Follow Up: Read, Read!

Thanks for your comment Bri, it was the most brilliant week we got the library done and it was such an incredible experience for all involved. The children at St. Therese, Torquay raised close to $9000 in the end! (My favourite fundraising initiative was by Yr 2 students who invented a new product called ‘mighty cleaner’ mostly made from bi-carb soda, they bottled it and sold it, making a $27 profit all if which was sent to India!)

The library is complete, we bought over 2000 books, 5 digital cameras, 5 video cameras, puppet theatres- with puppets and loads of literacy games. The room looks amazing! Classes have already started in the library and the resources are also being used by nine of the outreach schools as well. The teachers ran workshops all week with local teachers and students covering photography, literacy- the big books were a huge hit, they also did PE classes and introduced the kids to many new games- one of the teachers commented on how he felt like a celebrity here, teaching the kids “new” games like “simon says” and “heads down thumbs up” which he would definitely struggle to get the interest for in his yr.3 classroom at home!

We still have about $3000 remaining which will go a long way here, we have set up a chance for children of the two schools to speak over skype and come up with a proposal on how they think some of the remaining money should be spent. There is also talk of a new art room (you interested in coming over?)

I will post some photos here but some of the teachers also kept a blog during the week if you are interested in checking it out: http://sttorquayindia.edublogs.org/

A fabulous experience to be part of- big thanks to the families in Torquay for their generosity!

Sometimes India is just really hard…

Yesterday we had a Development Committee Meeting in one of our villages. It is a village we are doing lots of activities in this year through funding from the Australian Government. Mostly the activities were already decided upon by our NGO from a project proposal that was written over a year ago but there is some scope to have input from the community as to what they want, so we get their feedback and suggestions in these Development Committee meetings about once a month. Yesterday about 30 people came- aged from about 6-80 all offering suggestions. Yesterday’s meeting was held in the colony-the colony is where the scheduled caste live (Dalit caste), we usually hold separate meetings in the colony because colony members are not often confident enough to talk up in the other meetings because they are of lower caste. I recall one meeting we had with all the village heads and the head of the colony didn’t even come and sit in the circle,

he just stood at a distance and I am told it’s because he didn’t feel comfortable/worthy.

Yesterday we reflected on some recent developments: they made comments on the new solar street light that we had installed (commenting especially how it doesn’t go out when the power is off like all the rest!) and we talked about the water infrastructure upgrades we have done. (With a group of youth we changed all the taps and pipes in the village that needed changing, Chris had tested the water at various points and found that drinking water supply was being contaminated by poor pipes/taps even though it was fine at the source to drink, the cost of changing infrastructure to about 86 households was about A$150 now every family in the village has a clean drinking water supply at their homes!)

One of our next projects is to build a new home for one family in the village, we thought it was going to be a really tough decision to make, deciding on one worthy group of recipients. We have funding for about A$2250 and with a government subsidy of about $1875, we will have enough to build a simple home- one bedroom, kitchen and a small lounge. There are so many worthy candidates, in this part of town where the daily wages for a family are about $2. Also with the onset of the monsoon this week- leaking roofs and crumbling walls, it is hard for many families to find a spot to keep dry. (One family’s roof caved in last week and 4 family members ended up in hospital!) When we raised the issue of finding a suitable candidate, the group made a unanimous decision. It was someone from outside the colony, not even a member of their caste/community. A lady with 3 young children, aged 27, recently widowed (her husband died from “drinking problems”) who is also supporting her parents-in-law. Even though there were so many people in the colony who could have justifiably put their hand up for a new home they nominated this woman.

In closing the meeting we asked if they had any more requests, these are the things they asked for:

· To help them with a means to transport their children to the High School (about 5km away) currently they walk barefoot, they just want some assistance during the monsoon, for the next few months as the kids are walking everyday in the pouring rain!

· Literacy classes of an evening- for students and village members

· A carom game (board game) that children can play under cover during the rainy season, as they can’t play volleyball of an evening.

Certainly worthy requests so we are looking into funding possibilities and hopefully we can work something out. While the work here is mostly very rewarding, it can also be pretty challenging and very humbling at times….

Read! Read!

Well two entries is not much of a blog, I admit progress has been slow to date. Just thought I'd write a bit about a little side project we've got on the go over the next week. A couple of months ago Mum came for a visit, after returning to school in Torquay she had plenty of amazing stories to share with the teachers at her school- they were enthused and started to raise some money for one of our projects. I was telling the teachers that there is no library at our school in the village so maybe we could use some of the funds to buy some books for the students. In one of the conversations I threw away a comment saying that if any of them would be interested in coming in the next school hols they would be welcome to help us set the library up, they would have to pay their own way of course but it could be a bit of fun. The outcome- within 2 months they raised almost $6,500 and we have 8 teachers from Torquay arriving in southern India this morning!!!

Lourdes (the education coordinator) and I have been racing around this week, making many of the purchases one needs for a library. We have been given a room in the school, photos attached. At the moment, I am having a pretty hard time imagining how this will ever be achieved in a week but will endeavour to update as the week progresses! Stay tuned...

May- Musings of the last month…

Hot!

It is so bloody hot here at the moment. The humidity is around 80-90% and we are in a constant state of sweat. My fingers are wrinkled on the tips like I’ve been sitting in a swimming pool for the past few weeks and my shoes have turned mouldy because there is so much moisture in the air. It’s a bit gross.

