Well I have no idea how it happened, but I have been possessed by something horrible for the last couple of days. Maybe it was the fish that Kumar gave us on Sunday. Or just the inevitable, notorious illness that I had hitherto successfully evaded finally catching up with me. Whatever it was, I started throwing up on Sunday night and only stopped after an injection from a dodgy doctor last night. The Rev. bundled me in my tender 'no don't move me' state on to the back of his scooter for a wonderfully nauseous Indian-road ride to the Doctor's.

After he'd injected me in the bottom I got up and discovered the used needle in one of my sandals! He wasn't a very nice man at all, I think Athisayam took me to see him because he is a Christian, but he treated me like a stupid foreigner who shouldn't have got ill in the first place. Imagine cramps contorting your insides and throwing up bile every few minutes and you're only half way there. Everything I drank came straight back up and in the last two days I've eaten one-and-a-half jam sandwiches. I remember promising God at one point that I'd love Him forever if He made me better and I remember being very homesick.

C. bravely stepped into the breach and took lessons yesterday, getting more stressed as the day progressed. He ran through the usual Hi. My name's C. and I come from England. Does anyone know where England is? Yes, it IS very small... At St. Andrew's and Schwartz Boys' he did the same but their standard of English is so poor I fear he didn't get very far.