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.