Last Day in India

Greetings from The American Embassy School. We are currently having a tour of the IB school here in Delhi. The students are "hangin" with the Delhi students so we thought we would take this opportunity to tell you a little about our quick journey to the north.
It began with our introduction to Delhi traffic and our very large westernized hotel, The Ashok, as well as the inflation of prices in food and tips etc!!
Monday we were off to Agra with an early morning start on the Shatabi Express Train. Departure was 6:00am so we were up at 4:00am. The Delhi train station even at that early hour was swarming with thousands of people, coming, going and even living there. The train ride was 2 hours of comfort, compared to the trains on the other tracks over flowing with people. The views departing the station of Delhi and arriving in Agra station are exactly what we read about in India Literature. Holy cow what an eye opening experience. Shabby tents, ragged people and piles of garbage as far as the eye can see. Upon arrival to Agra our tour guide met us at the station and off we went to the Taj Mahal. It was as expected. Spectacular. We spent the morning at the Taj enjoying the views, taking pictures, having pictues taken of us with India families and watching the latest in lawn mower technology. (Two bulls pulling the mower, who then stopped for a break in the shade to eat their clippings). After a fine lunch of northern Indian cusine, we headed to the Red Fort and Baby Taj. By mid afternoon temperatures were hovering in the high 30's feeling like 50 degrees. We had a rest in a hotel lobby before catching our train back to Delhi. We arrived back at our hotel at 11:30pm for a well deserved sleep.
Tuesday we were up and off to shop till we dropped at Connaught Place, everyone purchased some fine India items. The students were elated to have McDonalds for lunch. Afternoon was spent around the pool at the hotel before eating out at Khan Market with Jyoti our teacher friend from The York School. (She now teaches here at AES).
Today is our final day in India. We are spending the morning at school - ha ha, then packing up with a final swim before heading to Dilli Haat for dinner and movie, then off to airport around midnight! See you in Toronto on Thursday late afternoon. We look forward to seeing familiar faces and family. Our trip has been like no other and we look forward to sharing our stories and pictures with all of you.
Barb and Jim

See You On Thursday!

We are not sure how much time will be devoted to Internet over the next 4 days, so this may be the last you hear of us until you come and pick us up from the airport! Tomorrow, we will be getting up for an early breakfast at FFC and then saying our last goodbyes. From there, a bus ride back to Coimbatore to catch our flight to Delhi where we will be meeting Mme. Ranganathan, our french teacher from back in the day.
Our last day at FFC was very eventful starting with a binge clean of our 'ranch' and then going our separate ways for the morning. After lunch, we met all the kids to learn a (rather violent) native Indian game. At this moment, the name escapes me. It was a lot of fun and it is defiantly a game that we are going to bring back home. It is an awesome excuse for Riley and Russell to beat up each other while Harry and Ian watch. However, when Harry, Max, Jackson and Daniel tried to teach the kids Ultimate Frisbee, there was no interest and the kids decided that they would rather play soccer. The girls got henna on their arms, hands, and ankles and it looks pretty intense. Hopefully it will still be around when we come back to Toronto.
We've had an amazing time here at FFC and we are going to have a tough time leaving. The things that we have done here have made as much of on impact to these kids as they have had on us. It is a good thing that we have Delhi as a buffer to somehow ease our way back into life as we know it.
-Max and Harry

Meanwhile Back in Podanur...

This morning, after a rainy night, we had a well deserved sleep-in. Especially for Max, who is a tank. Waking up this morning, around 9, a few of us (Max, Jackson, and Daniel, remember them?) took a quick breakfast and headed down to the beach, for a refreshing morning swim. The rest of the group slept in and had breakfast before hopping on the bus.
Now for the absolute best part of the day, we kid you not. The bus ride was out of this world and not because we could see Max’s well defined muscles from every seat. We experienced some extreme bumps on the road which made for a rockin’ good time. Some slept, got some good reading done or listened to their tunes. Most stared at the god-like one whose name starts with an M and rhymes with axe. A definite highlight was seeing an elephant on the back of a truck behind us just riding the bumpy road and a popsicle stop although our driver seemed a little confused when we gave him one. 5 hours later happily we arrived back in Podanur, happy to be home.

