jaime in india

Thursday, April 24, 2003 :::

Easter in the east.

Greetings, sorry it’s been a while and that there is so much stuff to read. Also, a quick “get well soon” to Poorni and I hope both your exams went well.

Right, well on Sunday morning myself, Christi and Samy headed off to church at around 8. We arrived at about 8:20 to a packed church. The church was a lot different to the churches we have back at home. It was simply a long hall approached up some steps. The sermon, which had already begun, was being broadcast on a public announcement system, which echoed out over Karur. We waited until they were singing and snuck in.

At the front of the church, as expected, there was an altar, there was the usual crucifix and on the walls were paintings of the crucifixion of Christ. The main difference was the fact that there were no seats save a few benches at the back. Pretty much everyone was sitting on the floor;
they had created a central walkway. The congregation was segregated with the women sitting on the right all dressed up in their colourful sari’s (quite a sight) and the men on the left. We were given chairs and placed at the back of the hall.

The sermon was all in Tamil but contained several aspects. These included:

Reading from the bible.

Hymns, which were sung to an accompaniment of keyboard, violin and drum. It was really out of tune but this all added to the effect.

Mass: general reciting after the priest, saying “amen” a lot, making the cross sign on ones head, getting up and down a lot, lots of “Halleluiahs”, people offering stuff to the altar i.e. candles.

Communion, which consisted of a nun walking, down the central walkway handing out the wafer type bread. Wine was not included which I found really odd but apparently its common not to use any drink for so many people, only on special occasions (how more special can Easter Sunday be) will it be used and to smaller groups of invited people.

The service was pleasant even though I couldn’t understand what was going on.

Afterwards we headed up to the priests chamber building to say hello and wish him luck on his silver jubilee celebrations, which are to be held next week (he is one of Samy and Christi’s friends.)

We headed back and spent the rest of the day watching TV. I spent a lot of the day designing cartoons to educate about the risks, symptoms and causes of cancer. To educate people into checking themselves and how earl diagnosis is the key to curing and dealing with the disease. Samy is a member of “Cancer control society for Karur district” and he needs to distribute leaflets etc.

I also spent a lot of the day designing a logo for Christi’s AREDS faction of International Playback Theatre Company which, if you haven’t heard of it, is people getting together, talking about their lives and problems and then having it acted out by a team of people in order to purvey certain life prospectives to the person. This is seen as a type of therapy and is especially good when dealing with people who have had difficult or abusive pasts (such as AREDS and SWATE are dealing with.) It is not only for problems but can be used to tell any story in ones life. It encourages people to open up and speak about events that they would usually never have the opportunity to discuss with other people.

In the evening we watched “A midsummer nights dream”: staring Ally McBeal’s Clarista Flockhart. We watched the first half as there was going to be an early start the next morning, as you shall see.

In other news about Easter:

We saw an article on TV News about Christians in India who carry out the actual rituals of a crucifixion at Easter time, obviously without the death part. They hung up a few guys and when I say hung up I don’t mean, “tie up” I mean NAIL UP, no kidding. It looked awful. They also practiced self flagellation (whipping) with large whips of many strands. They bled everywhere and there backs looked like had been attacked with someone wielding a cheese grater. Not nice. http://www.wildcat.co.uk/text/crucifixion.htm this is not for the squeamish.

On Monday morning we got up at about 5 and made ready to leave for another hill station called Kodaikanal with Samy and Christi. The reason? One of the AREDS staff’s mum had died and we were going to attend the funeral. It took about 4 hours. We stopped off for breakfast in some out of the way hotel, good dosa!

