We all agree that this was one of the best days and we wanted to share some more photos so that everyone can see just how important our contribution is to this project.

We have just had a great night out with the Brothers.  We went for a meal and laughed from start to finish.  When we came back to the house we went up to the roof and sang!  Hmmm.  Busking – another fundraising idea ……

We walked to the local church this morning and joined the Brothers and the villagers at mass.  By the time we returned to the Brothers’ house people had started to arrive for the Rainbow Project gathering and some of the ladies helped our girls to dress in their saris.  We recorded this so that we will be able to put them on properly when we come home!  We received a huge welcome when we joined everyone at the Rainbow Project and we received lovely plaques for the schools, which recognise the work which is done to support this project.  A huge amount of effort goes in to making the Rainbow Project gatherings fun for the children, and the Brothers had arranged for a magician and a dancer to entertain them.  It was really lovely and very moving to see the children having such a good time.  The children were given their school uniforms and books and pencils to enable them to continue to attend school and then they had lunch.  Afterwards we played clapping games and cricket with them until it was time for the families to leave.  Most of them had traveled quite a distance to get here and for some of them they had a 4 or 5 hour return journey.  It was both emotional and enjoyable being able to spend time playing with the children and mixing with the families and now that we have seen the difference our contribution can make we are all thinking of more ways to help when we get home!

We started our journey to Madurai with our daily water stop.  The girls who work there asked if we could all come into the shop so that they could meet us, so we caused a commotion by crowding out the shop and taking lots of photos!  We had a really interesting journey to Madurai.  It took about 2 hours to get there and we saw plenty of countryside and towns and villages on the way. The temple at Madurai is the largest in southern India and one of the largest in the whole country.  The security and other regulations to get into the temple were very strict and we had to make two attempts to get in before we were all suitably dressed and met the security restrictions. No photos as we weren’t allowed to take cameras in, but it was well worth the visit.

On the way back to Trichy we stopped at a smaller temple which is linked to the temple at Madauri.  It is a fair distance away but every year in May there is a Hindu festival which includes a procession between the two temples.  While we were there once again we caused much excitement and lots of people stopped to talk to us and shake our hands.

Today is Brother Jiji’s birthday so we had a little celebration for him and then we let him win at dominoes.  We also practiced for our contribution to the Rainbow Project visit tomorrow – we are all in fine voice for a chorus of Flower of Scotland.  It is late here now – past midnight and we will be up early tomorrow to go to mass at the local church.  However Rhiannon has a nail bar on the balcony and everyone is making a generous contribution which we will donate to the Rainbow Project.  The young people have been really fantastic all week and we are really proud of all of them.