I hope you’re all having a great week, this entry hopefully will be smaller than the previous two because firstly it takes a long time to write and secondly it was a fairly boring week in comparison!
So the morning of Monday 26th October was another ‘hard to get up’ morning, which seems to be a regular occurrence, maybe due to some heavy partying over the weekend?! I had a slightly uncontrollable bowel movement just as I’d made my toast, which sucked in two senses, firstly, more importantly, cold toast and secondly did I mention how much I dislike the Japanese flag? Anyway enough of that, so eventually at 9.25am (latest so far) we made it into the office for a typical Monday morning of preparing for the week, checking emails and browsing the web for the weekends interesting stories/news. So after a brief shop for essentials (juice, crisps, chocolate, fizzy), we ate lunch whilst watching episode 3 of Flash Forward and made it to BV Colony School for 3.40pm (late, but with valid excuse, seeing as we had no way of contacting anyone call/text L). We played (well John really) noughts & crosses, beach pictionary (seeing as it was B is for Beach this week) and after seeing I’d forgotten to bring the colouring in, I quickly put together a beach scene on a blank piece of paper and got the kids to copy it! We ran the same program at John’s church Fun Station, this as usual went really well and after getting ‘auto air’ going round a corner at 50kph, we ate dinner (4 chapatti) and washed & brushed up for Lauren’s birthday (we’d only met her on Saturday, :p). So after taking ages to get ready, mostly me, we had a call from Timmy (youth pastor) saying they’d pick us up, awesome! So we get to Dynasty @ Harrisons (5-star hotel), an IndoChinese restaurant and I’m feeling hungry, even after 4 chapatti! We got to order a main to share, Blesson steps in saying we’re going for appetizers too, we order lots of food and I’m ready for this! The food was amazing, really tasty, I pack away more than most people, finishing with two slices of chocolate birthday cake and I still can’t believe now how I managed to eat so much after a filling dinner earlier! The youth guys are so great, it would be a different story here without them and they’ve got a good old British sense of humour! So after spending zero Rupees (how, I still don’t know) we got dropped home only to find out the bedroom door had been left open with the A/C on, whoops. After sorting out some washing and writing my diary, I got to bed at 11.45pm for a 5.30am!
Tuesday was not fun, certainly the morning anyway and this was down to having no working phone between three of us. So Vimel has an auto waiting for us, there is water everywhere because finally monsoon season has arrived (rain like you’d never believe) and we head to KG Puram. When we get there it’s clear football isn’t on, no boys, no Viji and a flooded pitch isn’t a recipe for a good training session! So after hanging around for a while a few boys turn up, we muck around with a football and leave after getting kicked off by the ground manager who is preparing for a league match that afternoon. We got back to the flat for some more sleep, but this was interrupted but Vimel (sleeping on our floor waiting for the A/C mechanic), the Repair Man (fixing the sink & light) and finally Shanthi who was cooking/cleaning. I decided to just chill on the couch, whilst dosing off and after they had all left I went back to sleep for an hour. After a delicious coconut rice, chicken korma and poppadum lunch, we spent the afternoon in the office preparing for the Kelly’s music class amongst other tasks and after a quick stop for dinner we were at the SD Puram office for the Kelly’s FS (does that confuse you?), then the music class (trying to teach some music theory). Still no translator so teaching anything decent was very difficult, so after some frustrations we leave for our poker debut at Thom’s house. All the poker players eat at Sparky’s before, so we met the 15 players at Thom’s house, someone brought our Fajitas and we get the games underway. I’m at the same table as Ben, with 6 others, the big table seats 12, but only had 7 seated. I played aggressively early on, seeing as I’m a novice and after a lot of fun I was out to Ben who beat me with a higher straight (I was first out in the whole game). The two tables combined, so everyone sat at the main table, I watched, took photos and just relaxed, waiting for Ben to get out! Eventually Ben joined me and after Allen (guy from Powerhouse) had lost, he gave us a ride home, well not him, his chauffeur! We got back early by these poker game standards, 1am and went straight to bed (we were thankful for the lift because the monsoon continued to fall outside).
