Weekend trip to Varanasi!! A night time prayer ritual by 7 Brahman. (Priests, but also the highest Caste in Hinduism). Caste seems to still play a major role in people's lives which has been really interesting. The girls who we are working with are all of low Caste and refer to their surnames as 'Kumari' which is traditionally used to hide your Caste (so if you are of low Caste, this name is frequently used).

 An evening concert of traditional Indian music! Sitar and Tabla - amazing! They were so skilled an effortless - missing my guitar lots! It was definitely an experience - I have never been to a concert where you are able to lie down on a thin mattress with pillows. A lot of people fell asleep!

 5.30am morning boat tour along the ghats!

 The ghats of Varanasi as the sun begins to rise. It was amazing to see the wide range of different ways of life the Ganges provides people - people washing, people praying, people emersing babies in the water for a sort of baptism, washing clothes, fishing.

 Hello sunshine!

 Morning yoga!! Absolutely hilarious - the teacher was ridiculously flexible and expected us to also be just as flexible. I didn't realise quite how useless I was at even simple things like touching my toes!

 Breakfast on a roof top! Pancakes and cereal and eggs and bread! Delicious and we all filled up ready for the day.

 Back to work - LGG3 'washing your hands'.

 The girls all had to practise and show that they had learnt how to properly wash their hands. In order to remember each stage the girls are taught a short rhyme (in Hindi, which was interesting for us to learn also).

 Demonstrating! Water, soap, lathering all up the arms, under the nails, wash off with water and air dry.

 Practising my Hindi with one of the girls from the self-help group.

Next learning game about saving money. Demonstrating here the 4 things you must remember when making a savings plan: 'where to save the money (me in the picture)', 'what (hands out)', 'How much (rub hands together) and 'when (point to watch)'

 Somehow got ourselves invited to a Muslim Indian wedding! (part 1) Another excuse to wear our Saris! Everyone was very excited and so welcoming.

 The groom's wedding car! (Only men allowed to watch this bit, photo courtesy of James). Enita and I stood in the hall with the women singing and preparing to dress the groom's family in flowers.

 The groom saying 'I do' - the bride and groom took this part of the ceremony in separate rooms.

 With the groom - who was VERY nervous, but very excited to have us there.

 Second day of the celebrations! (In a new Sari!) Party evening!

 With our new friends - we felt very underdressed compared to some of the other women there!

 With the bride's brother and a new friend who looked after us so well. Everyone made sure we ate loads and danced and had water to drink, which we had to decline because it wasn't filtered.

 Visit to the Sikh temple - the birth place of Gorvind Singh who was the founder of Sikhism as a religion and was built by M. Ranjit Singh the last emperor of the Sikh empire.

 Delivering the first Learning game 'Getting to Know Each Other' to rural girls  - very different to the girls in the school as they are very reserved and shy. The whole village came to watch so we were under pressure!

 'Girls stay strong together' - the chant after each learning game.

 Second learning game - Preventing Diarrhoea. Here the girls are acting our different scenarios that cause 'loose motion' (Indian saying) e.g. a fly lands on a latrine, then lands on food which a girl then eats. Why does she get diarrhoea?

 Second SHG doing the first learning game - balanced diet.

Naushad, one of the Indian volunteers, being an excellent teacher! Overall, a very successful working week, despite very long travelling!

 Speech to raise awareness of Reach India's work to 'Green Ray International'. Very receptive and thankful for our time, we definitely were big on pushing 'help for sponsorship'!

 Getting ready ready to make our debut! And looking extremely ginge....

 Another photo from Durga Puja in Kolkata. Everyone was dressed in their best saris!

 With the Brahman of one of the Hindu temples of Kolkata. Received a blessing for health and well being for myself and family and friends so hope you're all okay!

 Khairul leading the first learning game for girls(LGG); 'getting to know each other'. We delivered this to 92 girls aged 10-15! It was absolutely amazing. We started off by playing a fun game that I play with my Guides    (corners) and they found this hilarious. This definitely broke the ice and built confidence in the girls to listen and talk with us.

 Explaining to the 'stone' group what being a 'stone' meant.

 STONE TEAMM!!!

 Wednesday of last week - delivering an assembly to the hostel next to our accommodation. We asked them lots of different questions about Geography to do with India and England. Then asked them to sing the National Anthem, which they took very seriously. We then sang them the English National anthem, very out of tune! We finished with telling them all about the Queen and the Royal family (to link in with the national anthem). Oh and then played a true and false game to see how much they learnt - they remembered a lot! (Sonu and Khairul translated to Hindi - GOOD TEAM!)

 Teaching the next LGG - led by me! Hello teaching career...uh ohhhh!

 'Fire in the Mountain' - running around and then getting into groups of different numbers.

 Being taught an Indian game, which took a while to understand!

 First night in Bodh Gaya! Roof terrace. Full team back together.

 Outside one of the Buddhist temples in Bodh Gaya. So much detail on the walls.

 80ft Buddha statue! Which is hollow! (and has an air vent in his back?!?!?)

 Mahabodi temple! One of the biggest pilgrimage sites for Buddhists. Amazing noises - prayers, birds, general milling around.

 Diwali sparklers on the roof!!!

 Returning back from work today - motorbike transport! We formed one SHG in a village an hour from Patna, who we will also be delivering the LGG to as of next week. The girls were quite shy but had some level of education.

Different way of life! A whole community living in straw houses under a hugeeeee bridge!

 Dressed up ready for an evening to see a Bollywood film. Treated Khairul (left) and Sonu (next to me) as a surprise to thank them for everything they had done for us so far. Also went to the arcade and had a very hilarious night.

 Weekend trip to Rajgir. This is one of the monastries we visited - high up in the mountains after having gone up a chair lift and a horse and cart ride.

 The chair lift! Amazing views, very ricketing, so slightly nerve racking. Involved jumping into the chair in order to get on (similar to London Eye but much faster!)

 Working week - visiting more villages and data collection of the women for the SHG.

 Weekend trip to Jasidih visiting Hindu temples - received a blessing many times and listened to the prayer music that is continuous and never stops.

 '9 Lakhs' temple in Jasidih. One lakh is 100,000 so this cost 900,000 to make! Absolutely stunning and the detail on the outside was incredible.

 Durga Puja (Hindu festival) 'pandal' - statues made from mud and clay of the Goddess Durga defeating Mashashu, the demon. Stood next to her is Ganesha, Lakshmi, (left)Saraswati, Kurtik(right) her two sons and two daughters. For this festival we spent 3 days in Kolkata, which is the 'place to be' for Durga Puja - the recommendation was right! The atmosphere was incredible. On the first evening we went out to the City and visited many of these different Pandals which all capture the same image, just in different sizes, styles and art. There was so much colour and people were dressed in their best saris and stopped to talk to us about the festival.

 Outside the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata alongside Leslie's children (Reach India project coodinator) as we stayed with them in Kolkata (excellent hosts!). The VM is made of marble and is very British. However, the lady herself never came to visit despite all the work that went into it.

 Second evening  in Kolkata - immersion of the Pandals into the River Ganges. These men are performing the religious dance with incense. Again, amazing atmosphere with drums and music and small Indian men carrying the pandals on their heads a fair distance to the water.

Saris!! Bought for 300 rupees in Kolkata (around£3). Here we were celebrating an Indian Muslim festival for Sonu and Khairul called 'Bukrid'. The morning prior to this picture we had just witnessed the sacrifice of a goat! Yes awful to watch but so awful I couldn't look away. Learning so much about different practises and cultures and celebrations. ANother part of Bukrid was to eat the goat and only the goat for each meal - tastiest curry yet!! YUM!