getting some quality R&R

Hi all. Well as I mentioned we are getting some quality R&R at the project we are working on. Actually, most of the R&R relates to the food which many of you have asked about. R&R of course stands for rats and roaches which we have been seeing plenty of in the vicinity of the kitchen which is below our room and which is where all the meals are prepared. But surprisingly we've not really been sick yet which is great as most of our days start at 5.30am and finish around 9.30pm when we get back to our room.

We are having a great time. Jane is teaching a couple of kids who can't go to school because of HIV related problems and I am helping look after the kids and also building some spreadsheets to help the filing at the project.

We unfortunately can only check our emails once a week when we make a 1.5 hour taxi trip to Nasik which is where we are just now. This is our one day off a week with the other days being quite crazy. Of the 45 kids and 10 women, about half the kids are HIV positive and almost all the women. The kids are great though given they all have come from rough backgrounds (many abused and in many cases watched the parents die from the disease they have), some obviously have some behavioural issues. All in all given their backgrounds, they're great kids.

We have spent quite a bit of time with another girl, Bethany, who is from Boston and is here for 3 years. She's only 6 months in and has done so much work already. One thing she struggles with that we've also found tough is the language thing. Most of the kids speak at least a little English but they only listen when they're told off in Hindi or Marati (tribal language). This obviously has its challenges when you're trying to discipline kids.

I think the toughest thing we're finding is being disconnected from the world (we get it now Dave and Carly!). We have no access to internet and find out world news (i.e. bombs near here, deaths of brocky and steve irwin) from friends via text message. So please do give us a call or shoot us a message anytime. It doesn't cost much for us to message and we love to hear from the outside world.

The project is in a smallish town about 2.5 hours by train from Mumbai. We are in the middle of rice paddies and as one nice staff member told me the other day, it used to be a snake breeding ground. He then told us hyenas, leopards, scorpions and crabs (yes crabs) also live in the area. Good to know...

All up we're having a great time. Sorry if we're not emailing much but we promise when we get home we'll catch up with you all. Hope all is well in the alternate universes of Aus and UK (and France Pete). Hope to hear from you soon.

....but before I go: GO YOU MIGHTY MELBOURNE DEMONS AND BLOODS!!!! It's a grand old flag indeed...