Photos of Me.

Ann requested photos of me. So I've tried to find some. Hopefully they show a bit of the spread of my job and life here...

On top of the water tower

Eating out - Sizzling brownie with Ellen

Out on a tour of Alandi

Helping participants to create an advocacy plan

With friends at the funfair

Singing Carols on Xmas Eve

Welcome Ceremonies

Tour of the local neighbourhood - outside the Ganesh temple

Me in the Sangam sari

Centenary celebrations

Indian Afternoon

Christmas WAGGGS quiz - me as 'Aussie Santa'

With the SV team (and Sonu)

Games on 1960s night

Lots of crazy, awesome memories!

TTFN

Videos

You may have noticed I'm adding a number of little blogs as and when. There's a lot to update you on but I have neither the time nor the energy to embark on a huge blog writing project, so instead am contenting myself with knocking a couple of little things off the 'to blog' list as and when the inclination grabs me.
This blog is going to contain a lot of links to videos; these are all available on Sangam's Youtube channel, but in case you're not checking that regularly, I thought I'd point you to some of the key events....

Firstly, if you didn't quite get a real feel for what my Indian Christmas was like by reading my post, check out this awesome video by Em which shows you what we got up to!

Going back in time a bit, you may remember me discussing the 60 children we had to visit us on CP Fun Day. It was my job to make a video of this, and after lots of hoohaa, technological issues, and delays, it finally got completed and uploaded to our youtube channel - so this is my effort at video editing.

I'd also like you to see two videos that Steph and Jess made about the work done during the recent Discover Your Potential event. I realise I haven't written about this yet, but the projects that the participants worked on were really cool, and I think the videos are a good demonstration of the community action we do here:
Maher
Ishwari and others

Finally, today saw the end of the dreaded Centre Team Meeting. I'll fill you in properly with words soon, but I really wanted to share this video. It took weeks of planning and thinking, but this is the end result. We SVs designed this video to be the main part of our presentation about 'Sangam Programme in 2011'. It went with some further explanation and also a game that was Ellen's original idea; all of the current SVs had some input and then Jessica and I trawled through all the photos before she spent 2 whole days editing it all together. I felt that, as a team, we gave a really great presentation, and was very proud of our achievements. It also nearly made Jen cry - as she was Programme manager and in charge of everything we were displaying - so we consider that to be a success!

There are loads of other cool videos on the channel - now you're there, why not keep browsing!

TTFN

Rain, Carpet and Sausages

I miss rain. It hasn't rained here since October 16th. I wouldn't have noted the date except that it happened to coincide with Sangam's birthday. I also didn't notice for a long time that it hadn't rained, as I was enjoying the warm weather. But now, I miss rain. I miss the smell of it, I miss how it clears the air and everything seems fresh, and I miss how it brings moisture to the atmosphere so my skin isn't dry and flaky across my cheeks. I can't say I'm a huge fan of rain in the UK, but I will certainly be very excited the first time I see it again.

I miss carpet. Again I didn't realise I missed it until the thought suddenly crossed my mind. All the floors here are concrete or tiled. Occasionally one comes across a mat on the floor. I miss having something soft under my feet. I miss the warmth and comfort of it. I'm fed up of hard floors!

I miss sausages! There are a lot of foods that we don't get here which I like, but it hasn't been too much of an issues as the majority of what we do eat here is really nice. I even had steak tonight - Bron and I went to a restaurant called Sizzlers in search of MEAT and found it! But I can't find sausages. And I really really want them. With mash and beans. Or in a casserole. Or wrapped in bacon, cold in a sandwich, or in a bun with mustard and tomato sauce. Mmmm.

Unfortunately, none of these are things that can be sent in a package from home. It's only just over 2 months until I come home, so although I'm not wishing my time here away, I am starting to look forward to certain things!

In other news, I've recently been really enjoying some of the little, unexpected things about being at an international centre. I discovered a sticker on our fridge in the staff lounge from COSMIC; the first big guide camp I ever went to. Hosted by oxfordshire and open to international groups, somehow one of the stickers made it back here! Very random, but very cool. I also spent some time going through some old evaluation forms and came across the names of towns and villages; and more importantly the names of people; that were familiar to me from guiding at home. It's a small world after all!

TTFN

Reasons

Hello!
How are you all? It's been a while. I did warn you that it probably would be. Sangam has been insanely busy. I can prove this by the number of days we've had to wear purple. During events, we alternate between purple punjabis and purple blouses. Outside of events we can wear any guiding-related shirt we like. Since 21st December, we've had 3 non-purple days, and 2 days where we didn't wear purple, but all wore the same shirt. That means BUSY.

We've not really stopped being in events, and whilst running those events, prepping for the next one! Of course, I've had a few off days which meant no purple, but I also managed to get ill again with a bad chest infection/cough/cold leading to laryngitis. I slept through my last 3 off days, and some of my on days as well! I didn't have a voice for 2 weeks, but luckily it's back now - those of you who've known me a while will understand when I say that I was worried it might be gone for a lot longer as happened before!

I'm now actually enjoying an off day - the sun is shining, it's warmer than it has been for quite a while, there's a gentle breeze floating through the window, I've tidied my room, put some laundry on, and am now settling down to do some writing - and also to proofread my sister's dissertation. So this is just a little post to say hi and let you all know that I'm well and busy. I hope I'll be able to write another post today, but I also need to go out for some essentials (bbq sauce!) and have a dinner date with Em and Bron. So we'll see how it goes. But at least you now all know why I've not really been in the cyberworld.

Having said that, I do maintain a good presence on facebook - http://www.facebook.com/PhilippaHunt - so if you're on there you can check what I've been up to!

TTFN

Interim post

Hello.
Happy New Year.
I'm painfully aware that I haven't written for a while. Once again I offer up the 2-fold excuses of being terribly busy and, unfortunately, being ill again.
I was however just looking through my photos and realised that I took these of Rangoli and didn't ever blog them. Unless I did and I've forgotten. In which case I apologise. Anyway, here they are..

 They were, as you could probably surmise from the numbered squares, part of some sort of competition. This took place during Datta's birthday (the celebrations that had the funfair), and were on the whole stretch of street from Sangam to the temple. It was very impressive and I particularly like the more unusual - perhaps less traditional - designs.

Anyway, just thought I'd give you something pretty to look at while you wait for my next post!

TTFN