I cannot believe I have been in India for four months. That is crazy! Starting to get pretty excited about going back to London for a few weeks. To return to the cold, the land of sausages, to Christmas lights, to much missed family and friends… ahhhhhh

Things are crazy at the moment. Amit is on a recruitment drive and Wake Up Pune (www.wakeuppune.org) is about to launch. If we achieve half of what we want to with this HIV awareness campaign it will be pretty amazing. But the clock is ticking, and with people on Pune Standard Time, its sometimes hard to get things done. Everything is last minute. Our hearts are in our mouths as we try and beat the clock and Wake Up Pune to HIV and AIDS.

What is really frustrating is the "what is in it for me" attitude. This is a charity, this is a non profit making campaign. This is to improve things in Pune. But time and time again when we have approached companies, churches, businesses for help (not monetary, simply poster displays etc) we have heard this phrase. It is really frustrating and makes me crazy. Some businesses are a sharp contrast. They will do anything to help you. They will go out of their way to make sure our campaign is a success.

You meet some amazing people here. Mike and Subarna work at Sahara, a HIV hospice we partner with. You listen to them talk about their work and it is pretty horrifying. I don't know how they do it. I don't know how they deal with needless deaths, how they see people give up the fight. People who have been disowned by their families. People who have been totally abandoned due to the Stigma they have faced as they are HIV positive. But I guess they deal with it. I don't think I could. I don't think I could care for people who are dying. I am not sure I have that in me.

On a lighter note, I fed an elephant a banana yesterday. Pretty much made my day, even my week. There are 3 elephant you see in Pune. But usually only on Saturdays and Sundays and near the German Bakery  (hippy traveller haunt). But this amazing creature was outside DeepGriha. The Mahout tried to coax me to climb up. But I had visions of being kidnapped to the jungles of Karnatka by Parvati the elephant and her Mahoot. Unable to escape, unable to climb down! So I didn't! Fed it a banana instead. Pretty cool