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 ……
Last Supper
Rainbow Project
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!
Visiting the temples at Madurai
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.
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The only photo at Madurai! 
Miss Flynn is here! 
Lots of people wanted to stop and chat to us! 
At the temple on the way back from Madurai
Sightseeing and Saris
Today we went shopping with Brother Chinna for supplies for the schools and projects. We bought 6 sewing machines, a scanner for the Trichy office, a computer for Pu, CD players for the three Marist Brother prayer areas (Pu, St Marcellin and Trichy) sports equipment for St Marcellin and a few other necessary items. Once the shopping was complete we visited two temples and then Brother Chinna took us to do some shopping of our own in the sari shop in Trichy. Now we are all looking forward to organising India days in school now that we have lovely saris to show off!
Our day in Pu
Today we visited the school and village at Pu where we had another really enthusiastic welcome. The young people danced for us and later on the girls had Indian dance lessons while the boys organised a football tournament. Dancing and playing football in 40 degree heat was a little challenging (thanks for that quote head girl) but we coped admirably and Miss Jones has developed a few new dance moves.
We also visited the primary school where we heard the children singing The Wheels on the Bus and Old MacDonald Had a Farm and we taught them One Finger One Thumb Keep Moving. There is a whole generation of children in India who will now grow up able to sing in a Dundee accent!
Later in the day we visited the village. This was fun, thought provoking and emotional (thanks depute head girl for that quote) as we were followed by all the children from the village and we received invitations from them to visit all their grannies and aunties. We were invited into several homes and this really drove home the reality of the absolute poverty people experience on a daily basis. Despite their circumstances everyone we met was very happy and appreciated what they have. Our young people realise now how fortunate they are.
Team photo at the Brothers' homework club - Team Photo – the Brothers’ homework club
Cultural Sights
Today we traveled for one and a half hours in a bus with air con (Miss Jones thought it was executive luxury travel) to visit the The Big Temple at Thanjavoor. This was really spectacular – we visited the sacred temple and the surrounding buildings and we received several blessings for long life from the holy people in the temple. We caused great excitement around the temple and lots of the visitors stopped to speak to us and take photographs of us!
On our way back to the Marist Brothers’ house we stopped to visit Our Lady’s Basillica and Shrine.
Enjoying the weather
Visit to Mangamanuthu
Today we went to Mangamanuthu where we were met by children lining the path to St Marcellin’s school. We had a really fantastic enthusiastic greeting from the children and the staff at the school and we had a great time visiting the classrooms and participating in various sports activities.
We also visited the village and were party to the blessings of the ground for the three new houses which will be built in the next three months. One of the houses is for the cook who works in the Marist Brothers house. One of the other houses is for an elderly couple who have never had a proper house in their lives.