Helmets

Dad came to stay with us for a weekend to check out this kooky place we are calling home. We had a lovely time checking out the sights of Auroville and even managed to track down a steak and beer on a visit to Pondicherry. Dad’s visit gave away our secret mode of transport though… the motorbike. After he went home, he deposited some money into our bank account and said, “Buy some helmets, I’ve spent too much money on your education. I don't want you to end up with brain damage, it would just be a waste.” Thanks for the concern Dad.

While on Parents…

I received a lovely care package from my Mum this week, always nice when you are far from home to get some new clothes, snippets from The Age and a handwritten letter, even if she does sign off…

“I am very proud of all that you do Jo, (except things like getting rolled up in carpets and doing the worm) say hi to Sull.”

Thanks Mum!

Chris “Rocky” Sullivan

Those of you who were anywhere near Nth Fitzroy on the day we were packing will appreciate these photos…

Look how fast he punches!

As I was ruthlessly trying to cull items to be packed, squeezing essentials from our life’s possessions into one suitcase, Sull pulled out a brand new pair of boxing gloves and catching mits (I’m not even sure if that’s the right name for those things) that he’d just bought at Myer! He was planning a fitness campaign for India. There was much debate (as you can imagine) between the two of us, and much laughter (mostly at his expense) as he tried to squeeze about 3 sq m of “padding” into the pack! Credit to him though, he’s got a little gang together over here and they do a ‘boxing circuit’ twice a week. He he.

Bonjour Mon Amie

I am taking an intensive French class for the summer and I am totally rubbish at it. The place where we are living- Auroville, is an “International Community”, there are about 44 different nationalities living here and there is a strong French influence. So naturally as a French class was offered for the summer, six weeks, every day for 2 hours at a cost of $40, I jumped at the opportunity. This week though after I was asked to read aloud to the class, my teacher shook her head and turned to the other students saying “ I don’t know why, but it has always been my experience that Australian’s find it so hard to learn French.” Sweet vote of confidence.

Bringing in the Crows: a cultural note

A friend of mine was recently remembering his father on the first anniversary of his passing. On such an occasion the family gets together to remember and share a meal. One tradition in these parts is that his mother first places the food on the windowsill and claps her hands to call the crows. People here believe that crows carry around the spirits of people passed, so in calling the crows, she was inviting her husband to eat first. After the crows have eaten from the plate, everyone else will gather around and share the meal. Nice sentiment I thought.

Sketch Up

Anyone had the chance to use Sketch Up before? Sull has been doing a lot of design work here and becoming quite familiar with the program. I am wondering though why he always puts himself in the drawings? Do ALL the sketch up people look like Sully or is he just a little ego-centric?

Legless

Loads of snakes where we are. I keep seeing them but Sull can’t manage to spot them and he is starting to disbelieve me. I tried to point one out to him the other night but he couldn’t see it for ages. When he finally saw it, he said to me, “Jo, that’s not a snake, it’s just a lizard with no legs”. Hmmmmmm.

Iron Guts Audley

I survived a meal from this restaurant last week.

Hotel Runs?

Learn Something New Everyday

It is only through living in India that I have begun to learn a new set of English words that are commonly used here… more commonly by Chris than anyone else. You may wish to add them to your own vocabularies…

Prepone: to bring an event forward, opposite to postpone.

Gymming: When Chris is not boxing him and his friends go “gymming”- go to the gym.

Paining: Hurting. Eg. My arm is really paining today.

Hooked on India

Within our first week of arriving Sull and I attended our first temple festival in the village of Nadukuppam, a local village about an hour from where we are staying. Upon arrival we were walking down the main street towards the temple and were passed by numerous tractors and cars all decorated with flowers, banana leaves, bells and picture of various Gods, we weren’t to find out until later on what these would be for.

The village was filled with food stalls and tacky toyshops and reminded me a little of visiting a carnival. Fire-crackers were continually being let off by cheeky little boys and cheeky older ones as well. There were men riding on bicycles ringing bells selling ice-creams and fairy floss, a nice variation on a Mr. Whippy van. Children were dressed in their finest, some having travelled long distances to for the celebration (we had actually picked up a group of about 8 young girls aged between 5 and 14, walking on their way to the village, about 6kms out).

We took off our chappals (thongs) and entered the temple. Food was being presented to the temple and after some time, the entire lot was smeared over the top of one big bald man. I am not quite sure of the significance of this, but he pretty much sat there and took it as tumeric, flour and milk was poured over his head, running into his eyes and down his body. There were women in trances (maybe not so different to any number of our friends at Yah Yahs on a Saturday night). Large groups of people hopped across hot coals and there were also young boys who stood very still while there parents used a needle and thread to sew limes tied to cotton into their skin- didn’t even flinch- a sign of courage for the Gods I was later told.

By far though the highlight of the afternoon was the whole hook fiasco! Men lay face down on wooden benches while older men pinched their backs and pierced it, threading large hooks (think of the meat hook variety) through the skin and muscle- see attached movie 'getting hooked'.

After the hooks were securely fastened, the men proceeded to do a number of tricks for the crowd. Some were tied to a merry-go-round, with small babies thrust into

their arms while they were propelled around. Others hung from their backs from large wires, like human flying foxes throwing offerings of food amongst the crowd. The grand finale however involved fastening the hooks through the men’s backs to decorated tractors while they hauled them down the street in front of large cheering crowds.

Quite an unbelievable day and certainly an incredible introduction to India, leaving me with much curiosity and anticipation for all that lies ahead…