Back Home, Illness and Video's

So it has now been two days since we got back to england, one and abit of which i (and most of team B) have felt totally Ill, if your of the praying kind, this would be a great help, i personally spent 13 hours in bed solid without eating a thing however i am feeling better now so i s'pose that is alreet :)

Being back home is just... strange now, really strange, we were briefed about what we may feel and how it would be back here but really no words can prepare you for that :( i am sat here, at quarter to ten at night and i am freezing cold even under 2 blankets, it is also too quite compared to the constant honking of horns and just general noise we would be subjected to in india, i miss it, everything is too clean and orderly and too expensive, the food is just strange, something that i thought would be so normal, sausage and mash, seems totally alien to me and i do miss india already however i am not into the normal swing of things yet here in the u.k as i am not totally well yet :(

However some good news for you atleast, whilst out there in india i have recorded daily video's and am in the process of editing and uploading one a day as a sort of a daily vlog if you know what one of them is,
the channel you can subscribe to to keep up to date with these video's is:

http://youtube.com/chennaichallenge

and the first of many video's is already up, so watch it now :D
hope you enjoy them and i hope you can see the first hand experiences we had in india :)



Steve
xxx

Eat, eat and eat again...

I write this blog in my bedroom in Peckham, for we have returned now to the UK and have almost finished Chennai Challenge 2010. I say almost because we will be meeting to debrief the team in a couple of weeks, summing up, evaluating and tying up loose ends of this years project. As well as setting 2011 in motion!

The last blog told of our Sunday, and that only leaves Monday to fill you in on. It was, as you can probably imagine, a busy day.

We decided that we should have breakfast out on this final day, and those of us who were feeling strong stomached ventured out to Doveton to sample traditional Masala Dosai, or Poori. For Emma, this meant her first Pista Milkshake of the trip. Let me tell you they are good.

After breakfast we had our daily team meeting in which we addressed the challenge of trying to understand a Christian perspective on Poverty and Giving. Mostly asking what exactly that means. A fasinating and thoughtful debate.

The next thing on Rob, Cathy and Isaac's list was to try to get a meeting with Bernard Rajkumar. It was vital that we confirm final payments for projects, and give him the cash to complete works that we had already agreed to! Can you imagine if we had just left without paying? That would be rubbish. Unfortunately he is not the easiest man to get hold of, and there was much to-ing and fro-ing before eventually we were whisked away to Esplanade branch to meet with the General Secretary. It turned out that he was in court in the morning dealing with a difficult legal issue. We found out later in the day that the YMCA won the case. Which is excellent news. To have been told this information is a great encouragement to us, as it demonstrates once again the increasing level of trust and partnership between the YMCA and Chennai Challenge.

Well, we sat and ate more food in this meeting (samosa, and a very sweet sweet) whilst confirming that we would like to donate towards the high protein meal for the boys in the coming year once more. This means that each boy at Kottivakkam will receive 1 additional non-veg meal per week for the rest of the year! Excellent news that we had the money to pay this additional cost!

Bernard, Mr Williams (President of the YMCA) and Mr Jonathan Williams (Treasurer) were all present in the meeting. An excellent opportunity to thank them for their hospitality and generosity in welcoming us to Chennai and accomodating us for free!
From here, we had to immediately get back to YMCA Vepery, as we had a dinner appointment with Becky and the Oasis team booked in (that's more food then). A buffet lunch at the swanky Marina Towers. It was quite special, especially the puddings! Again, this was a lovely opportunity to say goodbye and thank you to Oasis for allowing us to be involved in their incredible work. Becky at this point also gave us a copy of the letter about working with the YMCA in Egmore Community Centre and also at Kottivakkam that she had written to Bernard and the board. If this relationship blossoms as we hope it will, it will be a great success for Chennai Challenge, as it will show our ability to facilitate and mediate the partnering of NGO's in Chennai.

