Paul in Chennai

Arrival Chennai, India: Friday October 22, 2010.

Suzanne and I went on the 5 hour City Orientation Tour the first day and experienced the overview of the City of Chennai – the fourth largest city in India, five million people.




Typical Street scene in Chenai

 The next day Suzanne went on a 3 day overnight Art of Living trip where she learned and practiced Indian Yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises. She was in hog heaven as everyone knows how much she loves Yoga. She will explain in full when she returns since now she is out on the town with some of her girlfriends likely talking and visiting every vender in the entire city. Ha

While she was on this 3 day mind and body experience, I went on a few tours myself. The first was an all day tour to Kanchipuram and Mamallapuram (K and M for short). The city of K is known as the Golden City – one of seven places of pilgrimages for Hindus and Temples. We spent all morning in the hot and humid weather visiting several Hindus Temples. I had to go barefoot or wear my socks in some of them which don’t allow shoes out of respect etc. My forehead was painted with white, yellow and red dots all meaning love and peace. I looked like a true Indian. Ha



After 4 hours of these tours, I was Hindued and Templed out. Lunch, which everyone was ready for, was not until 2:00PM . We went to this very nice, large Indian Restaurant and had a private room set up for us. The AC felt really good and we ordered a local beer which was 16or 20 oz and very good. The placemat was a large green banana tree leaf folded up in half. It was unfolded when we were ready to eat. The waiter first put what looked like a pancake on my leaf – then he scooped a yellow, green and purplish pile of something on it. I asked him what this was and he related “ Vucuwapis” or something like that. He continued to attempt to explain each item in Indian which was Greek to me. The blobs looked oily. Finally he put some white rice on my leaf and I was excited to know at least that. Suzanne wasn’t there to explain this meal which made it funnier to the rest of us. There was no silverware on the table and we were told to eat with our right-hand fingers only since the left hand is tarnished for wiping ourselves. This became very comical as I am trying to keep my left hand out of the way. I took a glob of rice and mixed it in the yellow blob and tried to get it to my mouth – only to miss some of it as it hit my upper lip, lower lip, side lips and likely some in my nostrils. Everyone at my table was of course laughing at my comical eating habits.

Yummy and pretty

There were very few napkins available and after we finished – the waiter asked if I wanted more. I folded my hands in a prayerful manner and said “Oh no, sir, it was very good”. Now I have all this oily food on my hands and face when we left the room. There was a small water sink in the hallway to wash your hands which I did but could not get my face under the sink to wash it. Again everyone was laughing as I refused to wipe my left hand on the wet and used towel as I knew other people used their dirty left hand on it. Ha. Now I am starting to worry about having another canopy experience with all the spicy and oily Indian food. So I went over to the male restroom to check it out in case I had to make an emergency run to it in the near future. I got to the restroom and opened the john door and starting laughing out loud and said someone stole the toilet. The only thing I saw was a hole in the ground, a pail of water and no toilet paper. I started saying “Lordy Lordy what am I doing here”. Ha. My forehead was sweating beebes and my left hand started to have muscle spasms and tremors. It was trying to tell me that it didn’t want anything to do with cleaning me without toilet paper. I suddenly had another MAJOR FLASHBACK – here I am over half the way around the world and no one warned me to eat food I cannot pronounce only with my right hand and someone stealing the toilet out of the male restroom and leaving a hole in the ground, a pale of water and no toilet paper. Ha Ha. Anyway, the Lord was with me and I got back to the ship without any crisis. YEA!!!!!!! Thought you all would enjoy another laugh at my expense. Ha .

The next day I went on an all day tour entitled “Rural India and Dakshinachitra Heritage Village”. It took 2 hours by AC bus to get to this small Indian village named Thirupour. Each home was very small and poverty stricken. However, the entire village came out of their homes excited to see and meet us. The President of the Village was there and he was responsible for getting electricity and water system for the entire village. He obviously was well respected by all and very friendly to us. They showed us how they planted rice patties on their farm – had the students help do it at their request – and I saw this large King Cobra coming close to them and I got a hold of its neck and had to kill it. Hope you all believe this. You know I wouldn’t BS you. They were so happy that I saved their lives. They looked upon me as the Crocodile Hunter.

They showed us how the rice was dried – aired and processed by man- made wooden machine which eventually emptied the rice into large 75.lbs. gunny sack to be sold to outlying villages for profit and sustainability for the entire village. They also grew fruits, vegetables and coconuts. They climbed the coconut trees for us which was extremely difficult to say the least. They showed the students how to do it. Afterword, they cut open several coconuts for us to drink and to eat the inside. I personally didn’t want to drink it without Malibu Rum. We then rode on 2 large bullock carts around the village to greet the villagers. The kids in the village were all excited about seeing us – wanting us to take their pictures and show the photos to them – talking and playing with them – and yes I lost control and had to do silly dances and makes funny faces at them. They truly loved all the attention and it was difficult to leave them after a short stay. The afternoon was spent at the Dakshinachitra Heritage Village which I found out later was where Suzanne was doing her Yoga, but I never saw her. They took us on a long tour where they make pottery, weave saris and various craftsman skills and we had another lunch on banana leaves. Suzanne will share more about this interesting place.

Nine days to make a sari on this loom

The last day that Suzanne was away, I went on a tour to the Missionaries of Charitable Orphanages that were developed by Mother Teresa. There were approximately 29 students and 2 Life Long Learners including me. As many of you know, Mother Teresa became a nun at age 18 and served as a teacher in a school in Calcutta. At age 36, she received a calling from God to serve the poorest and disabled children in Calcutta. Her Missionaries of Charity have grown to include 2000 sisters in its order, 100 slums schools serving 14,000 children, 200 relief centers where 45,000 are fed each day, 200 sewing and typing classes serving 8,000 girls, 750 mobile clinics and 103 homes for abandoned children. We visited one of these homes with several severely disabled children who were mentally retarded. They were so happy to see us – our students were truly outstanding in their love, attentiveness, caring to these kids. We brought coloring books, balls, and painting supplies. What they enjoyed the most was blowing bubbles and taking pictures of them where they can see themselves in the cameras. Their head directress (Nun) was very moved by our love and financial donation of $4500.00. It was very difficult to leave them as we hugged and kissed them good-by.

Please help me!