We reached the bottom of the hill and began to make the 1-½ hour journey to 2400 meters above sea level. The scenery was stunningly dramatic. Unlike Korthagiri this was not a tea hill, all the way up was thick, forest jungle and what’s more the road was not hemmed in by bushes and vines but was open on at least one side all the way up. The views over the flat plains of Tamil Nadu were amazing; like from a plane the patchwork landscape slowly turned into rolling “mr men” style hills (you know the ones that look like a stack of tennis balls). The road started out clinging to the side of the hills that rolled away into the distance. Every now and then it would head inwards onto a plateau, we drove through thick forest, glades of green lit only by dappled light. The views were breathtaking. The hills tower on all sides. When one got out of the car all you could hear was “jungle noises” like the stuff you hear on the TV. Monkeys going “oooh aaah”, birds singing, like rain forest noises, madness. We drove through eucalyptus groves where massive, straight trees hung over the road. There was a jeep which had veered off the road and hung off the edge of a massive drop saves only by one pretty massive silver oak that towered towards the sky. We drove past Cadbury coco bean and coffee plantations. We drove past waterfalls and every now and again a dry riverbed ran under the road. I spent most of the time with my head out the window. You know just after it rains and in the countryside everything smells green, that’s what it was like.

We didn’t stop on the way up cause we were already late. We got into the inhabited parts and drove through small mountain villages that clung to the side of steep slopes or nestled themselves in the valleys. It was a lot cooler and because of this I forgot that I wasn’t wearing a hat or sun cream, oopps, burnt head.

We arrived at the funeral to find a mass off people crowding round the coffin wailing, and I mean wailing, it didn’t seem like they were crying, no tears were visible at this point, they were just wailing. It was most disturbing and slightly upsetting. To my knowledge I have never been to a funeral before so this was all new especially because of the fact that it was Indian. We walked down the steep steps onto the roof of the house and Samy and Christi went forward. I stood in the middle of the crowd not wanting to intrude on the affair and feeling very awkward. After a while a couple of dudes picked up the coffin and were off much to the dismay of the people. They headed up the hill to the church with the body in a large trolley on wheals covered with flowers etc. We took the jeep and drove behind the people.

We got to the church and were now very high up on the top of a hill looking down on a valley shrouded in midst. It was quite nippy and the cloud rolled down the hill. We went into the church and sat on the floor. There was another mass, one thing that was odd even in Indian custom, was that the female daughters are not allowed to attend the funeral service, odd. There were hymns, readings, mass and then communion, all in Tamil. The church was nice and decorated with Christmas streamers. After everything, everyone walked up to the coffin at the front and there was something going on which I later found out to be the last rights. They carried the coffin out of the church, put it on the trolley thing and headed off down the steep slopes (everything is steep in this place) down to the cemetery. Samy and myself walked down infront, through the village, past shops and stalls, it was really beautiful, the sun was out and everywhere looked fresh.

We got down to the cemetery and met the woman’s husband who looked in a bit of a state, not surprising. We walked down the steep grassy slopes of the cemetery t the spot where she was to be buried. Everyone came down the hill, it looked out over another valley, hills were the background. The cemetery itself was thick with pine trees. It didn’t look like India.

The coffin came down, there was a small amount of talk and ritual, the lid was nailed in place, she was lowered down and then covered up. Everyone headed out and on the way stopped to wash their faces, feet and hands, as is done at the end of such occasions. Apparently one should never say good bye after such events, this is because the literal translation of most of the India “good-byes” is “I’ll be back” or something along those lines, this is obviously not appropriate and means that you wish further bad luck on the family. We found our people and headed off back down the hill.

We drove down to the main town just below the one we had been in and it was very different. Instead of being in a small rural mountain town we found ourselves in an Indian holiday town. There were restaurants, shops, horse riding, a boating lake, go-carting, big 5 star hotels, an 18 hole golf course, bike tours and even (and no this isn’t a spelling mistake) a skate park. This I found very very odd. A skate park, in the middle of the Indian mountains, I haven’t seen or heard anyone even talk about skates or boards let alone a bloody skate park, had I known I might have brought my skates. The people seemed generally different. There were a lot of young fashionable people around, wearing cloths that I may contemplate wearing which was also odd seeing as most people that I have seen in the cities have been dressed, in my opinion, oddly for people of that age. There were very few white people around even though it was a blatant touristy spot, for Indian people.