- Jackson, Max and Katie

It can't get any worse...

For all of those worried parents, friends, siblings and teachers who have been anxiously checking the blog for the past couple days and haven't seen much...this is for you! We understand that there's not much else to do around there these days with the wonderful weather you seem to be having and we want to know that we are suffering just as much. We just got back from the beach...and let me tell you...the short wait to rinse off the sand and salt from a lengthy day of horrible tanning and body surfing was just awful. We're are all extremely homesick and can't wait to leave this 35+ degree weather. We're boiling in our private cabins surrounded by moats at the Cherai Beach Resort and we keep getting fresh flowers thrown on us. Not to mention this strange sensation of bloating caused by painfully delicious restaurant food. We're talking four dishes, per person, per meal people...ouch. Sometimes we're even forced to eat dessert or drink tea after. Get us out of here! And furthermore, this morning we thrown into the deep end at the crack of dawn so that we could watch elephants being bathed. They even wanted to PLAY with us. Can you imagine?! Oh shoot, we are being summoned again to devour one last resort feast before we depart back to FFC (unless the teachers have their way and demand we go to the beach again for one last swim after a huge breakfast tomorrow morning).

No, but seriously. We're all happy, healthy and having the time of our lives. Some of us have even darkened in skin tone. Enjoy shoveling...drive slow.

-Matt, Daniel and Harry

p.s. Pictures to come later, don't start filing complaints.

Look Who's Finally Blogging

Hi mom.

This blog is addressed directly to Andrea Wynn, from her loving son who is tired of being nagged about not writing blogs. Today was our last day before leaving for our three day 'vacation' to Kerala. We had to spend the entire day earning our 'vacation' with some good old fasioned manual labour. The staff at FFC had suddenly decided that it was time for the co-op women's sewing project to be moved down three flights of stairs, a street over, and up two floors in a different building (you gotta use the slaves while you still have them...). This process led to a fun and exciting day of sweating and lugging extremely heavy sewing machines (antiques?...definitely made before 1900)and, better yet, sewing machine tables, along with massive bags of scrap cloth. But it wasn't all bad, because between the two locations, we were able to ride in the back of a motor rickshaw (not on the venturing out form...).

With bags of scrap material under our legs and exhaust in our lungs we were finally able to bring the entire menagerie of sewing equipment to its new location only two flights of rickety, extremely narrow, stairs above. We finally finished this task and all felt very rewarded by our successful transfer of several tons of cast iron machinery from point A all the way to point B. We really hope they don't decide they liked it better the way it was before. We finally rewarded ourselves with a game of frisbee with the older boys (who now have some new neighbours above them). Now we have begun packing for Kerala and are very excited for our three day vacation, but we'll miss the kids at FFC all the same.

Note: Blogging may be inconsistent for the next few days due to the unpredictable internet situation in Kerala.

Bye mom
Love: Josh and Daniel (see even for a blog post I can hire a ghost writer)

Early Rising

This morning the gang arose at the crack of dawn; 5:15 to be exact. As we haggardly trudged to meet the bus that would take us to the wedding that we were invited to (hence the early start), we were surprised to see the FFC girls who were awake and doing chores with gusto. We later learned that it was like this every morning.

A short bus ride away we hopped out of the car and were led into a high school gym-like ‘hall’ where the wedding was being held. We were escorted to the front row, and as we were busy looking at the beautiful Indian decorations, a blaring band consisting of two drums and two horn things began playing at decibel levels that were disturbing at times that were not 6:00 in the morning. The fatigue that we all experienced helped drown out the noise.

