Now if you read the last blog, you’ll remember that we are picking up at breakfast, at our hotel in Madurai. I hope this makes sense!! Before we start, make yourself a coffee (or chai) because this is a long blog. I’ve tried to cap myself at 1,000 words throughout these posts so far, but today we’re revisiting a very special place, and it’s a memory I want to keep fresh for years to come. Please bear with me as I dabble in the details and reminisce on a journey through Tamil Nadu that actually started over 12 years ago. 

Some context to start… World Challenge is an organization that runs global trips for school groups, getting kids out of their comfort zone and into entirely different parts of the world. In 2012/2013 I was 15 years old, and with 14 other girls from Rangi Ruru we were embarking on a truly formative experience in India. During our trip we had three main sections - a trek in the Western Ghats, our project in rural Tamil Nadu, and some R&R time exploring Kerala and Rajasthan. The highlight of the trip in retrospect was that we organized most of the trip ourselves, deciding where we were going to stay, how we would get around, managing our budget… our teachers and leader were just supervising and we were making the decisions. I think this really gave me confidence in travelling right from the beginning that has continued today. 

It was my NZM colleague and fellow trip member Emma Subtil who asked if I was going to try and visit the school we worked at during our project; it hadn’t hugely been on my radar until that point. During our time in India, we spent 10 days living in a very rural town called Sempatty, from which every day we were driven to an even more rural village called Surukaipatti. Here, we built a new kitchen for the local government primary school. We employed a local bricklayer who spoke no English to help us - he got our attention by throwing balls of cement at us. Hilarious in retrospect! We also repainted the outside of some of the classrooms, and spent time playing with the children. Some of my strongest memories from this time are the rooms we stayed in (very, very average with squat toilets, cockroaches and buckets for showers), the lunches we ate every day that were exactly the same and very spicy for 15 year old me, and the cute kids who were always so excited to see us arrive. Emma actually has a much better memory of the trip, and countless reminiscent conversations over the last few years have bought back a slew of memories. 

As we got closer to our time in Tamil Nadu on this trip, I scoured google maps trying to find the right town and school. I read our old assembly speech (thankfully still on our Facebook group), looked at old photos, and tried to navigate google maps street view to try and locate the school. I emailed the education department of the local government and messaged a few random people on Facebook and WhatsApp from nearby towns that seemed like they might be able to help me. At this point we were only a few days away from arriving in Madurai, and I was getting more and more convinced it wasn’t going to happen. Finally, I got a reply from a man named Rajesh, who I had reached out to after seeing his recent activity on a Facebook page about schools in the area. After a few broken phone calls and a couple days of WhatsApp messages, Rajesh assured me that he had found the location of the school and managed to contact them. He said he was going to meet us at our hotel at 8:30 AM the following morning. I was tentatively excited - but still not 100% percent convinced we were going to end up at the right place. For better or for worse, my excitement to visit the school had drowned out any skepticism of connecting with a random man on Facebook and agreeing to go on a day trip to a rural village with him. 

We were at reception at 8:30 AM ready to go and waiting for Rajesh. We weren’t sure of any details really, but I was confident that if we waited he would show up. I got a couple texts letting me know he was actually catching the bus from two hours away to meet us, and he was actually still an hour or so from our hotel! We got some writing done while lamenting the extra sleep we could have gotten, but I was too excited and nervous to really relax. Eventually at about 11:30 AM Rajesh arrived. He was a really friendly, welcoming man and we quickly felt at ease, despite the language barrier. He ordered us a car and we first headed into central Madurai to get some stationary and sports gear to give to the school. It was so helpful to have someone with us for this, as Rajesh could point us in the direction of the best stores, and also what would be most helpful to the kids. We ended up getting a selection of exercise books, pens, pencils, teaching charts, colouring pencils and sports equipment, thanks to some additional donations from a few of the girls who joined me on the trip all those years ago. We actually did a similar thing last time, I have clear memories of us all in a department store trying to work out what was in budget and what would be most appreciated by the school. 

