Friday, May 27th - Bye Chennai, Hello Sendurai!

Off we go! After spending a couple of days in Chennai and taking in the city’s beauty we were off to Senduri (the town near our village, Kallthupaty).

Starting off our day bright and early, we packed into our car at 6 am and headed to Sirapunair. This village is special to the PUC India team because the 2019 team built a community center there. Driving out of the hustle and bustle of Chennai, we were greeted by the beautiful countryside of Tamil Nadu. Once we reached Sirypurnair, we were welcomed by the community. We started off with a traditional ceremony where each of our team members was presented with shawls. The community leader was explaining to us the impact the center had on the community. One of the significant uses of the center was that it was used as a place of refuge during a flood the community had. Hearing the impact the community center had on this village gave us the excitement to see how our library will impact others.

Afterward, we headed to Manny's house where we enjoyed some tea and had fresh coconuts before getting back on the road. Not for too long because we made a pit stop at Mr. Poul’s retirement house! Where we got guess what again, COCONUTS!

We hit the road once again for a couple of hours. We wanted to keep count of the infinite jack fruit stands we saw, but lost track and eventually started counting jack fruit to sleep. By the time we woke, we were at our lunch spot for a traditional South Indian lunch. So traditional that we ate off banana leaves and with our hands.

After lunch, we jumped back into the car to head to our final spot, Sendurai. The effects of the afternoon rice were apparent, as many of us fell asleep. However, we were woken by the beautiful country landscape entering Sendurai. In every direction we turned, the view kept getting better. I was in awe of the gorgeous view. Once in Sendurai, we were greeted by some of the community members and CASA staff. We had a brief ceremony where the community presented us with shawls and thanked us for our role in this project. It was humbling to see the CASA staff put together the ceremony for us.

I lied about Sendurai being our last stop. Our final stop was our house for the next 3 weeks in a small village outside Sendurai. When we got to the village, there was excitement across many of the community members' faces. They welcomed us into their village. We took a couple of hours to get settled in, but we had eager children waiting outside our house to play with us. We played frisbee and they took us to their badminton court. We even played make-shift Pictionary when Zach started sketching stuff into the dirt with a rock.

By the end of the day, we were all exhausted from our long travel but excited to meet the community and see the project site the following day. :)

Kajul

PUC India 2022