From here then, most of the team went back to Vepery to finalise arrangements for our very special final night with the boys. An English Party! As for the leadership team, well having not had enough food today(!) we were then taken by Bernard to his home to see his wife Charlotte (and his daughter who had just flown in from America!), and to eat some afternoon snacks! By this point, we were all feeling rather stuffed with food, however, we felt that it was only right for us to eat at least something, as they had made this effort to welcome us at short notice! It was great to see Charlotte again, as it is 2 years since we have been able to see her.

So, back to the YMCA, where by this point the party had begun. That's right, we had arranged for the boys to leave Kottivakkam and be brought to Vepery YMCA where the team had decorated the room in hom made bunting, UK flags, and had Western music playing! As we arrived it seemed that the team and the boys were having an amazing time. What an honour to give joy to these most incredible boys. We also bought in masses of Pizza for the boys to try some western food. More to eat for the leadership team!

As the evening drew to a close the boys wished to thank the team (including Team A) with some short messages in English. They also gave each of us a small gift bought with their own pocket money. And so, the time had come to say goodbye. This is probably the most difficult time of the project. For me, it was certainly extremely hard. Many of the boys that I have now known for 5 or 6 years are not going to be at the Boys Town when I next visit. Particularly a young boy called Vignesh. He was very distressed, making it even more difficult to say goodbye for what is probably the last time. We hope though, that this time is a time that they will always remember. That it is a time that they will look back on with great fondness. It certainly is for us. In spite of the work that we donated money towards, I think that it is these relationships that are the most important part of what we do. By going out to Chennai and spending time with the boys, we are showing them how worth it they are. They live in a world that tells them they're not important. Hopefully what we do counters that.

And so, we packed and went to bed for a couple of hours before beginning the long and arduous journey back to England. A delayed plane, and sickness from many team members made this an uncomfortable affair, but we made it. All reports are that people are recovering. The adjustment of arriving back in the UK is tricky, so if you are welcoming the team back, please bear this in mind.

Thank you for following this years blog. Do keep looking as well, as we will be blogging more regularly throughout the year on what we're doing. The end of one year means the beginning of the next, and applications for 2011 have already started arriving!

With love and thanks from Chennai Challenge Team 2010.

It's a love thing.....!

It's a while since I managed to blog, so I barely know how to begin! So much has happened over the past few days and it has been a humbling experience, which has made me go through every emotion! Myself, Isaac, (Y)emma, Rachel, Barney and Ross have done some sessions in one of the slums, which we were told was rather well know for the control that gansters have over it and the violence that ensues!!! So we were met at the entrance and escorted into the school, a little nervous and I have to say feeling rather 'challenged' (ha ha this charity is aptly named!!!), as the leader of the gansters house was pointed out to us, right next to the school! Apparently sometimes, if a teacher tells a pupil off, they will report it to the gansters, who will then go into school to intimidate the staff. Because of the violence, this slum is regularly in the news and is notorious, so, we were told, people don't come into this place. Yet here we were....at this moment, I leant over to Isaac and whispered that it felt rather 'Jackie Pullingeresque!' So over the two days we led 4 programmes - 2 in the high school (known locally as the rowdy school), one on healthy eating and one on hygiene...it was great fun, and we certainly felt like we had 'started' something. The 2nd day was certainly easier, the headteacher was more welcoming and even asked us if we would come back again next year!! after these we also did 2 programmes with children in the Church..great fun, singing, games and teaching.
Then at the boys town Kottivakkum, Prince helped us to transform the hall and we watched a Tamil film with the boys (with English subtitles) This certainly is an experience I can recommend to anyone reading this...especially those of you with British reserve...no such thing with our Kottivakkum boys, film watching India style...cheering and whistling aplenty!!! We had a professional candy floss and popcorn stall that the boys could go to and have for free. It was a really enjoyable evening, all brought to an end with a shared meal of Biryani, which was exceptionally good!
Today started early for some of us, as Isaac, Kate, (Y)Emma, Rachel and me were met at 7am and taken to the church in the slums where we had done the after school funstation. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but we had an awesome time. It was brilliant worship, all in Tamil, but that made no difference, as we met with Jesus and the Holy Spirit united us in worship...truly amazing and humbling. It always blows me away that no matter where I am in the world, I can join together with believers and worship with 'family' It was emotional, and as I am writing this I feel overwhelmed just thinking about it. A profound experience that is difficult to encapsulate. We were asked to speak, so Rachel and I gave some words of encouragement/Testimony and Isaac preached, we all sang 'Our God is an awesome God', and some of the children we had worked with got up and sang the 'LIFE' song with us...just brilliant. The conregation prayed for us and the Chennai Challenge Team, then we were asked to pray for people. We really enjoyed it, it was quite overwhelming, thought I was really going to cry part way through!!! Then we went to the Pastors family for breakfast...burmese black rice, which really tasted like porridge with coconut and sugar on it and wonderful naan and coffee.
This afternoon we are doing a programme with the boys at Kottivakkum. We just love these boys so much...it will be hard to leave here...so, please continue to pray for us all, but especially the people here in Chennai,
With love,
Lynn xxx

