School days!

Back in school today. I thought I'd seize the chance to get some shots of the room we put together as the physio was absent today.
The current physio is one of the cleanest and tidiest of any of those who I have met at the school. Perhaps this is partly down to the fact that the room is not shared with someone else. Perhaps she is just tidy.
The older ultrasound machine was bought a few years ago with money I brought out. It's been well used. The murals on the walls were paid for similarly. It's the only room in the school which has floor tiles and decoration like this. We wanted to make the room a place where parents and children felt welcomed and at ease. It also has AC which helps me feel at ease!
The little girl is Blessie, the picture is not great as it's a screen shot from my blog in 2007. She was 3 months old when I first met her. She had turned up at one of the local hospitals and by chance met the physio I was working with at the time. He suggested to her parents that they should bring her to school to see me, so they did. She had profound needs - no useful vision and a severe hearing impairment. She was unlikely to walk or talk and had cerebral palsy. Her parents brought her in daily, to see me and the physio for the 4 months I was still there and when I went back over the next few years made sure they brought her in to see me.
The reason her picture is here is because today I met her father, or rather he met me! He spotted me when I was out having my dinner. Like Raja, he is an auto driver, and I have seen him often over the years. I used to see him at his stand (like a taxi rank) and when he's been free he would me to his home to see Blessie. He said today, that she is well, she is now almost 16. They must have looked after her so well. It was lovely to see him tonight. Raja, who has met him with me before and got to know him a little, covered any language /translation issues there were on my part. He also told me later that whenever he bumps into the other driver, which is not that often as Tirunelvelli is quite a big place, he asks after me. Looking back at this picture, he is probably wondering how on earth I manage to have blond hair now, lol.
The last picture is of my lunch at school, chicken 65 with chicken fried rice and a home grown banana. A blipper asked the other day about goats and cows foraging in the street. They do quite well - the local custom of using banana leaves as plates, means not only no potentially unhygienic washing up, but also it provides a good free food source for animals.
Just remembered that when I was in Bangalore yesterday at the airport I spotted a plane with livery in red, gold and black saying BundesRepublik Deutschland and named on its tail Luftwaffe. I googled it and apparently it's the German equivalent of Air Force One!