Time to say goodbye…

We’ve all had an amazing and life-changing experience and tonight we had the great pleasure in giving a farewell presentation at the Madras Club. I have made some really good friends from my team, the US team and of course the lovely Indian people, including hosts, organising Rotarians and many others who I’ve met along the way.

This is all I will say at this moment in time as I desperately need my sleep.. I will be up in 5 hours for the flight!

The Hill station was a very welcome break after a pretty full schedule. The setting was absolutely perfect at Yelagiri, with the hotel, owned by a Rotarian, overlooking a small lake(15 mins to circumnavigate on foot).
But prior to reaching there, we spent two nights at Vellore, an important leather factoring area and therefore mostly run by muslims. We visit a shoe factory which produces, for one Finnish firm, the uppers only so that they are sent on to another firm, in the same group, for completion. They employ 1,000 employees, mostly women because ' they can sew' , and pay them reasonably, provide healthcare, creche facilities and even a pension at 55yrs if they complete 10 yrs service. The company also is very communty conscious so that it look after many aspects, like roads, ambulance, of the local 150,000 population(the size of Mansfield/Ashfield!).
We visited two contrasting institutes of tertiary education: a Government college, one of the oldest(1898) in Tamil Nadu, and a privately owned university. They both do a great job when one compares the College, serving 2,400 students from very poor backgrounds at a cost of $8 annually without board, to the University which has 15,000 students paying $2,000 pa including board( foreign students pay $5-7,000 pa for the same). Most of the universities and schools are in the hands of private trusts, which are totally secure, we are assured.
After lunch at the university, Carl, Marianne, Tawny(one of the Californian ladies) and I go for a walk about the town and take an auto-rickshaw back, which is crazy.
In the evening we present to 8 local clubs which goes smoothly, as usual, though we are always changing the content.
En route to the Hills, we take in an emu farm where we see a chick hatch and male birds painted blue(their throats) and a rampant Indian cow and orange farming. n the way out of that farm, we bottom the bus which, we later find out, has caused the fuel line to leak. This leak is fixed, at 8pm, locally whilst we visit the local Rotary Clubs.
On our way from Yelagiri, we spend a night at Tiruvannamalai which has the most amazing temple, with 2 Dravidian towers at each of its 4 gates. This small town beckons visitors and seems to attract 21st century hippies, so we see other whites, for almost the first time in nearly four weeks, but they appear strangely dressed, imitating Indians. In the evening we present to another few clubs; the welcome here is more warm than in the City, if that can be done, because they don't see visiting clubs very often, if at all.
Next day has contrasts in that we experience one of the most amazingly warm welcomes at a school for blind children, run by the Brothers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Their work, teaching music, braille(including the printing of Braille), computer skills, is just wonderful.The Rotary Clubs of Arni region prove to be wonderful hosts and are so eager to show off all of their projects that we have to cut short their guided tour when we fall over 1 hour behind schedule with still 3 1/2 hrs to drive back to Chennai. All in all a wonderful day..
On Sunday three f us go to watch the second day of the World Cup, Kenya playing New Zealand. Unfortunately Kenya get to bat first and are bowled out for 69 runs by 11am. As you probably know by now, it took just 60 mins to exceed that total, leaving us with the afternoon free to take a train ride and so on.
I must say that this GSE month has exceeded all my expectations. The organisation has been impeccable, with hosts who have been so eager to accommodate us and to welcome us into their families. We have not had long, tedious drives. The food has been very acceptable to our naive palettes so that we have only had mild upsets, and few of those. Lastly, I think that I can say that our vocational visits have been appropriate, thorough and keenly accompanied by volunteer Rotarians, to ease our way all the time.
Just one day to go now, so I am beginning to foresee that I shall miss this fantastic country.
I SHALL RETURN, with Dain

Big City Life

We are indeed all still alive and have made it back safe (mostly) and sound (not really with all the horns beeping) into Chennai last night. I really appreciated being out of the City and exploring other parts of the Rotary District and experiencing the differences we had in the Rotary meetings. On one occasion we had our own band to greet us and walk us to the meeting, and also had a line of school children to welcome us - I kept checking behind to see if there was someone famous we hadn't noticed! I have really enjoyed the scenery and landscape we had in the more rural areas and particularly enjoyed the Blind School we went to yesterday and the temple we visited on the Friday evening. The people have been super friendly too and keen to learn about us.

