The term tiffin originated in British India and was used to describe lunch or any light meal. In parts of India the term is used to describe between meal snacks, while in other areas it refers to a packed-lunch. Packed lunches are usually prepared for working Indian men by their wives after they have left for work and delivered by a tiffin wallah (the complex delivery systems ensure thousands of tiffin boxes reach their destinations). A tiffin usually consists of rice, dal, curry, vegetables and chapathis. The round metal lunch boxes that clip together at the sides is also known as a tiffin box or merely a tiffin. However you look at it, tiffins are delicious.
Here are some tasty tales from our time in India...

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Read! Read!


Well two entries is not much of a blog, I admit progress has been slow to date. Just thought I'd write a bit about a little side project we've got on the go over the next week. A couple of months ago Mum came for a visit, after returning to school in Torquay she had plenty of amazing stories to share with the teachers at her school- they were enthused and started to raise some money for one of our projects. I was telling the teachers that there is no library at our school in the village so maybe we could use some of the funds to buy some books for the students. In one of the conversations I threw away a comment saying that if any of them would be interested in coming in the next school hols they would be welcome to help us set the library up, they would have to pay their own way of course but it could be a bit of fun. The outcome- within 2 months they raised almost $6,500 and we have 8 teachers from Torquay arriving in southern India this morning!!!
Lourdes (the education coordinator) and I have been racing around this week, making many of the purchases one needs for a library. We have been given a room in the school, photos attached. At the moment, I am having a pretty hard time imagining how this will ever be achieved in a week but will endeavour to update as the week progresses! Stay tuned...