August in Delhi

Well the month of august is passing in a continual heat haze, interspersed by the odd torrential monsoon downpour. The monsoon is definitely less than in previous years but it still manages to cause chaos after about five minutes of rain!!!

I've managed to wear my flowery wellingtons once and caused a lot of attention from passers by!!!! I can't understand why there isn't a huge market for wellingtons over here with such torrential rain but no-one wears them?!! well at least they kept my feet dry and stopped mud splashing up the backs of my legs.

I seem to be spending a good part of my day in battle against the insect population at the moment. The heat and rain has bought out every kind of insect imaginable and lots of them are migrating to my kitchen!!!! I open cupboards and there are ants swarming everywhere and the odd cockroach scuttling quickly away from the light!!!! Not to mention the mosquitoes, flies and large wasp like things . I'm becoming quite an expert armed with my weapons of various sprays, an electric tennis racket, boiling water and a chalk like substance that you draw in all your cupboards. The insects disappear for a few days only t resurface again!! I will win this war!!!!

The English classes are going well. At the girls home I'm using jolly phonics to teach the girls the letter sounds. Each letter has an action and a song to go with it. The girls just love the songs and the actions and it's really helped them to learn the sounds rather than just the letter name and to put simple words together..I just love teaching – whether it's the kids at the home or the adults at the centre or my maid's son. I love seeing people grow in confidence and in their ability to communicate.
I just wish I was as good at Hindi as my students are at English!!!