India: Day 1

Hello from Chennai,
Today was our first full day with a meeting at CHES (Community Health Education Society), one of partners for our Global Partnership Program. It was wonderful to put faces to names and talk to Valavan and Dr. Manorama about CHES's work as well as get excited about camp together! CHES does a lot of in-home counseling and education sessions, trainings for caregivers and govt. workers, and a home/clinic for orphans with HIV. In the afternoon we met with Rochelle and Satish from YRGCare, our other partner in India. I also had the chance to meet Vinoth, also on the Leadership Team, on the way out! Such lovely people-I look forward to spending the rest of the week with them and getting to know them more :)

Today marks my first full day of Indian cuisine, however the only name I can remember is iddly (sp?), a light bread/rice cake. I will try to keep track of other foods and record the names and descriptions! Tim and I did not wake up for it, but we checked the Super Bowl score this morning. I was hoping the 49ers could make the comeback and was hopeful when it was 31-23...sad to see the final and now curious as to what happened since it was so close! Anywho, we are off to dinner in a few minutes. Tomorrow we will be visiting the site where camp will be held in May! So far, I've been fortunate-no sweat 'stache or the business...yet :)

Love from 10.5 hours ahead,
Mary

P.S. if you don't know what the business is, take a guess...'cause you really don't want to ask.
P.P.S I saw my first cow in the middle of the road....I knew it wouldn't be long.