Safe and well

Well where to begin? We’ve got so much to tell you!




So we left my brother’s house in London at 5.30am on Monday morning to get to Heathrow airport on time. We checked in and said our last goodbyes to British food with a quick breakfast. Then boarded our first flight to Mumbai at 9.45am. The flight was quite bumpy and ended up an hour late for landing due to traffic at the airport in Mumbai, but we didn’t mind. On arrival we searched for where we had to go and couldn’t find any signs or English speaking people to help us. In the end we just wandered about until we stumbled upon the place where we had to pick up our bags and then needed to take them to a new check in desk. After another session of wandering around we found what looked like the domestic flight terminal. We got a little bit worried when we couldn’t see anywhere at all to get something to eat or even a drink (we had a 10 hour wait to contend with), Hazel, being the brave one, went to ask if we were in the right place and as it turned out we weren’t. We were told to board a coach and make our way over to a different terminal. This we did and after a 20 minute journey (several times during which I thought we had actually left the airport) we arrived at a new terminal. Yet again we could find no signs to direct us and ended up following a French lady to the smallest lift you can imagine. We had to rearrange our luggage on the trolley just to get through the door. Thankfully though, after all the struggling, we found where we needed to check in for flight number two. At this point it was 12.15am Indian time (7.45pm UK time) and our flight wasn’t due to leave until 9.40am. So our long wait began…



We settled on to some rather uncomfortable chairs and tried to get some sleep (without much success!). There was a small café though so at least we weren’t hungry. Several boring hours later, we started to hear lots of beeping cars and tuk-tuks (which are tiny taxis, a bit like a motorbike with a roof on) as people started to arrive for the early morning flights. Again, there didn’t seem to be any signs for our flight so we asked someone who told us to join the queue for a different flight… thankfully they were able to check us in! The plane arrived late, so we had to wait on the plane for an hour and a half before taking off. It’s monsoon season in Mumbai, and the rain was incredible, we were a bit worried that the pilot wouldn’t be able to see properly! We eventually set off without any problems though. The plane stopped at Chennai, another city in Tamilnadu, before continuing on to Madurai where we finally arrived at 2:15pm local time (9:45am in the UK). We collected our bags (which had got very wet!) and left the airport to meet the two sisters who had come to collect us (Sr Theresa and Sr Selim).



The journey from the airport took us through lots of little townships, with shacks and huts lining the roads, and on to country roads covered in orange soil and palm trees. The roads were a little chaotic with motorcycles trying to overtake battered cars, who in turn were trying to overtake brightly painted lorries of all colours.



We turned off the road after about 30 minutes and began our way down a dirt track towards a large concrete building. Sr Theresa told us that it was the Sister’s school and that the children were dying to meet us. Just then we turned a corner and drive through a gate to see hundreds of little Indian faces all dressed in a blue school uniform. The sea of faces seemed to go on forever and when they saw the car, they began to cheer and clap. It was an overwhelming experience and brought a tear to both our eyes and a beaming smile on our faces. We had finally arrived in Madurai Auxilium school!!!



The children lead us from the car still cheering and up a set of steps so everyone could see us. The Sisters from the house all came out and told the children our names, which they all repeated (Apparently Hazel is much easier to say than my name). The children then presented us with a necklace each that they had made and wrapped us in beautiful silk sarees. Finally they painted a bindi on our foreheads. The children had prepared a song in English and a dance to welcome us. So we were treated to several hundred children all singing and dancing for us. They were so excited to see us and had the most beautiful smiles.



The sisters took us into the house for a ‘little food’, which turned into a feast of Indian treats for us to eat. Then showed us to our room. It is in the same building as where some of the girls stay put we have our own space to rest and to call our own.



We are both so happy to be here and can’t wait to begin working with the children very soon!!!



We’ll be in touch again very soon! Enjoy your first week back in school and behave yourselves. You are all very lucky to have a school like St Teresa’s and should take care of it and each other.



Bye bye for now

Mr Ball and Hazel