We now only have days until we return to the UK and like Ben, I shall need a period of reflection to take in what I have seen and indeed personally gained from this trip - it has been a myriad of experiences for me and I suspect I won't be in a position to understand them straight away.

I have personally really enjoyed the company of the US team and think it has made the trip as its been a cultural experience anyway being here, but then also been great to learn about them - I hope there are some friends we have made along the way there.

Today is a free day so everyone apart from me in the UK team has gone to the Cricket and I have had a massage and plan to do some shopping - that's how I roll on my days off!!

We have our final presentation on Wednesday evening at our Farewell GSE presentation and dinner, which I am sure we will all be very sad to attend as the Rotary clubs and hosts have been most kind to us and it's always hard to say goodbye.

We’re still alive!

Just to let you all know that we’re still alive and well. We’ve been touring round rural Tamil Nadu, which has contrasted nicely with the city life. I guess you could say we’re seeing the real India.

I’m going to need about a month long debrief on our return to the UK to fully grasp what I have seen, tasted and smelt!

On another topic, I have had a really dodgy stomach for 72 hours now – its not only cramping my belly, its cramping my style so I’m really hoping I wake up in the morning like a new born pup. Its not only me, most of us have had bad heads, bad stomachs etc. at some point but we’re ploughing through. However, after recovering from his illness in the first week, Carl seems to be immune to everything thrown in his direction.

Run to the Hills!!

As James has said, we have been to the district conference for the past 2 days which has been absolutely huge!! Not having been to one before I am now preparing my nerves for the UK one in September. I also think our presentation went well as we had all been so nervous to speak to such a large crowd - even James and Carl who thus far have had nerves of steel had a very, very slight attack of nerves - its amazing how long 2 minutes can feel!! I met up with some of my hosts again at the conference which was lovely as I now probably won't see them again before I head back home. Some of them had their children performing too, which was funny as when I was staying with them they had been going to practices for it. I found the entertainment interesting to watch and we have our very own rising star in Ben - he took to the stage to perform a skit, whereby he played a "confused" Englishman, and we were in awe of how he drew on his reserves deep within to play such a challenging role :)

I have also completed the last of my vocational visits and maybe found it the most rewarding. It was an orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS, and the organisation operate on such small resources. The children are not allowed to go to the local school as the local village is fearful the virus may spread - just one of the many challenges they face!! The children though were absolutely adorable and had such a voracious appetite for learning. You know the most urgent thing they need? A well - that simple!! India is like that, makes you realise the contradictory nature of life and the important things to worry about!

This is my last night with my 4th family and I shall miss the kids - they have been like little magnets stuck to me each day and such great fun!! I am now adept however in the art of packing in quick time. We head off tomorrow at 6 out of the City to the Hill Station part of the District, which I am really looking forward to as I would welcome the chance to see a different part of area now, just to see how different life in those communities is.

We are getting along great with the American team and feel that having them along has made the adventure even more special!

