The rains came down...

I thought that it was about time that I blogged on my own blog :), this of course should not prevent you from reading the Chennai Challenge blog as well!
So what have we been up to????
Since Yelegiri we have had a couple of days off to explore Chennai and the beautiful temples at Mahabilipuram. Team A left us on Sunday night, but not before an amazing 'get to gether' with some members of the board of YMCA Madras. It was a great evening, with some formal speeches and presentations of shawls, followed by Musical chairs, pass the pillow, and an epic game of musical bumps ending in a dance off between Kate and Bex. We danced, a lot, and had soooo much fun, even if it was a little surreal!
I guess the biggest news is the major changes that have had to be made to our programme. In the past week or so we have had LOTS of rain, which has resulted in the boys town being very badly flooded. Almost all of the 150 boys have been sent away to live with their families. We went to visit yesterday to run a programme and there were only 25 left, and by the time we visit again tomorrow another five of the small boys will have been sent home. The cottages that the boys usually live in have been flooded so the 20 that will remain throughout monsoon season have all been moved into the newer Tsunami home which is on a higher level. Pumping has started to try and drain the site but it is likely that the boys will not return until after the monsoon which is due to start at the end of September. It is quite a sobering thought when you realise that the boys who remain have no-one else in the world who will look after them, and even those who have gone to their families are probably being made to work and almost deffinately won't be in school.
So our prgramme has been changed, we are now working alot more with Oasis (a fantastic organisation I love, look them up, just google Oasis Trust). This afternoon was brilliant. Emma, Lynn, Barney, Ross, Isaac and I all went to visit one of the communities that Oasis work with in Chennai and have a wander around. We couldn't see much as there was some bad feeling seeing whiteys there, but we had a great chat with John who works for Oasis and we spent some time at his Church chatting to some of the children. He then took us up on the roof so we could see the whole area. Very muchly enjoyed and great to learn what Oasis are doing here.
Time is marching on (oooh how posh does that sound!)so I will leave you for now, but please do keep checking the blogs as we try to update at least once a day.
xx