A bit of late news...

We have had such a lovely chilled out weekend as a family..... even the girlies (Sarah, Es and the UK girl who lives at the flat bolted onto our house Lillie) went out on the raz - well to Pizza Hut anyway! Es is growing up so fast. She seems to have shifted up a couple of gears since we have been out here! She's mixing with older girls (at Church etc) out here like never before, calling for the ricks and giving them directions etc. Just so confident in this environment......

Having the weekend so chilled and the girls being out last night meant that, after 'the boys' night in', (which on this ocassion consisted of a big bag of crisps and a DVD - our turn this week!!) meant I could have a think back to things I hadn't ticked off on my (essential, life transforming, centre of the universe, pivotal role in the whole of India society) 'to do' list I have with me all the time here!!! If truth be told my brains going and I have to have it to survive!!

What popped into my mind as I thought was one of the things I had forgotten to feedback was 2 people gave 2 gifts (total £300) before we came out to the Trust specifically. One of these people was a lady at my workplace - out of the blue she gave £100!!

As I have mentioned before, we have worked hard this trip to try and give funding not just as cash where we see a need to but to try and give to a place where it might 'stem the flow' of any poverty or problem in the future (hand up not hand out principle).

We were seeing time and again that things were not working well at all in the Trust in specific areas partly due to disorganisation (a big thing out here) and partly due to people not being prepared/organised for meetings and events where the trust is doing training or speaking etc.

Part of the reason for that is Raj is too busy (in my view) BUT has some 'dead time' when he is going to camps/events etc and has 5-10 hours spare on a train so for this reason plus we needed IT for the new office etc (and 101 other reasons!), we decided to use this money to buy a laptop for the trust.

This will mean when Raj goes to camps/meetings he can take the PC, do some work on the way and use the laptop for more professional talks/videos when he gets there.

This laptop is a great investment for the trust for the next few years and will be based at the trusts new offices (see blog)

Another bit of giving that is not relieving huge poverty immediately but will be used as a resource in the trust that is helping many hundreds of young people out here.