Finally all the jobs were done and we were on our way out to the school. The small town near the school is called Sempatty, and this was about two hours north of Madurai. With a compulsory Southern Indian coffee stop (their pulled filter coffee is just fabulous), we drove down a highway getting further and further into rural Tamil Nadu. It was fascinating to watch the landscape change around us, watching the towns turn into fields with bigger hills in the background. We still didn’t know exactly where the school was, but as we got closer to Sempatty I was a puddle of nerves. What if it was awkward? What if we got the wrong school? What if there was no one there? As we got into the town I was furiously messaging Emma and seeing if I could spot anything out the windows that I remembered. Then, as we left the town and turned the corner into the tiny village, it all started to come back to me. After asking a few locals for directions, I knew we were on the right road and could remember turning down here every morning and pulling up at the school. 

Arriving was a surreal experience. In 12 years so much has changed, but it definitely felt like the right place. I wanted to go and see the kitchen straight away, see if it was still standing and if our handprints were there, but first we politely started by going into the classroom and meeting the teacher and the kids. It was explained to us that the school is much smaller these days, with only 30 students and one teacher currently. They were only using one of the classrooms at the moment, which coincidentally had been where we sat everyday on our trip to have lunch! The kids at this school ranged from grade one to five, and they were all being taught together in this one room. Every student stood up and filed past me, while politely shaking my hand saying nice to meet you, and telling me their name. It was very sweet and I felt totally overwhelmed. After the procession, Rajesh explained to them why we had come (I think), and then asked if I had anything I wanted to say to the group of kids about New Zealand or about school. I spoke about how far away we are in New Zealand from India, yet how in all countries education is so important and encouraged these kids to keep working hard. It’s very tricky to know what to say when you are talking to a group ranging from age 5 to 10, in a school system that is so far removed from how we grew up. We had a few halting conversations with the older kids about their favorite subjects and what they wanted to do when they grow up, including a nurse, bank manager, police woman and teacher. All the kids learn English, Tamil, maths, science and social studies but from what I could understand it was a very route learning type method, especially with English. They could do things like name all the body parts or colours very easily, but were shy to try and have a conversation. I don’t imagine they have many opportunities to practise with native speakers.

We then toured the school grounds, and I got to see the kitchen we built! It was no longer in use, but it was great to see our stone masonry still standing after all those years. You could very faintly see our handprints and writing on the wall, which was the final proof I needed to know I was in the right place. We snapped a few obligatory pictures of course which I straight away sent to Emma who was following along at home. 

It all brought back many memories - seeing the kids, the classroom walls we had painted and the kitchen itself. I felt overwhelmingly grateful for the education I got in New Zealand with amazing facilities and funding, nothing like a significant disparity to show you how lucky you are. It was amazing to see the children here so happy, enthusiastic about their studies and grateful to be at school. 

After our short tour we gave out the gifts we had brought (much more ceremoniously than I would have liked), but it was nice to see how happy the teacher and students were. I think they were most excited about the soccer ball and badminton set, but they patiently said thank you for all the books and pencils too! It never feels like enough - I would have loved to have given each of those kids access to the learning environment I had growing up, but hopefully a small touch like this can still be a meaningful contribution. They sang us a few songs and rhymes they use to practise their English, and we got some group photos outside. It was nearly the end of the school day so we took our leave with final thank you's and goodbyes. The drive back to Madurai was very quiet with lots of contemplation about the day that had been. It had been so special to be back, and honestly I was in shock that we even found the right place!!

Before I end this, I want to take a moment to touch on “voluntourism”, which can be super problematic in less developed parts of the world and largely self serving for the visiting volunteers. Examples include (primarily) white people flying in and out of countries to volunteer for short periods of time, performative volunteer work taking jobs away from local communities, organizations providing funding or supplies as a one off without continued support or positions going to temporary foreign workers instead of upskilling locals providing education and empowerment. Looking back now on our trip all those years ago I don’t know if it was totally the right or ethical thing to do (mum and dad I am still so grateful obviously). The money would have probably been much better spent employing locals to build a new kitchen!! I do know that the trip definitely changed 14 young, privileged girls for the better and opened our eyes to a part of the world so different to our own. I also know that there were some amazing connections made between us and the young children there at the time, and everyone had fun and took away some amazing memories. Wrong or right, it was definitely formative and a once in a lifetime experience for a young teenager. I don’t have a real point or conclusion to draw here, but I wanted to acknowledge it as part of the conversation. 

Getting to visit again was a real privilege, and a timely reminder of how lucky we are to be doing this trip and the importance of contributing positively on the way. In the car ride home Josh and I both commented on how pleased we were to have made the effort to go. 

If you made it to the end of this, thank you for staying with me! As always please let us know what you think in the comments, we love hearing from you.