23 Nov.

Rotary Project Day guided by PDG Puru (See your green booklet from the Rotary Club of Salem Mid-Town for info about matching grants, etc.):

Gugai High Secondary School in Salem

We’re greeted by 3,000 children, teachers, Rotary and government dignitaries and treated to chanting and dancing.  We donate an encyclopedia to a school with no library. The Australians give cricket equipment and a soccer ball, thereby becoming local heroes. We hand out stickers.  We take a quick tour and are off again to the next stop.

Ammapet School, Salem

Once classes were held under a tree. With Rotary’s help, the students have a huge, beautiful building.  Again, we’re greeted by Boy Scouts and other student groups.  We’re given time to wander around the building in small groups, so we have time to interact with classes. I find Eric in a computer lab talking with a group of boys who are pleased to have his attention.  Some of the boys show me the html coding behind the pages they have created to welcome us. In the back of the room, I see a computer with a testimony to Rotary like none I have seen before:  “Some one give and get back, what they give in other forms, but Rotary always gives of only gives.”

Government Girls School

The power of Rotary hits me as I compare the tree and wall with a “blackboard” that used to be the school (and is now the parking space for bicycles) and the big building.  Still, some classes of 100+ children have no desks nor chairs. There are no bookshelves or maps.  Still, the girls in this building are better off than those in a tiny, old building on campus where Rotary has not yet started work.  Rod and Evonne decorate the top students with kangaroo pins and we photograph the children everywhere.

After lunch with the Salem Rotarians and officers, we climb aboard the bus again and head up the mountainside to Yercaud. We pass monkeys, sheer red rock faces against dark green trees, coffee plants and eucalyptus trees.

Nazareth School in Yercaud.

We see the work of Mother Louie, teachers and Rotary. We talk, play with bubbles, hand out stickers, take tea and visit the lake. The gardens are beautiful and Puru shows us orchids.  Eric sees a 1988 world map hanging in a classroom.

Up the road, we see the Anbullam Knitting Centre founded by Mother Louie, where women make sweaters, hats and hoods, baby clothing and other items to sell so that they can help support their families.  We shop and give them a market for their goods.

Mohanad Peak – visit to coffee plantation owned by Rtn. Mohan – vanilla beans, coffee, antorium flowers; outdoor dinner at his home in the moonlight and next to the camellias; spending time with Puru and Rotarians