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Compassion Advocates Trip 2005: India
Updates
Older Entries
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Fri, 11 Nov 2005
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| DAY 8 - LAST DAY IN CHENNAI |
Well, this was our last day in Chennai. There's
not too much to say about today as we spent most
of it shopping rather than doing anything worth
writing home about. The advocates would like to
thank everybody back home for visiting the
website
and posting comments. Your comments have kept us
in touch and entertained! As this will be the
last
update, we would also like to thank all the
Compassion India staff (especially, Silas, Helen,
Ancy, Samuel, Franklin, Ruby and Esther) who have
been fantastic hosts; arranging all the trips to
the projects and guiding us around the area - God
bless you all!
The team would also like to express their thanks
to Clare and Kate (Compassion UK) who organised
and led the trip to Chennai. They have been
tireless in putting up with us all (especially
Pete and Martin!). God bless you both! We look
forward to seeing
friends and family when we get home.
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Posted 10:15
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Thu, 10 Nov 2005
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| DAY SEVEN |
Late start again (Clare remembered half way
down the road that she had left her bag at the
hotel), but a gloriously sunny day to
welcome us outside. Today we travelled south again
to project 554, which is a project in partnership
with the Indian Pentecostal Church (IPC). There
were approximately 256 sponsored children at the
project ranging in age from 4 to 18 years. We
received a fantastic welcome again with sponsored
children lining the street leading to the project
waving flags. Once inside the building we were
greeted by the sound of the Star Wars theme music
being played by a sponsored child on the keyboard
(very surreal). The children sang, danced and gave
testimony followed by the advocates being taught
another Indian dance. We visited a number of
sponsored children's homes again and heard about
the difficulties that the families were
experiencing. When we returned to the project, we
were privileged to be a part of a presentation to
sponsored children of birthday and special gifts.
The families who were affected by the recent
floods were also presented with food supplies by
the advocates team. The journey home was very
eventful; we sat in a traffic jam behind an ox and
cart for a couple of hours, our driver then
decided to get off the coach and relieve himself
at the side of the road. Following this, Pete
dcided that he would have to stop the coach again
before he burst. This led to us all being guided
to the home of a local pastor to use their
facilities (this was surely divine intervention,
as otherwise Pete would not have had any privacy
by the side of the road). Three hours later, we
arrived back at the hotel for a shower and evening
meal. Tomorrow we hit the shops!!!!!!!!!
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Posted 11:34
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Wed, 09 Nov 2005
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| DAY SIX |
A 09.30 start this morning was followed by a drive
an hour and a half south of Chennai to project 515
(Victory Child Development Centre). Again we were
greeted by a sea of smiling faces. Despite only
having 12 hours to prepare for us, the project
staff and the children put together another moving
presentation of singing and dance (accompanied
ably by "Bangra Pete" - a man of many hidden
talents). As at a previous project the advocates
team sang and danced for the children ("The Name
of The Lord"). Later in the afternoon, we visited
some more homes of the sponsored children. This
was again a fantastic experience and we were
privileged to be able to spend time talking to and
praying with the families. Some of the issues that
we prayed about were for unemployment and income,
flood-damaged houses, illness and the children's
studies. One of the houses belonging to a
sponsored child's family had been totally washed
away by the flood water. Malnutrition has been a
common sight amongst the children of these
families. Many of the children appear to be half
the age that they actually are. We finished today
being taught how to sing (and sign) "To be like
Jesus" by Chris. PLEASE CHECK ALL THE PHOTOS PAGES
FOR NEW PICS!!!!!
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Posted 10:32
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Tue, 08 Nov 2005
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| DAY FIVE |
Thought we might have a rain-free day today. No
such luck - the rain started again just before we
left the hotel for our visit to Project 522. This
project was set up by a woman from New Zealand
over 40 years ago. This is a facility with a
school, hospital and various clinics attached (of
which Compassion only funds a part through child
sponsorships). The language barrier is still
occassionally problematic, which resulted in
Justin being proudly shown the washing machines in
the hospital laundry when really wanting
directions to the WC. It was great to hear further
testimonies from children and parents about their
experiences of being involved in a Compassion
project (including stories of families being
converted from Hinduism to Christianity).
Following their welcome, we were asked to perform
an inpromptu choral piece (led by Pastor Pete)
of 'Jesus, Name above all Names', followed by 'Our
God is a great big God' (led by Chris and Glenys)
and concluded with a team prayer (led by Brother
Andrew). After a take-away lunch at the Compassion
India Office, we went on to see some of the homes
of the families at the project. These were slums
on the river bank, some of which had been damaged
by the rising flood waters during the monsoon. It
is hoped that Compassion may be able to support
the repairs to some of these properties. On our
way back Pete (speeding off to find a toilet) and
Hayley were so keen to get back to the coach that
they left Martin, Chris and Justin aimlessly
wandering around the slums in search of a familiar
face.
When finally re-united, our day was concluded by
an extremely hairy road-crossing to reach the
coach. We were aided by a young local boy who with
little regard for his own life, stopped the
traffic whilst a group of us raced across the road
holding hands (where's a lollipop person when you
need one). FINAL NOTE: We may not be able to
update the website for the next couple of days as
we are going to venture inland to a rural area and
may not get access. Please keep checking and
posting your comments to aid any withdrawal
symtoms.
BREAKING NEWS: Due to poor weather conditions, we
have been advsed not to travel to Vellore for the
next two days. We will therefore be staying in
Chennai and visiting some more projects
here....watch this space!
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Posted 07:08
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Mon, 07 Nov 2005
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| DAY FOUR |
This morning despite Pete and Martin having got up
on time with all the other advocates, we were
still late leaving as our guide went missing.
Today we went to visit the Compassion India Office
to meet the staff and discover how the operation
for the whole of South, West and North India is
run. There are 50 staff in the office supporting
51,000 children in 224 childcare projects across
India. We are most grateful to Esther (a formerly
sponsored child and Compassion staff member),
Ruby, Helen, Franklin and others who showed us
around for the day. They made us feel most welcome.
After our visit to the office we took another site-
seeing tour. This again became a situation where a
boat would have been very useful. The north of
Chennai City had become submerged in water
trapping traffic and pedestrians and bringing the
whole traffic system to a stand-still (see photos
on photo page). During the trip we stopped to
visit the basillica of St. Thomas. Our doubts
about whether we would actually see him were
proved right after arriving at the tomb we
discovered that he had not been there for over 500
years thanks to the Portugese who stole his
remains and took them to Rome (disappointing some
may say). Lara Croft eat your heart out.
On our return we stopped off at Marina Beach,
which is the longest beach in Asia and was badly
affected by the Tsunami on 26th December 2004
(nearly 300 lives were lost on this beach). There
were many fishing boats and nets on the beach,
some of which had been repaired with funding from
Compassion.
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Posted 11:11
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