On Wednesday we set off for PU to visit the secondary school and the primary school which are supported by St John’s.  For those of us who have been before, this was an opportunity to see the fantastic work which goes on in both of the schools, and to see the impact which the support of the India Village Project makes to the schools.  We were warmly welcomed at both schools and its a good job we were all wearing sun glasses to stop the tears in their tracks.  The young people on the trip gave an outstanding account of themselves and completely immersed themselves in engaging with the children and young people in the schools.  The hospitality which we received from the Brothers in PU was outstanding and they are very keen for us to come back soon and stay for longer.  There was no computer available at the Brothers’ house in PU so this is the first chance that we have had to update everyone on our experiences.

We want to upload more photos to the blog but there have been a few technical hitches.  Mr Sullivan and Mr Hutt have lots of photos to share so more will follow!  Tomorrow (Wednesday) we are heading to PU where we will stay overnight, and then on Thursday we are going to Mangamanuthu, and then back to Trichy on Friday.  Hopefully we will get access to a computer and internet while we are away and we will keep you updated.

Remember to keep checking and posting!

Today we had an opportunity to visit two of the temples in Trichy and also to go shopping for saris.  Very busy day but a great experience.

The young people and the Brothers had an opportunity to introduce themselves on Monday night.

We thought it would be good for the young people to work off any potential DVT so we took them for a walk to the temple along the road from the Brothers’ house.  We very quickly sparked the interest of residents living near to the temple and lots of people came out of their houses to shake our hands and thank us for visiting them.  Paul’s sign language skills came in very useful and he became the communication expert with lots of little children who followed us all the way to the temple.

We arrived safely yesterday to Trichy.  The journey was great.  Etihad Airways have much to recommend them – great example of customer service AIT classes!  We did have a slight issue at Chennai over excess baggage, which resulted in a 2 hour negotiation with Jet Airways which Henry Kissinger would have been proud of.  Anyway we succeeded and we and all the baggage are here and in one piece.