After some waiting, the groom was led out of one section of the hall, and sat on the floor in front of many ceremonial items. Soon the bride came out, draped in flowers and bangles, looking utterly terrified. She sat beside the groom and maintained the frightened facial expression for the rest of the ceremony. As it turns out, the couple had only met a month before, for ten minutes, and hadn’t seen each other since. The ceremony came to an end and we were offered bottled drinks, and promptly left. We spend the remainder of the day spending time with the kids (the older girls mainly), and teaching them Koob (a Swedish game that we first played at Mr. Brickell’s cottage months ago) from a set that had been specifically made for us by a carpenter named Jerry just a few doors down from FFC.

In addition to this tiring morning, the men dressed up in traditional Indian clothing, like the ladies did last week. It consisted of Lungees (a skirt like sheet wrapped around the waist), a button down short sleeve shirt and a turban. The Lungees could be rolled up, resembling diapers, allowing for a greater cooling effect. The girls at the orphanage had never seen such muscular legs as those on Harry and Max, the two behemoths of the trip.

Because the last few bloggers have had terrible memories, we have to pick up the slack on this entry. Two days ago we made the LONG journey out to a meditation temple called Isha. Last years trip went twice because they had such a fun time, so naturally we were very excited. We pulled up, expecting the place to be empty as described by last year’s trip. This, however, was not the case. It turns out that we made the hour and a half journey (down an incredibly bumpy road) on the one holy night this temple actually celebrated. It was some sort of all night festival that was capped off at 5:30am by a visit from a famous Guru named Sadhguru. It was only around 7pm, but people continued to stream in, and we estimate that around 100 000 people would eventually show up. However, we did get a chance to go into some of the ground of the temple, where we walked down an enormous staircase to a pool with a beautiful mural on the roof.

Tomorrow may be our last blog entry until Friday…So until then please don’t worry about us…we will only be chilling with the elephants and possibly deadly sea creatures.



-Max and Harry

York & FFC sisters

International womens' day was a real tribute to the strength of the women who run FFC. From the canteen, to the co-op (the women who organized the festivities), to the preschool teachers and office staff, the women at FFC are truly remarkable.
They take care of us, make us feel at home and are like mothers to the children. The spirit of FFC is demonstrated through these women who many of which have grown up at FFC and feel so at home here that they do not want to leave. FFC provides them with everything they need to be self sufficient young women. FFC encourages the kids to learn English and go to school, they will also arrange marriages if the older girls ask for it. The women at FFC are all so supportive and create individual relationships with each person and child that they meet. They pass their skills down to us through braiding our hair at dinner (supa!), teaching us to dance, and to cook.
The chapati recipe which they taught us and we made (not as well as them) is something that we will try to recreate in order to bring back memories of this unforgettable experience. So for all of those mothers who want a taste of what its like - try this at home
Ingredients
4 cups wheat (millet) flour
2 cups white flour
1 heaping tablespoon of salt
Approx. 1.5 cups of water - for the right consistency
2 tablespoons vegetable/canola/palm oil
Instructions
Sift flours and salt together.
Place into bowl.
Knead in water. Make sure it is a dough like consistency. Make sure not sticky.
Add oil.
Knead to get out air and mix ingredients.
Separate into fist sized balls.
Take 1 ball and flour the surface.
Using a rolling pin, flatten into a square, thin sheet.
Rub teaspoon of oil across flattened surface.
Fold into thirds, folding the outermost sections towards the middle.
Fold this already folded dough into thirds, folding the outermost sections towards the middle. Creating a smaller square.
Reflour the surface, using the rolling pin roll out so that it is very thin and square-shaped.
Sprinkle oil around edges of pan. Place on medium heat.
Place dough into pan. Using the back of a spoon, rub oil onto chapati.
Flip and repeat. Make sure not to burn. Cook until slightly brown and there are a few bubbles.
Enjoy and think of us.
We propose a dinner for all of the India trip parents where we will try to use our teamwork to cook. Maybe, the "Great One" will coach us through this.
As we type there are 6 of our favourite girls helping us to type.
"Hi. My name is Sindhu. I am studying 7standard and I like Loren sister and Carly sister, Erin sister and Katie sister very much. And all of the brothers. We like FFC very much. We are given freedom by Ghandi Nhadu Suba Chandra Bos. (sights to see)The nature, the Taj Mahal that was built by the Sajganth to Mumtaj, his lover, Egypt, it is wonderful and different to see. My ambition is to become a doctor and help others. One day when I'm a big girl I will come to Canada and visit the York school and the sisters also." - Sindhu, 13
That was a note fom Sindhu, our 13 year old friend and translator who speaks incredible English, we don't know what we would do without her. None of the girls speak English as well.
We love playing with the little girls, we introduced them to mint gum (they acted like it was spicier than the curry), to spice girls, 7up and new hair clips.
They are already sad about our upcoming departure, as are we. The York and FFC girls will all miss eachother very much and are enjoying the short time we have left.
More from the guys later tonight.
For now, Erin, Loren + Carly.
PS They just read the post to us and are continuing to practice their Enlgish skills as I type. If I don't stop there will be no lunch for us.
PPS We went to a Hindu wedding arranged marriage this morning - our thoughts to come.

