Work and Travel around Chennai
Feels hotter than ever today! Work is very busy I have 11 classes a week. Six of these are with kids, two with adults (both twice a week) and three are with anyone who wants a 12-week crash course in playing the keyboard. I've been writing quite a few press releases for various different projects. The music school where I'm working is run by a charity, Acts of Mercy, who run an academic school in Mamallapuram, a small record label for local bands to get a break, food distribution, widow training (the husband earns the money and after his death the widow has no income and no skills. Even if they are just shown how to thread flowers on a piece of string (women wear them in their hair) they can make a living from it) and so many other things! I wrote a release for an album launch last week and it was printed almost word for word in the New Indian Express! Nina (another GapGuru volunteer) and I were interviewed for the same rag and photographed, there is also a five-foot square poster outside the school advertising our services, with our faces visible from down the street!
Last weekend I joined the other volunteers - Alison, Natisha, Rachel and Debbie the GapGuru rep - to go sightseeing for the day. We drove down the coast road to Mamallapuram, a World Heritage Site, stopping on the way at the Crocodile Bank (more interesting than it sounds!) and a 5-star beach resort for lunch. So nice to swim in a pool and lie in a hammock on the beach! We were supposed to go out fishing with the locals but the sea was too rough. When we got to Mamallapuram we met a guide who took us round the ancient Hindu temples (where wild monkeys play!), had an excellent meal and back home. Mamallapuram was hit by the tsunami in 2004 and 16000 people died along the coast. They are still slowly picking up the pieces and rebuilding their villages, very reliant on tourists and fishing to earn a living. It was a packed day but great fun, everyone was still talking about it days later!