Day 1- SATURDAY. Arrival, orientation and artefacts

Our flight arrived in India in the early morning, just as Bangalore (and we) were waking up. The mini bus from Sangam was there outside the airport to meet us and drove us through the streets of Bangalore, which were remarkably full for 6.00am (including cows!) The highlight of the morning drive was when we were about to leave the city we suddenly saw a circus parked by the side of the road, complete with Elephants! It was the best start to the time in India! Finally we arrived at Sangam which is about an hour and a half out of the city next to a small village called Silvepura.

Imo met us as we arrived at Sangam. It was great to be so warmly welcomed, and really good to have met Imo before hand at the preparation meeting. I had been really quite nervous about the whole venture, but as soon as we arrived I felt safe, comfortable and at home. We had a much needed cup of tea, and some breakfast.

That morning we were shown round "the land". It is a quiet, calm, shady place, with so many nooks and corners with interesting art work and plants to explore. The accommodation was different enough for us to experience local way of life in rural India, but with some added comforts, like mattresses, our own personal space in each room, and flush loos! Most of us then went fast asleep until lunch time.

After lunch Imo took us on a really interesting long walk during which we began to think about all sorts of issues of importance to the local community; the lake and the problem with water, the local crop Ragi and we saw a brick kiln being built.

Our walk took us to a village which had both a mosque and a temple side by side. We got back just before sunset.

That evening we had a session where we thought about how you can learn about Indian culture by looking at the objects that are used daily in peoples lives.

Kiran helped us to understand what they all were for. We talked about how you can learn about another culture by looking at the objects that are used. We talked about how we use artefacts in our classes. Then we made a long list of all the things that we would like to gather as an artefact kit for teaching about India in our schools.

Day 1- SATURDAY- Arrival, orientation and artefacts.

Day 2- SUNDAY- Sensory mapping, rangoli patterns and folk dance.

Day 3- MONDAY- Rural locality study.

Day 4- TUESDAY- Urban Locality study.

Day 5- WEDNESDAY- Sita school, State primary school and scrap science class.

Day 6- THURSDAY- Convent school and private school.

Day 7- FRIDAY- Artefact gathering at a rural market.

Day 8- SATURDAY- Mysore trip.

Day 9- SUNDAY- Shopping.

Day 10- MONDAY- Reflection, cookery, and organising.