Have just finished watching Bend It Like Beckham with the girls - I soooo love that film, and seriously want to play football now!! But anyway...

Had a fantastic weekend with Andrea and Amy - picked them up from the airport, Andrea was pretty much asleep! we had a fairly relaxed Saturday morning, I showed them around Sangam and the neighbourhood (Phule Nagar and Wadi) and then came back to Sangam for lunch... In the afternoon we went to Laxmi Road which was MENTAL. It was the end of Ganesh Festival, so everyone was out to see Ganesh one last time, and there were many many Ganeshs to see (what's the plural of Ganesh anyone?) The place was absolutely packed, there were police around, body scanners, crazy times, but such a good experience, and so much fun for Andrea and Amy to see! 

Saturday evening we chilled out, played a bit of monopoly... The Tare's plus extras headed out to the circus, which apparently was bizarre, but we all had pizza together before they headed out, which was nice :) Sunday, we went up Parvati Hill which has the most gorgeous views at the top, and a good work out spot too apparently - there were several Indian men doing aerobics up there which was a bit random! Sunday afternoon we toddled over the Aga Khan Palace, which was built by the third Aga Khan (aka a very important person...) and donated to the Indian State by the fourth Aga Khan, who now lives in Saudi Arabia... It's a gorgeous palace, with pretty gardens. Gandhi was imprisoned there in the 40's so now it's basically a museum about him. Got back and went off to see Ganesh emersed in the river... and I feel that might need a bit of explaining...

Basically, during Ganesh festival, pretty much everyone has a Ganesh in their house (because Ganesh has come to visit them), they're decorated with lights and tinsel and it's a lot like Christmas! There are also massive Ganeshs in the streets, put up by the community nearby. At some point, Ganeshs sisters come to visit too, and during the festival every night there are parties on the streets, drumming, dancing, there are big trucks with speakers on the back with blare out music all day and all night, and people dance behind them on the roads, it's pretty funky stuff! At the end of the festival (11 days), Ganesh leaves, and goes back to wherever he lives. The Hindus believe the river is scared, and flows to heaven (or whatever their equivalent is) and so that's where they put their ashes once they die, and in the same way, they put Ganesh in the river, and let him float away. 

SO, basically, we rocked up to Tarobai's house, they sang songs (like Christmas hymns), they blessed Ganesh, and gave us sweets (always giving us sweets!), then we went outside, put their Ganesh on a big cart, and Sllloowwwwlllyyyy took him down to the river. It was so slow because we had to keep stopping every 5 metres to dance a bit more and drum a bit more! But basically they make it as slow as possible to keep the party going for as long as possible - sounds pretty reasonable to me! On the way there, we passed (and were passed by) loads of people carrying their Ganeshs, by car, motorbike, rickshaw, walking, tractor... you name it, they did it! When we got to the river bank there were loads of people there, maybe 30-40 other Ganeshs (including a couple of massive ones!). They did a couple more blessings and stuff, and then they gave Ganesh to one of the men in the river (the strong swimmers, lifeguards..) who took it, dunked it in twice, and let it wash away... Now, before you all get too concerned about the environmental impact of that, most Ganeshs are made of sand, so it's not too bad... occasionally you get dodgy ones made from plaster of paris, and they float!

So there you go... we wandered back to Sangam, ate food, chatted, and went to bed. Andrea and Amy left on Monday morning, and I headed back to training. In the past two days, I've had training on the community partners, WAGGGS, MDGs... And Ellen and I also got sent to Aga Khan Palace again, with a challenge booklet, full of questions to answer. The sun was shining today, much better than Sunday when it was raining, so the gardens were even more beautiful!

Tomorrow is more training in the morning (risk assessments!) and then off to see a Bollywood Movie in the afternoon =D Can't wait!