India aspire final 2018

All Hallows Social Enterprise Project in South India—The Project so far….

During our twelve-day trip to India the words of Oscar Romero, which we at All Hallows have adopted as our college motto – ‘Aspire not to have more but to be more’, were at the forefront of all our minds.

I have never seen such poverty or such desperate need, yet amid it all such hope and happiness. We witnessed a real belief that things can change and that we can make a difference and empower others to build a better life for themselves.

The main drivers behind much of the excellent work we saw are the Presentation Sisters, part of an international congregation, who are committed to the service of the poor and marginalised. Following the lead of their foundress Nano Nagle, a woman of heroic virtue, these remarkable women are passionate about providing education and care to the vulnerable and powerless and providing relief to those exploited by unjust systems. Today there are more than 1,600 Sisters who are active in five continents in a range of ministries.

For those of us who were fortunate enough to travel to India this time, our main contact with the Presentation Sisters has been through Sister Susan, our College Chaplain. Anyone who has encountered Sister Susan will speak of her abundant warmth and kindness. She is certainly a person of hope and joy.

When in her company it is as though you are the only person that exists, and she genuinely cares about how you are feeling. No matter how low your mood or how many your concerns, you cannot help but feel uplifted when you have spent a little time in her presence. As with any person, she has her own worries and concerns, but she shelves those to ‘be more’ to whoever she is with. We are forever thankful to have her as part of our community and long may she continue to minister for us.

What awaited us in India was a whole host of Sister Susans of different ages, backgrounds and many diverse gifts, but all with the same charism and values. Their love and care for others was tangible and something very special to behold. They did everything in their power to make sure our group were well looked after and showed the exact same love and compassion to the numerous homeless people who turned up at one of their feeding stations each evening.

We travelled to three distinct parts of India – Chennai, Theni and Varasanadu – and saw the Presentation Sisters work with the poor and marginalised in so many different forms: educating children from the slums, feeding the poor, caring for the sick and providing adult education to name but a few. What is so apparent in their work however, is how they empower the people they work with to take control of their own lives, be that, for example through encouraging the establishment of women’s empowerment groups and children’s parliaments.

The Presentation Sister foundress Nano Nagle was known as Lady of the Lantern. It is easy to see that those who have followed her carry her lantern of love, joy and compassion. The Presentation Sisters we met in India continue to bring the spark of Nano’s flame to those most in need and on the margins of society.

May God continue to bless them in their work and we the students and staff of All Hallows thank them for the honour and privilege of walking beside them for twelve remarkable days in February 2018. An experience none of us will ever forget.

Mention must also be given to the other adults and students who made the journey to India. Our students were remarkable showing huge support to one another in a new and sometimes challenging set of experiences. They showed joy, compassion and a determination to make a difference in equal measure.

Following discussions with the Sisters they were resolute in their willingness to continue supporting the clinic which we as a College have built in Varasanadu. In addition, they have agreed to fund an eclassroom for one of the schools in Theni. Most touching was watching them pooling their spare rupees

together at the end of the trip to find the equivalent of £30 to provide the food for the feeding station which the sisters in Chennai run each evening. As always, they did us proud and were a pleasure to be with.

It was Mrs Garvey who together with Sister Susan organised the visit. True to Mrs Garvey’s style, each day was packed with deep and meaningful learning experiences. Every moment was planned to provide the students with a new insight and to encourage them to reflect on and question what they saw. Her knowledge of India, its culture and her obvious passion to make a difference was heart-warming and many a long coach and train journey was spent listening in fascination as she recalled tales of her travels across India and other parts of the world. She really was a joy to be with and All Hallows is blessed to have her as Acting Deputy Head as we go forward.

Mr Jones will be remembered on the visit for the way he threw himself whole heartedly into every situation. His kindness, energy and vigour were infectious. He was just so happy to be involved in the visit and provided many an amusing moment. The one at the forefront of my mind is when he and the boys modelled their lungis (Indian male sarongs) for the Sisters. There was so much laughter, advice and demonstrations from the Sisters as to how the lungi should be worn and he enjoyed every moment!

