Last night after writing the blog, we headed downstairs for dinner and met up with the first of our team members to arrive - Rosemarie from Melbourne, Australia! Despite jetlag and no sleep, she managed to stay awake and participate in an excited conversation over dinner, before we all trooped off to bed for an early night.
Bright and early the next morning, Megan and I had to head off for a day's shopping to buy local fabric and decorations to support another charity back home that is planning a big fundraising ball in May 2008 with an Indian theme.
Luckily for us we had some local help from Devi Bala, who is in charge of Children's Village, and Amala, who works at Girls Village. Not only did they help overcome the language barrier, but also made sure we paid only local's prices. The day went something like this - arrive in a particular shopping district, we were told to wait in the car for an hour while they scoped out the shopping and bargained down the prices to what local pay, then we came in to close the deal and get the discount! It worked brilliantly all day!
Rosemarie decided to accompany us, and we found many ways to entertain ourselves while waiting in the car as the deals were done. A favourite topic was trying to decipher how the local traffic worked. The streets here are chaotic with bicycles, rickshaws, ox drawn carts, buses, cars and vans, all vying for space.
Megan decided the best analogy was rock, paper, scissors. Bus beats ox-drawn cart, which beats mini-van, which beats 4 wheel drive, which beats car, which beats motorcycle, which beats bicycle. There are some variations on the theme and subtleties we haven't quite worked out, but we are sure we'll know the score by the end of the week!
At midday, Megan and I headed out to the airport to welcome Jo and Carol, who arrived late at 2.30 pm. We ran back to the hotel, and picked up Rosemarie, and headed out on the shopping run again through the temple markets, and then ended up in a fabric store buying Salwar Kameez - the beautiful and elegant local form of dress.
Finally we dropped off our wonderful guides - Devi Bala, and Amala, and headed back to the hotel for dinner. Megan and I headed back to the airport one more time to meet our next group of arrivals, Christine, Sherri, Paulajane, and Ann. Only one final member of our group is to arrive, Shelley, who elected to catch the train from Chennai to Madurai. We look forward to meeting her tomorrow!
