Coolies2009

Our first full day off after an extensive working week, Sunday provided a day of exploration further away from the campus. Br. Tom gave the Coolies and the Singaporeans a tour of the nearby city, Vijayawada. Our first destination was the Mother Teresa Orphanage which cared for disabled children who have abandoned or those with parents not fit to look after them. This was the most confronting experience for the Keesara group as we witnessed the most alarming disfigurements on children as young as one year old. As a group we were taken aback from this reality that we have never come across before, we did not know how to react to what we saw. Although as we spent time with the children, we began to realize that they were just that, normal children who loved ... read more

This blog covers the 2009 De La Salle College trip, with 17 students and 5 staff, to two social justice projects in India. One project is based at Keesera, Andhra Pradesh and the other at Keelamudiman, Tamil Nadu. Below is an entry from Dean and Owen in the Keesera Group reflecting on the very long journey we endured from Melbourne to Chennai and then onto Keesera via Vijaywada. 'Whoa', was the reaction as we exited the airport in Chennai and were hit with the full brunt of Indian humidity, a phenomenon Pat Cross described as 'walking through a bowl of Soup', only with more traffic. However our journey did not begin here... Annoyingly our 24 hours in transit began on Friday night at Melbourne's Tullamarine airport, here 15 De La boys, 5 of their teachers and ... read more

This blog covers the 2009 De La Salle College trip, with 17 students and 5 staff, to two social justice projects in India. One project is based at Keesera, Andhra Pradesh and the other at Keelamudiman, Tamil Nadu. Report from Coolies in Keelamudiman - Larry and Ange have more access to internet than Group 2... so we are writing on behalf of the Coolies for any parents who have been checking the blog and haven't seen anything from their boys! We speak to Peppe every few days via mobile or sms and all is well, despite some boys being struck down with a bout of gastro last week. The Coolies in Keelamudiman are doing well and working hard. So hard that by 9 o'clock they are all in bed! They spend a lot of their days ... read more