Praise and fish

We have had a manic few days, leaving us short on time, however now filled with food, we are back!

So where do we start...

...After our two days holiday we were straight back into the hard work. On the Sunday evening we had a 'get to gether' as the YMCA liked to call it! This was filled with a short programme where we were presented with shawls (Emma got a lovely bright PINK one, much to the amusement of the rest of the team!) Then it was time for fun and games (which actually lived up to its name.) First came 'musical chairs', Flo made an impression to say the least, by throwing herself around the room (in a Sari!) in an attempt to reach the chairs first!
Then it was time for 'pass the pillow' where the Garriock's showed their competitive edge, throwing pillows at people rather than passing it. Cathy suggested 'musical bumps', which provided the YMCA board a great deal of laughter seeing mad English people throwing themselves to the floor! An unlikely candidate came from the nice, quiet Kate who from the onset was determined to become Bumps Queen! In the final was Kate and Bex having a veryyy long dance off in which Kate was victorious and no longer quiet!!! Then we had a little bite to eat!

Then it was time to say goodbye to Team A. :( This sad event was made slightly better by our very own favourite person, Shauni, falling flat on her back in a puddle of water! This
would be a good time to mention that the real reason for our absence from the blogging scene was due to our being thrown into a depression by Miss Danby, even though she is in England now. She sent her love and greetings to the entire team...except us. We were actually made to leave the room when Rob passed on the greetings!!!!!

but enough about her...

The flooding at the boys town meant that some adjustments had to be made to our programme for this last week, so Isaac, Ross, Barney, Lynn and the awesome twosome joined together to form a SUPER TEAM! We began by visiting the community of Vyasapardy (sp?) and B.V colony with John who works for Oasis. Our first trip there was in no way also the first time one member had been on the back of a bike, and was in no way the scene of an act of generosity by a stranger on another bike offering lifts over a large puddle (small lake). Whilst there we went to see the school we would be doing some teaching in which is right next door to a gangsters house, but did we let this put us off? No indeed, we were back the next morning completely unfazed and ready to teach some english. Well, we were completely unfazed until told that we would be teaching THE ENTIRE school! But superteam can do anything and hopefully they now know more than they used to, or at least they don't know any less than they used to (though it must be mentioned here that Emma was teaching so there are no guarantees).

Funstations- Health and hygeine and healthy eating at the school went down a treat, we even had some trying to sneak in and join the fun, though that may have been due to the gifts we were handing out rather than our amazing skills. At John's church we ran sessions on praise and fish (calming the storm). It has been an amazing few days topped off by a visit to the church this morning to join in with their service. Brilliant!

Friday night we enjoyed some amazing fruity, nutty (and that's just Emma) choclatey creamy goodness in a bowl at Prince's house (the secretary for kottivakum branch). Emma came away with more than she bargauined for when Princes cutesy daughter refused to be handed back, so we kidnapped her (only for 20 minutes until she realised just how weird we all really are, then she was more than happy to wave good bye to us instead of her dad).

Cinema.

That's all for now, we might just go and get something to eat now.
Byeeeeeeeexx
Rachey and Em.