We had lunch in a little restaurant, bought some peacock feathers, some bread (bread made in the hills is always better than the stuff made on the low lands which is why all the hills have bakery’s) and then we headed back down the hill. The scenery was again amazing and we stopped off at a few places to take some pics. We stopped off at a view point where to the right stretched then open flat lands of Tamil Nadu and to the right was a sea of green jungle known as the Western Ghats, Fantastic. We bought some avocados on the way, as they only grow high up in the hills, and a jackfruit, which is a thorny melon type thing, which are massive, larger than footballs.

On the way back to Karur we stopped off in a plant nursery and bought a load of creepers and other plants for my proposed living archway entrance to the children’s theatre. We had a coffee in a near by café and went on our way getting back to Karur at about 6:15.

On Tuesday not much happened. Christi went and turned her self in for bail at the local court and got it so that’s good. I took her up to see the site and we potted all the plants we had bought the previous day. In the evening we were meant to watch “Cast Away”- but got distracted on the subject of what I should wear when we go to the first communion of one of Christi’s nieces in Bombay.

Bombay:
Right, on Friday Christi and Samy are heading up to Bombay to attend the first communion of Christi’s sister’s daughter. They asked me if I wanted to go and I, after much thought on the matter, said yes. My ticket to Sri Lanka was downgraded to eco class when a spot became available and so I received R.s 3400, which I decided to use to go. It takes 24 hours to get there by train and we should arrive at 14:00 on sat. We then have the program and Samy and Christi fly back on Monday. I will stay till Wednesday and then get the train back. Poorni, Prathi, Iggy, Chintu and the boys will all be there and I thought it would be a good opportunity to see them all. What we will be doing the rest of the time I do not know but we are staying with Christi’s sister. The problem was that the only pair of trousers I have are massive, scuffed jeans and I needed something else to wear that was a bit smarter. On Tuesday Christi gave a Kurtar to wear and there was discussion on what should be done about trousers.

On Wednesday I headed into Karur. Work was not on as the workers had been given a few days holiday for Easter and would not be returning till Thursday. My mission, to find a pair of suitably smart trousers that were at the same time, were to my liking i.e. not skin tight, a good bit of length on them and not to expensive. Myself, Anon and Raj went to a few shops but everything was way to tight, not long enough and just nasty. I need wide bottom trousers as my swear shoes are wider than normal shoes (being the style of them) and if I have tight bottoms it makes them look like moon boots. All the ones I saw would have cut off the circulation to my feet. After visiting one shop and finding one pair that would do for R.s. 750 I asked how much it would cost to have something tailor made. I was whisked off to the other end of the shop and shown a large selection of materials paying most attention to the thick cotton Khaki type material. I chose some and as they were about to cut it Anon jumped in and insisted that I wanted some trousers made to the same specifications as the large jeans I was wearing. They measured me and my trousers and cut the material, took it down stairs and charged me R.s. 300, that’s a whopping 4 quid. Four whole English pounds for enough material to make a pair of trousers. That won’t even buy you two pints of lager in the UK. After this the measurements and material were taken to the tailor and we were told to pick it up at 9 that evening.

We then went off to an Indian bank for Anon to do some business. When I got back to the house I played cricket with the kids for a few hours. They are still at school doing exams but will be finished by the end of April. When it got dark myself and Samy went on a little walk around the village with children in tow. We stopped off at houses, went into people’s yards, stopped to talk to people that Samy hadn’t spoken to in a while, played with kids etc. It was really lovely to actually get outside of a stones throw of the house as I aint been round the village at all. The walk was only like 45 mins long. When we got back we stayed outside and taught the kids some English, then we sat down and they all had their dinner outside on the road. It was really lovely.