One Good Day in India...

Today was a treat as we woke up at 9:00, half an hour later than usual to yet another delicious Indian style breakfast (with, of course, our own flavours of peanut butter and Nutella). After the hearty meal, we went outside for the beginning of the International Womens' Day ceremonies. Josh enjoyed himself thoroughly. The celebration consisted of various readings and dances, all of which were extremely entertaining. We had a little trouble understanding some of the Tamil parts but we feel soon we will be quite fluent.

After the festivities, the cantine staff showed us how to make chapatis (a lovely Indian bread type thing). Matt felt sick though so he took a nap. Now he's better. High Five!

This took us through to lunch where we strategized for the upcoming World Cup match, Canada vs. India. At the end of the meal, Ms. P had the wonderful idea to "improve" the recipe for the apparently not perfected chai tea. Her idea was to remove the vast majority of the sugar. Good idea? You be the judge. We were all extremely disappointed (except for a select few) and demanded that it never be done again. Dinner was better.

After lunch we may have had what was the first day-time chill session of the entire trip (because the rest of the time we're building fences and inhaling turpentine). We were grateful and used to it catch up on some much needed sleep and frisbee throwing.

Returning from our brief holiday, it was time to let the Indians know how we do it in Canada on the football pitch (very horribly). As the Canadian team leisurely strolled to the field, several minutes late, the Indians had already begun warming up, which included several laps around the pitch and a three hour tae-bo workout. Not to be outdone, the Canadians aggressively sat in their chairs and did nothing. Matt and Mr. Brickell arrived late, in a rickshaw. The captain, Jackson, who will from now on be referred to as "The Great One", was busy memorizing a few set plays and benchpressing small children at the same time, because he's intense like that.

After a few quick photos with the enemy, the Canadians assumed their positions, or at least tried to (having the combined soccer experience of about 20 minutes, the team was pretty much just improvising (except for The Great One, of course)). With the mighty blow of the whistle from the referee, the game started, and about 45 seconds into the game, the Canadians had already given up three goals. Deciding that, although hilarious, the game was quickly getting out of hand, The Great One organized a mixing of the teams. He did this because despite great play between himself and Matt, who's strength and stamina stole the show, several of the Canadians had inexplicably begun to cry, probably just at the sheer dominance of the Indians.

The latter half of the game began with considerably fairer teams, and with Matt out of the picture (at the end of the first half he had started to sweat, a startling and disconcerting phenomenon, so startling, in fact, that he vowed never to do much of anything ever again) The Great One and his Indian cohorts were free to run amuck. After scoring a goal, carrying several goats off the field of play, and kicking a ball so hard that it crossed the Chinese border, Jackson decided to work only half as hard (which meant he was still working twice as hard as Superman ever did). This lack of focus contributed to him accidentally breaking the window of a nearby household and after several minutes of apologies the game was able to resume. Which then ended in a friendly manner.

Basically, everything is awesome. March break has officially begun so shout outs to everyone back home. We miss you a lot and hope the snow isn't destroying your lives. Try not to think about the weather we're experiencing here. It'll only make you feel bad.

