Beginnings

After we rested yesterday, Joelle (our team member who has made two previous trips to India) took us to SEAM - the Southeast Asia Mission which cares for 37 children ages six through 16 years of age. These children are orphans, or have single parents or families who can no longer care for them. Our purpose was just to introduce ourselves to the children. We walked along noisy, crowded, and dirty streets to get there. I will have to say that Chennai is the dirtiest place I have ever visited. Dirt and garbage are everywhere and always underfoot. The people, however, seem very friendly - many smiling at us as we pass.

We were glad to finally find the SEAM building; Joelle had to ask directions along the way. At that point my foot was really hurting as my new shoes, which I thought I had broken in before coming on this trip, had rubbed a large blister on my heel. However, the smiles and greetings of the children made the walk worthwhile. They had been napping, but they didn't seem to mind waking up to come out and shake our hands, ask us our names, and give us their names in turn. Their smiles and laughter seemed genuine. After the initial introductions, we looked at their dormitories; the boys had one large room with bunk beds and the girls had another. The dormitories were provided by Global Volunteers. We were then escorted to the main room and were provided plastic chairs; the children sat in rows on the floor in front of us - the boys on one side and the girls on another. Once settled, they treated us to a song and then one by one formally introduced themselves and gave their name, age, and grade level. We then introduced ourselves. Someone in our group asked what careers the children were considering, so the older children told what they aspired to become. They sang two more songs, including the India national anthem and we sang "You Are My Sunshine" in return. Afterwards, we returned to the guest house, with the oldest boy escorting us back to show us the short cut.

We rested some more before dinner. Dinner consisted of a flat bread, curried cauliflower and curried chicken. After dinner, we talked briefly then went to bed early in order to get over our jet lag.

Today we woke up more refreshed and found out that two more team mates arrived while we were sleeping: Katie, who had missed her flight and came 24 hours later than she originally planned, and Jana, a nurse practitioner from Connecticut. We breakfasted on eggs and rice then began our team meetings to get our team assignments, establish our team goals, learn the "dos and don'ts" and to organize our free time. At least for the first week, I'm assigned to the construction project (building more dormitory buildings at SEAM) during the day and going to the St. Thomas Hospital in the evening. Other team members were assigned either the same assignments as mine or to teach at the various schools Global Volunteers supports.

The projects Global Volunteers supports in Chennai are:
1) SEAM
2) Assisi Ilam: A daycare and orphanage run by St. Thomas Hospital. Assisi cares for 35 children ages 2 years - 5 years in the daycare and 20 children ages 3 years to 16 years in the orphanage.
3) Grace School: A school for poor families that don't want to send their children to public school. Grace School has 80 children in kindergarten through 5th grade.
4) St. Joseph School: A Catholic school with 500 children in kindergarten through 10 grade.
5) St. Thomas Hospital: A private hospial. St. Thomas is not a free hospital, but does have reduced fees for the poor. A nursing school is also run by the hospital.
6) St. Joseph Social Service Center: A daycare and orphanage. We didn't get much information about this as we will not be sending anyone there this trip.

We had another great lunch: eggplant, briyani (curried rice), and a yogurt-onion sauce (to cool the palate). After we ate, Stephan (our team leader) treated us by going out and buying us ice cream.

Now we have free time before we make another visit to SEAM. After our visit to SEAM, Stephan is taking us out to an Indian restaurant for dinner. I think all of us are looking forward to starting our projects, but are also feeling a little trepidation. Challenging oneself is good for the soul...