Visitors from Canada and the USA

Peggy Carswell, her husband Kel and their friend Sarah came into Chennai on the evening of Saturday the 19th. We (Subbu – Club Sec, Rahul – Intl Director and me – Hari Ratan) picked them up from the Chennai airport and took them to their place of stay. The next morning (Sunday) we left Chennai early after few Rotary members ran n the Chennai Marathon and then met for breakfast at Tanjore a small restaurant on the East Coast Road.

On the 20th of February the members of RC Chennai Kilpauk left on their trip to visit Tsunami affected villages to handover relief material and to hold discussions on what needs to be done next. Another objective of this trip was to provide n opportunity to the visiting Rotarians to get a feel of the work done by us and to for themselves the needs of the people.

During this visit we stepped into a few huts occupied by the affected people to identify needs and then found that there was so much that needed to be done. No home (hut) had comfortable living quarters, there was no furniture, none at all, the women were cooking on the sands and the vegetables were being cut on whatever flat surface they could find. Since they did not have cupboards all their belongings were kept in vessels or just thrown down on the floor. Most huts did not have stoves and some had built themselves stoves of mud.

Peggy promised he women in the first camp hat she would be back to talk to them to ascertain their needs and then she would do whatever within her means to provide them with what they need to the best of her abilities.

On Tuesday when she spoke to me, Peggy wanted to go back to the camp and meet up with the women to speak to them, to understand what they need and to provide whatever help she can.

We later drove down to Mahabalipuram the well known tourist spot and handed over supplies. Almost everywhere we went the cry was the same, help us get back to work, thanks for the supplies but help us get back to work.

Also, the material which bought smiles to the faces and made people happy was the cricket kits and the carom boards.