Pathway Orphanage, Chennai, India Part 1

My daughter Anna had the privilege of volunteering in an Orphanage fir 2 months in India. The organization is called Pathway and they have a main facility in Chennai, India and then they have a working farm with 200 children and mentally disabled people. She taught art there at the farm and other subjects to the children. She was always very busy and she fell in love with India and the children and people at Pathway. She came back a more loving, kind and sensitive person. Oh, that we could all have an experience like she did. It's a very worthy cause to donate too. They always have a lot of needs- http://pathway.org.in/. These are Anna's pictures. She taught some of the girls how to take pictures and so she was able to get in some herself.

This is the girls dormitory on the right and their school ahead

They have beautiful grounds. This is the road that she walked to her quarter. At night they would have a security guard walk with her for cobras and other venomous animals and bugs

Gayatri, Deevya, Sandya, Jaya, Rekabharati, Sundari, Gopika and Presana in their dormitory. They dressed Anna up

Manoj, Naveen, Dhoni, and Kharti

The "Dining Hall"

Dhanalakshmi, Lavanya, Gobika, and Shapana

Amudha, Ezhilarasi, Mercy, Swarnamugi, Sita,  and Suganti

The special girls- To the left of Anna is Jhoti and Malani below

She taught the disabled men art and they loved it. They would wait, lined up with their paper for her to come in the classroom- Prabho. He was such a stud Anna said. He would always do the thumbs up sign, grin and do the Indian head wobble

The labor ladies. They were laughing and giggling and asked her to take their picture and as soon as the camera was up this is how they looked

Pown Priya

Deevya and Sathya

The Kindergarten class

Nisha

The Eight Standard or grade

Sisters Sandya and Deepika

The really really special class learning art from Anna

Mary, Sobaprya, Bhavani, Ramya, Aishwarya, and Kosi

Bharathkumar

Rice paddies and the cow shed and the milk cows on the farm

Street corner in the village of Sothupakkam

Morning Prayer

Jessica who came with her husband for a week. They are from Holland 

In the girls dormitory

They loved to dress her up

Jayasuriya was 1 1/2 

Samanithi- she was about 3

The workers- This time she got one smile. This is how they dressed for everything- even work. After she took their picture, they put flowers in her hair

Anna's work station

View of the farm

When Anna would talk to us on Skype, she would always get a crowd

Anna teaching them "Oh Holy Night"

Deepalakshmi

The empty Dining Hall

Vidhya and Deepalakshmi

Chitibabo who was so sad to see Anna leave. He called her sister and he was one of the special boys

This is a Churidar which was given to her by the Prasad's

Lavanya

Kosi

Mushrooms that appeared one day and where gone the next

Morning prayer and cute, little Dhoni

Radha- she didn't know how old she was

They take care of each other

Deepika and Abi

Drawing by Aravindhan

Sandya

Breakfast