Here's an accommodation update: I'm sleeping on a broken double bed while C. has a metal arrangement with a mattress on top. We have a toilet (not working – using a bucket) and a tap with a couple of buckets for baths. At least it's warm! We're going to see Bishop Pothi today, and hopefully meet an English girl – Nic – whom we met at our training fortnight in Sellyoak. She's here for six months (September to February), so we hope she can help us a bit with how to cope! I'm going to try and fax home today.

Our room is that door at the top...

12:22 (pm). Well no Nic, she'd gone to some festival or other. She is staying at the Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary (TTS) so on the way we had to suffer Rev. Fenn's medical history. Fascinating stuff: they've all had dysentery so we have to drink boiled water. He's also got diabetes and broken his dentures if it's not that, then it's where his dogs go for a shit. The man is barking.

...

18:20 We all went to the Pandyan hotel (Only the most expensive Westerner-friendly, air-conditioned restaurant in Madurai), where we ate an attempted western meal (Hawaiian style chicken), for £3 including soup, fruit salad, and drinks it's not bad. Poor Rev. Fenn was a bit lost with the knives and forks, although he did give it a good try. He just watched C. and me most of the time and was really timid around the Bishop! We have a pretty packed programme for the next month, visiting temples, the Gandhi museum, and a few Indian films. We went out on our own today, and were accosted by several people, including one chap who, when he discovered we didn't want his clothes, offered us the 'best grass in India' and to change our money for us. It was at this point we made our excuses and left.

I'm going to have to use the TTS to fax home, as the phone lines are down and the Post Office is on strike. Sorry Mum and Dad, I'm trying!

India isn't at all bad It's just a matter of knowing where you are going and ignoring everyone else.