Signing off,
Matt and Jackson

PS: On Tuesday morning we leave for Kerala, and nothing's for sure, but we may not be able to blog for one, two or possibly even all three of the nights we're there. A thousand apologies.

Happy International Womens' Day!

We write this with permanent paint on our feet and turpentine in our nose. We've probably lost too many brain cells at this point (oil-based paint... illegal?) so please excuse any weirdness although it's hard to beat the last blog entry.
Our dream (which actually happened) was to paint a mural in the older girls' room. Katie planned a - Carly says "beautiful," Katie says "oh you... stop," - design of a kind of sun/moon/solar system type thing (see pics). The first step of this process was to go get the potentially illegal paint. Loren, Katie and Jim Daddy booked it in a rickshaw (venturing out form?) to the paint store and loaded up on some primary colours. We enjoyed the pictures of "Infant Jesus" plastered all over the rickshaw. Nice. Next, we returned to FFC setting up by sketching the design on the wall. Matt supervised (Working hard... hardly working). Erin got peed on again (unlucky) yet perservered to pop in with Carly to lend a helping hand in the messy paint process. Although Katie is very talented... Maury/Moory/Mahry/Mary (one of the older girls who was very... erm... enthused about the project) thought differently and always offered her opinion when (not) asked. She has a good heart... albeit questionable colour sense. She painted a nice one on the wall. Things intensified as Loren gracefully knocked a can of blood-like red paint over and we stepped on palettes one too many times. Feet covered in paint, we are having a turpentine pedicure tonight. We smell more like turpentine than curry. This is where the true magic we've been practising lies.
All this being said, the older girls loved our paint job and truly appreciated the mural, as it was their idea in the first place. We loved spicing up the mint green room.
But lets get to the climax of the story. Josh Wynn painted the word "Families" on a white sign. It took all day... truly excrutiating (to hear about.) Breaking News. Quote on Quote. "It was probably the hardest work I've done this whole trip." - Josh Wynn. We clarify, this is NOT sarcasm. His current reply "Damn broads." Happy International Womens' Day tomorrow!!
Needless to say, we're excited for the celebration of International "Broads" Day tomorrow. We're happy that all of our paint projects are finished and lookin' good.
Our humour's all up. Peace. We send our love. Especially Josh for the equality of both genders - men... and broads.
- Carly, Erin, Loren and Katie (Matt and Josh for their manly supervision.)

Once in a dream in India

In the dream “Sports Master”, the only plump fellow we have encountered here asked us to organize a sports day. “Of course”, we replied. On the day of the event Josh sat at a desk on a stage and welcomed the athletes. As he explained the rules of Ultimate Frisbee and the Swedish lawn game Koob, a few of the visiting coaches instructed the athletes to get up from their places so they could get a head start in the pre game marching and calisthenics. We were outraged and chased the visitors through the exits and wound up at Jacob’s House septic pit. Turns out is was just a misunderstanding. The visitors were not being rude they were only reading the fine print in the Jackson and Matt’s tournament instructions. The part about each team being required to throw handfuls of rock and broken brick into the pit before they could qualify to play. Dressed in salwar kamis, Carly and Loren used their best “beast voices” to direct the filthy cascade. Erin and Katie carried freshly painted white and blue signs pointing to the various sports venues while Daniel did card tricks dressed in a dhoti and turban. Harry, Max, Jackson and Katie single handedly defeated all challengers once the Ultimate game got started, making numerous highlight catches and throws. They promised to talk about each spectacular play for months to come. No one understood Koob. A grand day was had by all. Where were Barb and Jim in this dream? And what could it all mean? Without reaching too far, could this be an allegory for York India 2008 from the point of view of the supervisors? Stay tuned…

In all seriousness we have been very impressed with our travelling companions’ attitudes and initiative. They have performed above and beyond all of our expectations. They have made a positive impact on the kids and staff at FFC. It is a pleasure travelling with these 10 students. Thanks for all your comments on the BLOG. They are all in our conversations daily.

