At the Orphanage (8/10/06)

At the Orphanage

On Saturday we travelled to the orphanage run by Calvary Christian Church, This is the orphanage that New Life Christian Fellowship donated to so generously and we continue to give a little to the ongoing costs. The orphanage is located about 100 km from Chennai, in the heart of the tsunami disaster zone.

A tollway runs along the coats, although the tollway seems just like any other highway in India. Australians would protest in the streets if asked to pay a toll for this road, even if the toll is just 24 Rupees (about 75 cents) for a return trip- but then in Australia it wouldn't be worth paying a man to collect the toll at that rate.

The orphanage is located in the village of Chooya (I'm not sure of the spelling as I didn't see any signs). There are currently 42 children spread across 3 houses in the village. The pastor and some helpers sleep in the houses with the children. The orphanage supplies all the needs of the children including school fees and uniforms. There is no government funding for this, and so the money to run it comes from wherever they can find it.

The children are delightful, they really are. I don't use words such as sweet normally, but these kids are just so nice.

The festivities started with two of the children putting garlands of local flowers around our necks. This is a traditional way of honouring visitors. The garlands were pretty, but very heavy. The older girls presented a dance which was made all the more difficult by the temperamental nature of the CD player which every now and again would pause for a couple of seconds. I told the girls, through a translator, that they were very graceful dancers and reminded me of my daughter Susannah. The children sang a song and then we gave them the presents I had brought- bubble mixture, party blowers and balloons. There were many "thank you"s said and there was much excitement. Then we all sat quietly while Pastor Vincent talked to the staff. I blew up a left over balloon and started a little game. But the children remained quiet even when we were playing together.

We prayed for all the children individually and gave each one a hug- they seemed to enjoy that.

Next to the orphanage, the church runs another tailoring and computer education project. Again the local village people are given valuable skills which will make them more employable.

As we were leaving to go to the other part of the orphanage, I took some photos. Down the street there came some men on a cart drawn by cattle. I started to take a photo, then thought better of it, as I thought they might take offence. They called me to come back and they posed for the photo. I took the photo and thanked them but they kept calling out to me. I wasn't sure what they wanted, but Premnath told them to go away. He explained to me that they were wanting money for their trouble. I was a bit worried that I might cause a disturbance.

Coming home we stopped off at a local tourist attraction. At this site there is a huge rock, I guess you would call it a monolith. Parts of the rock have been carved out to make a form of written history of the ancient kings. Other parts have been hollowed out and fashioned into the king's judgement seat- saying it like that hardly gives it justice. This all goes back to the 8th century.

A little glimpse into Indian commerce here. Premnath and Vincent were going to take us into a temple at the site. They had been there last week when admission was R10. This week, because they had western tourists the cost would be R250 each. "Too much" they said,

Well it's time to go off to the 6 am service now. I will post this as soon as I can get onto the internet.