Last day at Hebron

It was the last day of school on thursday. There was a final assembly then the term finished at 10.15. After that the majority of the kids left to meet there parents. The rest of the IG's (Emma, Catherine, Josh, Sarah and Colin) left for Dehli at 6.30am. Which freeed up a bed for Sophie, who got here on tuesday :)

We are still at the school at the moment. Didn't rush off because we aren't going very far. We are leaving this afternoon. Selborne had been well quite without the girls.

Our plan for the next two weeks is:
21-24th in Coonor (old girls hebron),
24-28th at Jungle Retreat (with a very big swim pool)
28th-1st in Mysore,
1st-2nd on the train to Chennai
2nd -4th in Chennai
4th-5th probably overnight at the airport because our flight is at a ridiculous time then home.....

So longs

Been alot of winding things up this week. The few of us living at Selborne have had a farewell from Selborne on Tuesday including a pressie (a sketch of selborne) and then there was a farewell for all the IG's and leaving staff last night which all the staff had to attend and didn't finish till gone 11pm. Where we also got more gifts (for IG's, cushion covers for girls and wall hangings for boys), also Ros Reid who coordinates the IG stuff gave a short thanks and feedback speech for each of the IG's and our dorm parents gave us our gifts. Then there were the long speeches for the longer serving staff. Some of which were very inventive and funny.

Didn't realise how fast time had gone by until this week when people started saying goodbye. But you never know, we may come back!.....

Avalanche

Avalanche Lake, our campsite was 20 metres below

Nandita helping the fire and cooking chicken nuggets

The dorm finally managed to get to Avalanche last weekend. We planned to go at the beginning of may but didn't realise how close it was and hadn't got permission from the forest people to go walking. But it was nice to go so close to the end of term because it meant the whole dorm could spend the weekend with each other which was important because a couple of them are leaving.

Avalanche is a big lake. There is Scripture Union centre just above the lake, like two minute walk, which have straw tents (they look pretty cool but I didn't take a photo. On Friday we got dropped off about an hour and a half walk away from Avalanche although we weren't camping at the SU centre but about 5-10 minute walk away because we walked out a different route on Sunday so they could count it as their bronze d of e practise.

At night the firefly's came out. I'd never seen them before but the was swarming...it was really pretty. Friday night the Inglis's (dorm parents), Rachel A and I sat in our tent chatting. My torch was pointing to the roof of the tent. We saw this rat sized creature crawling around the centre of the walls of our tent and it scared us slightly until Stuart pointed out it was the tiniest little insect running around the top of my torch. It was very funny and we felt fairly stupid.

Saturday was our activities day. I led the devotion in the morning eventually. The dorm was split into two groups and one group went abseiling and the other did orienteering, then we swapped after lunch. Abseiling was loads of fun. Somehow I lost at rock, paper scissors and had to abseil first cos the girls are wimps!! The last time I was abseiling was in Y6, but it was a lot of fun. It was down a 15ft rock face and you landed in a nice river of water so I was freezing whilst watching the rest of the girls abseil. The evening was pretty laid back with each walking group cooking their own dinner and then we had more devotions and us four staff gave our testimonies. Then we walked back to the adventure campsite in the dark. Unfortunately we didn't lose anyone!

Sunday we went back the the SU site to cook breakfast because we didn't trust the weather. Rachel A led some devotions then we set off in our walking groups. We stopped about 1 hour into the walk at the '9m falls' which was oddly enough a 9m waterfall. We left the SU site first. We waited for the other groups and then left last so unintentionally spend 1 hour there. We washed our hair...so we made the most of our time! The rest of the walk took about an hour and a half. And was a little bit longer than expected because there was a PROBLEM WITH THE BUS. I couldn't believe it. It didn't break down of anything the driver went to where he dropped us off but we walked out to a different entrance.

9m falls

Couldn't do much but laugh and take the blame....

Some photos

Photos of formal dinner. I'll name the girls again since they are all there......




Left to right
Top row: Priya, Caitlyn, Lisa, Xanithe
Below them: Katie, Rachel A(dorm support), Cheryl, Pooirnima
3rd row:Julia, Grace, Vani, Esther
Bottom row: Sarah, Harmony, Hannah, Sanjana, Rachel, Christine, Me




Photo taken just before the boys arrived..
Rachel and Cheryl (first two left of me)are leaving at the end of term to go back to Australia. And Rachel A is going back to the UK with Bene

Formal Dinner

Most of the IG's took this weekend as their second weekend off. Apart from Si, Bene and myself. They went to Jungle Retreat, which is half way down the mountain. It's meant to well nice but Si and I are spending a few nights there when Soph, and Si's parents get here in two weeks. :) We are pretty excited! And it isn't exactly cheap so going twice in one month wasn't really an option. Selborne was very quite since I was the only IG left for most of the weekend. But I was also really nice to have the room to myself,(had the best night sleep in a long time, might have something to do with the girls snoring.) So Si and I won't take our second weekend because I'd prefer to spend the last couple of weekend with the dorm

We had to say goodbye to one of the girls, Catriona, on Saturday. She has gone back to the UK for furlow (no idea what it means) but I will hopefully have time to meet up with her in the summer, which will be ace. Saturday evening we had the Std 9 formal dinner (boys and girls), which was really nice. They gave us our thankyou/leaving present. I got lots of local tea! (Because you can get tea in India, eh Mum!)Two of the dorm girls are leaving to Australia (Rachel and Cheryl) at the end term and one of the lads is going back to UK. Also Rachel, the girls dorm support is leaving to go back to the UK with Bene(they are engaged. So there were a few goodbye speeches. I got a nice picture of the dorm before formal as well which I will post.

This weekend the dorm is going to Avalanche..a kinda outdoor place. Not entirely sure what we do there but looking forward to it. It is almost certainly going to rain but that usually adds to the fun! Then there is one more weekend then term is over. The last day of term is the 19th and we come back 5th July so not long left.

Will post pictures later...they are taking too long to load

Everest

Went for a jog afterschool with one of the nurses, Alana. We went up a hill called Everest. At one point there is a great view of the town. It had just poured down with rain which made it pretty slippy. The peak of Everest is 2500m, 300 metres above Hebron. It was the route the boys take when they do cross country during the first term.

Hopefully do some more before we come back. Wish I started it earlier.

Kollegal 2

Just remember...Our taxi got hit by another taxi on the way home because the other driver didnt dim his lights. It wasn't a massive hit otherwise I would have remembered it in the first place but our driver wasn't very happy.