The Early Days - Toni

We are now on Day 3 of our great adventure and all is well.  Currently sitting in the IT room at Future Hope - the only place we can access the internet.

Our lodgings are great - we live in part of a wonderful old house and our hosts Minnie & Kokon are incredibly friendly and welcoming.  We have a large, high ceilinged bed-sit room with 2 single beds, a 3 piece suite a dodgy electrics... we also have our own bathroom (with tempramental geyser for hot water) a kitchen and a spooky spiral staircase which leads up to the roof - haven't explored that yet, but got the shock of our lives when Monica, Minnie's maid came scuttling down it after hanging up the washing.

The house is on Sunny Park which is amazingly quiet given the chaos which is the adjoining Ballygunge Road.  The driving here is like nothing I've ever seen and every trip in the back of Tim's snot green jeep is an adventure.

We have been into Future Hope a couple of times but no teaching as yet as it is the weekend.  Yesterday, I  had lunch as a guest of the Upstairs Boys - anything from 10 - 15 years old - it was grand.  We had rice, a concoction of aubergine and a fish stew thing with whitebait type fish - I gamely ate the whole thing until I realised the boys were leaving the heads and looking at me in the most peculiar fashion... 

The system they have is that each person takes a dish, is served his food and then the dishes are laid out together on the floor until everyone has a plate of food.  When this is done, the dishes are all handed back - goodness knows how they know whose is whose.  Meals are eaten sitting cross legged on the floor - bit of an ask for someone of my decrepitude but it was fine - I almost had to have help getting up but managed. I was looked after by a lovely young man called Sundip who took my plate and washed it up for me and generally chatted and asked questions throughout the meal.

Alison and I went shopping after lunch - the most exciting thing being the purchase of an electric kettle - the gas ring still not being functional.  Went to the flower market with the Carlings after that - bought some flowers for Minnie who is always there to ply us with tea.  We were probably the only Europeans there and so the vendors were very interested in selling their wares.  I took photos of them which they enjoyed and then I was offered a rose by one of them - which probably means we are engaged - should have held out for the 4 camels Geoff.

Anyway, that's all for now - time to find some lunch.

It is incredible here and so familiar in a strange way - reminds me a lot of visits to Southern Italy as a child.

Would love to hear from you so do blog back xx

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