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!
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Saturday, 24 July 2010
Editor's note
Hello from London! Touched base yesterday after a whirlwind trip around South India, and as much as I have waxed lyrical about London in the past, I would honestly do near enough anything to be back in India right now!! As it transpired it was pretty difficult throughout the journey to keep updating the blog, owing to a jampacked schedule and limited tinternet access, etc., so I'm aiming to have all remaining snippets posted up by the end of this week. It's tempting now to give a general overview of the whole trip but, for fear of forsaking style over substance, I'm determined to continue writing as if I was there (I wish! this way, there's the added benefit of me being able to relive the entire experience as if I'd never left India). All that I will say for now is that more than any place that I saw or anything that I did, it was the people I met, engaged with, and in most cases befriended, along the way that I miss the most, and about whom I'll probably talk the most.
So, Day 2...
So, Day 2...
Tuesday, 6 July 2010
Day 1
On Day 1 the Palace on Wheels came to where we were staying at 8am to drive us to Paul's. Despite the fact that we could easily have walked there within 5 minutes, Paul was adamant that we make all journeys on the fully airconditioned hirebus! For breakfast we feasted on (literally feasted on - south indians have no concept of light-eating) a sweet rice dish followed by a savoury rice dish with dahl. Washed down afterwards by milky tea/coffee. During this breakfast we discussed our aspirations for the programme. The first week would be spent engaging with the local people and various regional NGOs on field studies, while the second week we would spend with our target focus groups, depending on our individual areas of interest (mine being women's empowerment).
The morning session comprised of an interactive session with the local women at the Ford Trust educational/cultural centre (a small hut round the back of Paul's house). Thanks to ongoing support and sponsorship by the Kamla Foundation in the UK (who provided sewing machines) in partnership with the Ford Trust, the women had been trained to use the sewing machines in order to manufacture small jute bags and various cotton/silk garments. The women were very enthusiastic about taking this microenterprise project further, in order to encourage some income from selling their manufactured items on the market. It was refreshing to see and hear this from the point of view of someone who has forunately been able to pursue any career in the world, due to a comfortable life and free education. For these women, this was their first taste of skilled work (separate from agriculture) that might one day put them in a position to afford a proper education for their own children, and thus to relieve much of the poverty and hardships that they presently face. It was quite cool also to see that the brand of the sewing machines that the women were using was called 'Usha' - having lived always in the UK it is not often that I see my own name in print!!
One thing that the women, and seemingly all the other focus groups that we met with afterwards, were particularly interested in enquiring about was whether any of us within the volunteer group were married yet! Our ages range from 18-25, most of us being university students or recent graduates. We had quite a few chuckles explaining why none of us were married yet (anathema to their culture), and I daren't even say out loud to them that I had considered never marrying at all!! Maria (25) is staying in Tamil Nadu and working with the Ford Trust for 3 months, and so we joked afterwards about how the village people would probably try to marry her off without her knowledge! Lata and I, being of north indian origin, have received various proposals of marriage/looks of interest in the past week, which we've had to sort of awkwardly decline. Only one of the women present at the meeting, Karparam, is still unmarried. She is beautiful, and we've been fortunate enough to have her accompany us on our daily ventures, and to cater for us alongside Mrs Paul. (Footnote - from today, Wednesday - Lata, Maria and I suspect that there is a little romance blossoming between Karparam and the minibus driver. Definite Victorian courtship going on there.)
The morning session comprised of an interactive session with the local women at the Ford Trust educational/cultural centre (a small hut round the back of Paul's house). Thanks to ongoing support and sponsorship by the Kamla Foundation in the UK (who provided sewing machines) in partnership with the Ford Trust, the women had been trained to use the sewing machines in order to manufacture small jute bags and various cotton/silk garments. The women were very enthusiastic about taking this microenterprise project further, in order to encourage some income from selling their manufactured items on the market. It was refreshing to see and hear this from the point of view of someone who has forunately been able to pursue any career in the world, due to a comfortable life and free education. For these women, this was their first taste of skilled work (separate from agriculture) that might one day put them in a position to afford a proper education for their own children, and thus to relieve much of the poverty and hardships that they presently face. It was quite cool also to see that the brand of the sewing machines that the women were using was called 'Usha' - having lived always in the UK it is not often that I see my own name in print!!