Barb and Jim

Hurry Up and Wait...

We have done a lot of 'hurry up and wait' since we have been in India. The thing about India is there are many important jobs to do that rely on other people and things falling into place. The last 48 hour we have tried to start or finish several daunting tasks, however materials (and people!) have caused us to take a step back, re-evaluate...and wait.
Ex. A (set up like a true IB student): The Goat Farm Fence. Two days ago, Harry, Katie, Matt and Josh set out to go put up a new fence for the goats (yes, there is actually a goat farm on FFC property). We were told everything was ready to go, they just needed a few hands to get the job done. This was not the case. Nothing was there and nothing was ready. Instead we beasted out an entire house worth of sweeping, painting and glass breaking (long story...we'll show you the video when we get home). After lunch, we returned ready for action to complete the job, but found that the freshly painted house was being used as a lunch room. This allowed us time to play with the younger boys (see pictures at the bottom), and after a while, get the house cleaned up.
Ex. B : The Screens. After the guest house had been painted and freed from all the broken glass we were told that we needed to screen the windows with mosquito netting with the help of the carpenter. Once again Harry, Max, and Jackson were told that everything was ready to go, but alas, it was not. They told us to watch as they cut screens for hours. This has now gone to the bottom of our priority list.
However, do not negatively connotate 'hurry up and wait.' Everything moves at a different pace here and that pace is a rushed sort of mellow giving one time to experience the immense amount of love and beauty we are surrounded by in this country. 'Hurry up and wait,' is something that we would love to experience more often back home because it allows one to stop and smell the roses.
New Topic
WE CONQUERED THE WALL FOR GLORY!!! If you haven't already heard the front of FFC has been stripped of all of its plaster (thanks to the beasts) using shovels and picks. It is currently being cemented (another example of hurry up and wait all together, but we're not going to get into that) and we hope that it will be dry and ready for painting while we are still here.
Gym class is a lot different here. Harry, Katie, Matt and Ms. P spent an afternoon with all of the younger boys and the Sports MASTER. Gym for them involved running around in circles one way... and then the other way. It also involved some yoga-like stretches and backflips. But our favourite parts were taking on the roles of our favourite pro-Wrestlers and photo shoots (which involved more exercise than you'd think.)
This afternoon we ventured out of Potanur (where FFC is located)into the more urban environment of Coimbatore. This is the closest major city in the state of Tamil Nadu. Aside from the heat (Jackson says today was even hotter than when he posted his blog) being hassled to buy, we had an incredible experience. We visited a Westernized grocery store (MOLLY! WE FOUND TIM TAMS! YOU'RE NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH THEM!) and an Indian craft store. After having ice cream, we went to a beautiful Hindu temple. Inside was a real elephant who, when given rupees, would bless you by touching your forehead with it's trunk. Ashes were swiped across our foreheads and we were given leaves. It was a very spiritual and inspiring experience, one that we won't soon forget.

'Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you might just miss it' - Ferris Buler



- Katie and Harry

Girl Power

Watch out boys, the girls are blogging now.
It's time for our sweet, sweet revenge.
First to set the record straight, our 'guns' are much larger than Max Levitt's will ever be. To add to this, we persevered and stuck out the smell and washed the boys' boxers. It was definitely the 'thorn' of the day....besides being peed (Erin) and peed/pooed (Carly) on by the babies....at least their cute (by the way, Naomi, Kim and Debs were each bringing one home).
To add to our new list of talents, we are EXCELLENT book sorters and dusters (don't worry Kim & MarkyMark, Carly has only had one asthma attack...so far).

Right now, the little girls are banging on the window for us to come out and play with them. They've each chosen one of us to get attached to and have brought us various presents, such as bracelets, bindis and pictures of their fav 'supastar': Vijay. We love hanging out with them.
When the girls are at school, we play with the babies and toddlers. The babies are too cute and the toddlers just want to be held...a good workout for our MASSIVE muscles. Our work is DEFINITELY harder than the boys (and Katie) who are just breaking down a wall. We took the babies up to the roof so they could get some sun. Some of the babies had physical or mental handicaps that were at times hard to see...but we still had a lot of fun with them and they are so happy.

