Life in Madurai

I've been staying here in Madurai with Lindsey, Kristyn, and Kyla the past few days. We didn't have high expectations for our stay here (the city has over a million people and is surrounded by mosquito-laden pnds) but have been pleasantly surprised. There's not much to see here, most tourists stay only a day or two, just long enough to visit the massive Sri Meenakshi Temple in the middle of town. Our luck has found all twelve of the massive temples (between 100 and 200 feet high each) under renovation and covered with thick scaffolding and palm fronds. But the people here are nice. It's a pilgrimage city which caters to local tourists mostly so we go unharassed for the most part. We're staying in a hotel that probably hasn't seen a white foreigner in years. Dozen of Indian families cook in the halls, hack up a lung at 6am, and watch the latest hit Bollywood films with the volume maxed. But at least it has character.

We taught at a high school right near our hotel today. The lesson went well in spite of the use of a translator (the students only speak Tamil). The class was all boys which made for a pretty rowdy CPR practice. One thing my students loved to do was to cup their hand and blow as hard as possible into their unsuspecting friend's mouth. At least it was interesting!

We have lots of activities planned for this week. In addition to teaching, we will be visiting our partner, the Grace Peter Charitable Trust's office to meet the staff, have dinner, and see the work they are doing here. Later in the week, we will attend a function where we will hand out backpacks to needy schoolchildren. It's nice for the volunteers here to get a chance to interact with the local community in this way.

This will be a big week for all of our teams across India. We'll all be teaching this entire week through the weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing all of the success we will have in just the next few short days.

- Ben
Madurai