This morning, being Thursday, I was told to give work a miss and headed back to Karur at 11 on the back of a motorbike. We were going to pick up my trousers and get my bag fixed. We got into Karur and headed to a street that is know for the fact that the whole length of it is lined with men on sewing machines who can pretty much do anything you want them to. We gave him the bag and told him that we wanted a new zip put on, a buckle fastened across the zip to prevent it from getting broken AGAIN and the handles stitching up as they are coming loose from the bag. Then we headed off to the tailors, which was up a step stairway in a small room off one of the main streets. The pulled out the trousers and I was amazed. The quality was Fantastic. They looked like a pair of trousers you’d buy in an expensive shop. They had two back and two front pockets and they even had the small change one on the inside of one of the front ones. They had belt loop and were EXACTLY what I wanted. And the cost to make these things I hear you ask? R.s. 150, that’s 2 pounds. That means that this pair of trousers cost about the same as 2 pints of beer in London. If I wanted to buy a cheap pair of jeans I would have to pay in excess of 20 squid and yet I can have a pair of really good trousers or jeans made to my specification, the material and colour I want for the same amount of money it would cost to buy 2 McDonald happy meals.

Tomorrow we leave here at about 12, the train is at 2. Not sure if I will be able to get to the Internet whilst I am away but will try. If not will update you all when I return on Wednesday.

In other news SARS there has been a case of SARS in Tamil Nadu, which is slightly worrying, must keep on eating papaya.

Hope your ok.

jaime

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 9:22 AM

Saturday, April 19, 2003 :::

Hello,

Well, Samy and Christi got back on Friday. They had a great time and seemed a lot more relaxed than usual.

This morning I went up to the site at about 9:30. The swimming pool is having steel cages laid in the bottom on which the concrete will be poured over, on Wednesday. Headed back for lunch at 1. Ambiga had gone home for the day and she had left some food, problem being I had no idea where, never mind, chocolate from dad and sally. Mini eggs didn’t live up to the name. Having faced the torment of the Indian postal system they had obviously come out a little worse for wear and beard absolutely no resemblance to “eggs”. Lets put it this way; I had to eat the first pack with a spoon. Very much appreciated, thank you VERY much. Chocolate tastes a lot better that the stuff we get over here. Also, thank you very much for the Easter gift mum, remy and Robbie, Fantastic.

This afternoon at about lunchtime I headed outside and had a brief game of cricket with some of the local boys. Again this evening, I have just come in for a longer match, was great fun.

This afternoon I went up to SWATE where Samy and Christi were having a meeting concerning the illegal sand mining. They are going to pay Christi’s bail on Tuesday to avoid doing time so to speak. She is off this evening to a meeting about CASA (Campaign Against Sexist Abortions.) From what I have gathered when a woman gets married her family have to pay a large dowry to the dude. This can obviously be very expensive and therefore women are going when pregnant, having scans to find out what sex the baby is and then aborting if it is a female. There are obviously more reasons than a dowry involved but I shall have to keep you informed about that as I find it out.

Tomorrow, Easter Sunday, we are off to church and mass. This should be quite odd, a sermon in Tamil. Happy Easter everyone.

jaime

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 6:32 AM

Thursday, April 17, 2003 :::

Greetings,

Well, not a lot had been going on the last couple of days. On Tuesday evening I watched Dr Zhivago, a FANTASTIC film about the Russian Revolution among other things.

On Wednesday I went up to work, same old stuff, we were laying the brick was in the pool. A mini twister swept past the site, which was quite cool. It was throwing bags and rubbish up all over the place. It was very “American Beauty.” Spent the afternoon doing nothing special, reading, computer etc.

There was a power cut later on in the evening. It lasted for hours and no one came to turn the generator on. I was in the office playing pinball on the computer (which is linked up to its own power supply.) At about 11 there was still no power and having stumbled around the house with a box of matches that were in the office I came to the realization that there was no-one in the house, Ambiga had disappeared and no one else could bee seen. It was very very dark, light pollution what so ever. Eventually someone wondered through the house and seeing me asked whether I would like the generator on? “No thanks, I’d rather sit here in the dark.”

The pool is coming along very very well. The wall has been build and the first layer of concrete put down. The floor has been started and the whole thing should be water proof in about a month, or so I am told. We have started putting in the floor of the dorms.

On Thursday I was due to go to Lalipet, a village not far from here, to the bank to change some money. Was told that I was leaving at 10, jumped on the back of the bike with “bank” stuff in tow and was, much to my surprise, taken up to the site. Arnun, the dude, said he would be back later. So I ended up working from 10 till 12:30, which in itself wasn’t a problem. The fact that I had no water and no sun screen on was. By the time I got back to the house I was very very dehydrate and slightly burned.