We were also fortunate to share the visit with a lady called Pat Frost who had accompanied the group in 2016. Pat’s aunt had been a presentation Sister in Theni and spent most of her working life working as a nurse and an administrator in the hospital on the convent site, which is still open today. Following her aunt’s death at the age of 95, Pat made the visit to India to see some of the excellent work her aunt had been involved in. Pat’s stories and photos of life for the Sisters of a previous generation were fascinating to listen to. Pat herself has been hugely affected by her experience of travelling to these parts of Southern India and again is passionate about doing something to better the lives of the people she met. In addition to the financial support she provides, Pat also proved to be our moral compass and whenever Mrs Garvey or I were tempted to buy cashmere and silk pashminas we didn’t really need, she gently asked the question ‘how many people could that amount of money feed?’ A sobering thought, but one which came to mind time and time again during our visit. Here is a lady who certainly ‘aspires not to have more but to be more.’

I am so grateful as I come to the end of my career as a teacher to have had the experience of the visit to India and to have seen for real all the people and places that we have heard so much about. I wish our students, staff and governors every blessing in continuing all the good work that goes on, but most especially the work in recognising that we are part of a global society and continue to support the most vulnerable in another part of our world.

Ann-Marie Connor

Day 1 The Adventure Begins…

Today is the start of our adventure. Who knows what the next twelve days will bring?

The day started early, with most of us waking up at four am to savour our last ‘normal’ shower for a few days at least. After throwing the last essential items in to our already bulging rucksacks, we all headed to the airport to meet Mrs Garvey, Mrs Connor, Sister Susan, Mr Jones and Pat, a lovely lady joining us on the trip.

After a lengthy extended check in and security experience, we were given fifteen minutes in the terminal before we had to board. Somehow, in this time Emily and myself managed to grab not only a Boots Meal Deal (a travel essential) and a bacon butty from Starbucks. With enough snacks to last us several months, let alone hours, we boarded the plane to Dubai.

After the initial disappointment of the entertainment system being broken, we quickly found other ways to occupy ourselves. We caught the whole plane’s attention with our game of ‘Who am I?’ and even found some younger recruits to join the team. Mrs Garvey decided that a sing off was necessary, which led to us quickly recognising none of us are bound for X Factor any time soon…

The long flight flew by and before we knew it we were dashing through a glamorous airport to make our connecting flight to Chennai. Thankfully we made it, and even more importantly the TV screens were working on this flight! This leg of the journey was significantly quieter than the first, with most of the group settling down to watch a film or take a much needed nap.

After just under four hours, we landed in India.

Mrs Garvey had warned us the border control could be difficult due to the Hindu government’s strict border controls relating to charity work, and unfortunately they didn’t seem keen on us…

Following intense interrogation, we were permitted into the country and made our way to find our luggage. At this point, it suddenly dawned on us that our connection had been that quick it was possible that our bags hadn’t made it on to the flight!

Approximately two hours after landing, we made it out of the airport (with all of luggage) and met Sister Cecilia who accompanied us back to Church Park on the multi-coloured party bus. The roads were a complete culture shock, with excessive beeping and little regard for other drivers. Definitely something that will take some getting used to!

We made it to the convent at around five am, exhausted and ready for bed!

We can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Megan

Day 2 Indian Education at its best!

After having a brief three hours of sleep, we all met in the convent’s dining room for breakfast – this consisted of mango juice, cornflakes, toast and fresh fruit which was incredible!

Shortly after, we were led on a tour of the two schools in Church Park by Sister Cecilia. The first was the private girls school and we got time to meet some of the young children and interact with them, which was amazing. The girls all spoke really good English at just ten years of age! The second was the Tamil local school which had around four hundred students – largely from the slums. Here students showed us some of the work they had produced and sang a song called ‘Watermelon’ which was so lovely. One interesting fact we found out was that the two schools have exactly the same uniform to show equality between the private and local school.

However, there were some big differences between the two schools. The girls in the private school were a lot more confident and had job aspirations like doctors, archaeologists, gynaecologist and business women. In contrast, the Tamil local school girls were a lot shyer and more reluctant to speak to us. We were told they aspired to be secretaries and shop workers. Unfortunately, the English spoken by these students wasn’t as good and they had little experience of life outside of the slums they came from.

Next we walked back to the dining room to get lunch, which was really nice. After this, we had a couple of hours to rest in our rooms, which also consisted of Dom, Fred and Chrisoph playing a heated game of ‘Jungle Speed’.

At around 5.30 we all headed off to ‘Spencer’s’, a local shopping mall to put our haggling skills to the test. Being British, it was difficult at first for us to refuse the offers of the shopkeepers, but we all ended up wishing we could take this new skill back to Tesco at home! In one shop they were so persistent with their sales pitch we felt like we had to buy something.

