Deepavali party

Life on the Ashram - part II

I stayed on the ashram for the weekend last weekend and loved it! It has a totally different feel, it doesn't feel so controlling. The girls had lots of free time and it was great spending time with them that didn't involve studying (or pretending to study as in most of their cases)! On Sunday donators turned up with lunch, this often happens at different mealtimes but this was different as we ate lunch over near the volunteers rooms and it felt a lot less constrained. It was one of the donators birthday so we all sang 'Happy Birthday' and then tucked in! I'm getting used to eating off a banana leaf and the food is so good! They always want us to eat far more that i can and i feel bad saying no sometimes but I'd be sick if i ate as much as they wanted me to! In fact we have had various donators turn up this week due to the fact that it's Divali. The girls are given so many sweets and lots of fireworks! It's crazy how different it is over here with the fireworks. On Sunday night we had a big party and a dancer came, the girls loved it! Then after it was absolute mayhem! All the girls (including the 4 year olds!) were given sparklers, fire crackers and small cone fireworks. There was nothing in the way of Health and Safety (the teachers among you would have been horrified! Not a risk assessment in sight!) and for about half an hour it was non-stop carnage! At the beginning i obviously had my teacher head on, i was shouting for them the stand back, make space etc. No one listened and they all just went for it! Imagine 140 children in a small space with numerous exploding devices! After a while i just thought to hell with it and loved every minute! Amazingly there were no injuries and the smiles and laughter from the girls was so heart warming, i have some great photos! It seems like India has gone Divali mad! They love it at you can hear fireworks and fire crackers at all times during the day, everyone is in such a happy mood and wishing each other "Happy Deepavali" all the time. I have learnt to say it in Tamil and have been practising with all the local shop-keepers. The girls all go home today to visit their families for 4 days so it is going to be very quiet on the ashram, I'm thinking of heading off somewhere for the weekend, there is a wildlife park about 4 hours away so i may go there.