July 2-3: We went to Pondicherry, the old French Indian capital. We loved the peaceful quiet and clean streets and being repeatedly blessed by Lakshmi the elephant. We managed a little drama when Caroline fought with a rickshaw driver in the pouring rain.
July 5: At FLI, one of our regular placements, our day was disrupted by a road accident between a "drunk" motorcycle driver and a young gypsy boy. Fortunately he was ok. Though a traumatic event, it was inspiring to see the local gypsy community gather together. The next day, we were intrigued to learn the community blamed FLI because the boy had failed out of the FLI primary school, and it was on his walk home from the gov't school he now attended that he was struck by the motorcycle. It was fascinating that the circumstances of how the boy came to be on the road were blamed rather than the driver's recklessness.
July 7: We offered a module on Self-Care for the 1st year Social Work students and enjoyed a discussion of the barriers Indian Culture erects to such practices.
July 8: During our time with I.C.W.O., our cheek muscles maxed out from the endless pictures we took with the female sex workers. Cell phone after cell phone and grouping after grouping, it was clearly an expression of affection, but ouch!
July 9: This day was sponsored by Tom Hanks. We saw Forrest Gump at the U.S. Consulate (for free!) and Larry Crowne at Skywalk. It would have been nice to have a third movie to watch in the non A/C, 2 hour ride home. Lesson learned: don't go into Chennai on Saturday night.
July 13:
Work with Jefrin, a child with special needs in lower KG at MCC Campus School
3rd std. - begin work on "The Gifts of Wali Dad," a Indian/Pakistani readers' theater story
7th std. - riddles
5th std. - cultural comparisons (1.8 - average number of TVs/household, 1.86 - average number of children/household
Meet Davidson faculty and receive invitation to dinner
6th std. - riddles
Dinner at IGH with Davidson and MCC faculty and staff
Michael Voth Siebert, Rachel Voth Schrag and Samuel Voth Schrag arrive in Chennai!
July 15:
Michael, Rachel and Sam joined us at I.C.W.O. Chrompet, where we were taken to visit a government hospital that partners with the organization. Michael became the first among us to ride a motorcycle through Chennai traffic - hard core. After lunch, on the way to St. Thomas Mount (site of disciple's martyrdom), the following poem was prompted:
Upon the stairs at Chrompet Station
A sleeping man caused consternation
He wore no undies 'neath his dhoti
And his scrotum he did show me
July 16-17:
Michael, Rachel, Sam, Razlyn, and Whitney came with us for a lovely weekend in Mamallapuram. We visited the World Heritage Monuments Shore Temple and the Five Rathas, dipped our feet in the Bay of Bengal (or her entire skirt if you're Aimee), saw a dead puffer fish washed ashore, and got pretty well sunburned for the first time. We were treated to a scrumptious, home-cooked meal of crab and prawns thanks to Sir Hariharan of I.C.W.O. We also wrote the following ode to a diligent stone merchant:
We fled down the street of Five Rathas
A stone carver on motorcycle caught us
We bartered and haggled
Till all were bedraggled
But up to our guest house he sought us.
July 18:
We missed opening weekend, but Rachel, Sam, Michael and Aimee were determined to get to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 before Rachel and Sam left for Andhra Pradesh. So we dared a cross-Chennai cab ride in the hopes that AGS Cinema in Villivakkam would have four tickets left. The nerdish hopes were rewarded and the movie was great!
And now, July 19, we have internet!!! Our schedule is still quite packed, but we'll do our best to better about regular postings from now on.
No comments:
Post a Comment