Hi Parents & Friends,

My apologies for not getting to a computer sooner–very very busy schedule and we’ve been staying in Auroville which is very rural.  We have JUST left Pondy/Auroville and are in transit to the Chennai airport for our flight to Delhi.  We’ve stopped off at a beach resort for lunch and the students are enjoying dipping their toes in the bay of Bengal before we leave South India later today.  Only 2 more full days in India before our flight home. The students are looking forward to seeing family and friends again, but overall consensus–they would like to stay in India longer! And almost ALL of them hope to come back here someday!  So, I’d say the trip has been a success!  Here are the shout outs from our days in Madurai:

“Right now we are on route to Auroville in Pondicherry. We just stopped off for lunch at a hotel and still have 3-4 hours of travel till we stop in Valankani. In the morning we wake up and travel and the next day ot Pondy. Our last place of stay was Madurai and I loved the city. Highlights of our stay include visiting a temple and seeing a goat sacrifice, going to an after school learning program in the slums, and making good friends witht he kids and volunteers from the program. We still have 7 days left in our trip and I’m excited for the rest of it. :)” –Josh

“Hi mom! I miss you! I’m sorry I haven’t been able to call in FOREVER. I’ve experienced some awesome things and made some amazing new friends. I’m still having fun, but I miss you! Thank you for putting money in my account, even though you shouldn’t have! I love you mommy! talk to you soon. Give Amy hugs and kisses for me. Tell dad if you talk to him that I miss him. Love you!!!” –Beth

“This week has been amazing from dancing to hanging out with the children from the SEED program. I can’t wait to come home to tell you the amazing stoires I have. Miss you all.” –Valeria

“Yesterday we got to hang out with the local college students. It was awesome. We played futbol and just watched TV!” –Jeremy

“Having fun and making new friends and loving every min.” –Chris

“Hey, We got henna on our hands and arms! We went to a silk weaving place yesterday and I got a sari! Today we have an 8 hour drive to Valakini. Tomorrow we have a 6 ghour drive… I miss you all a lot.” –Molly

“Hi everyone! I’m really happy here, everyone is sooo nice. We met some new kids from the SEED center and ALL of them are REALLY friendly and sweet. Mom I miss you and I’m so sorry if I haven’t call you. SORRY! I MISS YOU MOM!” –Ana

“I really enjoyed meeting all the young SEED students. Two 13 year old girls drew henna up my arm and one of them gave me her necklace with an “S” and heart because we share the same Tamal name “Sandhya” aqnd she didn’t want me to forget her. It was really touching. Love you mom!” –Althea

“Hey everyone! I am really starting to miss everyone! Mom, reply to my email! I’ve been slacking on my travel log heavily because I’ve been so busy lately. We went to another seed center and 75 kids put on an amazing performance. I have videos of it! Love and miss you all.” –Amy

“Pondy kovil was a very unusual experience. Beside the normal we saw possessed women, animal sacrifices, holy showers, and extreme offerings. Their religion is very complex and involves many Gods. I can’t wait to visit more temples…” –Tyler

Shawn didn’t submit his blog entry for Madurai.

“Hello All! We are having an amazing time! We depart from Madurai today. We’ve made some great friends and have been treated like celebrities in the village. Everyone has been very friendly. We visited a silk weaving family and some of the girls got saris. We went to Pandykovil temple…I’ll tell you about it later. We played “treasure hunt”, learned kolam and had henna/mehendi done on our hands. Kirsten took us to her host fathers jewelery store to get anklets and toe rings. Now we jingle when we walk…and wobble our heads when we talk.” –April

And notes from two of our SEED friends:

“It is really nice for your coming in the SEED plan. I like all of you. I miss you. My sister and me very miss you. Yesterday my sister and me cried for your going. I was amazing, sharing experience. Krish, Josh, Jemi, Sam, Tyler, anna, spoke me very much. Happy Journey.” –Patel. S

“These people was very wonderful. They are very friendly. I learnt lots of things and they did good works. I was happy to share their experience. I won’t forget these days. I have willing to join their groups.” –Vinoth Kumar, SEED Center, B.SC Physics