February 20, 2009

Namaste from Eluru. We spent the last week in kakinada and enjoyed all of the hospitality of that lovely area. We also held another successful LN-4 hand clinic and fitted 9 people with new prosthetics. We visited many projects including the Kiran eye institute, the old age home, blood bank, Godarigunta school and the physiotherapy unit at the central hospital. Our GSE coordinator Bobby planned many fun activites including dinner at the beach, complete with veggie burgers and a boat trip down the Godavari river with lunch under the trees. We can feel it getting hotter every day but are all doing well. Our hosts are arranging for us to see many of the tourist sites in Andhra including the Sarpavaram temple and the lovely Shiva temple at Samalkot.

It was fun to celebrate kate's birthday in Kakinada, complete with cake and singing. We also appeared on a local TV station/community access channel where we talked about our experiences in India.

Eluru is a small city by Indian standards (only 500,000 people with unknown numbers of cows, pigs, dogs and water buffaloes roaming the streets) and we are enjoying the hospitality of the club President very much. Last night we were honored to attend a hindu wedding - the dinner was at 8 and the ceremony started at 11:30 - when we left at 1 a.m. it was still going. An average wedding in India includes hundreds if not thousamds of people and even more flowers, food and music. The ceremony is extensive and involves everyone. Amanda and Kate enjoyed the women's sarees more than anything...complete with more gold jewelry than one can imagine.

Many thanks to all of our Indian Rotarian hosts and friends....we will all be coming back with the obvious benefits of eating delicious Indian foods for a month! We miss all of our families and friends and look forward to seeing you soon and sharing our many many photos and wonderful experiences with you all.

Namaskaram to you all.