Today we traveled out of Madurai to visit our project for the week and make final arrangements.  Only 15 minutes or so out of the city and you are back into the rural countryside.  Small Hindu temples dot the countryside, and the paddy fields and coconut groves are lush and thriving.

The scene outside the car window could be from 100 years or more ago.  Paddy fields planted by hand, and ploughed by ox-drawn plows.  Corn and rice drying on the side of the road.  Clothes being washed in the river and hurled against rocks to drive the water and dirt out before being hung to dry.

About 50 mins out of the city we arrived at Puduvasantham – New Life Girls Village – the site of our project for the week.  Home to 118 orphaned, poor or abandoned girls, the village was quiet with most of the kids off at school for the day.

The exception was the babies – the 15 young children under the age of 5 who were our reason for this adventure.  The youngest baby is a little boy of 4 months, an orphan from the tsunami region who lost his extended family in that disaster two years ago, and after the loss of his parents just after birth had no-one left to care for him.

The other babies and toddlers are orphans or abandoned, and several are survivors of female infanticide attempts.  The little children were beautiful and rushed to shake our hands and give us hugs.

Girls village was designed to care for older children, and it is only in the last 2 years that babies and younger children have come into their care.  The babies need a smaller cottage better suited to our needs, which has been the focus of our adventure.

After visiting with the babies, we walked next door to New Dawn Village, an identical project established several years ago for intellectually disabled children.  Megan and I visited this project on its opening day 2 years ago.  It was fantastic to see it now fully operational – with over 50 children all in their school uniforms, attending vocational training and school lessons in the purpose designed buildings.

This project has become so successful it has been recognized by the local, state and central governments and this Sunday Br Sebastian, the Executive Director of the project, will be recognized as the most outstanding social worker in the disability field in the state of Tamil Nadu through a government award.

After finalizing our schedule for the week, we returned to the hotel with a short time to explore the city of Madurai on foot.  Down a nearby street we found the “Clinton Hair Studio”, with a somewhat fading portrait of President Bill Clinton on their front sign.  We read in the newspaper this morning that he is in fact in Tamil Nadu at the moment visiting tsunami reconstruction projects in his role as UN Special Envoy so he is famous in more ways than one way in this town!

The small local businesses are fascinating.  On the side of the road we met several men who run hand pushed carts with a small stove and old fashioned iron.  They take in ironing from people in the houses and apartments above and press them on the spot! 

After a short time exploring it was back to the hotel to work on this blog!  Tomorrow the next member of our group arrives and we will have a welcome dinner tomorrow night before beginning our adventure.