India

Isn't it amazing, what becomes normal?
For 5 years I have been back and forth to India...from the time the plane landed that first trip I have had a sense of it being home. This felt perfectly normal, even though I am Australian, have the best friends and sons you could ask for, had a house and everything back 'home'
Well time has moved on and I am now calling India home, I have a house/studio and will this will be my centre that I keep returning to.
After Morocco recently I do intend to be on the road a lot as well, there is so much of the world I want to see, but this is where you will find my stuff and my heart .
Arriving it felt like India had prepared a welcome for me,
Parveen picked me up at the Airport in Delhi and we headed straight off to Pushkar, where we intend to start our new home.
I knew I was on familar turf when I saw a heard of dairy cows walking down the main highway, not far from Delhi. This is one of the major highways of the counrty connecting Delhi to Mumbai, just up ahead a truck in front of us was just pulling out to take over a camel cart...truely home...ahhh.
The biggest surprise was the colour of the landscape, the monsoon between Delhi and Pushkar was has been goos and everything was bright green, never before have I seen it look so luscious!
Thank you Gods for the good fortune of rain.
Up the market in PUshkar, camel carts for deliveries, the odd painted cow, all as it should be.
First port of call was of course Shakti Project http://www.shakti-streetkids-pushkar.org/ to see our friend Ramsingh and all the children.
Meet the tortoise, he is the newest member of the family...and multi functional some of the littler ones sit on him sometimes, he is an ancient fellow and has a big dint out of his shell but seems contented here and enjoys all the snacks, would you believe he can eat 5 egg tomatoes at a time?

This year is shaping up for a good year with the project, most of last years 35+ kids are still going to school and numbers have increased by 20 children, a significant number of whom are girls. Quite a feat to be getting parents to sign up daughters- good on you Ramsingh.

I will have a new newsletter sorted out soon, so stay tuned, all is going well with the project.

I have such an enormous sense of respect for Ramsingh, he is fabulous with the kids, he is consatntly working to talk other parents into the value of education, he is always hopeful and optimistic and does all this with the smallest amount of money...

Chatting with him and listening to what he does not say I realise he must be under enormous pressure to keep it afloat. He is the type of unsung hero that sholud be put up for a humanitarian award.

I hope I can be of some help to him. Anyone out there who could offer some assistance, please do. It is used frugally and wisely by this man.