Elwin Centre and Goa holiday
15 October:
Morning exercise was cancelled. We attended ‘staff prayer’ (a short morning prayer session with the staff) in the chapel and ‘children’s prayer’ in the hall, then went to the classrooms. We were supposed to coach the children in football and tag, after which we watched YouTube videos about softball in the hall.
After lunch, we drove to Madurai to see the bishop, who welcomed us and gave us a CSI bag. The three-minute welcome didn’t justify the two-hour drive (an hour each way), but never mind – at least we got to see Madurai.
Then Jeremia helped me set up my new SIM card. Later, we had dance training in the hall. Today I learnt that Sivakasi and the surrounding area have a population of 17 million and that many British missionaries, such as Alice Elwin (founder of the Elwin Centre), lived in Satchiyapuram.
16 October:
We attended both morning prayers, but actually spent the whole day struggling with our toilet because it had completely flooded and nothing was draining away. It was absolutely disgusting and it could take a long time before it works again.
Today was the skills test for the Special Olympics (which is why we trained yesterday), and seven special schools came to visit. At some point we met a tuk-tuk driver who wanted to take a selfie with us. I asked him how to drive a tuk-tuk and he said, “You wanna drive?” So we went for a spin, which was a real highlight and really saved my day.
03 January
(Goa holiday over Christmas and New Year)
Salome and I had breakfast and went for a swim in the sea. We walked through the town and bought tourist bits like jewellery, shirts and a headband. Leander spontaneously got an organ donor tattoo – everything went smoothly – whilst the rest of us went for a drink. As we’d run out of money, we went back to the hotel. Salome had bought a tongue drum and Harriet a ukulele.
We always end our evenings on the beach during this holiday; there are some really cool bars and restaurants here with live music and so on. Later in the evening there was a bonfire on the beach, where we sat for a while and drank a chocolate milkshake.
06 January
Harriet and Salome stayed overnight on the Elwin Centre campus after we returned from our holiday in Goa. At half past nine we went together to the office, where all the children gave us a warm welcome, and from there we drove off to a wedding with Joseph and his wife. After the service, we drove to a very lavishly decorated hall where the rest of the celebration was to take place. Joseph told us that, thanks to their printing businesses in Sivakasi, the wedding couple’s families are very wealthy and the wedding probably cost the equivalent of around €60,000. That really brought home to me once again the differences in wealth in this country. As is customary at weddings, we took a photo with the bride and groom and ate biryani.
Back at the Elwin Centre, still exhausted from yesterday’s journey home, we had a bit of a sleep until Salome and Harriet had to leave. For the rest of the day, I tidied up a bit, had something to eat and made some phone calls, and settled back into the daily routine at the Elwin Centre.
This text was automatically translated using an AI-powered translation system.