We then headed back to the convent to have dinner and get ready for bed – by this point we were all very tired. Finally, whilst most people went off to bed Dom, Fred, Christoph, Megan and Mr Jones decided to play a rather competitive game of Rummy.

Dom, Fred and Christoph

Day 3 Anglo-Indian relations in jeopardy as ‘stand-off’ occurs between UNESCO Security guard and Sister Meena …

This morning, after breakfast we took an hour long coach journey in slow Chennai traffic to the Seashell Museum home to thousands of variations of conchs and starfish in pearlescent shades of pink and blue. All these shells had been collected by the same man over a 33 year period. The ‘aquarium’ next door (similar to the fish section of Pets at Home) also had a fish foot spa – much to Mr Jones’ delight! There were five of us that wanted to have a go. We paid 100 rupees for 15mins and spent the entire time squirming at the bizarre sensations.

Back on the bus, we made our way to the UNESCO World Heritage site where we encountered some more trouble. Much to our disbelief they charged 30 rupees entrance for an Indian, 500 rupees for an non-Indians and free for under 16s… so obviously for that day we were all 14 or 15! We thought we would explain that Christopher had recently had a growth spurt! Mrs Garvey bought five adult tickets and told us all we were born in 2003.

When we got to the gate the security guard wasn’t fooled as easily as we had hoped and questioned our ages, asking for ID. Following a heated discussion in Tamil, between the guard and Sister Meena accompanied by lots of gesticulation in Christoph’s direction, the guard threw his arms in the air and a 17 strong unified army marched in.

Looking at the beautiful sculptures carved out of stone for King Mahendravarman and his son Narsimhavarman, we posed for photos with locals. Mrs Garvey took our photos sprawled across the rocks before suggesting we ‘photo bombed’ a five strong Indian group photo. In our opinion we more than repaid our entrance by providing the locals with entertainment.

With little shelter from the sweltering heat we made our way back, but not before stopping off and buying 12 coconuts. Instead of coconut milk, as we had expected, inside was coconut water – it wasn’t to everyone’s taste, unfortunately.

On the bus again we drove to a museum which was unlike any museum any of us had seen before. There were craft stalls, art galleries and it advertised to hold events such as weddings and conferences. However, the most interesting part were the replicas of different styles houses from four different regions of India, each with a specific resident in mind, such as a potter. Around the back of the houses there was a talented man glassblowing, creating beautiful figures and small trinkets. We all had an hour to wander round looking at whatever we pleased. Some girls got henna, others bought bracelets and the boys spent their money on hand-scratched drawings on palm leaves. Hope I haven’t spoiled any surprises!

After we had congregated at our meeting place, we once again made our way back to the bus and headed to our final destination… the beach! Although not specifically in the ‘risk assessment’, we were sure that paddling in the Bay of Bengal wasn’t too dangerous. The girls with monkeys however, were more of a risk!! On the beach we attracted a lot of attention and many people gathered to see the English people paddling. Dripping wet we made our soggy way back to the bus and headed. But not before three of the group (names withheld) had their first experience of Indian public loos – enough said.

Dinner was served at 8pm and we arrived back at 6:30 giving us time to relax and fill in our diary with the day’s adventure.

Alice

Day 4 Pizza Hut and Grumpy Sadus The day began with a quick turn around: showers, breakfast, mosquito repellent and then straight to the bus for our trip to St. Thomas Mount. We viewed all that was on offer in respect of St.Thomas; we learnt about his history, his importance in India and saw some interesting statues of him built in his honour. After this first stop we made our way to the St.Thomas orphanage, which was home to children of a wide age range. It was tough to say the least. We saw many babies all together in one very colourful room, it was their nap time so, sadly there was no tiny hand holding. It brought joy to us all to see the short time between their date of birth and their date of adoption, showing just how important the orphanage is for these children.

We were dragged away from the babies, unwillingly I might add, to be taken into the next room where we became even more infatuated with the other children. These children had a range of disabilities, from blindness to having no spinal support. I myself had the joy of holding a beautiful little girl who smiled like the room was made of chocolate. It was one of the most heart warming and heart breaking experiences for most of us.

