A Little Bit Quirky

Some wonderful news to report: we have both our bags back minus the power banks. They were removed. This has made life much, much easier.

Settling into life here has in all honesty been tougher than I thought. Simple routines like eating, getting ready for bed and washing are fairly arduous tasks.

Some quirks of the place have made the experience 'not your normal break away'.

I'll share some:

• Not many people here have access to a TV or newspapers and so a truck drives around the villages with a tannoy sharing government news. This week everyone was told to hang an Indian flag ready for tomorrow's independence day celebrations. (See video above)
• In Shillong the beginning and end of the working day is marked by a siren that blasts its way through the streets.
• Nearly every single adult chews kwai (paan/betel leaf with lime paste and areca nut). This turns the mouth red and is addictive. Some of the men we are with have 30 kwai each day. There are splatters of red saliva covering most roads.
• There are no rubbish collections here, everything is burnt in street-side furnaces.
• The women here inherit all of the family wealth. It's a matrilineal society.

We have been in schools every day this week and we love it. I'll share some of our work on here...