One thing that the women, and seemingly all the other focus groups that we met with afterwards, were particularly interested in enquiring about was whether any of us within the volunteer group were married yet! Our ages range from 18-25, most of us being university students or recent graduates. We had quite a few chuckles explaining why none of us were married yet (anathema to their culture), and I daren't even say out loud to them that I had considered never marrying at all!! Maria (25) is staying in Tamil Nadu and working with the Ford Trust for 3 months, and so we joked afterwards about how the village people would probably try to marry her off without her knowledge! Lata and I, being of north indian origin, have received various proposals of marriage/looks of interest in the past week, which we've had to sort of awkwardly decline. Only one of the women present at the meeting, Karparam, is still unmarried. She is beautiful, and we've been fortunate enough to have her accompany us on our daily ventures, and to cater for us alongside Mrs Paul. (Footnote - from today, Wednesday - Lata, Maria and I suspect that there is a little romance blossoming between Karparam and the minibus driver. Definite Victorian courtship going on there.)
After lunch (again at Paul's) the group went on a local school visit to meet some of the young children (aged from around 6 to 13). Literally as soon as we stepped out of the Palace on Wheels a hoard of excitable (excitable isn't even the word, they were like moths to a flame) children came running up to us and greeted us with fervent cries of "Vanakam!" It may have had something to do with the fact that we quite clearly looked like Westerners, or that there were two white people ('Whities' as David politically incorrectly likes to call them) and a Japanese person in the group! What's more hilarious, the children were convinced that Akiyoshi (from Japan) was Jackie Chan!! Their enthrallment was inexplicable. (Incidentally, every school visit since then has played out in the same sort of way, with the kids demaning autographs and pictures from Aki!) Eventually we made our way into an empty classroom where we were presented with the opportunity to speak with the Principal and a few of the students from various year groups. In the question-answer session that followed we discovered that the majority of the children had dreams to work in either engineering or computer sciences (industries in heavy demand), although very sadly most of them would probably be too poor to be able to afford the college or university tuition fees in order to pursue their dream careers. It was heartbreaking considering that the children themselves were so bright, especially in Mathematics. I managed to take some pictures of the kids on my lousy digicam as we were leaving, which wasn't too difficult as it turned out that they were all natural born posers as well as Maths geniuses.
Paul and David then took us to the nearby town of Karaikudi so that we could exchange money/book any train tickets for further travelling/boycott street vendors/literally curse and run away from hungry street vendors. Lata and I have plans to travel on to Kerala after our two weeks with the Ford Trust so we managed to book ourselves onto a 7 hour journey from Madurai (Tamil Nadu) to Varkhala (a beach resort in Kerala). Will be nice to wind back on the beach for a day after a pretty intense two weeks, although that said, I feel so comfortable here now in Pillayarpati that I sort of which I could extend my stay to a few more months. Have definite plans to come back here in future, hopefully after learning a bit more Tamil!
Dinner at Paul's. Bed. Then we hear a scream from Maria and Janak's room. More giant, winged cockroaches I imagine, and then I drifted off to sleep.
In which I adopt a "Never look up" policy...
It is now mid-afternoon on Tuesday 6th July, so just need to rewind back a little to Wednesday last week, when the Palace on Wheels (the somwhat hyperbolic name of our hired minibus) touched base in the small village of Pillayarpati. The village is renowned for the Sri Ganesh temple which is situated virtually at its centre, and is thus a host to a hoard of pilgrims all year round. As a result the village also boasts a reasonably small yet substantial tourist trade. The place that we would be staying at for the next two weeks was a boarding house for pilgrims of the temple, which, as we soon found out, housed its own herd of cattle. As it turned out cows were not the only animals/insects that we were to encounter during our stay, but I will come to that later!