With the goodies in hand, we went into the playroom armed with balloons and bubbles for all the toddlers and to say they loved it was an understatement. Holly suddenly became a walking target with her bag full of balloons. Emily and Megan had to pry the lollies out the the children’s hands so they didn’t eat the wrappers. Mr Jones became frantic about the children not understanding the concept of bubbles which led to us scurrying after the excited children to ensure they didn’t drink them. The whole experience of seeing what the orphanage provides was overwhelming for us all, myself in particular. But as a group we spoilt those children with all the gifts we brought and, felt much richer in ourselves after it.

After this we went to an English Mass in a beautiful church and reflected on the season of Lent. Then we headed back to Church Park for Pizza Hut lunch and an afternoon rest out of the Indian mid day heat. In the afternoon we began our build up to the dreaded overnight train; we packed up, did our final checks and said goodbye to all the sisters and the trainee teachers at Church Park , until our return on Saturday. Arriving at the train station we hastily grabbed our bags and jumped onto the train. There were 8 beds to each section and the group was dotted about in one carriage as our journey began. Our section set up our beds, went to sleep and waited for our early morning arrival in Theni…

Georgia

Day 5 Singing, Dancing and Selfies After a rambunctious night of playing silent UNO we were awoken by Mrs Garvey at six o’clock. Then we were greeted by Sister Stella and Sister Pushpam and carried our tired selves on to the bus.

Our journey to Theni was an hour and passed by some beautiful scenery with rocky mountains, stray dogs, cows and baby goats.

Following the Sisters into the dining hall we were welcomed by breakfast; rice cakes and curry or toast and a fried egg. We then went up to bed where we slept until 1pm.

At 3 o’clock we went to visit St Joseph’s School, on the compound, to see what the children and the classes were like. Not to our surprise, as we had been told before, class sizes were forty to fifty girls in a class.

However, it was difficult to comprehend before we saw it. We were split into three groups to tour round the school. The first class I went in to were 4-5 year olds and they were learning how to write. To our surprise as soon at we walked in the room they stood up straight away with eyes lit up and there were smiles all around. The classroom was really basic as they had a blackboard, no desks and no chairs. They sang us two songs in Tamil, so we felt it was our duty to sing the ‘Wheels on the Bus’ back to them and get them all involved. We then went around a few other class rooms and asked them what they were doing and some happily read to us in English. One girl, who was ten, recited a poem by Lewis Carroll off by heart which was really impressive. All the classes had songs to sing for us which was really welcoming, some reminded us of home such as the ‘Hokey Cokey’ or in their case the ‘Boogie Woogie’!

My group then visited a class of 14 year olds. They swarmed on Georgia and I for autographs and selfies to the point were I couldn’t leave the classroom. This was a surreal experience.

In another group, after learning how to say the girls names in Tamil, one of the girls was going to dance, but she was to nervous, so Emily and Megan came to the rescue and whipped out ‘Cotton Eye Joe’ which the girls loved!

We then proceeded to visit the hospital which Pat’s (who was travelling with us) auntie had set up. We saw four babies in total, two of which were twins. We visited Dr Pushpan, who is a Presentation Sister, in her office.

Then it was time for a rest, after being swarmed by hundreds of children and lots of ‘selfies’, everyone was shattered. We ate tea, vegetable soup and noodles and then it was time to do our lesson plans for teaching the 11 year olds the next day. We were split into five groups and given a booklet from Sister Susan which contained activities to do with the girls, designed to help their grammar and English—games such as ‘Simons Says’, the ‘Alphabet Game’ and ‘Hang Man’ were included. We had to pick three activities to do and plan them. We then packed the pencil cases to take to Varasanadu the next day and then it was off to bed, looking forward to a 7 o’clock wake up to do yoga.

Isobel and Jasmine

Day 6 Flip Flops, Football and Fun The sun had barely been up an hour, but that didn’t stop the whole troop from meeting up on the roof of the convent at 7am for a spot of yoga. Sister Vanitha led the class on a speedy rendition of her usual morning routine. There were exercises to limber up the arms, legs, backs, and much to the amusement of everyone, faces. Once the bodies were primed it was time to cleanse the mind.

Adopting yogic poses we were encouraged to release all worries by humming This resulted in everyone feeling very refreshed and ready to seize the day, including us adults, from our yoga mats at the back of the roof, well away from Dom’s 360 degree camera.

