Leaving Chennai

Today we leave Chennai. We leave behind the bright smiling faces of hundreds of children who have touched our lives so deeply. We leave behind new friends. We leave behind men and women filled with compassion to help children who have been brought into this world only to be cast aside.

We also leave behind a small mountain of supplies for these children. We've distributed:
- personal hygiene kits (toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, combs, shampoo, fingernail clippers, talcum powder, etc) for 700 children
- 700 bed mats
- school supplies (pens, study books, crayons, coloring books, erasers, pencils, chalk) for 700 children
- basic first aid supplies (guaze, band aides, iodine, etc) for 500 children
- medicines to meet the specific special needs of many disabled children
- food (rice and lentils for 200 children for one month, and milk supplied for 100 children for two months)
- pots & pans and other cooking equipment for several different orphanages
- basic light fixtures to allow study after dark for one orphanage
- soccer balls, cricket bats & balls, and badminton rackets and shuttlecocks

We leave with a renewed sense of hope in the ability of love and compassion to triumph over the worst of this world’s trials. We leave with a renewed sense of purpose, dedicating ourselves to helping those in need. We leave with memories, poignant, beautiful, and tragic. We leave with a sense of mission accomplished.

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We have finalized our accounting of the funds used. Feel free to review the final trip report here.

Each of the three of us wanted to say thank you to everyone we've worked with here in India. The volunteers who work at these orphanages and schools are nothing short of miracle workers, and we salute you. And to all our friends and supporters at home who have given money and moral support, we give you a hearty thanks as well. We could not have done this without your support.

Now, nothing remains but the ride to the airport and the flights back home. Shakespeare poetically describes parting as such sweet sorrow. And leaving these orphans fills me with a swirl of emotions. But now that I'm staring 28 hours of air travel in the face, I can't rise to Shakespeare's eloquence. I'm looking forward to this about as much as a kick in the teeth.

Mike Morath