A Wedding? It was our least productive morning of digging yet. We had finally finished digging the difficult jungle section and were looking forward to making a start on the rice fields. However, what should have been a triumphant moment, was quickly soured by a few of the locals starting to argue. The dispute was…

School. It was Monday morning, which meant we were back to digging. But I didn’t mind, I think I actually missed it yesterday. However, it was hard to enjoy it completely as Meg had disappeared in the night, presumably scared away by the storm. The rest of the morning passed with no sign of her,…

Holi. Today marked the date of the Hindu festival of colour, called Holi. We were pulled into the festivities straight away as John’s Ama came and gave us red tika markings before we headed off to dig. Things only escalated from there. By eleven, my face was completely red and some of my clothes too….

Sunday Fun-day. Another Sunday, another day off. This was especially good news for me, as I was still ill. Thankfully, I seemed to have completely emptied myself out, so I only needed to run to the toilet after meals now. I spent the morning doing my washing with Loulou at the tap, and by washing…

On the Mend. The night went pretty much the same as the previous few, and after not going to dig again Rianne came to check on me. She put me on the phone to the medic and I was prescribed a round of anti-biotics to be taken at 12 hour intervals. I’d never taken anti-biotics…

The Return. Today marked my first poo since starting my course of anti-biotics. It wasn’t pretty, but it felt like progress. Was I finally on the mend? Whether it was due to our ongoing efforts to socialise more with the villagers, the meeting we had with them, or a combination of the two, we were…

Waterfall Smoke. Another day, another digging session. Raj didn’t come because his back was “paining”, and Jess was ill. The front of the pipeline reached the houses at the top of the village, which belonged to the family of the lowest caste. They mostly kept to themselves, I’m not sure if by choice or due…

Full Monty. My nausea after the cigarette yesterday continued as I woke up, and I reluctantly skipped another morning dig. It turned out they didn’t need me anyway, as I was called down at half ten with the announcement that the pipeline was finished. Everyone was understandably overjoyed and we took a group photo of…