We all awoke on the Friday morning a little worse for wear in the, ahem, bathroom department. A week's worth of spicy, South Indian food had finally taken its toll, and so when Maria bounded into mine and Lata's room shouting, "Is it supposed to hurt?!", we were able to empathise all too well. Literally. I meanwhile was still struggling to face the eight-legged residents of our bathroom alone, so had to rely on Lata for support (she was brilliant). Which also led to possibly the most bizarre promise I've ever made to anyone in my life before. It began like this: "I'll come with you into the bathroom if you need to go Ush, you can't just avoid it forever", said Lata. "Really, would you? That would be great! Even if I need to.. you know?"
"Sure."
"Even if I see a spider, panic, jump off the toilet and shit flies onto your face?" (I do not know what possessed me to say this)
"Ush, promise me you will not shit on my face", Lata replied, looking serious now.
"Ok. I promise."
And that's how it went, until I was comfortable enough to venture into the bathroom alone. Inappropriate bathroom stories aside, we'd managed to awake early enough for Lata to put a first wash on. And by 'put a wash on', I mean squat next to a tub brimming with soapy, lukewarm water, and attempt to scrub out all of the stains from our once pristine, white clothes. The Palace on Wheels arrived at around 8am to cart us off to Paul's for another two course dining experience (otherwise known as breakfast), before taking us to an elderly women's care home situated in a nearby town.
Even in spite of all the books I'd read and films I'd seen, nothing prepared me for what we would see in the old age home. Emaciated bodies and discontorted limbs, and faces that expressed decades of hardship and neglect. The women were well looked after by the care home staff, but nothing could cure them of their sense of abandonment. This phenomena is considered all the more shocking in India, where entire families (extended family and all) have traditionally always lived together. One of the women we met asked the staff at the home if we had come from Malaysia. Puzzled, we replied that we had come from the U.K. The lady in charge of running the home then explained to us that the woman's son had deserted her for a job in Malaysia, thus forcing her out onto the streets. The woman had not seen her son since.
The lady who ran the elderly women's home was also the President of an organisation known as DROPS, an organisation that provides support and relief to the rurally oppressed. The lady's English was very strong, and she later showed us photographs of a development conference she had attended in London many years ago. As well as this, we were shown newspaper cutouts of the organisation's impact on Indian society, including photographs of young women involved in protests during a political rally.
Back on board the Palace on Wheels, we drove to the village of Siragapati where we were due for lunch and an afternoon interaction with the village women. It was here in Siragapati that the Kamla foundation had sponsored the construction of two drinking water wells, and as we walked through the village we were able to see this work in progress. Later, when speaking to the village women they conveyed to us their enthusiasm for the wells and the difference that clean water would make to their lives. As ambassadors for the Kamla foundation we were naturally received well by the villagers, but perhaps a little too well, as we were served a mammoth South Indian feast for lunch, which, as we were later told by Paul, was akin to a typical wedding feast.
Certainly something that I found throughout the whole trip was that despite the extremes of poverty and starvation that the rural folk are often afflicted by, they did everything that they could to ensure that we, as guests, never felt hungry. And, since this notion of hospitality is so firmly entrenched in South Indian culture, there was very little that we could say or do aside from our frequent protestations at being over-fed!! The food itself, as was the case everywhere we went, was delicious! After lunch we were provided with some fresh fruit which, after all the spicy food, went down a treat! We were then given the opportunity to rest for a while, and so Lata, Maria and I chatted for an hour about the real problems that the 'rurally oppressed' face, and about the problems presented to us, wanting to provide some relief, by the 'development paradox'.
As you can probably tell from the size of this post Friday was a long, long day (and we've only just hit 2pm) so I'll continue writing in a new post and leave you with this for now. Happy reading!
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