Lata and I took one of the rooms which comprised of two single beds and a bathroom/toilet. Thankfully the rooms also came equipped with air conditioning, although I think by now I've become fairly accustomed to breaking into constant heat/humidity sweats (lovely!). Mosquito nets went up, and everything else unpacked onto the shelves. The only real problem were the spiders (one in the bedroom, two in the bathroom, and also a small gecko who lives behind the water tank). If anyone knows me, they will know of my severe (severe is putting it mildly) arachnaphobia. But, since the spiders weren't going anywhere, it was up to me to suck it up. Ergo, the "Never look up" policy, and the fact that I drag Lata into the loo with me everytime I need to go!
En route to Pillayarpati we witnessed the first of the Monsoon rains (even though it hasn't rained since). It was literally as though the sky had just opened up and poured a bucket of water onto the earth. The rain fell not so much in drops as in did in sheets! Once the rain had stopped the sun returned in its full glare, and I'm proud to say that I'm now on my way to looking like an authentic, dark-skinned Tamil. That night we went to Paul's house for dinner, situated a short 5 minute walk from our dorms, and met Mrs Paul, who would be our personal chef for the next two weeks. The other person (or half-person) we met I fell in love with at first sight! Rogishkumar, a young boy of around 5 who had been deserted by his parents and adopted by Paul and his wife, had THE most infectious smile/laugh I have ever seen in my life!! It is difficult to imagine the hardships he must've faced as an even younger child, but the life that Paul and his wife are now providing him with is truly heartwarming.
The hospitality of the Ford Trust has been simply fantastic! Indians are known worldwide for their hospitability, but Paul has honestly been the most incredible host to the us all over the last week; from feeding us to the point of food sweats (or are they regular heat sweats - it's difficult to tell) to ensuring that all our needs, however small or trivial (or simply Western), are met. Including stamping on the heads of giant cockroaches at ungodly hours of the night, which earned David the nickname 'The Cockroach King'. The cockroach bloodbath in Maria/Janak's bathroom is ongoing, although we're all slowly beginning to befriend the other insects/minibeests.
After a full three days of travelling we were all naturally exhausted, and so that night I slept like a baby. The next morning we were called to Paul's house for breakfast (Idli, a south indian speciality) and a meeting to discuss our aims and objectives for the volunteer programme. The food is fantastic, but it's been a rocky road in the way of our stomachs/guts acclimatising to constant spicy food (if you know what I mean!) Our schedule for the first week was pretty jam-packed (hence me not being able to blog very often), and I'm pretty certain that I've met thousands of new faces over the past week.
Just going to post this up as it is for now and then continue writing in a new post - the power is erratic and I'm conscious of the electricity going out any minute now! See you on the other side...
Lata and I took one of the rooms which comprised of two single beds and a bathroom/toilet. Thankfully the rooms also came equipped with air conditioning, although I think by now I've become fairly accustomed to breaking into constant heat/humidity sweats (lovely!). Mosquito nets went up, and everything else unpacked onto the shelves. The only real problem were the spiders (one in the bedroom, two in the bathroom, and also a small gecko who lives behind the water tank). If anyone knows me, they will know of my severe (severe is putting it mildly) arachnaphobia. But, since the spiders weren't going anywhere, it was up to me to suck it up. Ergo, the "Never look up" policy, and the fact that I drag Lata into the loo with me everytime I need to go!
En route to Pillayarpati we witnessed the first of the Monsoon rains (even though it hasn't rained since). It was literally as though the sky had just opened up and poured a bucket of water onto the earth. The rain fell not so much in drops as in did in sheets! Once the rain had stopped the sun returned in its full glare, and I'm proud to say that I'm now on my way to looking like an authentic, dark-skinned Tamil. That night we went to Paul's house for dinner, situated a short 5 minute walk from our dorms, and met Mrs Paul, who would be our personal chef for the next two weeks. The other person (or half-person) we met I fell in love with at first sight! Rogishkumar, a young boy of around 5 who had been deserted by his parents and adopted by Paul and his wife, had THE most infectious smile/laugh I have ever seen in my life!! It is difficult to imagine the hardships he must've faced as an even younger child, but the life that Paul and his wife are now providing him with is truly heartwarming.