Yesterday, we sorted our 600 pounds of donations and distributed it to the different kindergarten classes, the library etc... Today, Mr. Brickell and Ms. Prevedello had a meeting with Sunbeam about where our $7000CAD - aka 300,000 rupees would be donated. So far, it has been decided to go towards new playground equipment for the special care kids, medical care, a new wall, toques (for all the cold weather??) and rain hats.

The key to our apartment is lost.
Hopefully, our bags won't be stolen...

p.s. we have a new key...don't worry too much Marla.

-Loren, Carly & Erin.

SHOUTOUT TO REMTULLA...best plane letter...awkward.

The Heat Is On

Day 3 - It's really hot. Like, really hot. Fortunately, we now have our bags and with them our sunscreen. I'm sure all our moms appreciate that. So today was our first day of putting in real hard labour for the orphanage. In the morning there were three jobs to be done: rebuilding the front wall of the main project, moving the older girls' belongings from their old, smaller space to a new, larger space, and painting & refurbishing one of the guest houses. By far the most rigorous was the wall building (Max, Daniel and Jackson, with a little help from Mr. Brickell). Despite the 100+ degree weather, furious red ants, unfamiliar Indian tools, garbage, shrubbery, and a crumbling mud wall, the boys persevered and succeeded in not only preparing the wall for repairs, but in avoiding heat stroke as well. The other jobs did not merit much description. Apparently, some of the girls' possessions were a bit hefty and the smell of turpentine was mildly unpleasant, although these claims are not verifiable (and probably dubious). The he-men of the wall then ate lunch with "the others" but quickly moved on to the next grueling task before them. The job was described as a quick bit of shoveling dirt into a hole, yet upon arrival at the work site the men found it to be a gaping abyss the size of which was mind blowing to passersby. Unmoved by the impossible task in front of them, the boys began to work, lifting great boulders overhead and throwing them incredible distances to fill the septic reservoir. After spending hour upon hour completing this chore, the boys were then told they must use the remaining rocks to level 50 x 50 m field behind them. Somewhat thrown by the ludicrous request, the boys gave it a chance, and worked for another several hours. Somewhere in between, Josh Wynn showed up to say hi and throw a couple of pebbles, although this may have just been a mirage. Barely able to move their powerful bodies, the boys moved at a snails pace back to the house, where they showered and restored the liquids they so desperately needed. Feeling refreshed and all the more accomplished, they wasted no time in sprinting to the field, several miles away. After an utterly exhausting frisbee throwing session, the boys were asked to play in a soccer game with the older boys of the orphanage. Although having trouble speaking, thinking, or moving due to extreme exhaustion and heat, the boys were unable to deny the request. Scoring a combined 15 goals, the boys quickly became mythical legends among the locals. After a quick jaunt to the next town over, the boys returned in the nick of time for dinner. Their peers were engrossed by the stories they had to tell, and related their own hardships, which were cute. As a side note, it was Matt's birthday yesterday, so good for him. A misnamed cake was presented in his honour. Indeed, a good day was had by all.

- Jackson, Max and Daniel

A Brief History of the Bags...

A brief history of the bags...Upon our arrival in Chennai late Friday night we loaded everything into the hotel shuttles, checked in, and made a very large pile in the foyer. After a short nap Mr. Robert from FFC arrived on Saturday morning and loaded everything into vans. We thought that would be the end of it. Bags were on their way to FFC where we would all be re-united later that day. What we didn't know was that the bags were taken off the vans and loaded on to the roof of an inter city bus at the Chennai bus terminal. The bus broke down somewhere between Chennai and Coimbatore. What to do? At one stage there was a plan to send a truck out in search of the broken down van with 24 huge suitcases and duffle bags on the roof but that idea was abandoned as nobody really knew where the break down had occurred. Cell phones and blackberries hummed… Then, some good news from the bus company, the bus was fixed and on its way. “Two hours time” was the promise around mid afternoon Sunday. At about 8:30 pm the bags were still not delivered and the new best estimate was – wait for it – “two hours time”. Mr. Robert and Mani the FFC driver had spent the entire afternoon and evening waiting for the bus to finally arrive in Coimbatore. We went to bed Sunday feeling a bit discouraged at the prospect of having to put the same clothes on again Monday morning but when we arrived at FFC for breakfast, lo and behold, the bags had arrived. Following another delicious FFC breakfast of dosas, idly, dal, pb and j, we finally unpacked our bags!

