So...

...celebrations are continuing today despite the media reports and concern for civilians being expressed in the Western media.

Last sunday I took a trip with some students to a place called Tantirimale which is the site of an ancient temple built into a huge rock. It was the first time most of them had been so very exciting for them and for me, the first time I had travelled by tractor for two and a half hours on a road that at best felt like sitting on top of a washing machine!
When we arrived at the temple, as per custom, we removed our bata (flip-flops) and went forth. Over the next three hours I learnt that village boys have feet made of steel and I have feet like cotton wool. I'd strongly suggest that if like me, you have beautiful soft feet, don't go clambering over baking hot jagged rock in the midday sun barefoot. Every step became a challenge as I sought to minimise the the pain. Nonetheless we all had a lot of fun and the boys were running and jumping everywhere, while I followed with little baby steps, haha.
On the way back, the students were incredibly excited to spot trees bearing fruit called Pul-lu (unofficial spelling). These are tiny little berry type fruit that kind of look like mango's and are very sweet and tasty. The boys wasted no time in scaling these quite big trees and relieving the them of their ripened produce.