The hospitality of the Ford Trust has been simply fantastic! Indians are known worldwide for their hospitability, but Paul has honestly been the most incredible host to the us all over the last week; from feeding us to the point of food sweats (or are they regular heat sweats - it's difficult to tell) to ensuring that all our needs, however small or trivial (or simply Western), are met. Including stamping on the heads of giant cockroaches at ungodly hours of the night, which earned David the nickname 'The Cockroach King'. The cockroach bloodbath in Maria/Janak's bathroom is ongoing, although we're all slowly beginning to befriend the other insects/minibeests.
After a full three days of travelling we were all naturally exhausted, and so that night I slept like a baby. The next morning we were called to Paul's house for breakfast (Idli, a south indian speciality) and a meeting to discuss our aims and objectives for the volunteer programme. The food is fantastic, but it's been a rocky road in the way of our stomachs/guts acclimatising to constant spicy food (if you know what I mean!) Our schedule for the first week was pretty jam-packed (hence me not being able to blog very often), and I'm pretty certain that I've met thousands of new faces over the past week.
Just going to post this up as it is for now and then continue writing in a new post - the power is erratic and I'm conscious of the electricity going out any minute now! See you on the other side...
Thursday, 1 July 2010
(=Hello!, in Tamil)
Has been quite a struggle to find time to update my blog, but have finally managed to locate a computer with internet access in the home of Ford Trust coordinator Paul (who is lovely beyond all superlatives)!
Having suffered always from travel sickness I was mildly surprised to find that I felt no nausea at all during the three days of continuous traveling to our end destination - the village of Pillayarpatti, situated about 80km from Madurai. Personal recommendation - if ever flying to India, fly with Jet Airways! Had planned to evade the aforementioned potential face-to-face encounter with the toilet basin/a brown paper bag by sleeping throughout the entire journey. Little did I know that Jet economy class seats came fully equipped with Coldplay's Viva La Vida (album), plus other less choicier and/or Bollywood albums, Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, seat-to-seat instant messaging, Snake, Tetris, and so much more. Sadly this initial rush of excitement didn't last for too long and so naturally, I spent the enite journey sleeping.
Arrival at Mumbai was smooth enough, with a fairly easy walk through immigration. From horror stories told by over-cautious parents I'd been expecting a crowd of uncouth, burly, heavily moustached indian security guards, who would snap my passport out of my hands and give me the interrogation of a lifetime. Instead, I was greeted by a pretty, young indian woman who spoke in barely audible whispers (this, coming from me!).
One internal flight later, the group (8 of us in all) had arrived safely in Chennai, and were carted off in white taxis to our hotel for the night. In the weeks prior to coming to India I had been milling over the extremes of poverty that I would inevitably be exposed to in India, but I hadn't expected to be confronted by it so soon into the trip. Just as we were climbing into the taxis at Chennai airport a cripple with a missing foot, emaciated limbs and a crooked stance hobbled up to the vehicle and gestured that he wanted food, or perhaps money. My insides hardened, as I'd been told to do countless times, and I ignored the beggars pleas. As the taxi began to move I glanced back out of the window and met eyes with the cripple for a fleeting moment. It was more painful than any scenario I'd breen pre-playing in my head. Later, en route to the hotel, I tried to empathise with the cripple. How must it have been felt to be so callously ignored by a Westerner? Were they used to it, or did each encounter render them more broken and dejected? Or was he an alcoholic or a drug abuser, a wife beater or a crook? I could think of no answers, only questions.
The hotel itself, Hotel Chandra Gardens opposite Chennai Egmore train station, was stunning, even if stepping outdoors was akin to stepping into a sauna or steam room. And of course (sadly) humidity does not bode well for hair/general presentableness. That evening we feasted on an authentic south indian meal comprising of various curries and sundries, and I was completely astounded (shellshocked is probably more accurate) when the bill for the 8 of us came to just 20 pounds!! So not even 3 quid each!!
