I wasn't able to post this at the time as just too mad and busy .

Last day, visited Torrington which is a 'colony' of about 75 houses along narrow lanes. We support they nursery somewhat. They have a fantastic nursery worker , Anita, who has a lovely manner with the kids. They clearly love to be around 'teacher'. I met my name sake 'Steve' , one of the children at the nursery-- fine looking fellow as you would only expect.

Once again I was treated like royalty- garland of temple flowers, the blessing with the flame circled around your head, and the placing of saffron on my forehead. Of course being ''British '' I find it all a bit intense, that focus of attention, but also extremely honored and thankful for all the care and effort people have made.

Actually that 'flame ' thing is very symbolic - with the flame all of life's nasties are banished , replaced by blessings - nice hey!

We returned to the 'tsunami camp' and met some of the residents. Apparently they are 24 families still waiting there, 15 of whom are from another area and were 'forcible' brought there by the JVP shortly after the tsunami. Because they are not local folk the local authority will not assist in anyway. All rather grim.

Yesterday, I visited the RCCI , this is a school for special needs kids and where Barbara works. (Barbara is one of the 3 original women that we met in 2004 which sparked of the inspiration to set up Asha Trust) Asha has recently funded a class for autistic children, they presently have 7 but will soon have 9. The staff are highly trained and motivated and it was heart warming to see the children interacting with they teachers. The school is very open to new ideas and we are currently in discussions with them about a community outreach programme.

In the afternoon Sister Concepta , Beulah and I had a good chat about the projects , where we see the future, all that dreaming your dreams that's so necessary to do once in a while. We met at Beulahs house which has just the best garden. ( Beulah's dog was very sick that day. It seemed to be in some distress and probably pain, poor thing. He subsequently died the next day. Beulah rang to inform us and was clearly upset. I know for some who have never had a pet it seems a bit odd that others 'love' they pets and grieve when they die. But I think it's about how we've been ''wired', we naturally want to love and be loved and although it's not the same as between people, we can get that from our pets too. Or am I being ''British ' about this pet thing too )