Once upon an Indian Christmas...

I think even if you lived in India, it would still amaze and shock you on a day to day basis. We have been here over 2 months and we still see or experience something new everyday. 
Let me begin where I left off last time, and give you a quick insight into how the past week or so has looked:
15th Dec- Decorated the school for Christmas. Made costumes for the children's nativity.
16th- Took the costumes to school for the children to do a 'dress rehearsal'.

The children in their costumes.

Got some surprise Christmas parcels, one from my fabulous mummy and one from the gorgeous Bebe Sanders.

Decorated the guesthouse.

We went to Despara to a school run by the same people who own Hatibagan school. Its not a mobile school, it is located right next to a slum and has about 600 children who attend it. We went to see their Christmas production. It was really good, lots of singing and dancing and beautiful outfits. 

'If I were a butterfly....'

One of the songs the children sung was 'O come all ye faithful' .... They hadn't quite got the hang of how to say 'Triumphant.'  Take a listen:

'JOYFUL AND TRUMP-FARRTTT...'

17th- Had 12hrs sleep. 

Shopping for Christmas presents.

Attended a Christmas carol service thing held at the guesthouse, sung along to a load of songs in hindi and bengali.

18th- Church service on being grateful.

Purchased more Firni (Indian desert- very yummy)

Special Christmas evening service... games and that.

19th- Freeset- Hannah's last day :( (Hannah is the son of Steve who's like our "boss". She is the same age as us and we just clicked. She is off to university in New Zealand! She's great and we will all miss her a lot). 

After Freeset us 4 plus 3 others went to this beauty parlor thing to get our eyebrows threaded! It was a good 'goodbye Hannah' activity! 

Me getting my eyebrows threaded. 

Josh, Naomi, Hannah, Ellen and me.

20th- The kids at Hatibagan school put on their Christmas nativity. They dressed up and looked so cute! 

We also decided it was about time we had a Christmas tree to put presents under. So seeing as they don't have actual Christmas trees here, we thought we would make our own.

Okay, I understand this is a very bad photo to show our tree but stupidly its the only one I took. I hope you can make it out. Its made from cereal boxes, plastic bags, cable ties and green paper!

21st- Our work has pretty much finished for Christmas now. School has broken up and Steve is away. Sooo what better to do on a day off but go shopping?! We went to Mani square (a big shopping mall about 30mins away). 

Made popcorn, watched a film.

22nd- Our first Indian henna, or mehandi session. We found out it was very expensive to get done professionally, so George (one of the guys who works at the guesthouse) said his daughter could do some for us. So she came over and we each had a hand done. It looked alright, but when she had gone we decided to try it for ourselves. And I have to be honest... I think we did a lot better! 

Check it out! Left done by Naomi and right done by me.

23rd- BMS staff party. We had to perform a little skit that we had prepared (the day before) on our time here. It seemed to go down well! They laughed at the right times so that's usually a good sign. The staff also acted out their nativity that they have been practicing for a couple of weeks now. Although it was in Bengali it was pretty funny. The costumes were amazing!

Some of the staff dressed up.

24th- Who would have thought I would be spending Christmas eve, in India, at a baptism, at a water park. Well... Thats exactly what I did.

It.was.freezing. They obviously don't have heated pools.. Because its India and its meant to be hot! And its the winter. Didn't stop us running in and enjoying the time we had there though! Its great because India has no health and safety rules so going down water slides 4 at a time is noooo problemo. 

It may appear as though we were going fast..... Truth is, we were stuck.

On the coach on the way back from the water park, we broke another of what would be a very enforced rule in England. Let me start at the beginning. We were casually sat down like you do, when loud music started blaring from the speakers. A few people got up and moved around but we thought nothing of it. Then, we were asked by some of the others if we wanted to dance. We were like naaahh its alright... But then the disco lights came on. No word of a lie, this was a true party bus. We did eventually get up and dance.. How could we not?!! Love India's lack of rules!

25th- Christmas day! In India. Fancy that! We all woke up to find little stockings at the end of our beds that Naomi had made for us (so sweet!). Josh came down for breakfast and afterwards we unwrapped a couple of presents each and then the fun began... Putting on a saree. We went up to Anu's house and her sister helped us put them on. Josh wore a punjabi which looked pretty cool too. 

Ellen, Me, Josh and Naomi looking all Indian-like.

We were the centre of attention as we walked to church. We didn't realise how much of a normal day Christmas is to a lot of Indian people. Everyone was working and shopping as usual, nothing was shut, no one was dressed up. We were the only people dressed up in sight. 4 whiteies in Indian wear walking down the street which seemed to be stretching longer and the church getting further and further away as we went. All eyes on us. I felt famous. I've decided I don't like it!! 

Josh bought us all pizza for lunch! We were gonna get egg rolls and stuff but dominoes delivers and lets just say saree's are not the easiest things to walk in.

Oh yes, we went there.

In the afternoon we unwrapped some more presents, then went up to Anu's for dinner. You might wanna sit down for this next part.... It was not curry. 

Everyone around the dinner table.

We had chicken, beef, spicy sausages, carrots, peas, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes.... and bread. Bit of a weird combination but can't complain. It was lovely to spend it with wonderful people. And that's alllll that matters. 

Christmas has made me realise more than usual how blessed I really am. I may not be with them, but I have the most amazing family, who love me and support me no matter what. I have beautiful friends and a wonderful boyfriend. I have a roof over my head and food every day. I have grown to appreciate this more and more whilst living and working in Kolkata, surrounded by people who live contently with nothing. Today I have opened gifts sent to me from across the world, and eaten food with my fantastic Indian family. I have so many opportunities in life. That is a lot more than most people can say. I have SO much to be grateful for. I don't thank God enough for all he has done in my life. I am so richly blessed. Thank you to every single person in my life, everyone who has supported me, encouraged me, laughed with me, cried with me, been proud of me or embarrassed by me! Everyone who has been there to be reminders of just how beautiful life is. Even the people who haven't. Each one of you has shaped the person who I am today. 

Peace,

Harriet x

P.s. We are off to Goa for our holiday tomorrow (more to be grateful for) so provided I get there and back in one piece, a holiday blog should be up sometime after the 11th Jan. Watch this space!