Good afternoon from Pushkar

This is one of the street kids. These are the monkeys wayTajMahal

This is a photo of my beer! They have to pretend it is tea they are serving, this is Dehli.

Firstly I must tell you of our day in the village where Sonny grew up. We left mid morning and arrived in time to have lunch with his Mum. On the way we stopped at a piece of rough ground where some homeless families had pitched their shelter. We opened the boot and found something for just about all the children. They all poured from their make shift shelters when they saw the car arrive, they were so grateful and some so very tiny babies we were able to give little vests to. It was such a humbling experience. We then went on to meet Sonnys' family. It was a little awkard as again food had been prepared for us and I was unable to eat it, even Marie who loves Indian food in England is finding it difficult to eat anything. We went om to meet his father who is the village notary and his brothers, all such lovely people. We left to go to another camp, more people who are considered to be part of the same village but due to their poverty live outside. Again we were able to give the children clothes and Marie had bought some pencils which they loved, we also opened a pot of bubbles which Terri had contributed and that was wonderful. Initially they just stood and watched with inquisitive expressions then when we demonstrated catching and touching, they realised it was safe and they all began to giggle and laugh, I can't explain in words the happiness I felt. These poor people have nothing, they experience so little and yet they are so beautiful, their minds and hearts have so much love.

So yesterday was an exhausting day, we said goodbye to Sonny and Neelain, what wonderful hosts they are and left with our driver to travel to our next destination Pushkar. Three hours later, largely due to Jito going the wrong way (you would have thought that during his two days off he would have sorted the route but apparently not) we arrived at our hotel and what a surprise, a nice room with a proper toilet! We went in and he asked us to confirm we were happy with it, we shreiked with delight when we saw toilet paper and the bed, prompting him to request a further two rolls to be brought immediately!

This paragragh is for my girls......in this country they don't have proper toilets. They have sort of holes in the ground shaped a bit like a sausage and about three foot long by one foot wide, each side of the hole they have a foot place.So you have to stand one foot on each foot place and squat down and aim and hope! Then to make it even worse you have no toilet paper. So sometimes when they know a lot of Western people will be coming to their cafe or hotel they have a western toilet put in but they never clean it, cos they don't clean the holes in the ground, so now you understand why Marie and I were so happy when we got to our hotel last night and found a normal toilet and toilet roll!

Today we have had a lovely day in Puskar. It is a special place, a very spiritual and religious area where they have a lake in the middle of the village. It is blessed water and many people come to cleanse themselves. They do not allow meat, eggs, alcohol or kissing! We have met a man who was so very interesting I could spend a week listening to him. He was a sort of guru.They smoke a lot of Hashish and Ganger and another drug, all of which are legal in this country.

My time is nearly up, just to tell you that we found a place to go to eat tonight where we can watch the sunset It is called Pink Floyd Cafe we found it as we were walking but it is in Lonely Planet Guide. We met the owner who is also a lovely person, so I am looking forward to an interesting evening.

Love Me xxx