The last supper........

Today is my last day at Dream a Dream - well at least until I return for my second fortnight sometime early next year to follow up etc. Last night the "Dream Team" all went to Kalpana's home for dinner. Kalpana is one of the Leadership Team and had us all round for a very scrummy meal. It was my first visit to an Indian home and to home-cooked food which was amazing....especially the jalebi.......sweet lattice-like fried loveliness!! All very bad for the diet and the heart no doubt, but nevertheless delicious. We all sat on the floor and devoured the excellent food and company.

Yesterday morning I was frantic writing up my reports and soon I will be presenting my recommendations to the Leadership Team. I have already taken Vishal (the Director) through these reports and hope that the Leadership Team are as positive as he was.

Yesterday morning I visited a school funded by the Round Table of India where Dream a Dream runs some of their programmes. The kids at the school mostly come from a local slum area and, again, I was struck by their hunger for learning. As a white man I was quite an attraction. See the pics! The conditions in the school were very very basic compared to our own standards but the standards of behaviour were great - if a little Dickensian at times. On entering the classroom, all the kids (mainly 12/13 years old) stood up and said good morning. They then sat down and in turns stood up individually to say their names. Teachers clearly have no problems with behaviour - unlike Christophe, the young guy I am coaching who is spending his first two years of work as a teacher in a pretty challenging school near Heathrow through an organisation called Teach First. He always tells me that about 80% of his time is spent trying to keep control! It wasn't like that at yesterday's school.

The terrorist attack at Mumbai has dominated Indian TV - as it has done across the world. To let you all know that I am fine and thanks to everyone for your text messages asking if I am OK. Even if they arrived in the middle of the night/early morning!!!! Hey...thanks for waking me up about a dozen times each night for the last 2 nights!!!! Seriously, it is good to know I have such wonderful friends and family all concerned about me.

This is my last blog posting as I fly home tomorrow morning. I'll have to leave the hotel at 04.30 to get to the airport by 05.30 for my 07.45 flight to Heathrow. I land at about 1.00pm and hope to be home at about 3.00pm - probably a bit wobbly with jet-lag and general exhaustion after my pretty intense 2 weeks here.

I'll have to get used to the cold weather at home as it has been mild here - although very wet for the past 3 days.....and SO muddy too!!

It's been a wonderful two weeks here spent with some amazing people. I'll miss the Dream a Dream team but will be staying in touch via email and before I know it, I'll be back

So thanks for keeping up to date with my travels and experiences. I hope you have enjoyed reading my entries and look forward to catching up with you soon.