Being back in Mumbai again has certainly turned up the pace. New years day was a great day! About 15 of the Vision Rescue team (including myself) travel by boat to Elephanta Island. The boat journey takes about 1 hour and it was a beautiful day which made it more enjoyable. We reached the Island at about 1.00 there is one path that leads up to a museum and a set of caves. All the way along the path are people selling lots of food, jewellery, clothes, wooden boxes, pots etc. Being a tourist means that their attention is very much drawn towards you. We stopped half way for lunch at one of the cafes and then continue on till we reached the museum and the caves. The Island became inhabited around AD 600 and huge carvings can been found on the walls of the caves. Apart from the tourists and visited, you will also find lots of monkeys. They live on the food of the visitors and have developed the ability to unscrew the lids off bottles. Unfortunately, they do other things in public which it is probably best not to mention. Let just say it spoils the view some what! After admiring the amazing carvings in the caves it was time for a well earn cup of Indian Tea. Indian Tea is made milk rather than water and has ginger in it. I have really developed the taste for it since being out in Indian and it will be difficult to go back to regular Tetley Tea. It was then back down the path and a very restful boat journey back to Mumbai.

After the weekend, it was back to the teacher training on Monday. I spent the day in the office preparing on body language and voice control. I am trying to develop the teachers confidence and this was a great way to get them experimenting with voice and thinking about gaining control through their body language. They all seemed very positive at the end of the session so I hope it helped! In the evening, Pradeep, Manoj, Nick, Mang and myself visited the cinema to see 'Avatar - 3D'. WOW! What a film! It is the first time I have watched a movie in 3D and the effects were amazing. There are three small differences to a cinema visit in India to a cinema visit in UK. Every film plays the Indian National Anthem at the beginning, you get an interval half way through, and people bring their babies with them (Highly annoying when it starts crying!)

Tuesday and Wednesday was back on the bus and then on Thursday a small group of us visited a school in the middle of a slum in Mankhurd. The school is run by OM (an international charity) and they have 300 children who attend. It is run just for the slum children and has changed the lives of so many kids. All the lessons are taught in English and they have full time qualified teachers. It would be great if more schools like this could be set up in other slum areas. It has been a busy week and I am back on the buses this weekend.