Blogs from Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India, Asia - page 3

We have all arrived safe and sound and are getting ready for our first night at the deaf school. We are all absolutely shattered but are planning on getting an early night so that we are ready to start the project bright and early tomorrow morning. Students will hopefully be updating the blog now on a regular basis so please keep looking to find out what we are getting up to! ... read more

Since working with the children we have also been out to see what life is like for the salt pan workers and how womens groups forged through the help of SCAD help their communties grow. Salt pan workers work near the coast on salt farms. The work is hard and the days are long. Salt water needs the right climate to dry out leaving the salt behind it takes about 30 days for the whole process to end and if there is rain it can all be destroyed in no time. The salt pan workers have to skim the salt from the fields and load it into piles and them bag it ready for shipping. They work 7 days a week from 6-1 in the afternoon and then after they have had dinner for hours in ... read more

So after Alleppey we caught a train to Trivandrum and stayed at the YMCA for a night. We managed to find a hotel that served a cool beer and ended up watching the start of the Diwali festival and fireworks from the rooftop of the hotel (I told Jess the fireworks had been planned in advance for her! Smooth ay! :) ) We then caught a train to Tirunevelli where SCAD is based while Diwali Festival was still in full swing . . . We have been here for two days and there is a lot to take in. SCAD helps people who have been cast out of society for lots of different reasons. I could not believe the size of the campus! It’s like a massive university campus that houses a polytechnic, college, engineering college, ... read more

We woke up at 1:30am for the 7 hour journey to Hill Station. After lots of sleeping and a few short stops we arrived. It was much cooler and the surroundings were lovely, green and picturesque. After a short break to settle in and enjoy some breakfast we jumped back on the bus to head off for our trek. It took just over two hours and the views were amazing from the view point called Dolphins Nose Point at 4500 ft. It was strange to think that the sights we were witnessing were in India. After the walk we had lunch and a rest then headed out on a shorter walk round the town finishing up in a Domino's where everyone tucked into pizza. Everyone was really tired and were all asleep by 9:30. After a ... read more

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away (60km from Tirunelveli), there went a party of 22 scholars and 5 adults. They were trusted with the immense task of visiting 4 waterfalls without being groped by the locals. They voyaged a perilous journey spanning 2 hours across the dusty roads of southern India. We meet our travellers on arriving at the first waterfall. Vast was it in size and of rocky appeal. As they travelled closer, their brows began to furrow as swarms of topless, over-weight Indians visually interrogated the group. The atmosphere thickened as each group member renounced their chance to wash in the first waterfall. And so they journeyed on... Alas, their 60km journey was not all in-vain for the second waterfall was much to their delight. For glory! Waves crashed down ... read more