Last Saturday, myself, Sarah, Mary and Chloe trekked on over to London for our first meeting for this year's Chennai Challenge. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I am very excited about this and was sincerely looking forward to the day.
Our meeting was held at the Young Vic (where I'll hopefully be seeing A Streetcar Named Desire later in the year) and here we met the rest of our group who we'll be heading over to India with. There was a grand total of thirteen of us and everyone was very friendly and motivated for the project. It was great hearing from people who had already been before and helped explain their views on what it would be like for us when we go over.
We had an introduction from Emma and Rob (our project leaders) and some background information about Chennai Challenge, what they have previously achieved and what they keep striving towards. We go over to India for up to three weeks, helping at the YMCA orphanage in Chennai with after school sessions and then also take them on a holiday up to Yellagiri where we give them a fun week of activities. The Blue Edge aspect of the project also sounds very interesting; helping and teaching young adults English.
We then discussed our expectations of the project and what we think it would be like over in Chennai. As I haven't been to India before, I'm completely clueless as to what it would actually be like. From what I've heard, I'm assuming it will be loud, busy, colourful and eye-opening.
Mary gave us a song (which is not surprising) which is going to be perfect for when we're over there. Many people said that the crazier you are, the more the kids love you and enjoy themselves. This should be a lot of fun and shouldn't be too embarrassing seeing as everyone will be in it together!
The discussion of fundraising also came up and we discussed various methods of raising money. Someone suggested to me on a train journey not long ago that I hold a variety show evening at a local theatre (possibly my school's). Isaac told us that we should focus on doing as less as possible, for example it may cost us a lot of money to rent out the theatre and then possibly not many people would turn up, causing there to be no profit! We're going to aim on breaking up our fundraising into chunks, doing little parts at a time. Mary, Chloe, Sarah and I are thinking of buying some wristbands to sell for Chennai; helping everyone get something in return for their money! We're going to get on this as soon as possible as we don't want to leave the fundraising until it's too late.
After Emma's Thought for the Day (which is something we will be doing each day in Chennai), the meeting finally ended and I had a true sense of who I will be working with and what I will expect in the summer. After seeing many video clips and hearing many stories from people who have been previously, I know that I have everything to love forward to. Hopefully this will be a large eye-opener and will give me a different perspective on life as I currently know it.
For the rest of my day in London (as I didn't want to go home straight away, I mean it's LONDON), I visited the Wellcome Collection and then went for dinner at a fish and chip shop in Camden. The day was extremely busy, but terribly worth it.
Here's a few picture's from the day:
After ANOTHER £22.90 train ticket (I never have any luck with trains) and a #yolo henna pattern on my wrist, I finally made it back to Birmingham successfully. I feel that I'm in London so much; time for an Oyster card.
"Be the change you want to see in the world." - Ghandi
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