In the evening I got a phone call from a lady called Rhamony who’ family I will be staying with in Sri Lanka. She said that she had a brother out there who runs a school type thing for training people to become priests. Apparently I will be staying there. Sounds interesting, will be bizarre.

Today, being Friday, I don’t have to work as its Good Friday as I am sure you will all know. Easter at last and what I wouldn’t give for a Cadbury’s cream egg. Samy and Christi should be back this evening.

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 10:12 PM

Tuesday, April 15, 2003 :::

Not much been going on. Went to work this morning and they had built a wall around the inside of the pool about 1 foot away from the edge and about 2 foot higher than ground level. Looks fantastic. Apparently will be ready in a month. Have draw up some plans for a metal pole arched tunnel entrance, which we can plant creepers at the base of to make a living archway, which should be good.

Have started Lord of the Rings for the second time, what a book, never get bored. Why did they miss out Tom Bombadil from the film, he is the best character and the only one who the ring has no effect on.

“Silence of the goats”

Ok, hands up those who have seen “Silence of the Lambs?” Right, you know when Lector is asking about Clarice’s past and she said that the lambs screaming, as they were being taken off to the slaughter, had woken her? Then she goes on how they were screaming in fear etc etc and then, at the end Lector asks whether “the lambs have stopped screaming,” well, you get the idea. Anyway, now I finally know what she really meant. Was on the computer when I heard this noise like someone screaming at the top of their voices, I went outside to see what it was and, well I imagine you have already guessed where this story if going.

They had tied up a couple of goats, not lambs, (“silence of the goats”, what a thought) by the legs (as in all four legs together) and were carrying them upside down to a motor bike (driving lesson perhaps? me thinks not.) The noise these things were making was quite incredible. Blood curdling is, I think, the best way to describe it. Not only that, the heard of goats (who were in a pen behind the house, and out of view) had figured out what the hell was going and were all screeching. The whole effect was like something off “The Exorcist” (as some of you may know they actually took a tape recorder to abattoirs and taped the noises and played them over the film and in with the music just to freak you out.) It was very disturbing more so than a film, obviously, cause it was actually happening in front of you. I couldn’t stand there and listen to this so I ended up going inside, away from the spine-chilling soundtrack that was playing outside.

It also makes you think. We are quite happy to eat the stuff but when it comes to knowing how the animal met its maker its a different story. Our meat comes frozen, in nice portions, gutted, de-boned, de feathered or furred, on polystyrene trays covered in cellophane. Once we pick it up from a supermarket shelf or from our local butcher it ceases to be an animal, it is just “meat.” Do we ever stop to think how it’s got like this? When was the last time anyone reading this thought “mmm, I wonder how they killed this thing?” and (what I will be thinking from now on) “mmm, I wonder what kind of noise this poor animal when it realised its life was over?” As sypher say’s in “The Matrix” (sorry, this aint a “plug” for all my favorite films) “Ignorance is bliss.” I agree.

jaime

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 6:37 AM

Monday, April 14, 2003 :::

Mango’s and Papaya’s are now both in season. There are several papaya trees in the backyard and the yield is very very very good. Fresh papaya every morning, noon and night. They are really huge as well, not small like in the UK. They taste fantastic especially with a bit of lemon juice, delicious. The mangos are incredible. You know the mango’s we get in the UK? After you’ve eaten them there is loads of stuff stuck in your teeth, the fruits are very fibrous. Over here there is no fiber in them what so ever. It’s the consistency of butter and the taste is absolutely fantastic. There are many many different varieties a lot, of which, we have growing here in places such as SWATE.

just a quick happy birthday to josh scott, hope your ok and that you had a good day and got lots of nice things.

jaime

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 1:05 AM

Sunday, April 13, 2003 :::