Kottivakkum Cinema

Hello England (and the rest of the world!)

An update of what we have been doing over the last couple of days.

Friday was the last time at Oasis programmes for this year (I hate it when we have to talk about lasts...). A small group of us went to tailoring (arranging our own auto to Aynavaram market I hasten to add) to finish our cross stitch projects we started a few days before. We decided that the girls should keep the project as something useful, so we made little needle pouches with the design stitched on the top. A couple of the girls managed to finish the whole project (but only because they had finished their cross stitch at home!), I however only just got my design finished, so didn't get to make a needle pouch. (Which was a relief as I have no idea how to use a sewing machine...) But needless to say (do you get it?) the girls all had a great time.

We arrived back at Vepery for lunch to find that the others had been busy writing 'Donated by Chennai Challenge' in lots of story books for Boys Town and had finished all the shopping and preparations for the final activities. After lunch the others were off to Vysapadi to the school at BV Colony and then to the church for a fun station. In school they taught about the importance of hygiene and then gave out soap, toothbrush and paste to each person in the group. (Reports that others were trying to get into the group in order to get the soap give some indication as how well received they were.) It seems that consistency has made a real difference this year and the group have been able to make real relationships in the school and the church.
Those of us that were left had a few gifts and some prizes to buy and wrap for our final evening 'Get to gether'.

An early dinner was taken at Doveton Cafe with a warning of 'Don't eat too much!' as we had been invited to Prince's house for desert. Even so three girls decided to go for the paper roast masala... We were then round to Prince's for desert, fresh fruit salad, ice cream, wafers, chocolate, sauces...mmm...(om nom nom as Steve would say). As well as eating desert we met Sylvia (Prince's wife) and his 15 month old daughter. She seemed very shy at first and kept hiding in my dupatta (scarf) but after we sang incy wincy spider to her she seemed to take a shine to us, well to Yemma more that anyone and as we were leaving she wanted to go with Yemma instead of staying with her parents, a little walk around the YMCA soon fixed this and she was happy to go back to her daddy.

Saturday was supposed to be a final day for buying gifts for all you lovely people, however this is India and things change at the drop of a hat. Instead we were invited to the inauguration of the new computer centre at Fort School. We were honored as Rob cut the ribbon and gave a small speech. Whilst CC has renovated the room all the computers had been donated by Bhumi International an organisation that uses professionals to teach underprivileged children at weekends. It was good to make contact with them and maybe we may have the opportunity to see what they are up to next year. We then had a much smaller amount of time buying gifts before we were off to Kottivakkum for a film experience.

When we arrived the hall had blankets up to the windows and sheets taped to the wall for a screen. Prince had organised a concessions stand which included grape juice, popcorn and candy floss. We watched a film called Chennai 600028 about cricket. The boys all had a great time watching the film, I however didn't really watch the film as I was feeling a little sick (honestly had nothing to do with the first western lunch of the trip!). We finished by sharing biriyani with the boys. A good night was had by all.

Sorry for the longness (its a real word) of the blog.

Lots of love from Chennai

Cathy

About Wednesday or Thursday

So, there is much that has not yet been told, and the time has come for all the good that is happening to be revealed to our waiting public!

What with many of the boys being sent away from the Boys Town due to flooding, our plans have been somewhat scuppered. However, there are rumblings of excitement amongst the team, as new possibilities have come to light. We will be planning a variety of totally new programmes that will push us all outside of our comfort zones and open potential for future years.

Firstly we have been building stronger links with Oasis, doing more work alongside them, and building friendships and partnerships that we hope will last a long time. This has taken the form of English lessons in the Government School in BV Colony (a slum town in the Vyasapardi region of Chennai), delivered, to our surprise, to the ENTIRE school! Luckily Emma, Lynn, Rachel and Ross took it in their stride and divided the school in half, providing a differentiated session to children aged 11-16. This school is in the heart of the community and has significant problems with alcohol, drug dealing, and violence, especially as a ‘head gangster’ lives immediately next to the school. Teachers here are subject to intimidation and violence should they discipline some children. Oasis have been working in the school for a year, building links with local leaders and increasing the number of students attending.

