A visit from my Indian mother and father!

Hopefully by now you've realised that a delayed blog post is usually because I'm having a very busy, but exciting week, unless, of course, the power is particularly bad. Hopefully, from the next few blog posts, you'll see that this week is no exception.

On Saturday I had a visit from Bharavi and Sugathi, my rep and his wife (although they are known in Tangutur as my Indian mother and father), so that they could see how things are going. After discussing a few minor issues (like the fact that my knowledge of Indian General Knowledge isn't the greatest!), they invited me to come to Ongole with them, which I was more than a little bit excited about! We had a delicious lunch at Siva Kumari's house, during which Bharavi told Ramana that he must let me teach him computer skills, and in fact on Tuesday we had our first lesson, so he can now log in and shut down! We traveled to Ongole in one of the small vans, which Bharavi said are called 'Magic' and headed to the hotel for coffee and to freshen up. Saree shopping was fun, even if we decided that I'd wait until I visit Hyderabad, where there is more choice, to buy some with Sugathi. Next we went on a hunt though crowded winding streets in search of toilet roll, eventually finding some, after asking a dozen or so shop keepers, in a shop selling building materials. During the shopping trip, Sugathi and I must have lost Bharavi five or six times - his inquisitive nature means that he has a tendency to wander off! Before dinner we went back to the hotel and ended up watching a rather gruesome film where some people on a boat trip get eaten by a crocodile one by one. Bharavi's wandering off to explore meant that we found even better toilet paper on the way too the restaurant for dinner, which was tasty thalis. The curd was heaven, especially mixed with banana, so Bharavi made sure I had seconds! Full to bursting, we headed back to sleep - the hotel had prepared an extra bed for me in the room - but not before making fun of Bharavi's sleeping habits. He put this air-con on full, then wrapped himself up in a blanket and put on a hat. Sorry Bharavi, you told me to keep it off facebook but didn't say anything about my blog!

Tiffin the next morning was tasty too; I had giant pourris with a potato curry and coffee, in addition to the coffee we'd had in the room - like me, Bharavi and Sugathi love their coffee! Then we packed up our things and headed to UCLI school to visit Rebecca and Kyekue. We sat in church with the girls until the service finished some two and a half hours later, which turned out to be slightly more eventful than planned. Six American missionaries were leaving the project, so they sang some songs and spoke as well, meaning that the service had a lot more English than expected. The Reverend's son described the missionaries as "angels from America" and even mentioned me as a "visiting angel"! Even though I was wearing my bindi, everyone was welcoming, especially the people who I recognized, this being my third visit. I was even invited up to hold a candle in the Christmas photo (Christmas is one whole month here!) and sing a Christmas song which I had to mime the words too. After lunch, I spent some time catching up with the girls, before heading to the bus stand, armed with my rolls of toilet roll and all of the delicious fruit Bharavi and Sugathi had given me, to catch the bus home. Walking through the bus stand, one of the eighth class girls, Gayathri, shouted to me from her house and invited me to come inside, where she fed me lots of tasty treats, including hot milk. Since then I've spend quite a lot of time with her, buying bondas (a fried snack), eating crisp type things on her roof, and learning Telugu (and Bollywood dancing).

It was dark by the time I got home, and I was exhausted. Even though I had over two hundred slip tests to mark, I'd had one of the best weekends since being in India. Thank you Bharavi and Sugathi!