We're not in Kansas anymore...

It’s been a long, difficult trip but after about 20 hours in the air and many more in airports and lineups, we’ve made it. It’s day two and we are slowly but surely settling in and beginning to accept it here as our new home for the next couple weeks.

The journey began in Toronto Pearson International Airport where the twelve of us met, unable to contain our excitement. After saying goodbye to our families and checking in it finally hit many of us that we were on our way to India. A few hours later, we boarded our first flight of many and settled into the cramped cabin of a Lufthansa flight to Frankfurt. After many walks up and down the aisles in attempts to stretch our legs, we landed in Germany and prepared for the next leg of the trip.

Three hours later, the second flight took off and headed towards Chennai, India. For us, it was a chance to catch up on some much needed sleep and we found ourselves quickly landing nine hours later in India. Upon arrival, we realized that it was no longer winter where we were and at one in the morning it was upwards of thirty degrees. After collecting our twenty four, massive duffle bags we exited the airport and entered a whole new world of sights, smells and traffic.

Our first impressions of the country were that of amazement, wonder and excitement…even at two in the morning. The city was bustling and alive and there were no signs of it slowing down any time soon. There were horns honking and people screaming. We couldn’t have been happier. After causing minor gridlock in the parking lot thanks to all of our luggage, we separated into taxis and made way to the Trident Hilton hotel. During the drive there we received a brief lesson on Indian life and culture. The drivers honk at nothing, drive on both sides of the road and maintain good humour and a friendly face at all times.

The hotel was spectacular. The staff were friendly the food was fantastic. We all had very comfortable sleeps and awoke to a beautiful morning of swimming, Frisbee and tanning. We knew it would be our last few hours of luxuries so we took full advantage. Our last leg of the trip to FFC began at 10am with a one hour flight to Coimbatore. This was the most comfortable flight so far being on Jet Airways. We all had our own personal TVs and the meal of Indian chicken or vegetables was the best plane food any of us had ever tasted.

We landed in Coimbatore and piled into a van that didn’t have enough seats (Max Levitt graciously sat on the hard wood floor) and ended the journey as we rolled into York House, our final destination…at least for the next nine days. We received a tour of the orphanage which was split into four sections (older and younger, girls and boys) spread out within walking distance across the small town. We were surprised at the living conditions and amazed at the self sustaining abilities of FFC and how happy the children and staff all manage to be. We have so far had two meals here, both consisting of delicious authentic Indian food (as well as some peanut butter).

Our first night at York House was interesting. The accommodations we have are small and we are supplied with little more than basic necessities. We have so far found it to be very livable however and look forward to spending the next little while there. We were all extremely tired and landed fast asleep onto our cots before 10:00. Later we found ourselves awake later on that night between 3am and 5am eating pomegranate seeds and taking in the Indian sunrise. Hopefully tonight we’ll be able to stay up a bit later and get onto a more normal schedule.

Today we were expecting to receive the remainder of our luggage (we so far have been living out of carry ons) as well as the 600lbs worth of donations. We learnt, to our despair that the bus transporting the bags from Chennai had in fact broken down about 150km away from us but the specific location was unknown. This to say the least had us slightly frightened and frustrated. Minutes ago however we learnt that the bus has been fixed and, knock wood, our bags are on their way and we will receive tonight.

More details on our experiences to come,
Matt, Josh, Harry