Well, we are now past the half-way stage and all is going really well, touch wood etc.
This weekend we have attended the District 3230 conference, named Kurinji after the flower that blooms every 12 years (conf being 12........monthly).There are some notable differences to ours, for instance there were 5,200 registrants, which has interesting when there is only seating capacity for some 1,600 in the auditorium, so a couple of hundred standing, not for our presentation, but for the lifetime award for a Kolleywood film director(!), was not surprising.
It is amazing that the catering facilities do cope with these numbers, for lunch and evening dinner, always seated, with slick service creating very short eating times, all at tressles in a huge hall. Bearing in mind that a lot of the sessions are conducted in tamil, and we have not yet completed our lessons in this ancient Dravidian language, I have thoroughly enjoyed quite a few of the sessions. R.I. vice President Tom Thorfinnson spoke well on 'the Challenges before us', forecasting some of the changes that Rotary MUST make to keep up with the internet/i-phone world that lies ahead, of meetings not face-to-face and therefore not weekly, for example; however, the core values of diversity, leadership, fellowship and service should not change.
There has been delightful dancing by spouses, and separately by their children, which we could emulate. In India they do, however, include their families so much more than we do in the UK
I have been greatly entertained with typical Southern Indian Carnatic music, singing and dancing to a professional level as well as juggling, gymnastics, conjuring and laser dancing at last evening's performance which was exceptionally good.
Our presentation went very well, I believe. Because we felt that quite a number of those present would have seen much of our personal aspects, we had changed the format completely, to show much more of the features of our region. Carl has been the creator of the powerpoint, so he came on last and took up all theallocated time that as left with these slides and it was well received.
Lastw eek was my birthday; I received no less than three cakes, with great cermony ( I can certainly say that India is a first-class country in which to celebtrate one's birthday, as they really know how to do it in style). Ben's is tomorrow, so we must not let that go by without the same treatment.
On Thursday we had a meeting with the Mayor and were able to ask him some questions. He certainly answered each one fully, although we shall probably never know whether his dreams will come to fruition! Certainly it was one of those many things that we have done that would not have been possible if it weren't for this GSE exchange facility. We are truly grateful to our meticulous and attentive hosts.
Tomorrow is a very early rise in order to meet at 6am to drive out to the Hill Station of Vellore. This next few days will be long and full, but will, I am sure, be fabulous owing to the rural nature of this area. Oh dear, now less than two weeks to go, and we've lots more to see and do!

My vocational visits (the serious stuff!)

A vitally important component of the GSE programme is for each team member to study their vocation in the host country. Owing to my educational background in design & manufacturing engineering and my employment in Bombardier Transportation, I requested vocational visits associated with this field.

The vocational visits I have undertook have far exceeded my expectations. So far I have enjoyed visits to the following organisations, which are summarised briefly below:

• Integral Coach Factory (ICF) – Government owned rail coach manufacturer. Permission for this visit had to be sought from New Delhi and I only received clearance the night before my scheduled visit! Thank you to all Rotarians involved for your hard work in getting me this permission. This vocational visit was directly related to my current role as an engineer in a rolling stock company. Here I saw carbody manufacture and assembly and saw the fully assembled vehicles.
• India Pistons – a large manufacturing company, which is part of the huge ‘Amalgamations Limited’ Group. Here I saw the factory set-up for the production of pistons and piston rings.
• Ashok Leyland – a very large manufacturer of trucks, buses and light military vehicles. This impressive site manufactures some key components such as gearboxes and then assembles the platform vehicle. The customer then ordinarily fits out the vehicle with its own steel shell and ancillary components as per their requirements. This usually involves a third party, but I have since learned that a sister company of Ashok Leyland is also in the business of taking the vehicle platform and equipping it to the customers requirements.
• Ford – This impressive facility produces three platform vehicles primarily for the Indian market but is also looking to export these to 38 countries.
• Autotech – a relatively small supplier manufacturing engine components for the big names in diesel engines (for heavy goods vehicles etc.).
• Wavecurrent precision parts – a small supplier producing high-precision engine components
• New Dawn Water Engineering (water treatment consultancy) – consults, designs and implements solutions to handling and treating waste water on site (e.g. manufacturing sites, universities etc.). The use of the treated water for the production process and toilet flushing etc. is then facilitated as per the requirements of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board

I have learned a great deal about the industrial supply chain in India, the manufacturing processes employed and the set up of such companies. I have also learned about  the sustainability issues surrounding the manufacturing industry in the region and the legislation to which the respective companies must comply.

I have many pages of notes which I’m typing up so that I can best learn from these vocational visits.