Hello,

Well quite a bit has been going on. On Thursday night we received information that the police were on their way round to arrest Christi because of the sand mining protests, which happened on the 9th. 5000 people turned up and blocked the road at the point where lorries enter the riverbed. The collector never showed up to hear their demands. They finished at about 5 having caused total havoc to the traffic in the surrounding area. The police were slightly pissed off. Christi, being the head of SWATE, who organized the event, was the person to blame in their eyes. They wanted to arrest her before the weekend due to the fact that the courts are closed at the weekends and that Monday is Tamil New year (a public holiday. This would mean they could hold her till Tuesday, in prison, not a police station. She didn’t seem particularly bothered by the prospect of spending three days in prison. The police never showed and yesterday we learned that they were going to leave it for the time being unless pushed from higher up. The charges include disrupting traffic and the duty of governmental officials, hosting an illegal gathering of people and a few other things.

On Friday evening myself, Christi, Leen, Luke, Walter and Lieve headed into Karur to do some shopping. First off we went to a department type store to buy some cloths. In typical shopping fashion Luke went up stairs and emerged 10 minutes later with a pair of shorts where as the women were trying things on for an hour, constantly asking peoples opinion etc. “Where’s the nearest pub” and “good god how long are they going to take” were frequent jokes uttered by Luke and Walter. We ended up standing there discussing the finer points of Belgium beer which, insolently, ranges from 8% to 12 % alcoholic content. After this I purchased some material to make some spinning flags out of at the bargain price of R.s. 168 for 4 meters of satin silk stuff. Not bad.

We then headed off to a shop that sold pots and pans and again the women busied themselves with the purchasing of cups and containers whilst the guys stood outside wondering what the hell they were buying. After a while it became to much for them so, having seen a little shop round the corner, we headed off to grab a swift drink at an Indian style bar which was basically a counter that sold take away liquor and would serve you a beer if you asked nicely. On return to the shop we headed off to a stall that sold plastic bags and then home.

We got home at about 8:30 and tucked into a fantastic meal made by Samy. The Belgians, as I am sure you are aware of by now, are fond of a beer here and there, and so many bottles were opened and after dinner we retires to the outside patio to discuss the finer things in life including beer, F1 racing family etc.

On Saturday morning I was asked to give work a miss and join them on their travels. We (Leen, Luke, Walter and Lieve and Samy) headed up to SWATE. Luke and Leen had actually opened to SWATE grain bank, there’s a plaque wit their names on it and everything, so they were interested to see how things had changed. It had. They were given the tour and then we headed back to the house with the idea of heading up to the farm to have a dip in the water tank. I was asked to lead the way but when we got up there to our horror, the tank was empty. We walked back to the house, had lunch and then people headed off the have a siesta.

In the afternoon I headed off Karur on the back of a bike. I needed to pick up some photos and some other stuff. On the way back we bumped into the gang who were stranded on the side of the road with a puncture. We had dinner at about 8 followed by lots of beer and hearty discussion.

This morning everyone was up early and they all headed off in a jeep at about 9:30. Samy and Christi will be back on the 18th (Friday.) As, I said, tomorrow is Tamil New Years day so it’s a day off for all.

Other news:
There are a lot of bald people walking around at the moment. When a load of people went on the pilgrimage last week the men shaved their heads, I assume it’s a religious thing. It aint just the adults, little man Cartig who was five a few days ago has had it done and so have several other kids. I am not to sure if shaving the kids heads is religious but I have heard some people talking about how it is considered healthier if kids have no hair in the summer when its this hot.

When the initially have their heads they cover them with sandalwood paste. This is a powder that one mixes with water and is apparently very good for your head. It leaves a powdery residue on your head which looks like the religious marks they adorn their foreheads with. I managed to buy some and shall let you know how I get on with it.

jaime

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 12:15 AM

Friday, April 11, 2003 :::

Building a building

Thursday, April 10, 2003 :::

Hello,

Well, yesterday evening Samy and myself watched “Shakespeare in love” which was fantastic. I didn’t realize there were so many well-known actors in it like that dude from the fast show; Martin Clunes not to mention all the mainstream film people.