Following an early start the next morning we arrived at Chennai Egmore station at 7.15 to board our train to Tiruchirupali, which again after the many horror stories I'd been told was actually very easy to board. To guide us Janak (a member of the volunteer group) had brought along his friend who lived and worked in Chennai. On the train he spoke to us (in very good English) about his work and his life. He told us about how he had worked in an indian bank since completing his education, in the investment banking dept (not sure of his exact working title - in spite of going to LSE I know next to nothing about economics). His wage was high by indian standards, but still marginal when compared to the bonuses received by his European/American counterparts! Then he revealed that he had in fact been offered a job by Goldman Sachs in America - a job that would make him rich beyond his dreams. What was amazing was that he had refused the offer because he didn't like Western culture, preferring to remain in India! I have to confess that I'm pretty money-hungry, so in a sense what this man was saying was quite a culture shock. Later he spoke fervently about the time he met and shook hands with the Argentinian football player Maradona, although I missed most of the story because I'd fallen asleep/have no interest in football whatsoever/who is Maradona?
Once the train arrived in Tiruchirupali it was a scramble to get us all off before the doors slammed shut. There we were met by Paul Rasan (Ford Trust coordinator), his colleague David (who has since become one of my best friends), and another friend who ran his own NGO from a neighbouring district. The group immediately took to Paul and David and vice versa. Paul and co had hired a bright green minibus with patterns to ferry us around during our stay, which still reminds me of the scooby doo van (but with windows) every time I see it. As we made the final bus journey to the village of Pillayarpatti, where we would be lodged for the next two weeks, I realised that this was where the real journey would begin.
And what a journey's it been! It's around 7.30 on Saturday morning as I type this so I'm a little behind schedule on updating the blog, but will get round to it soon. I will say though that I've had the most phenomenal time so far, and met so many new people who I hope I'll meet again in future, some maybe in different, more improved circumstances. In the past few days I've also had to overcome some issues of my own, like my crippling fear of spiders(!!) and the limitations posed by language barriers. More on that later though - right now I can smell Idli for breakfast...
:)
Has been quite a struggle to find time to update my blog, but have finally managed to locate a computer with internet access in the home of Ford Trust coordinator Paul (who is lovely beyond all superlatives)!
Having suffered always from travel sickness I was mildly surprised to find that I felt no nausea at all during the three days of continuous traveling to our end destination - the village of Pillayarpatti, situated about 80km from Madurai. Personal recommendation - if ever flying to India, fly with Jet Airways! Had planned to evade the aforementioned potential face-to-face encounter with the toilet basin/a brown paper bag by sleeping throughout the entire journey. Little did I know that Jet economy class seats came fully equipped with Coldplay's Viva La Vida (album), plus other less choicier and/or Bollywood albums, Avatar, Sherlock Holmes, seat-to-seat instant messaging, Snake, Tetris, and so much more. Sadly this initial rush of excitement didn't last for too long and so naturally, I spent the enite journey sleeping.
Arrival at Mumbai was smooth enough, with a fairly easy walk through immigration. From horror stories told by over-cautious parents I'd been expecting a crowd of uncouth, burly, heavily moustached indian security guards, who would snap my passport out of my hands and give me the interrogation of a lifetime. Instead, I was greeted by a pretty, young indian woman who spoke in barely audible whispers (this, coming from me!).
One internal flight later, the group (8 of us in all) had arrived safely in Chennai, and were carted off in white taxis to our hotel for the night. In the weeks prior to coming to India I had been milling over the extremes of poverty that I would inevitably be exposed to in India, but I hadn't expected to be confronted by it so soon into the trip. Just as we were climbing into the taxis at Chennai airport a cripple with a missing foot, emaciated limbs and a crooked stance hobbled up to the vehicle and gestured that he wanted food, or perhaps money. My insides hardened, as I'd been told to do countless times, and I ignored the beggars pleas. As the taxi began to move I glanced back out of the window and met eyes with the cripple for a fleeting moment. It was more painful than any scenario I'd breen pre-playing in my head. Later, en route to the hotel, I tried to empathise with the cripple. How must it have been felt to be so callously ignored by a Westerner? Were they used to it, or did each encounter render them more broken and dejected? Or was he an alcoholic or a drug abuser, a wife beater or a crook? I could think of no answers, only questions.
The hotel itself, Hotel Chandra Gardens opposite Chennai Egmore train station, was stunning, even if stepping outdoors was akin to stepping into a sauna or steam room. And of course (sadly) humidity does not bode well for hair/general presentableness. That evening we feasted on an authentic south indian meal comprising of various curries and sundries, and I was completely astounded (shellshocked is probably more accurate) when the bill for the 8 of us came to just 20 pounds!! So not even 3 quid each!!
