Madurai

After leaving the school, we were taken to the airport for a trip to Madurai.

We arrived in Madurai around 9:oopm. This traffic only gets worse, the more we travel. So I'm not going to comment anymore about it. Just know that that is the biggest risk I am taking here.

We met with Mr. Alegasan who started an NGO called CRED (Center for Rural Education and Development). The next day he took us to his village, Vallipatti (spelling may be off). Here we recieved a formal greeting. The ladies placed garland around our necks and flowers in our hair. Then another lady followed and placed tikkas (marks) on our foreheads. After a few meetings, we had lunch in true Indian fashion: seated on the floor and served on bannana leaves, instead of plates. It was the best Indian meal I have had thus far. After visiting this village, we went to another called Roorashetti (?). We were greeted the same way, but this time given tikkas at the base of our necks, above the sternum, meaning they welcomed us from their hearts. We had a meeting with a self help group and I spoke a little about preventive health. It is very hard to push preventive health in India.

After this, again the children were obsessed with the camera, so I took a few pics. We stayed one more night. I visited the Villipatti one more time to get an idea of what the women are doing.

I stayed last night in Bangalore and will leave for Kerala tonight on an over night train. I will spend 2 days in Kerala, then board an overnight train to Madras. I will keep you updated on everything as I can!
~Lisa