When March comes along ever year I get very excited…… this is the time I get to go to Chennai for my annual church retreat. Like last year, this year too, I received a gift of a free airline ticket. Even though I was offered cold hard cash to stay back by my daughter as 9 days without me was too stressful for her, who had to take care of dad, Fudge and Muffin. Of course the girls at the shelters were very worried that I was leaving for so long and not forgetting Rach and Jen.
This year I flew on Sri Lankan and the lady who gifted the ticket accompanied me, as she is 75 yrs old I had to order a wheelchair for her journey. It was stressful for me to look after her right throughout the journey however I managed somehow. This year there were 600 Sri Lankans who attended the retreat and it was quite intense. Programmes commenced the next day we arrived and it continued for 5 days. The church sisters were awesome taking care of us like royalty bringing us morning tea/coffee to our bedside. Never seen before the dedication and love they had for us. Once the retreat was over the most interesting part was the shopping sprees, the girls had given me strict instructions to bring them bindis and candy which was on the top of my list, and I managed to buy it for them on the first day of shopping.
Soon the days passed by for me to come home and I was glad I missed my family, my pets and the girls very much. This year too my bags weighed more than 70 kgs and I was very lucky that I sailed through the Indian and local customs without making any extra payments, I believe that itself was a miracle to end an amazing experience.