Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
There wasn't much rushing out of bed in the morning but somehow we managed get all 10 females packed and ready to be collected before all the boys. Dan told me that whilst Josh was ready at 7am he couldn't get Hugh up at all so he needed a little bit of chasing to be ready so that we could head on over to the school.
Breakfast, followed by group song practise then time hanging out with the children. Ange and I spent the afternoon making a scrapbook of photos of our trip, making sure there were good representations of all our students for the school to remember our visit. I have to confess I missed orchestra practise but I had spent so much time doing other things I hadn't got around to doing the scrapbook before.
We then got changed for the concert, my outfit that had been sent off to the tailor's earlier in the week came back and so I wore that, although it was probably the hottest day of the whole trip and the outfit was fully lined so I was rather warm. We live streamed the concert once the key guests for the concert had arrived, although if you were watching it I think you had to put your head on one side! It included performances from Josh, Abi & Charlie, Amber Madhu & Dan, Ivy Reading poetry, Orla with the all the Strodies backing, Anup playing a Raga and the orchestra pieces concluding with a final Tagore song called Anando Loke which translates as follows
In the abode of joy and benevolence lies the beautiful truth
Your glory shines across the vast sky
The universe ornaments your feet.
Stars and planets, moon and the sun rush out ecstatically
To drink at, to wash under the pouring grace, infinitely
Unleashing founts upon the earth. The enchanting beauty all around
Receiving you with songs offering leafy, floral greetings - aromatic.
Life flows night and day, in ever-new streams
Bestowed by your tireless blessings in life, in death.
Hearts soften by affection, love, mercy and devotion
Wiping away the heat of distress, showering sympathy
In a grand festivity the world greets Thee
In prosperity, deep adoration and in complete submission.
After the concert we had our formal goodbyes with all of the guests from Strode standing up and sharing what they had appreciated about the trip and almost all of them said they want to go back to school and visit again, many of them were quite emotional as well. It is hard to believe that most of this group of students hardly knew each other before the trip and yet they're such firm friends now. We were also given gifts of tea, incense and pictures drawn by the children. The a short act of prayer to close.
Sairul cooked us Chicken Biriyani for dinner and the children came to eat with us. This meant for the only time of the trip our students were encouraged to eat Indian style without cutlery - I didn't manage to get any photos as I was too busy eating my own.
Due to the hole in the road we had to walk about 15mins to get the bus, with our luggage being transported in a little elephant. It took a bit of chasing our students out of the school to go and catch the bus as they really didn't want to leave. But eventually we got 11 students and 3 staff from Strode accompanied by John, Sairul, Projesh, Suraj and Madhu up the road and onto the bus for the first leg of our long journey home.
- comments