Puri Orissa

 Finally my first adventure since settling in placement, I took to the sea as I know where I can feel at home. Puri is a bit of a hippie Indian town is the best way I can explain it, has a laid back feel although you cant miss the shear numbers of people and chaotic traffic anywhere in India. Thanks to my fellow VSO volunteer I had a nice bed for the night and the promise of a good home cooked meal Sue style. So off we went to the shops and here we are outside the butchers asking for this chicken in cage to be chopped up in front of us, Sue was more brave than me I kept a slight distance.

So then off to the beach after experiencing Puri auto rickshaw drivers who as usual want to kill us and charge us a very high price for the privilege, but finally there for the promised sea breeze and toe dip to cool off, not much further though as red flagged and very strong currents even the fishing vessels were having difficulties riding the waves back in. I mostly enjoyed watching the clothed Indian women bathing in the shallows, this is a no swimming costume kinda place.

Of course we also tucked into some fresh catch of the day - Mackerel and chips very happy Rosie

Then off to my favourite place the swimming pool for an afternoon cool down and a bottle of kingfisher with a good catch up with Sue, lets say it did a lot for the soul.

We went the following day too when Amanda came across too, Thanks guys really appreciated the catch up and a girls session and the bacon and pancakes. Which we allowed ourselves as we are dropping the pounds off from our sauna diet, lack of dairy and bread.

Also managed to find a good hand-loom market, so have finally got my wedding presents to send off to my spectacular friends who are all getting married in June. So keep an eye on the post although could take anything from 3-6 weeks to arrive once I find out how you wrap a parcel in India, someone mentioned cloth! Don't worry they are not breakables. Unlike my ebook that I managed to crack the screen on my way home, was absolutely gutted as it is a lifeline here and is unrepairable. Amazon are doing me a cheap replacement though but may take awhile before I get it. After a long haul back on a 15hr train, I added up my mosquito bites (15) arms, legs and back and was still glad I had such a lovely weekend.

I'm back to work from tomorrow with the promise of finishing the activities of daily living cards with the trainee special educators, I had to adapt quite a few of their photos in the end as instead of taking close up of the task in hand they liked to get snaps of everyone, they just love being in photos even if they don't keep the snaps its crazy. Many of us have been asked by total strangers to take a photo of them posing with our camera.

Photo above is the cooking group making roti which I can also do now, they also gave me the food after it was very nice.

These are the students in groups planning the stages/steps of the activity they have chosen to do and seem to be enjoying themselves.