Day 30 - June 24 - Homeward Bound..

Today we left Packianathapuram and returned to Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu. It was quite a sad departure for many of the team members. After living here for a month, the had village become a family to us. The farewell festivities of last night, the breakfast invitation and the boys v. girls kabaddi match this morning made our final farewell even more challenging. I think that the most difficult part about saying goodbye is not knowing when or if we will see our friends again.

Upon arrival in Chennai, we were taken to the Salvation Army, where most of us will stay for the next two nights. After getting settled in, we went to a fabulous Thai restaurant and had a very good chat with Dr. Gladstone, the department head of Social Work at Loyola College in Chennai. He shared with us some of the work he, his co-workers, and students are doing. They are helping in hundreds of villages across India.

After dinner we went to Kulfi House to have desert. Kulfi is a very popular frozen dairy desert that you will find across India. There were so many flavors to choose from! It was quite a delicious treat. This was our final meal with Anna - she is headed back to the states for an internship! Good luck to her!

Today marks the day of our final implementation blog post. From here we are splitting up, some of us will continue to travel through India to explore other states, some will go visit family and others will journey home or onto other countries. Best wishes to all and a big thank you to everyone for the support you have given us throughout this project. Please look for an update in a few months time - there will be an opening ceremony once the building work has been completed and a progress update after that.

Signing off,

Caroline