Chennai!

Hi all
Thought we would post to let you all know what we have been up to as a family. We have been doing quite alot of sight seeing. Me and Andy have been feeling pretty awkard while mum takes photo's of anything slightly interesting, and also striking up conversations with complete strangers!

Since my family have arrived on friday we have been quite busy!

After my parents slept for some time we went out for a walk to visit a Hindu temple and later went for some pizza at Pizza Hut, an unexpectedly popular eating place in India. While munching on pizza we got to know Anupas parents Paul and Rani quite well. After the meal we all rang the bell by the door to say that we had a good time that was greeted by chorused 'Thank yous' by the Pizza Hut staff.

Saturday was mostly filled with shopping and riding in rickshaws, for those who don't know this is a cross between a motor-bike and a Smart car. Mum bought loads of stuff along with me and Andy, who got shirts and leather belts and wallets. That night we went to an Indian vegetarian restaurant to give Norman and Andy a chance to try some south Indian cuisine.

We got up ridiculously early on Sunday morning to go to Anupas church, which is similar to a CofE church. As we entered we were ushered to the front row where we could'nt see when to stand up and sit down! This proved difficult and resulted in us turning round alot of the time...

The service finished around 9 am and we were invited for breakfast with the pastor. When we returned we went back to bed and in the evening we went to the Marina beach in Chennai. This is the second longest beach for a city in the world. The beach was packed with people but no one was allowed to swim, because most people can't swim anyway; and the tsunami changed the sea bed alot also. We bought kites and ran around the beach trying to keep them in the air.

Later that evening we went to a hand loom exhibition... apparently this was interesting? Mum bought some stuff while we wandered around trying to find things to do.

On Monday we visited the Santhome Basilica Church which is built over the tomb of St.Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus. We then went on to Mahabalipuram to revisit a place close to our hearts; Cornerstone House. This is a place which was founded by some good friends Rod and Ruthie Gilbert. We met Jacob and Rani who are running the place now and also saw the changes after the tsunami over 3 years ago. Thankfully the water did not damage the actual structures although it did damage many trees. After walking around in the sun for some time we went for a swim in the pool on site! This was very refreshing and the water was bath like!

We went back through the village and bought some leather sandals for some good prices and also looked at the beach where all the fishermen work from, this all looks very traditional with some boats made from beams of wood and other more expencive models. On our way back to chennai we stopped at an indian household to get some video for mum of a child in india to show back in school.

After returning, me and dad went for a meeting with the J Team (Jesus Team) to talk about networking between CYE and so on. Anupa's Dad paul; is chairman of J team. After the meeting other members joined us along with the rest of our family for dinner, free food is always a bonus! We also played a few songs after dinner on guitar for some time.

Today me andy and dad slept in while mum and Anupa went to Rani's school to get yet more video and for mum to see an indian, english speaking school in action.
The rest of today has been spent packing and relaxing before we leave for Bangalore tonight on the train, we leave around 9pm and arrive in bangalore at about 3 or 4 am, so early rise tomorrow; but we can sleep at Raj's place again.

Ill update again some time in the next 5/6 days

Much Love

God Bless

Charlie, Andy, Norman and Rosslyn