24th October 2010 - From Trinco to Trunk-oh!

OceanStars :: Sunday 24th October 2010 :: This Story

Great start! Today the team were allowed a lie in until 5.30, when we were all bundled into our buses and off to the little village of Vellaimanal. One of the buses had a wonderful packed lunch prepared by the hotel whereas the others were allowed to enjoy the leftovers!

First impressions of Vellaimanal community: when we arrived, the younger children were lined up in their pink uniforms with tissue paper shakers, and seven of them were each carrying a sign with a letter, spelling ‘WELCOME’. They were all very sweet! We were greeted with handmade shell necklaces; everyone in the community seemed so excited to see us, too. The children performed a dance and sang for us, and then we joined in with them singing the hokey kokey!
All the team were very moved by the presentation of five shiny new fishing boats bearing the ocean stars logo! These boats, along with the nets and lanterns also provided will provide a livelihood for 10 families – this really brought home the power that these gifts have to change lives. The five boats, along with the new vegetable garden (announced open today by Dame Dilanee), were all provided by the money raised by Helen and the Ocean Stars team in Scotland.
After this, sew to the sewing project (please appreciate this pun, it means a lot to Carolyn). We met the women who are involved in the Trinco sewing project. They laid out all their work for us to browse through and purchase. At this point we were given some King coconuts to drink which provided a refreshing break in the HOT room.

We all went to visit some sponsored children in the village. Chris visited her newly sponsored child, having had 2 ‘snatched away’ for various reasons. She enjoyed walking hand – in – hand with her sponsored child who took her to his home down a lane. Although the language barrier was there, we got around it with pictures and songs.
Fish, crab, mussels, prawns, rice, beans, potatoes, popadoms, ladies’ fingers and drumsticks. Nom. Nomnom. Shout out Janabdeen and the fam for hooking us up with the boom ting curry. Respect!

We then made a visit into the jungle where we sat on a pride rock-esque rock and watched the sunset melt over some strolling elephants. Kate exclaimed “Oh it’s got a trunk, and flapping ears”, yes, thanks Kate. We were again treated to another scrumptious meal. On our way out of the area, a guide joined us in the safari truck bearing a massive torch. Yasmin explained that he was on watch in case an elephant charged the jeep. Kat was greatly concerned that perhaps a torch was not a sufficiently large weapon for a charging elephant. However when a mother and baby elephant crossed the road behind us ,the torch was an ample enough deterrent and the pair strode on back through the jungle.! It was lovely to see them so close up.