Our first day of teaching at Parikrma

Following an early morning bike ride and surprisingly chilly start to the day, we arrived at the school to watch a hilarious performance about mobile phones given by the students. We then went on to teach our first lesson at Parikrma and were very impressed by their enthusiasm and positivity towards school and education. This was followed by a fantastic opportunity to observe the regular teachers at Parikrma teach their subjects. As we headed home, the temperature had returned to the intense heat we are becoming used to and after a wonderful lunch, we watched a really interesting presentation by our host, Kiram about education in India. We then visited Baale Mane for the second time and made colourful pom-pom animals out of wool and cardboard for the children to keep so they could remember our time with them.  

Visiting Parikrma and Baale Mane for the first time

Today we visited Parikrma school and Baale Mane Children's home for the first time. After arriving at the school in the morning, we were greeted by the smiling faces of all the children! We participated in a beautiful welcoming ceremony and watched the students perform an assembly on climate change, in which we all learnt a lot! After a morning meeting all the children, we returned back our accommodation before visiting Baale Mane in the afternoon. Once we arrived in Baale Mane we met the girls living there and were quickly busy with making and decorating notebooks, something we all enjoyed to release our inner artist! We played activities and got to know each other in the warm Indian sun. Once we returned home, we finished the night block printing t shirts, which will be a great souvenir of our trip. Roll on teaching tomorrow!

2nd day and Bangalore city centre.

Second day in India, and it was the day to explore the ever increasing and Hi-Tech city that is Bangalore. The city was a pre-colonial town which became a city with British influence, and since independence it had flourished into a city with over 13 million people and with a leading modern science and IT industry, bringing much wealth to the city and state. We started off the day by visiting the flower market which was a beautiful collection of various different colours and smells, all intrinsically inter-twined together for all celebrations. Following that we walked through the busy streets, taking in all the sights and smells, and avoiding being run over by tuk-tuks. We took a metro to our lunch destination, a restaurant on the 13th floor of a building with fantastic views of the city. The food was as brilliant as the sights from the terrace. Following this we made our way to Commercial Street, which involved hundreds of clothes, food, jewelry and artifacts shops, and really showed us the retail side of the city. Many people bought their first gifts (either for them-selves of family/friends), and gave us time to explore in our own time and pace. After the shopping experience we went to the opening night of Roshan's Art exhibition (the younger brother who runs Stepwell with Karim). It included great paintings of the local area, and some very relaxing traditional music. Subsequently many of us bought card prints of Roshan's work before heading back in the traffic to The Land. This evening we were treated to a tasty soup and homemade bread, followed by a interesting take on rice pudding. Tomorrow will be our introduction day at the school, and to Baale Mane to begin our activities with the girls. Looking forward to tomorrow! 

Our journey to Bengaluru...

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After setting off early on Friday morning and the delayed flight, we eventually landed in Bengaluru Airport on Saturday morning. We were met by the warm Indian heat... a strong contrast from the current weather in the UK! Our journey to our destination in Silvepura, from an urban area to rural, was an insightful experience, in particular learning the ways of the road.
Our surroundings at The Land are idyllic and to welcome our stay, we painted Rangoli patterns in vibrant colours.
To finish off the day, before our evening meal, we went on a bike ride around the local village and area. Despite two flat tyres, we were able to explore the area, expanding our knowledge and even managing to see local settlements being built in the area.

A new way to see even more of our trip to India.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have had to change where and how we show you all of our incredible activities in India. We will still be posting everyday until the 29th February 2020!

Please follow the link here to view how our fundraising efforts went in the run-up to take-off on the 14th February...Fundraising for our work.