Dear Mum
I have been in India a couple of days now and it has a time and pace
that is so very different from Europe…. magical, dusty, beautiful, crazy…. it
is difficult to find the right words! The country teems with people, sights,
sounds, colours and the heat - it is 30 degrees in the morning and mid 40s in
the afternoon !!!!! I am coping quite
well in the heat, I put factor 50 cream on my face, wear light full length
clothes , drink lots of water and just keep in the shade!
We have been travelling around visiting Artisans in rural villages which
has been amazing. My friends work with craftspeople and their villages - so
they have been visiting them for meetings etc - it has been wonderful for me as
the children and the villagers have seen very few, if any white people , and I
am regarded with great interest. There is usually one of the older children
who can speak some English and I just
love to talk and laugh with the children. The women are shyer to start with but
then they too come round and want to ask me questions. They have mobile phones
with cameras - and they want to take pictures of me - they might live in very basic houses but
they use Facebook and modern technology at the same time as following very
ancient crafts and traditions
The roads are a mixture - in the
city they are jammed packed with cars, auto rickshaws, lorries, buses,
motorbikes, pedestrians and cows! In the villages less traffic but but herds of
goats, sheep, water buffaloes and more cows of course! The other night when we
went out for dinner we met an elephant walking along the road - it is trained
to put its trunk into car windows and
take money!
This is my favourite photo - you have to look hard to see me in the
middle of all the children!
Hope all is well with you my
lovely Mum - look after yourself and
lots and lots and lots of love
Tricia xxxxx