Feeling thoroughly invigorated by our early morning ritual, it was time to go into school and take up our teaching posts for the morning. Some of our students were raring to get stuck in, whilst others were feeling a little anxious. Reassured by comments from the more experienced teachers among the group about how the key thing is to pretend you are an actor and never show fear, the group were ready to take up the challenge. Divided among three classes in the school and working in pairs our students quickly got into role and did a fantastic job. Every Teep structure and collaborative group work task they had experienced in their own lessons at AHCC came flooding back as they delivered sessions to help improve the Indian girls’ command of English. Realising how much English the girls already understood, our students were able to think on their feet and differentiate the content as required. The more ‘seasoned’ staff were so proud of how well they did and agreed that the lessons were outstanding. The girls made excellent progress in improving their English through a variety of fun games. They were captivated the looks of awe and wonder on their faces was something to behold. We thought we had seen it all and then one of the groups chose to mark the work during the lesson providing good feedback in GREEN PEN!! Quality first teaching was the order of the day.

Fed and watered, we packed our overnight bags and set off for Varasandu. The ‘are we nearly there yet?’ chants came to a close when the ‘Barbie’ pink clinic was spotted on the horizon. This brought back memories for Mrs Connor and Mrs Garvey of their childhood jaunts to Blackpool (first to spot the tower!). Greetings from the women of the village took the form of a Puja ceremony. The children, straight from school in their worn uniforms spotted Fred’s football and a game of barefoot soccer followed.

A tour of the clinic and community rooms by Sister Bindu, and a demonstration of the analyser we purchased last year left the students feeling very proud of what their fundraising efforts had achieved over the past 10 years.

Sister Jacinta then took us to one of the remote villagers to meet with two women’s groups. There we were greeted with something akin to the Haka. They shared with us the impact the Sisters had made enabling them to take out a small business start up loan and to save 50 rupees a month (47 pence) towards their health care and daughters dowries.

Back at the clinic the students were entertained by the local children before distributing the gifts donated by All Hallows students and their families. Seeing the children leave with flip flops on their feet and pencil cases in hand meant the struggles we had encountered carrying 30kg of luggage each across Tamil Nadu was all worthwhile.

Mr Jones, Mrs Connor and Mrs Garvey

Day 7 We Meet a Famous Face!

The day started with Georgia’s alarm going off at 7:30 am. At the clinic in Varasanadu, all the girls shared a room, so we had our first sleepover as a group. We discovered a disco light built into the wall. We had to keep it secret from Disco Dom otherwise things could have got out of hand at 11:45 at night! We all got ready for breakfast at 8:30. After eating, we put on our sun cream (kindly provided by Mr Jones) mosquito spray and were ready to go.

We followed Sister Pushpam up a pathway towards the slum houses that were built by the locals. We got lots of waves and smiles from the locals. We then visited a small school for the under privileged children and had a quick look at their classroom , which was only had a rug on the floor with a blackboard on the wall. We had the privilege of actually meeting the girl on the front of last year’s India Aspire magazine! Christoph had all the attention, playing a friendly game of slaps with the children. They liked to lightly slap our hands whilst saying a shortened version of the ABC’s.

We then returned for a presentation on how All Hallows has helped the clinic so far. It was very touching and made most of us tear up. They also proposed a new drug and alcohol programme they wished to introduce with the help of All Hallows. We discussed and it was a no-brainer- we were going to help!

We then took a bus to the government school where they put on a show for us. We returned the favour by performing ‘Macarena’ which we taught the children and got them involved. Megan, Emily, Fred and Dom performed ‘Cotten-eye Joe’, which the children found very entertaining.

We returned for lunch followed by a session making balloon animals and took the famous picture in front of the pink clinic. -Mrs Garvey insisted we remove the balloon hats!

We then set off back to Theni. When we got back we had dinner, then REVISED (yeah, you read that right!) before playing a collection of card games: Jungle Speed, UNO and Irish snap. Mrs Garvey was very competitive at ‘Jungle Speed’ going head to head with Head Girl Megan.

Emma and Katie

Day 8 A Good Old Belly Laugh to Start the Day It was an abrupt start to the morning, with our alarms not going off and us needing to be up for 7:15 in order to attend our second yoga session. We threw a bucket of freezing water over our heads and did our walk of shame onto the rooftop. Sister Vanitha led the routine, which was basically the same as last time so we were experts by now. The only difference was the ‘laughing exercise’, which was supposed to ‘release tension’ but really we just looked like a bunch of numpties belly laughing at each other for no reason.

