Down at the Ganges

Who would have thought doing the laundry would be quite so... well... primitive.

I have discovered that I definitely didn't pack too many clothes and that every three days I need to do a little laundry. The problem is, there isn't one.

I asked the director of the centre if there was somewhere to wash my clothes and she pointed me to a couple of sinks outside. Cool, I thought. Cool indeed. It turned out there was no hot water supply and the cold water was so icy I couldn't get my hands in it let alone wash my undies. Back at the accommodation I thought perhaps the basin in the 'bathroom'? nope, no plug could be inserted as the old arrangement was permanently jammed open. This may seem a little unorthodox but I had no choice but to do my washing in the kitchen sink and then rinse it in the outside sink. Brrrrrr! I then hung it on a line with little confidence in it drying before nightfall. Not much different to washing in a river and no chance of it turning out whiter than white but at least it's clean.

My special task today was to teach a 'warmup' session which went OK but needs some adjusting to enable more communication between the students. During the afternoon and evening we watched a demonstration lesson by our trainer to a class of beginner students, mostly middle-aged ladies from the village. This was followed by a demonstration intermediate lesson.

This method of teaching English is a far, far cry to what we all would have experienced if we had learnt another language in our youth-I know it was for me. It requires a LOT more effort from the teacher but the students eventually learn the second language without needing to have any instructions in their native tongue. It's quite exciting to see really.

The photo shows me and Suzanna (Sth Africa), Julia (USA), Patrick (USA) and Caroline (Australia).