Raleigh India Expedition 12J

Alpha One News Update

By Project PRO Jean-Paul

Upon arrival in Sollepura the monsoon introduced us to the village. Everybody was anxious to see the houses we had been allocated. We all settled in pretty well apart from the fact that there was a swarm of "killer bees" outside house 2. I have never seen Carl run so fast. We sat around with the locals and introduced ourselves. They sang for us and Nikita gave them a crazy Ukrainian dance.

Morning time came and everyone looked like they had broken their backs, due to the concrete floors for sleeping on. A few of the team had started to dig compost pits because we were waiting for the cement on the roof of the Community Centre to dry.

Carl, Richard and J.P. headed off into town (HD Kote) to get a few practical tools, they also had a sneaky cup of tea in the cafe. When they arrived back in the village, Mark had completed the long drop - what an achievement!

On the third day we all played a game of volleyball with the locals; they are pretty good and so is Rosie. After the game we went to the communal house and played some weird mind games - Lorraine's idea! Mariyan and Holly were the first to have a cooking lesson while J.P. and Alistair went to teach English to the kids in the local school.

Day Five was the real test - work at the Community Centre began. Everyone participated and really enjoyed getting their hands dirty. In the early evening we had two visitors for the night: John and Yadaf, from Cap Gemini, along with Country Director, Gavin and PRO Rosie. Mariyan spoke about Sri Lanka before dinner and J.P. recited some pretty powerful poetry.

Day Six was lovely - the sun had been defeated by the power of the monsoon. Dani, Alistair, Holly and Mark all had a natural shower outside in the rain, after a day of hard work.

Last night we had a dance off with the village, the dance routines and songs were hilarious.