After breakfast -which consisted of cheese toasties, we headed to the school on the campus. The entire school was awaiting our arrival, dotted about the playground under the shade, waving and cheering as we walked through the crowds to our designated seats on centre stage. The programme consisted of multiple national and local dances, along side an insight into the English speaking programme which All Hallows decided to fund two years ago. This time, we were not asked to perform our one and only talent, ‘Cotton Eyed Joe’ – we can’t imagine why? The children made us a range of beautiful gifts and presented them to us, one by one.

After, we were invited into the headmistresses office in order to discuss what the school needed from us.

We decided to fund two e-classrooms, which involves new computer programmes and projectors which will aid the girls learning massively. One will be sponsored by us 13 students, using our extra fundraising, the other being generously donated by Mrs Connor to mark her retirement.

We then crossed the campus to visit one of the many women’s societies set up around Tamil Nadu. The women showed us a presentation about what they do, which includes: supporting the empowerment of women and children, campaigning for worthwhile projects and making sure that women’s rights are enforced. Now it was time to show off our amazing talent, as we taught them ‘Cotton Eyed Joe‘ in response to their traditional and extremely complicated dances.

After our chicken nuggets (for the 685th time), we set off to the hospice for HIV/AIDS infected people.

This was a 30 minute drive away as it can’t be located in the city centre due to the stigma surrounding the infection. It was difficult to comprehend what these people were going through and the atmosphere was completely different to anything we have ever felt before.

Next door to the hospice there was a ‘Childline’ centre, this came as a surprise to us all due to the stereotype of Indian children being left to fend for themselves. Despite the legal age of marriage being 18 for females and 21 for males, the number of child marriages in India is huge . This service works with the police to arrest the parents and offer the children emotional support through counselling.

Then it was time for the much anticipated sari shopping! The sari shop was huge, modern, and more importantly, it had air conditioning! Firstly, we went upstairs, (area for rich people), but quickly returned downstairs as we are cheapskates, Mrs Connor who treated herself to a silk sari from the special boutique. Us being typical English folk, we waltzed around the shop snapping up everything we liked, ending up with about seven saris in each hand. This was before we realised the shop workers were on our heels, following us around the shop, making sure we didn’t steal any of the £2.50 saris in hand. £50 later, Georgia making up the bulk of it, we left the shop with bags of fabric. We left the boys buying their lungies and extravagant shirts, which they bought keeping nights out at Fever nightclub in mind. Once we collected the boys, we went to the supermarket next door to stock up on Pot Noodles, English cereal and

plenty of sweets. With basically the whole store in arms we went to the checkouts, thinking we had spent about ÂŁ10. Much to our surprise, the most anyone spent was ÂŁ3.02, travel to India for our weekly shops from now on, parents???.

Chicken nuggets and cheese toasties, AGAIN, for tea.

The trainee nurses arrived straight after tea, foiling our plans to try on our saris. The evening was filled with dancing, singing and playing games! The girls were only 16 but could dance a million times better than us, it was rather embarrassing but at least we had fun! After they left, we were all shattered and needed a good nights rest before Japanese dancing in the morning.

Emily and Holly

Day 9 Kho Kho Challenge With another exciting start to the day, we woke early for the highly anticipated Japanese Dancing, led by Sister Vanitha whose talents constantly surprise us. With a speedy recovery we were up and out for day two of our teaching. This time we taught girls aged 12-13 (the equivalent of year 8) and with our confidence from previous experience, we did even better than the first time.

After this, we went to prepare for a game of Kho Kho (we really weren’t prepared at all). We gathered in the yard and watched the girls play a very fast and skilful version of ‘Tig’ – it puts the British version to shame. After watching them for five minutes and two YouTube tutorials later, we felt slightly prepared to embarrass ourselves at attempting Kho Kho. It was safe to say we tried our best, but in the mid day heat we stood no chance of beating these girls even though they clearly were taking it easy on us…. like I said, embarrassing. However they were great sports and didn’t brag at all, making us all feel slightly better.

After the defeat we learned they were the national champions!

With a swift recovery of our bruised egos, we were ushered up to a class room for a lesson of Origami from two of the school girls who were incredibly talented. Sister Vanitha had shown us one of the teacher day gifts that she had received and we requested that she showed us how to do it, our own teachers subtly trying to hint at the ‘teacher’s day’ gift aspect. We spent two hours with the girls until we had to be taken away for lunch. After our regular dose of chicken nugget, chips and cheese toasties and were then off on the bus to St. James Children’s Village.

