Bethania Visit No. 2: Nagercoil

On to Bethania visit No.2; this time we’re down in Nagercoil, a mere mango's throw from the southern tip of India. (Refer back to my January ‘Route Map’ posting if you’re confused!) This orphanage, home to 135 gorgeous girls in green, is located in a building that has recently undergone an exciting change with the addition of Otten Memorial Chapel. My father and I were on hand to celebrate the grand opening!


Much like at Injambakkam, there were garlands, songs, speeches, and ‘entertainments’ by the girls. Must say the dances are getting better and better. I jumped at the chance to throw on a guitar and run through that old standby from my Korea days, Yellow Submarine, joined by the girls at the chorus.

The Nagercoil home is run like an absolute top by Grace Subiah, a local legend who's been looking after young women's welfare in South India most all of her 76 years. (She's second from the right in the staff photo.) Grace's golden touch is present throughout the orphanage, from the modestly looped braids on the heads to the intense academic focus in the heads. Here during exam time, she's got the girls up at 4.00 a.m., but are they ever sharp! The performance during my impromptu English quiz (singulars-and-plurals) certainly gives many of my media-spoilt Korean students a run for their Rupees!



Again left the photos to Dad, again the result of excessive mobbing by Bethania kids. Much was made out of plucking flowers and sticking them in my hair. Didn’t mean to incite the ensuing deforestation, but man alive, the amount and the sincerity of downright adoration you get from these kids, all from doing nothing past paying them a visit! It just can’t be equaled. And I’ve been around my fair share of little rugrats.

Ooh! But I also had a project on my hands! KARE-11 news, the Twin Cities NBC affiliate, is doing a story on Dad and Bethania, and they’ve given us a suh-weeet Sony digital camcorder to get some footage! Staged a few interviews with Tsunami Kids -- Nagercoil's got its fair share, so close to the coast -- although things got touchy with little Brinda.

Recalling that fateful day through a translator, Brinda's delicate resolve finally crumbled, giving way to tears of anguish. Hurriedly, we shut off the camera and struggled to pull the darling from her haunted past, emphasizing just how much we had loved her dance moves earlier in the morning. (Below, front-left.) Steadily, surrounded by the utmost of empathy and love, Brinda was at last able to bring herself from those depths and back to Bethania, back to renewed dignity and hope.