Allie


Friday, September 30

trip to kerala (part one)

I apologize that these posts are a bit tardy and there's so much to report, I'll be posting a few entries about this trip!

Last week, I was on an incredible trip with TMF, the Sooch Foundation and Whole Foods. The Whole Planet Foundation recently partnered with TMF and for months and months, they have been planning this trip and let me tell you, I feel seriously grateful for being able to crash. The trip, for me, started in Chennai, where I met Jasdeep from TMF and Caroline and Mary Ellen from the Sooch Foundation. Immediately, I knew these three would be my new best friends... and I was right. After a quick night in Chennai, the next morning we were off to Tuticorin. After a terrifying landing in one of the tiniest airports I've ever been in, we were off to Tirunelveli. Once we reached the town, we met up with Barbara and the Whole Foods group at a local restaurant where, for the first time, I acted as a true Indian and (gasp) ate with my hands.

Step One
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Step Two
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(And no, you aren't seeing things... our "plates" were banana leaves!)

We spent the rest of the day shopping and then our amazing AMAZING AMAZING tour guide Jai Raj (seriously, if you're ever in Southern India, he was the best) took us to a temple.

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(Trying to be artsy with my photography)

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Ancient inscriptions

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Each of these pillars made a different sound!


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The temple was beautiful and although I'm not Hindi, you could almost feel a pulse of spirituality radiating from the walls of the temple.

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(Mary Ellen, Caroline and I at the temple)


At the end up our temple tour, I got to meet my SECOND elephant in the past few months. This one, however, gave us a blessing as we left the beautiful temples.

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After the site seeing, we headed to another orphanage, where the Whole Foods team had been working all week to construct a playground and mural for the kids there.

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Whole Foods/Whole Planet Foundation... holy cow, could you have made it more beautiful?!

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