Day 7- Heather

Woke this morning firmly wedged between Megan and Joanna. We had decided to all share the bed in an attempt to stay as warm as possible.  Needless to say I ended up in the middle with very little room for movement. It was freezing last night but we managed to stay warm. There is fresh snow on the mountains surrounding Palampur. It is warm during the day but the temperature starts dropping from 3 pm onwards.  We walked to St Paul's school where Mr and Mrs Singh (the principal and his wife) gave us a tour of the school (which included a lovely new block of 17 classrooms) - the location is beautiful with pine trees scattered throughout the grounds and a backdrop of snow covered mountains. We visited the boys hostel, which has undergone iimprovements since I visited last year.

There are currently 20 boys in the hostel between the ages of 10 and 17 years. Eighteen of the boys are sponsored through the Church of North India's PDS model.

After making arrangements to come back after school finished we headed to the bazaar to check out the shawl shop...

The evening was spent at the boys hostel. The boys were very shy to start with but soon warmed up and wanted to talk to David in particular. Andrew put his journalist skills to work, using Mrs Singh as an interpreter, and interviewed some of the boys about their backgrounds and how it was for them coming to school in Palampur. Many of the boys come from very poor backgrounds and it is a struggle for them to keep up with their study as their schooling prior to coming to St Paul's has not always been very good. It was very evident that Mrs Singh runs the hostel in a firm but very caring way.

Now it is time for the mother daughter sandwich in the bed again... sigh..