Arriving at the airport in a state of complete exhaustion due to the earliness of the hour, I had no idea of what to expect in the next week. Unlike the majority of my group I had never been to India or even to Asia prior to the trip. The flight was unremarkable but it gave me time to consider the week ahead. Would I die of cholera or some form of food poisoning, as my friends assured me I would? Would I be killed by a mosquito? And the small matter of how the children for whom we had worked would greet us. I put these thoughts to the back of my mind and tried to get some sleep unsuccessfully.

Having negotiated airport security, despite fears of us carrying swine flu I would love to say I had some deep, thought-provoking first impression of India as I exited the airport. However, what immediately struck me was just how hot it was even at four o’clock in the morning. Next it occurred to me just how busy it was (although I suspect this may be related to the fact that a couple of international flights had just arrived). We struggled through the crowds of people and soon found our guide for the next few days. Ravi helped us put our bags into the cars and introduced us to our driver. I had heard rumours of the perils of the roads in India before I left but nothing could have prepared me for that initial shock of just how unique the Indian driving experience is. It is a credit to our driver that we all made it through the trip unharmed.

Having reached our hotel we caught up on some sleep before visiting a local beach. This was my first proper experience of Chennai and the vibrant colours and general hustle and bustle of the city was immediately obvious. The beach stretched as far as the eye could see and the city seemed to overflow onto it. We returned to the hotel to discover that Rajini had arrived. We went to a nearby restaurant and with some advice from the group I found some suitable food. Unfortunately Branavan was not so lucky and had an allergic reaction. Luckily there was a pharmacy nearby that meant any potential disaster was avoided.

The next day we left the city and visited an impressive hotel near some historic sites and equipped with many attractions. We had been warned before the trip that we wouldn’t be able to swim in the sea so we grabbed the opportunity to use the hotel’s pool. However, before we went swimming we discovered that they had a quad bike. Between the quad bike and the pool we had plenty to keep ourselves occupied until dinner where the musical entertainment was particularly good. On the return journey I got my first experience of a monsoon. It started to rain and within seconds it was raining harder than I had ever seen before. This was yet another new experience for me in India.      

Sunday had been set aside as our shopping day. However, after we overslept again, we relaxed in the morning before going shopping later in the afternoon. Near the hotel was a shopping centre not dissimilar in style to a British one although, it must be said, that the shops themselves were slightly different. Eating some ice-cream we wandered through the various aisles looking at a wide range of items. From t-shirts to pashminas they had everything. Owing to the good bargaining skills and the grasp of the local language of some of the group we were able to get some very good deals. We left the shops pleased with our respective purchases and looking forward to meeting up with Branavan’s Dad at his hotel for dinner. We enjoyed a luxurious meal at the top of the hotel with panoramic views of the city at night. The meal was thoroughly enjoyable but Branavan was out of luck again and suffered another, less serious, allergic reaction. Fortunately everything was fine and we headed back aware that tomorrow the hard work began. I was definitely nervous but also excited finally to be visiting the school.    

The day we had all been waiting for was upon us. With a mixture of excitement and trepidation we set of to the school early in the morning. At least that had been the plan. A combination of us over-sleeping and our driver arriving late meant that we arrived over an hour later than planned at the school. Despite our lack of punctuality we were immediately welcomed into the principal’s office. I was immediately struck by the size of the school. It was considerably larger than I had first expected spanning three floors. The money that The Wings of Hope have already raised had obviously been put to good use. However, there is certainly a need for continued support. As we found out later, the classrooms do not only act as places for lessons to take place but they are also where the students sleep. That is why one of the school’s long term plans involves building a boarding house for the students. Another future plan is to try to build a school for girls as currently they must leave the school much earlier than the boys. It was now time to meet the students in the first of our lessons. Almost immediately all my fears proved themselves to be groundless. We were welcomed with open arms as we taught classes of different ages a wide variety of topics. Shiv and Hamza’s enthusiastic Spanish lesson was probably the most popular judging by the loud noise coming from the classroom next to ours but I think everyone enjoyed this initial experience. Earlier in the day we had heard about the success of the volleyball team and how they had reached the regional finals, and, at the end of the day, it turned out that we would get a first hand experience of just how good they were. Six boys with extremely limited volleyball experience were going to play the school’s volleyball team. It is fair to say that we were slightly nervous but it got worse when we realised that almost the whole school would be there to watch our inevitably embarrassing defeat. Predictably we lost but we enjoyed the game and put up a good fight (although I’m pretty sure they were going easy on us). We said our goodbyes and went home tired but happy.