Following an early start the next morning we arrived at Chennai Egmore station at 7.15 to board our train to Tiruchirupali, which again after the many horror stories I'd been told was actually very easy to board. To guide us Janak (a member of the volunteer group) had brought along his friend who lived and worked in Chennai. On the train he spoke to us (in very good English) about his work and his life. He told us about how he had worked in an indian bank since completing his education, in the investment banking dept (not sure of his exact working title - in spite of going to LSE I know next to nothing about economics). His wage was high by indian standards, but still marginal when compared to the bonuses received by his European/American counterparts! Then he revealed that he had in fact been offered a job by Goldman Sachs in America - a job that would make him rich beyond his dreams. What was amazing was that he had refused the offer because he didn't like Western culture, preferring to remain in India! I have to confess that I'm pretty money-hungry, so in a sense what this man was saying was quite a culture shock. Later he spoke fervently about the time he met and shook hands with the Argentinian football player Maradona, although I missed most of the story because I'd fallen asleep/have no interest in football whatsoever/who is Maradona?
Once the train arrived in Tiruchirupali it was a scramble to get us all off before the doors slammed shut. There we were met by Paul Rasan (Ford Trust coordinator), his colleague David (who has since become one of my best friends), and another friend who ran his own NGO from a neighbouring district. The group immediately took to Paul and David and vice versa. Paul and co had hired a bright green minibus with patterns to ferry us around during our stay, which still reminds me of the scooby doo van (but with windows) every time I see it. As we made the final bus journey to the village of Pillayarpatti, where we would be lodged for the next two weeks, I realised that this was where the real journey would begin.
And what a journey's it been! It's around 7.30 on Saturday morning as I type this so I'm a little behind schedule on updating the blog, but will get round to it soon. I will say though that I've had the most phenomenal time so far, and met so many new people who I hope I'll meet again in future, some maybe in different, more improved circumstances. In the past few days I've also had to overcome some issues of my own, like my crippling fear of spiders(!!) and the limitations posed by language barriers. More on that later though - right now I can smell Idli for breakfast...
:)
Wednesday, 16 June 2010
Watch this space...
Hi 'blogees'!
I'm heading out to Tamil Nadu in India in just under a fortnight and so, being the eager beaver that I am, thought that I would create a travel blog (for all of my avid fans out there, of course) to chronicle my journey, and to basically keep you up to speed with what I'm up to while I'm away!
I'll be in South India from 28th June until 23rd July, the first two weeks of which I'll be spending in a village/town just outside of Madurai (Tamil Nadu). Here I'll be doing some volunteer work with a reasonably small charitable organisation known as the Kamla Foundation (for more info visit their website at www.kamlafoundation.org), alongside the Ford Trust, an India-based microaid organisation (again for more info visit their website at www.microaid.org).
For the rest of the trip I'll most probably be soaking up the sun/culture/gastronomy of Kerela, a beautiful state (or so I've been told!) on the south western coast, before winding up in Bangalore for a final few days of fun before departing from India.
All that's left to say really is to watch this space...
I'm heading out to Tamil Nadu in India in just under a fortnight and so, being the eager beaver that I am, thought that I would create a travel blog (for all of my avid fans out there, of course) to chronicle my journey, and to basically keep you up to speed with what I'm up to while I'm away!
I'll be in South India from 28th June until 23rd July, the first two weeks of which I'll be spending in a village/town just outside of Madurai (Tamil Nadu). Here I'll be doing some volunteer work with a reasonably small charitable organisation known as the Kamla Foundation (for more info visit their website at www.kamlafoundation.org), alongside the Ford Trust, an India-based microaid organisation (again for more info visit their website at www.microaid.org).
For the rest of the trip I'll most probably be soaking up the sun/culture/gastronomy of Kerela, a beautiful state (or so I've been told!) on the south western coast, before winding up in Bangalore for a final few days of fun before departing from India.
All that's left to say really is to watch this space...
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