19th June Agra

Trip to Agra to see Taj and Agra fort. We woke up at 4AM , got ready, had chai and left at 4.30. It took us 5 hours to get to Agra as we broke down because we had a puncture half way through. We met Ketan (our medic friend from uni) at his house and his mum made us a huge breakfast of dokhra, toast, omelette and coffee. We were stuffed (story of our life) before we left the house. We went to Taj and were consumed as soon as we were out the car by touts, guides and sellers. Ketan the local sorted us out and got us through the harem to the ticket gates safely. I managed to pass as a local (but was a bit touch and go as he asked me where I was from and I’m pretty sure he didn’t believe my hindi accent was real). Milly being the foreigner paid a lot but got a free cold bottle of water with her ticket and some shoe covers so she didn’t have to burn her feet walking on the hot marble which Ketan and I were v jealous of later on. Taj Mahal was beautiful, but boiling hot and packed full of locals of all ages. Everyone seemed to think that Milly was a celebrity (don’t know why she was v sweaty and red) and every step she took someone wanted a picture with her, asked to shake her hand or just said hello! Ketan and I felt priviledged to be in her presence.
We left Taj and went to pizza hut for lunch. This wasn’t just your average UK pizza hut, It was a crazy place where the waiters danced and sang to you!! We had a lovely lunch out (AGAIN). We tried masala lemonade and I don’t think we’ll be having it again. Ketan bravely drank the jug for us. Well done.
After this we thought we’d brave the heat once more and go to Agra fort. It was beautiful and Milly got some more ‘artistic’ pics. She’d also picked up ‘le liye’ which in hindi means ‘I’ve already bought it’ so everytime someone tried to sell us something (which was every step) she answered with this and it worked a treat. She managed to shock and impress all at the same time with some even wondering if she spoke hindi…
Hm.
We are now relaxing in Ketans house about to embark on our mammoth journey home. We’ll be going to Haridwar on Monday and will bring you more news of our travels soon. (depending on power cuts and internet etc etc etc.)

15th - 18th June Delhi

So on the 15th we had a tense evening waiting to hear our results. Right before we were about to log on there was a power cut! So we had to wait and rush and find somewhere else to check the internet and it was worth the wait because we both passed 
Since then we’ve been enjoying ourselves a lot. We finished work at the shelter on Thursday having completed 5 posters with the girls and played countless games with them. It was a fantastic experience and we will miss them.
Since then, everyone has taken us out for a celebratory meal and we’ve tasted something different every day! So far we’ve enjoyed every food combination that we’ve tried and enjoyed ourselves immensely trying all these things.
Our first evening out was with Geeta aunty and Janak Uncle to a lovely Italian restaurant. This was also to celebrate one of the cows on the farm giving birth! The baby cow is so cute, and it’s growing fast every day.
The next evening was dinner at Dhruvs house and we could barely fit through the door by the end of it. They laid on a feast for us. After this Dhruv, Komal and his cousins took us for Paan and Chuski! It was an interesting experience….(paan is beetle nut leaf with sweet stuff inside). We had a great time and hopefully we’ll see them all again!
The day after we spent a day in Delhi, visiting all the sites (well the shops) and milly bought a beautiful throw which she won’t stop going on about! We practiced our bartering skills and ended up going back home with 3 bags, 2 tops, 4 pairs of trousers and random bits.
That evening we had a fantastic meal with Shivani, Upang, Shovan and their friends at Gunpowder. A south indian restaurant in Delhi where milly tried fish!!!! (albeit not much fish mind). The food was really tasty and it was a lovely relaxed place that we’d never have found if we hadn’t been taken with locals. We then went to a small bar close by where we enjoyed a cold beer whilst listening to some live jazz. We got back at 12 and slept for 4 hours before we had to wake up to go to Agra!

Day 13

We've been skiving from yoga these last few days and today, with it being the one day off we're going to get in a while we decided to sleep in late...well till about 9

we had a lovely day of shopping and eating with shivani. We went to lots of different shops and picked up some nice things. I finally have more than 2 tops to wear now..
We were all shopped out after about 3 shops and went to the best dosa shop in town.Milly had her first paper dosa which is a huge crispy pancake type thing which you eat with different sauce type things.

After this we went to get beautified. We all got pedicures and milly had the fright of her life when the lady started waxing her arms when all mils thought she was going to get was her eyebrows done! all three things still came to less than the price of one eyebrow wax (less than a fiver) in the UK so it was all ok in the end...

after this we spent a wonderfully relaxing evening watching tv and films

12th June

We started our day with a tour around the families workshop which sells beautiful cushions, bedthrows, candles to places like John Lewis, WH Smith, Accessorise etc. We saw the material store room and it was amazing, was full of bright colours and fabulous designs.

we then went to the shelter and began our first full day there. Instead of being given a small group of older children we had the whole range from 5 to 16 and there was about 20 of them!! it was crazy.

we began by making musical instruments out of pots and shakers out of rice and bottles. It didn't go so well at the end though with kids starting to hit each other over the heads and rice being thrown on the floor everywhere. So we quickly decided on a new game called cups! The older kids seemed to enjoy it but the younger ones didn't really get it...

Lunch was interesting. We were given a really bitter vegetable called karala which we could only manage about 2 mouthfuls..

we spent the whole afternoon making a wash our hands poster which was a success out of ripped up magazines.

|spent about an hour trying to call for a cab (as dehli is so populated you have to ring for one about 2 days in advance) whilst amelia tidied up..

in the evening we had a tour of the farm, fed the cows and compared the size of millys grapefruits to the ones here...

11th June

Orienation day, we started our first day at Arushi center in Guragon. It's about an hours drive from where we live. We started of by watching a workshop given by a company to the kids about important indian figures. we spent the day talking to the children and getting to know them. We ate with them and a five year old taught milly how to eat with her hands. They showed us some bollywood dancing and we taught them heads shoulders knees and toes and some other games.

10th June - delhi

We thought getting up for 5.45 was early but today we started yoga at 5.30am!!

We ended up doing 2 hours of yoga! tryig out some new poses and more crazy breathing things that milly couldn't do. We finished with some meditation but I got told off for looking around...6 times. He said that the next time he comes we have to take some water up one nostril and blow it out from the other one,THEN we have to take a piece of string and push it through one nostril so it comes out the other....thank goodness he didn't come today...

After this we went for a walk with Salaam Balak Trust, the organisation we are going to start volunteering with. We went on what they call 'walk into the street life of Dehli'. It's a charity that aims to help chilren that have run away from their homes os lost or have been separated from their family due to various reasons. The most suprising reason being the love of bollywood films for running away to big cities such as Delhi or Mumbai. The chilren usually end up in railways so we began our walk in New Delhi station. Our guides were street children that had ran away when they were young and been taken in by this charity an looked after for 10 or more years. Now theyare in their late teens (18-20) and ready to start university.

We learnt a lot on this walk, about where the children go, how they survive and how Salaam Balak trust finds them and then can support them.

We went to one of their shelter homes and met some children who had been taken in from the streets. They all wanted their pictures taken and to shake our hands. They seemed very happy. We look forward to starting our volunteer work in the girls shelter Arushi.