Namaste!

The Journey..

Start Date 9th June 2010...we started our mamouth mission to chennai from birmingham international...we began our voyage into the final frontiere that is Vellore, India!! Beginning with our good friends at Emirates showed us kind hospitality which we used and abused like good old students by knicking their pillows, pens and bread rolls!!

After eating lots and sleeping little we arrived at Chennai to be greeted by a wall of faces gawping at the white sweaty westeners who were probabully carrying more clothes than theyd seen in a life time! We eventually found our driver, Sukumara who beat and squished 3 out of 4 bags into the boot...unfortunately Gens bag didn't make the cut for the boot and ended up on the roof, tied on with a small ball of twine!!

Despite being the perfect opportunity to nap, the 3 hour journey for Gen looking in the windows of other cars to check that her bag was still tied on the top of the roof!! Sukumara added to gens anxiety by sticking his hand out the window to feel for the exciled bag!! Enough was enough, the bag came off and joined the party of 3 people and 3 bags in the back of the very small hatchback!!!

And so to Vellore and the AVP Lodge. 3 words....bed, squat, bucket. This is what our room consisted of for 4 of us to share!! We voted with our feet and upon imminent arrival there was imminent departure! We found a much nicer place with the help of Mrs Sheela and Sukumara and ended up in Ananda Bhavan.

Settling in...

on Friday and Saturday we set about making ourselves known to the Christian Medical College campus and to Debbie and Hugh Skiel who are the most generous couple who have provided us with dinner and a home for 4 weeks as well as oodles of advice. On Sunday we had our first taste of holiday life by visiting the swimming pool! we expected nothing more than an elaborate puddle but we were pleasantly supprised when we stumbled across the pool/cafe/shop/oasis!!!!!! This provided great relief from the heat.

In India it seems you don't just go to the shops to find things that he hoi Polloi wear, you choose everything to order and get it all specially made for you!! (photos of the finished products on the way!)

On Sunday evening we set off with our new malaysian friends to the GOLDEN TEMPLE. No s***. (google it! we wernt allowed cameras!, apparently Gods arnt photogenic!) This was the shiny-est, holy-ist, busy-ist, jaw dropping-ist thing we EVER did see!

First day at CMC...

The ear nose and throat (ENT) department was the first port of call for Kirsten and Jenny and Nambikkai Nilayam for Gen and Lucy. This is a place for children with autism, cerebral palsy and developmental delay where the parents are trained with coping techniques for 3 months. Next week its all change... be ready to be posted on more news of the CMC!!