible with emotional stuff.

What was really tough for me was actually jealousy. My parents had flown back to the UK from The Gambia to spend the festive season with friends and family but I know that if I’d done the same I probably wouldn't be able to leave again. I do sometimes have moments were I find myself thinking "What the hell am I doing here? Why am I not in the UK with my friends, family and the security that comes with them?" It is tough sometimes but I know that this is an incredible opportunity for me and I’d kick myself in years to come if I didn't make the most of it!

Getting out of the city

So, after 3 months living in one of the most polluted cities in the world, I finally got the chance to breathe fresh air again! Being a country bumpkin at heart, I was excited to hear that we would be doing some work in the Indian countryside, working with kids from villages surrounding Pench national park in Madhya Pradesh.

Though I've been in India for quite a while now, I'm ashamed to say I had never travelled by train here, so I was pretty excited about our journey. It turned out that there was no need for excitement. After 13 hours of trying to sleep in a coffin-like bunk and restricting water intake to avoid the horror of the toilets, My boss and I arrived, sporting splitting headaches and with the sound of pig-like snoring ringing in our ears.

Next up was...yet more travelling! I assumed the 3 hour car journey to Pench would be a good chance to catch up on some sleep. Of course I was wrong. After about 20 minutes of smooth tarmac, the potholes began. Though I'm not sure potholes is an extreme enough term for these roads. Our little generic taxi seemed to fly over each lump and bump in the road and crash back down, only to be flung back into the air by yet another bump. Amazingly we managed to sleep a little due to extreme exhaustion but ended up with bruised faces and drastic hair (not that we cared by this point).

We were then transferred into a Jeep to be taken through the national park to our rest house in a place called Karmajhiri. The Jeep's suspension felt heavenly! After a beautiful drive through the park, we arrived at the rest house, dropped off our bags and walked the short distance to our classroom for the next 2 days.

Shortly after setting up, children from one of the local village schools turned up and the lesson began. Our topic for the day was renewable energy which consisted of activities using solar panels and making potato batteries. After a timid start, the kids started getting into the swing of things and seemed to really enjoy taking light measurements and competing to build batteries out of root vegetables.
After lunch and a quick sunbathe we were back to class for our second lesson of the day. We ran the same lesson again for another group of kids from a different school nearby. By the time we had finished the lesson, we were truly knackered!

As my boss went to find the ever elusive phone signal hotspot, I could think of nothing better than a nice long nap! I headed back to our room where the most horrifying (yet strangely amusing) thing happened to me. Our room had an Indian toilet, which was no problem for me as I spent 3 months using one last time I was here, but this time it played host to the scene of nightmares (OK, maybe I'm being slightly dramatic). So, without going into too much detail, when using an Indian toilet you have to look down to be sure that you're ‘aiming’ right. This time, as I looked down, I saw a spider just smaller than my hand, crawling up out of the toilet. This caused me to freeze out of fear and panic. The strangely amusing part was that I was still 'going' and I couldn't seem to stop. Basically, I pissed on a massive spider. How many people can say they've done that? Actually, how many people would want to say they've done that?! 

On the third day, we rose at 6.30 for a bird walk with Subash, a guide who takes time out to help us with our classes. It was so beautiful being in the jungle first thing in the morning; the only sounds were leaves rustling in the wind and the sweet cheep of birdsong. We saw Forest owls, a Flameback woodpecker, canary fly catchers, bobtails and more, though I was more interested in the general scenery, which I saw mainly through the viewfinder of my 35mm camera, though the photos are yet to be developed.
After the mornings class with yet another group of kids, we moved to a lodge just outside the national park gates called Mahuavann, had a proper shower and headed out to visit the school we work with in a village called Telia. After a quick tour of the school, meeting some of the children and a discussion with the head teacher about our plans, we had to head back to pack for our flight home.