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| SCAW Chennai 2010 Travelling Team (Left to right) Back: Janet Gayman, Doug Cunningham, Patsey Leamon, Front: Tom Belton (Team Leader), Helen Brown, Bill Baker From Chennai Photos 2010 |
Hello to all of you who have an interest in our purpose and journey covering the next 2 1/2 weeks. We have a nice blend of volunteers on this trip. Each of them will be taking time during the trip to express their viewpoint on their experiences. The aim is to give all of you a "picture on our world," painted in the words of each of us. Of special interest to all is that this blog is being joined and used by Leo Bernabi School students and staff in Spencerport, New York, to follow the journey of the bedkit money they raised during their December Fund Raiser.
After twenty-one hours of flying, our team arrived in Chennai on time at 12:15 AM to be greeted by our loyal and gracious Rotary Club of Ambattur with welcoming garlands and warm greetings. After checking into our hotel in Chennai around 2 AM, we settled down to a well-needed and deserved rest ... thankfully.
Our first distribution of 541 bedkits began after a day of rest in a suburb of Chennai named Kilpauk. The temperature here was a balmy 34 degrees Celsius (about 90 degrees Fahrenheit). The sun beat down on many of us as we happily gave out bedkits and greetings and signs of love to the children. Here we met a number of mentally-challenged children. Needless to say, our hearts went out to these, the most needy and vulnerable. Their sweet innocent faces are etched in our memories.
Our trip will be a very demanding one, requiring a lot of travel, so if you don't see us each and every day, it is likely because we haven't had the time or facilities to sit down and send a report. Just to give you a glimpse of these demands: today we are in Vellore where 800 children will be receiveing the gift of a much needed bedkit. We arrived here at 8 PM last night, checked into our hotel, had a meal, and went to bed. Today we must rush to catch the 8:50 AM train to Sivikasi. We have to travel about four hours to catch the train again -- this all after the distribution. We do two distributions in Sivikasi and Sattur (located in the South of India some 100 KM from the tip) and then go back on the train to Chennai. Believe us when we say, this is a most hectic schedule and typical of many trips for Sleeping Children travelling volunteers. Considering we are in the sun and heat all day, it can get quite exhausting.
Well it is time for us to pack up and leave for today's distrbution.
It is our hope that everyone will find these blogs fitting our intentions. We want you to feel a part of what is actually happening.
Until our next contact, the team sends all our greetings and best wishes.
Tom Belton, Team Leader
Team Chennai 2010
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