Monsoon

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Originally uploaded by kimsoep

Time moves incomprehensibly fast in India. Days ‘morph’ into the next and before you know it, you’re sat wracking your brains in an attempt to update this week’s blog.
It’s 8.50pm on Sunday the 24th of May. The day has been wet and clammy, resulting in a mêlée of mosquitoes - I have countless bites in inconceivable areas; the one on my pinkie toe is driving me friggin’ insane!!

We spent the evening at the cinema watching ‘Monsters vs. Aliens’ (the new DreamWorks animation). On our way home we grabbed some food from one of the street stalls and I sampled goat meat (Indian mutton) for the first time – I can’t really see it catching on as one of my culinary staples.

This week has been relatively productive. Bex, Nyasha and I are collaborating as a group to devise an arts/drama piece at the PBK girls’ home in J.D Park. The basis of our work is centred on the annual monsoon. A range of materials have been used – scarves, D.I.Y rainmakers, pots and pans. Bex has caught some lovely images on camera of the girls utilizing the scarves to imitate the storm. On Thursday, the kids and I made wind mobiles, symbolic of the ‘brishtie’ (rain). I was also interested to discover the Indian’s version of ‘pitter patter’ is ‘rim jim’ (or something of that sort!)

I had my official meeting with Geeta, the director of Hope India, on Monday regarding the development of the Life Skills Restaurant in Panditya. All my ideas were well received, however it's unclear as to when they'll be implemented - the budget is being used elsewhere and funding may be hard pushed at the moment. I've been asked to redesign the menu thus the past couple of days have involved running off some prototype designs on photoshop. Lets hope they come into use!!

Most of the week was spent sourcing materials for various projects. Card designs have been paramount. As Bex and I are on a mission to improve the marketability of the work produced by the girls at the Life Skills Building, sold back in the UK and Ireland, we have re-evaluated certain areas, namely the greeting cards. In an attempt to incorporate more of an Indian flavour, we have introduced window cards, featuring some of the beautiful textiles already being created by the girls themselves. I am no expert but I reckon they'll sell like hot cakes!