Desert Summer by Aiden

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It's so hot now, some of the animals are turning brown. I saw a praying mantis that looked like a stick! I've got some boils and heat rash but it's not as bad as last year.

I went with Jasraji to the new Gaushala. It was very windy. There was a bit of a dust storm and we couldn't get out of the car the first time. The next time we saw the tractors and I went outside. The workers were using their picks to make a big wall to keep the cows in. Jasraji told them it had to be a bit bigger (even though I don't think they could jump out)! The new Gaushala is across the road from the Ashram, about two minutes to the left. It looks like it'll be better than our old Gaushala.

I've started reading the Keys to the Kingdom series. They're very good, creepy and have lots of secrets. I like how the guy writes the books. He makes the characters have a darker nature, like an evil twin. Lots of people keep telling me to write more but I told them 'I can't weave words like water' like the famous authors.

In the last weeks of school we had lots of play. We played hockey, soccer and cricket. We got some new soccer balls with some of the money we raised for the school. Mum's getting some more sports equipment on the holidays and we're going to put them in some metal boxes so everyone can use the equipment at lunch times when we start the new school term.

School's out for the summer holidays now. We're getting a lot of playing in (Sudoku as well)! We've been waking up early because we're excited and we have to start packing. We're leaving on Friday to go back to Australia for a few months.

I've been horseriding with Avatarpuri and Rajendrapuri. The first time we went, Avatarpuri and I only lasted about two minutes. Rajendrapuri is calm around horses and he lasted much longer. The next day I managed to last for ten minutes! Horse riding is lots of fun. You just have to watch out for the horses ears, to make sure they are up and forward. When they are down and backwards, it means the horse is not happy. There are not many horses we can ride now because three of them are pregnant. So we'll have some new babies to play with when we go back to the Ashram.

The night before we left we had a big party. We had a slide show and Avatarpuri, Rajendrapuri, Callum and I did a play with some masks we made. There was a technical problem so we couldn't watch the So and Hum slide show that I wrote the script for. We had lots of fun making it. It was about the two Jadan squirrels called So and Hum who you might have heard about. There was lots of yummy food at the party. Indian sweets are delicious!

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