Day 1 in Kodai

 I had forgotten about the constant loudspeaker blasting as well as birds chirping, dogs howling, church bells, and roosters crowing! The loudspeaker went all night long.  In Mahabalipuram it was the crows in the morning.

I had fun with the sunrise pictures.

The back of the Villa retreat.  Inside those doors is where we ate last night.

What a glorious sunrise!!

     

We had breakfast at 7:30 am.  It seemed a little disorganized.  Things came out in shifts. But it was delicious.  I forgot to take a picture.  They have a full menu of Indian and non-Indian foods.  

We walked down to the school for the Alumni tour.  We had a campus tour. The first stop was a group photo in front of the chapel.

Jon, Vivian, Rebecca, Paul Z, Shanta, Janet, Bruce, Ros, Don, Carla, Carolyn, Cheryl, Paul H, Jewel, George, and me. (Ann and Tim are missing)

Just the 1968 classmates: Jon, Vivian, Paul Z, Shanta, Rebecca, Bruce, Ros, Don, Jewel, Paul H, Cheryl, and me.

Manjusha was leading the tour.

Inside the chapel

The covered outdoor gym

The gym

The gym from the outside

Relaxing in the staff lounge with either filter coffee or tea. It was a very leisurely tour. 

The quad

The library

Paul, with his book behind him.  Sorry about the reflection of the glass.

A whole shelf of my brother, Steve's books.  Not that I am proud or anything.

The stairs down to Wissy

A green house

Purple geraniums

Some unusual use of bricks and texture.

The back of Kennedy

Carolyn and Ros

Path down to Bendy field.

The new dispensary which is fondly called the "dish".  

Note Bill's name on the plaque. Bill is a classmate.

School flag in the green.  The altitude at this point is about 7,000 feet above sea level.

Rebecca with her sister, Sylvia

Kris Riber with Paul Z

We met others from different classes.

We had lunch in the school cafeteria. There was a wide variety of choices.  

We ate with some of the leaders of the school, like the Principal and the Vice Principal .  This was so we could ask questions about the school.  

 

We got in to a bus which took us to the new Center for Environment and Humanity,  Their goals are very impressive,  but they have a long way to go.  They are working on waste management, regenerative agriculture, climate change, and biodiversity.  They are working with businesses, children in schools, and local farmers through education, outreach, and research.

They are trying growing their own mushroom.  If this plan works then women could grow mushrooms to sell.  

These birds are made out of paper.  There is a sensor close which will make it so you can hear that bird's song.  

So many gorgeous flowers, so little time

Next stop, Pillar Rocks.

Me and George and Carolyn and Ros

They now are charging 100 INR to get to the view site. 

Then we drove to the Kodai Golf Club for tea.

We walked up to the cliff and saw more monkeys.  

It was so foggy we did not see the view.

Peter Fletcher seems to be hanging around with Don for a few days.  It has been nice catching up with him a little.

We went back to the room to have a little down time before dinner.  Dinner was a little confusing.. Their brochure says dinner is 7 - 9 pm.  But they wanted us to order ahead before even going to the restaurant so that dinner might be ready by 8 pm.  When we told them that we would go somewhere else then he begged us to stay and they would try to have dinner sooner. That is what we did.  It was nearly 8 pm before we got ours.  George ordered a grilled fish and I had chicken Stroganoff.  It was tasty though unusual in its presentation.