Arrived in Chennai

Breakfast in our hotel with Emily and Elisabeth

 

January 12, 2026, Sunday

We made it to our hotel at midnight after almost exactly 24 hours in transit. Our first 17-hour flight was uneventful. We cycled through watching movies, reading, playing games, eating and trying to sleep. We probably both dozed but it was not restful. We landed in Singapore and moved to a different terminal for our next flight. It was perfect timing to board our flight to Chennai. Emily made a trip a year ago to check out facilities and logistics in India, so when we finally landed and made it through immigration and customs, she knew exactly where to get a taxi to bring us to our hotel.

The Singapore airport has the coolest gardens, exhibits and restaurants. It is the one airport I wouldn't mind having a long layover! We didn't get a chance to go in the butterfly exhibit, but it would have been fun.

We learned there was a mix up with our room when we checked in. The hotel was full! Fortunately, they have some long-term stay apartments on the same piece of property. They gave us two apartments and drove us to them so we didn't have to pull our suitcases. We each had a two-room apartment with a mini kitchen. We went straight to bed. The only tricky part was we didn't think to turn on the hot water in the morning, so we both had tepid showers! We should have remembered to look for the switch. When we lived in Hong Kong, we had to turn the hot water heater on before we showered each morning.

As we were walking to breakfast in the morning, we walked by a pickleball court. We took a picture when we went back to collect our luggage and the players were gone. But pickleball is alive and well in India! For a sport that started on Bainbridge Island, it has come a long way!

We spent the day in meetings with the local facilitator coordinating the program here in India. Next week is Pongal, a local harvest festival. We have two helpers, Abid and Val who are arranging for us to go to a village to see some festivities, and we have an invitation to visit the home of the Prince of Arcot. The students are arriving in waves starting on Saturday night and they will all get here by Monday night. Emily and Abid are making the middle of the night trips to the airport. 

We walked through the mall and saw this Pongal display. Elisabeth, who is teaching a course on Hinduism, pointed out the Pongal symbols. This is an overflowing rice bowl which depicts abundance. We ate a dish of boiled rice (a seasonal specialty) for breakfast that is served this time of year.

The cow is a sacred symbol in Hinduism. A cow represents motherhood, selfless giving and is also a traditional part of agricultural work, hence a Pongal symbol. We haven't seen any roaming the streets, but we have avoided stepping in the cow piles.

On our way to church this morning in an auto rickshaw.

We attended church this morning in Chennai. They have a big beautiful building and there were about 120 members. We met a very nice couple from Camino Island, Washington who are here for two years working for Boeing. The wife told me how to get to the street where they sell fabric, and she even said she is going home in February and has an extra empty suitcase. I am hoping to find the time to go check it out! And we met another State Department family. There was only one other ex-pat couple and all the rest were locals. Sacrament meeting was in English but Relief Society was mostly taught in Tamil. The teacher would occasionally say a phrase or two in English. They gave us headsets in sacrament meeting but the entire meeting was in English, so we didn't use them.

Outside the church building. It was sprinkling as we rode to church.

Traffic laws apparently do not apply to auto rickshaws. It was an exciting ride to church!

After church, we were getting lunch outside the hotel when the first five students to arrive spotted us and joined us. They are so excited to finally arrive!