We visited the community set up by Brother James, where he was renowned for ‘reaching the unreachable’, by providing a safe space for people who suffered with HIV to be able to integrate into the community. We saw the school he set up and visited one of the children’s’ villages which he was buried in, as it was his wish to be to be ‘buried like the poor, in a cotton shroud. Brother James did amazing things for these people and felt himself amongst them rather than above them and they truly adored him.

After seeing all his incredible work, we headed back to the convent for an evening dress up in our saris and lungi’s for the boys and Mr Jones. The Sisters came and wrapped us girls up in our extensive saris and gave us jasmine to put in our hair. The evening was filled with laughs and as we were wrapped up so tightly, we decided it was impossible to wear these costumes on a daily basis. We became very impressed with the sisters stamina to wear them each day. After this we headed to bed and packed our bags to prepare for the next day and the second over-night train journey.

Georgia

Day 10 Gandhi, Temples and free Coca Cola.

This morning we were granted our first lie in till 10am, which sounds like bliss until you deduct the time needed to wake up and gather the courage to wash yourself with a cold bucket of water! After breakfast we packed our bags for our return to Chennai.

With time to kill, Sister Stella took us sightseeing around Madurai. Imagine a group of 18 westerners walking barefoot across a burning hot road whilst dodging tuk tuk’s and motorbikes (As Mr Jones would say, “That was not part of the risk assessment”). Why did we cross the road? To get to the Hindu temple on the other side. Stella asked if any of us wanted to see some monkeys and we were all very excited until we turned up to the Gandhi Museum and discovered the monkeys were dead, stuffed and had been given googly eyes. The rest of the museum ranged from pickled snakes, ancient crockery and an inaccurate model of the human skeleton. We were led down a more educational route in the next museum where we learnt about the liberation of India and Gandhi’s powerful involvement in the movement.

We chanced our luck at getting into a much larger Hindu temple further out of Madurai. Getting past the temple security was more difficult than the Indian border rigmarole; two of the boys had to adopt temporary skirts made out of our scarves in order to cover their knees! Inside the temple, people in crowds flocked to worship their many gods, who were cast in stone and painted an array of stunning blues, pinks and greens. Within the centre of the temple was a giant pool with running water which had us all very tempted to take a dip. Although areas of the temple had been designated ‘Hindus only’, the aspects that we were able to see were beautifully crafted, breathtaking works of art, unlike any we had ever seen.

There was an insane contrast as we exited the calm and serene temple onto the manic streets: stalls selling fruit and jewellery, people begging for money, homeless people asleep on the pavement and a sweltering heat that only a cold Coca Cola could cure. Whilst on an individual crusade to find a bottle of Coke, many of the girls bought anklets from stalls, except Emily as her ankles had swollen to the size of her neck. As part of Miss Garvey’s Indian tradition, we perused around a textiles shop, where we were told never to settle for first offer. Mr Jones had taken particular interest in a rug and began bartering for the best price possible, while I was much more preoccupied with the fridge in the corner storing bottles of Pepsi and Coke.

The owner of the shop told us they were complimentary and so it would have been rude not to clear them out. I I think we caused him a great deal of stress, as he failed to sell the rug to Mr Jones and we left with 13 bottles of coke.

Boarding the train the second time round was much smoother having had practice and knowing what to expect. After multiple games of ‘Dobble’ (a game with the capability of tearing families apart) the train was flooded with school children. Mr Jones’ face filled with delight at two possibilities: 1) teacher banter 2) this time we may not be the most hated party on the train!

Maisie – Jane.

Day 11 A Tale of Two Indias Our Sunday only really began after lunch. What essentially amounted to an elongated nap on the overnight train had caught up to us by the time the train pulled back into Chennai around 5am, no matter how invincible we felt whilst playing cards long after the sun and most of India had settled down for the night.

We got back to the convent at 6, and freshened up before heading to mass at 7. It wasn’t too different from the masses back home but there was a lot more singing, led by the brilliant trainee teachers.

Once we’d downed a hearty breakfast, we were all eager for a nap, which took us to 1 o’clock, when we had lunch and planned out the rest of the day.