The next few days would be more relaxed work wise because we were preparing for and recording the new spoken English teaching CD. Wednesday started in normal fashion, but the office got fairly heated, in a good way, over Matthew 4:35-41, debating whether or not God tests us. After this further arguing occurred in the quiz, everyone was buzzing in and getting so competitive (this is all done in love though). I spent most of the morning writing my new blog entry and after lunch (tomato rice, boiled egg & poppadums) Dave arrived, so we spent the rest of the afternoon reading through the script for the spoken English CD. Our jouney home was very eventful, firstly four white guys walking through Ayanavarum market with laptops/bags was dodgy, then after agreeing Rs.40 with an auto the light rain began. Just imagine a seat comfortable enough for two, with three squashed in and one sitting on the bars that block off the other entrance/exit to the autos, then the light rain begins. Laurie is hanging out the side, the heavy rain begins, he gets wet, the tarp is pulled down, the rain becomes torrential, now it’s getting interesting with 4 laptops in an auto with torrential rain coming down. I hastily covered my bag with the waterproof covering, the rain becomes monsoon rain, unreal, flooding everywhere, the driver stops to attach tarps on both sides, and then drives so slowly because he can see nothing. Finally without any further complications we get dropped right outside our door (usually dropped at the gate to the flats) and we share a noodle dinner with Dave. We had planned to go with Becky & Viji for a drink at the Fruit Shop, they turned up at 8.00pm and the rain had stopped. I ordered a Glenn Turner Special (kiwi combo) & a fruit salad, we sat around for ages chatting about all sorts, I even had to wee in a nearby driveway because I was so desperate! After cramming 6 into Becky’s car we got home, chatted some more, I wrote 2 days of diary and after not knowing the time I headed off to bed, safe in the knowledge I was skiving off the run tomorrow morning at 5.30am to be in at the office with Dave for 9am!
Thursday couldn’t have been a more boring day if it tried! The highlight of the day was speaking to Hodge for 20mins. I was woken at 5.30am even though I wasn’t going because firstly every time someone opened the bedroom door it banged into my bed and secondly the door squeaks every time it opens! So after getting into the office we spent the morning reading through all the scripts and deciding what part each of us would read, I was primarily phonics. After finishing my blog, Vimel bought our lunch in and after lunch the highlight of my day, a 20min conversation with Hodge, only to be interrupted by an office power cut. I left in the end because the power cut was going to last a while, this sucked though because I really wanted to speak to Ginge! We went shopping for essentials on the way home (juice, chocolate, crisps, smellies & fizzy stuff), ate puri for dinner whilst watching Episode 4 of Flash Forward and had another Kelly’s FS with no translator! We got back to the flat, chilled out, listened to music, chatted with Dave and wrote the shortest diary entry since I’ve been here!
Friday, the day my voice becomes famous throughout all of India who is learning spoken English with Oasis! So Becky picked the four of us up from the flat, with three already in the car it was four crammed into the back and three across two front seats, typical India! So we get to Eunice’s over the narrowest 2-lane bridge I’ve ever seen, with everyone in Chennai wanting to cross it, things were interesting. Eventually (Ben lost all feeling in one leg) we got to Eunice’s brothers recording studio in a converted bedroom at their house, it was really nice, air-conditioned, professional looking and we got right to work with recording the CDs. It was a whole family affair with pretty much all of Eunice’s grandparents, brothers, aunts etc. there! So we spent the next 7 hours recording 2 CDs worth of spoken English, we spent our spare time creating modelling photos, eating homemade vada (lentils, dried chillies and then it’s fried) and having fun on Photoshop (with our modelling photos)! We eventually left very satisfied and slighty fed-up of R-r-recording. We had to get an auto to Spencer’s Plaza to meet Blesson so he could take us to the cinema, this was rush-hour, a 40 minute journey and the film started in 45 mins! So eventually we got to Spencer’s, Blesson called (Ben was borrowing a working sim card) and after spending Rs.150 (our most expensive auto so far), Blesson arrived to pick us up. We got to the Sathyam cinema (it’s huge), met all the others (IJM girls, Ebe and some other Indian guys) and headed inside. I gave my camera to Ben because I knew there would be some sort of trouble if I carried it in slung over my shoulder! Still as I walked through I turned, seeing all the bags getting searched I headed over to meet Ben and basically they seized my camera batteries (only getting them back with a ticket at the end). It was weird experiencing incredibly tight security at a cinema, bearing in mind you could take a hi-def video camera (borrowed from Channel TV) into the Mallard and they wouldn’t notice! So after spending a further 20mins getting some sandwiches, three buckets of coke, I got into the screen to find my seat and sat down 45 minutes into the This Is It (farewell MJ)! The screen was huge (as big as the ones at the cinema we had in Plymouth), the sound was amazing, the seats were like sofas (with an awesome recline too) and the whole experience for Rs.120 (£1.60). After this we spent the rest of the night at the IJM girls place, it’s a huge 4th floor apartment, with so much party room! We chatted for ages, including a period about the problems in Africa (including some Soul Edge chat about what Josh did, including the Congo trip) and also some history about Guernsey, about how we function (crown dependency wise). So at 1.30am we left, needing an auto home, this would prove to be virtually impossible and SO expensive. Blesson & Ebe rode off looking for an auto, to send it over to the flats, so after mucking around in the road, getting watched by various Indians they came back with an auto (it felt strangely like a rescue mission). The journey was eventful, apart from the driver being drunk (or at least merry), we encountered the infamous Chennai rat (the size of cats and jet black in colour), they are huge, we saw six whilst going through SD Puram and after paying Rs.200 (usually Rs.50 during the day), we got to bed at around 3.30am after some more chatting with Dave.