A few of us were also taken on a tour of the BV colony by John (Oasis social worker and Lay Pastor at the New Life Good Samaritan Church). This was an eye opening experience and gave us a real insight into Oasis’ passion and work as well as that of John and his family.

Tailoring went on as planned, and we will be extending our programme there, providing a little more consistency. Reports from Cathy and the rest of the team are really positive there, and we all knew they were telling the truth as they arrived back in the meeting room at Vepery considerably more chilled out than us!

In terms of the boys remaining at Kottivakkam, the plans we have for them include running more challenge style programmes with a team work emphasis, taking them to the cinema, and finally planning an English party at Vepery at which they will be fed Fish and Chips and Jelly & Ice Cream, as well as playing party games and dancing. We ourselves will be preparing the food to serve them!

So, it seems that the rains have been a blessing in disguise. The flooding at Boys Town remains a problem, and this is one we hope to solve with the work we are doing this year with drainage and more permanently next year. As for now, we will enjoy very much having these new experiences!

The other amazing thing that we are facilitating is the building of relationship between Oasis and the YMCA. Bernard and Becky met today and discussed the forging of new plans to link together on development projects. We await further discussions and formal agreements before we reveal any further details. However the potential is very real and very exciting. This is something that Chennai Challenge are very interested in seeing happen, especially as both organisations are motivated by the same inspiration, and looking to empower and engage local leaders.

Well, this is a fact heavy blog, but I hope it’s interesting. We will try to keep you updated and will continue safe in the knowledge that you are eagerly awaiting new blog updates. Thanks to you all!

Isaac et al (I don’t mean Isaac and Al, as Al has returned to England, I mean Isaac and all, like the Latin innit?)

Welcome to the Chingford Challenge 2010!

So, here I am, in Chingford. After a few days of getting used to the crazy culture out here, I thought it was finally time to write a blog to let you know how I'm getting. I arrived safely on Tuesday, whereupon I travelled to where I'm staying while here by the local transport system, which they call 'the tube'.It's basically a series of high speed trains, that travel underground! Mental, right? So, after negotiating the journey with more or less no problems thanks to the power of something they call an 'oyster card' (honestly, they name their payment methods after seafood!), I arrived safe and sound at the end destination, somewhere called 'Walademstoww' or something where I was met with the woman who's putting me up, 'Mum' who was very welcoming and greeted me like an old friend who she hadn't seen in aged, or even like a son! It was lovely. Although I thought the extra hug before we got in the car was a bit unnecessary, but hey, that's just the culture, right? I'm already living life outside my comfort zone! Apart from all the hugging, the next thing I noticed was how quiet Lonndan is. Honestly, I was expecting busy and bustling city, but I don't think I heard a single honking horn! Weird, how do they not constantly crash into each other with out honking their horns!?!? These westerners, eh?! After settling in at 'Home', I was taken out for my first 'Lanndon' meal, we went to a local restaurant and had a beef (!!!) steak and chips! It was very nice, maybe a little un-spicy but I'm sure I'll get used to that in my time here. With dinner I also had a local delicacy, a drink called 'Beerr', which was very nice, although it did make me feel a bit funny! I liked it though! In the recent days, I've met a few great people, eaten some more 'Inglish' food, gone for a coffee (well, I say coffee, it tastes nothing like our coffee, some of them don't even have sugar!!) and experienced some Lonndan nightlife and tasted more varieties of Beerrs, they definitely have a funny effect on me!
All in all, it's great here, and I am enjoying it, although I am missing some of the home comforts of Chennai, such as parottas, autos and air conditioning. It rains here too, but when it does, not only is it rubbish, drizzly rain, it's also bloody freezing! Also, it's really hard to cross roads here, you have to wait for a gap in the traffic, ridiculous! I tried waiting for an oncoming bus, but he nearly mowed me down, the nutter!
This is it from me for now, I'll be in touch soon to let you know how I'm getting on.
Thanks for reading,

Alex x