We had been invited by the women doing the teachers training course for a program. The was offered to the girls at the Sacred Hearts school who had come from poorer backgrounds, as it was only two years, after which they would be given a job at the school to help them overcome their situation. It was great to see the joy and hope in their faces despite the unfavourable conditions they were coming from. They treated us to a spectacular display of the most talented dancing and singing, with traditional and modernised styles of dancing and some catchy new hymns. Our increasingly redundant routine of “Cotton Eye Joe” mashed up with the Macarena had once again been heavily undermined by the grace and elegance of the Indian dancers. However, later on in the day we came across a few of the girls practising our dances amongst themselves, which made us feel a little better and brought into perspective that they were just as eager to learn about our culture as we were to learn about theirs. It was difficult to drag us away from teaching each other various dances from our childhoods but the teachers managed in the end.

Before doing anything else, we wanted to see the pensioners feeding program the Sisters had set up. This was something the convent had done for Christmas but, following the huge success, was changed to a daily event at 4 o’clock. When we arrived, there were about 20 elderly people and two children from the school. They had travelled a long way to come here and for most this was their only meal of the day. The Sisters told us that this cost them about 3000 rupees (~£30) per day, for a meal that could feed about 40 people, any leftovers the people would take home with them. We did what we could to distribute the food and keep the people company and the genuine happiness they displayed was heart warming. Even the wise Sisters told us they had been taught a lot in the ways of simple happiness and humility since beginning the program. We headed back to the convent filled with a simple sort of joy and got ready for a smashing night out. We were going shopping.

5th Avenue was a very western shopping centre, much like the Trafford Centre, where most of the wealthy of Chennai did their weekend shopping. We came across many western brands and shops we hadn’t seen anywhere else in India and the whole place reeked of the upper class. No chance to haggle here, prices were set high and people paid up as a lavish display of wealth, no expenses spared. We split up and looked around, feeling very much like we were back home in the West. We spent our last few rupees on what we could: toys, snacks and local spices as gifts for those friends we’d almost forgotten about. Then, with bags full of goods and bellies full of doughnuts, we headed back for our last night in India.

Christoph.

Memories

What next for the Clinic?

Since our last visit to India a new bore well has been sunk for the clinic to be able to access clean water and an Analyser purchased to enable medical tests to be carried out on site. In addition to this through natural remedies, mainly diet and improved health care 3 previously infertile couples now have 4 bouncing babies between them!

Dr Sister Pushpam continues to visit Varasanadu on a weekly basis and our resident Sister and nurse Bindu works at the clinic on a daily basis and delivers outreach work and Health Education to the remote villages in the surrounding areas.

The Sisters continue their education and skills programme to both adults and children and are about to launch an alcohol abuse programme both to support the alcoholic and their family. The programme includes medication, therapy and counselling for the abuser and their family. This has come about at the request of young people in and around Varasanadu living with abusers. Our financial commitment for the running of the clinic and the various health programmes and maintenance continues to be ÂŁ4,000 per annum.

In addition to the work in the village our students had the opportunity to meet with the students who had engaged with the 'Spoken English' project we funded in 2016 and were pleased to note the marked improvement in the quality of spoken English and the confidence with which they were engaging with the language.

Our students were privileged to be able to work with year 7 and 8 students in Presentation school in Theni, delivering language lessons. They were shocked by the basic conditions the children learnt in with class sizes of 54 plus, small classrooms with no desks or chairs and little more than a blackboard as a tool for the teacher to deliver the lessons. Our students came away determined to make a difference to the learning experience of these girls and have pledged ÂŁ850 to refurbish a classroom as an 'e-learning room' whereby teachers and students will be able to access a variety of learning resources. Mrs Connor has also agreed to personally fund the refurbishment of a second room to mark her retirement after 38 years of service to All Hallows College.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our students and families who help us to raise monies in College and for the very generous donations of gifts donated which we distributed in Varasanadu and Theni.

God Bless Mrs M Garvey Assistant Principal KS5

Prayer for the poor and needy Lord God, You came to give honour to the least, those forgotten, overlooked and misjudged.

You came to give first place to the last, those left behind, misunderstood and undervalued.

You came to give a warm welcome to the lost, those who are orphaned, abandoned and destitute.

Help us to be your ears to listen to their cries.

Help us to be your voice speaking out love and acceptance.

Help us to be your feet walking beside those in need.

Help us to be your hands to clothe, feed and shelter them.

You came for the least, the lost and last of this world.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Pope Francis: ‘The gospel of the marginalized is where our credibility is found and revealed’.

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