On Monday, January 19th, we wrapped up another program in India. By any way you can measure it, our trip to South India was successful. In the end, we taught our water safety education program to 45 different classes with a combined instruction time of 46 hours and 15 minutes. We taught 2,062 children how to be safe around water, basic rescue skills, and CPR. The schools and orphanages we taught at were very enthusiastic about our program and are looking forward to future visits from Swim India.
Our volunteers also returned with valuable lessons learned. The comment I heard the most towards the end of the trip was that everyone was so amazed at how friendly and hospitable the Indian people are. We were invited into countless homes, given gifts by people less fortunate than us, and treated to several home made Indian dinners. The volunteers learned what bad driving really looks like and how to perform a perfect head bob!
We were also fortunate enough to do two interviews for local newspapers in Kerala. One was for the New Indian Express English daily in Ernakulam/Kochi. You can read the article here. The other was for a Malayalam language daily newspaper called the Malayala Manorama based in Kozhikode.
With the trip behind us, we're already looking ahead to a successful 2010. We're currently working hard on our banquet on March 6th. Also, we are planning two trips abroad- one in August and another next January. We are looking into funding the construction of several swimming pools in some of our program areas in South India so that we'll be able to teach children and train instructors in swimming during future visits.
I want to thank everyone for their support and hard work. Without it, we would not be where we are today.
Namaste, Ben
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