Rain rain go away....

Hello Global friends and family! Matthew here to tell you guys about our first full day at ICSA in Chennai (Nov 2nd). We started off the morning with a delicious breakfast of dosa (a crispy crepe is what I describe it as) and then headed over to our morning lecture with Dr. Moses Manohar on religion and politics in India. We took a quick tea break and then came back to pick his brain over some of the more generalized questions that fell under these topics. We then heard a brief presentation about St. Thomas Mount before we loaded up the buses and drove over to see it for ourselves. The Mount is the spot where St Thomas was killed after preaching throughout a large chunk of southern India. The views were breath taking, and the artwork in the church was fascinating. I especially liked the paintings of all the apostles that showed what they were famous for in life and the method of their martyrdom....a little gruesome but interesting non the less! Luckily, the rain held off until we started our driving tour along the beach, which gave a very different perspective of the ocean than I am used to. The waves our van made along the flooded streets seemed almost as large as the ones crashing against the shore outside our windows. It struck me that the shops all along the beachfront remained open even during the down pour we were in the middle of. We got to experience the rain first hand when we had the opportunity to explore the Nagar shopping district in downtown Chennai. A few of us ducked into the nearest shops while others walked to a nearby park to throw the frisbee around. I went on a walk with a couple others to a nearby Hindu temple and then stopped for some chappati and chai at a local restaurant. When we got back to ICSA we ended the night with a little mosquito hunt followed by a couple episodes of Teen Wolf and a massage train. It was a great way to end a pretty busy day!