After a small lie in (slept 7 hours), I got up to spend some time with God, so I started ‘The Purpose Driven Life’, decided to read my bible cover to cover over the next four months and spent some time worshipping with my headphones in! I’m basically reading 8-10 chapters a day so it’ll take me from 1st Nov to Feb 28th and I’m really excited about this, praying that God teaches me so much, even though I’m not specifically studying passages as I go. So this time was amazing, it was like 1.5hours just reading, studying and worshipping, hanging out with God, something we don’t always get a chance to do! After the guys got up we decided to go to Spencer’s Plaza to do some shopping, then go straight on to Thom’s Halloween party @ Sparky’s (I was helping out, it meant free food :p). So we said goodbye to Dave (he got an auto the airport at 3.30pm ish) and headed to Spencer’s for lunch at Subway (chicken teriyaki sub, delicious but expensive £1.80 for a 6 inch), then shopping for speakers (got a 2.1 system, perfect for music & movies), I also picked up a new Indian cricket shirt from the Nike shop (Rs. 2295, so £32). We left for Sparky’s, getting there early at 5.20pm (party didn’t start till 6pm) and there were no tables because it was fully booked, so we all helped out with the games stalls. I was on Monster Cans (knock down tins with 3 beanbags), Ben was on Demon Darts (pop balloons on a board by throwing 3 darts) and Laurie was on Eyeball Toss (throw a ping pong ball into dyed water in jars). We all had good fun, got to wear Sparky’s baseball shirts, but we got fed up in the end as it got later and finally at 10.30 we finished, tucking straight into the huge buffet laid out! After grabbing a lift back with Ruth (from Powerhouse, she also helped on games), we were in bed straight away at 12.30am.
The plan for Sunday was to be at Sparky’s for the 9.30am service, but after Bens’ alarm didn’t got off, I woke at 9.22am knowing we’d missed church so after getting another half hour of sleep I decided to make the most of the morning off and do exactly what I did yesterday morning! TPDL (The Purpose Driven Life), 4 month bible reading and listening to some great worship music. We would spend the afternoon at youth, so we wouldn’t totally miss church today, we got to youth at 12.30pm and were straight into lunch, sandwiches (4 pieces of bread, 3 fillings, a monster club sandwich)! We played a great game after lunch and Ian (teaching English & from Australia) brought the word on 2 Corinthians 5:11 – 6:2, about being ambassadors of Christ. We then realised that we were leading (the youth) the service at Padur (1hr outside the city), so after packing up, waiting for Ebe & Ben (gone to get another sim card in Ebe’s name), we finally set off in an air-conditioned van for Padur church! It was awesome getting out the city and seeing what else was around Chennai, including the famous IT Corridor Road, with all the IT companies’ offices on either side of the road. Ebe pointed out a building where the Indian CIA are located, guess what, for those of you paying attention when I gave the presentation before I left, it was Tidel Park (I took some photos to prove it)! We also saw a collapsed bridge on the way, with a lorry laden with bricks being craned out the ditch (we actually saw it on page 3 of The Hindu the next day)! So we got to the church, basically a cowshed, with a weekly attendance of around 15 people, mostly Hindustan University students (University is very close to the church, city centre is too far for these guys to go). I played percussion for the worship time (djembe, tambourine & chimes), Blesson gave his testimony and Pinky (youth pastor) brought the message, the service went extremely well! Afterwards we stayed for some Pepsi and a chat to the students; I met a guy from north east India, also 3 Africans (2 Liberians & 1 Nigerian). The Africans don’t like Chennai at all, it’s too hot, they get stared at, it’s an unfriendly city and basically they have to stay here for 3 years study without going home, wow, so much respect for them. We headed back to the city, after a great evening, we also stopped at Cafe Coffee Day (Indian equivalent of Starbucks) for a drink together, I had a Devils Dream (cream, chocolate, coffee, splendicious) and a big chuck of Black Forest Gateau! After getting back, Timmy dropped everyone home in his car, apart from Ben & I (we were going to Sparky’s) and at last we got to Sparky’s at 9.45pm (Laurie had been at football so he was waiting for us for 20mins), although at least I got to sit with Dia (Timmy & Pinky’s 3yr old daughter) in the back of the car, she is so gorgeous! I ordered the Cajun Coca Cola Chicken, which was lush, but full of courgettes, mushrooms and peppers, oh well, there’s nothing like leaving a plate full of food! So we left managing to bargain down from Rs.100 to Rs.50 to the flat, we listened to music, wrote our diaries and got to bed at 12.30am, again!
So after a fairly relaxed and easy week, as you can see, the weekend was full of excitement! Hope you enjoyed reading this blog and feel free to make some comments, they are much appreciated!
Can someone also put this blog address into the church newsletter? Thanks.
God Bless,
Tom xx