This morning I took the AREDS Ambulance up to the play way school which is about 45 mins away. It is another AREDS center, which has just recently had a school built there by a group of Belgium people. The mission was to pick up a couple of Indian wheelbarrows so that up at the site, moving stuff didn’t solely have to be done by metal pan on people’s heads which does tend to take a while. With these monstrous things filling the pool with sand would have taken a fraction of the time it did.

The barrows are massive and unlike our ones. They are more like trolleys with two wheels at the front supporting an open ended scoop with two metal posts at the handle end to support the scoop horizontally when you put thing down. We loaded them into the Ambulance (which incidentally still has a working siren and flashing light, would come in handy in Indian traffic jams) and then Godwin and Raj (the dudes who came with me) headed off somewhere on a bike. I waited around; the kids in the school (which is like kinder garden/playschool) came out for lunch. Kids passed the site (which is in the middle of know where, surrounded by flat, dry land) on bikes, on their way to and from school.

We headed back to the site at about 12:45 to drop off the barrows (one of which unfortunately had a puncture) and then headed back to the house.

When I emerged this afternoon at about 3ish I was greeted by 2 couples from Belgium who are friends of Christi and Samy and who are staying here for a few days. On the 13th these guys and Christi and Samy are heading off to Kerala for 6 days on a kind of holiday/break.

In other news we have decided to push on and build the hexagon theatre with concrete hollow blocks instead of CEB’s. This is due to the fact that it won’t be ready on time if we wait for the CEB machine.

Also, I have broken my snake II personal best which now stands at 2023 and my 3D Space Cadet pinball score now stands at 8,648,500 which, if anyone can beat, I am up for the challenge.

jaime

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 6:31 AM

Wednesday, April 09, 2003 :::

Hello

Well on Saturday I went up to the site at about 10:30 late due to the fact that some of the people here have gone on a Christian pilgrimage and there was a lack of lifts around. Was feeling really dodgy. Samy and Christi were both in Chennai.

At the site we were beginning to lay a mixture of cement and granite rocks and chips on top of the sand that had already been put down. Was still feeling iffy. Got picked up at 12:00 and driven into Karur by motorbike to the state bank of India to change some money to pay for my plane ticket to Sri Lanka. Having visited two banks it became clear that they operate on some very odd system in that they are allowed to do dealings with foreign currency Mon-Fri but Saturday is forbidden. Is it just me or is that a really stupid rule to have. Still feeling dodgy.

Got back to the house at about 13:30 and had lunch. Went to bed. Got up and I still feel dodgy. I hate to admit it but I think I have a mild batch of ye olde Delhi belly coming, fan-bloody-tastic.

In the evening I watched “Tomorrow never dies” and went to bed.

On Sunday I spent the day hanging around, watching movies, doing washing and generally feeling a little off. I was feeling physically better (I think it was only a minor stomach thingy) but there was no-one about apart from Ambiga, the newspapers hadn’t come for the last two days (so there was very little reading to be done, and non of the phones were working as they are laying a water pipeline in the village. This meant that the Internet wasn’t working. There was NOTHING to do and I was very bored. Boredom leads to thinking, and thinking leads to missing stuff in the UK. I spent the whole day thinking about London, Bristol and Norwich. Not home sickness as such, just thinking about what I would be doing. I started reading Lord of the Rings for the second time.

In the afternoon I watched “Commando” (one of the worst movies I have ever seen) and in the evening I watched “Act of War” which was good but the special effects were very funny. Thunderbird type missiles and blue screen effects of helicopter flying that made me laugh.

Monday:- I got up late, at about 10’oclock (oops) as my phone ran out of battery and consequently the alarm didn’t go off. I legged it down for breakfast, legged it back up to have a shower and then set off with Raj in the ambassador to go and visit some banks (at about 11). Christi and Samy had returned from Chennai at 6. We got to the second bank and Raj busied himself with dealing with AREDS accounts, I was asked to sit and then asked lots of questions by bank manager such as “do you like Indian banks” and “what do you think of Indian Bank customer service?” I changed some money (170 squid) into R.s 12359 (which took well over an 1 ½ hours) and then after a fanta headed off back to the village.

We got back at 3ish having picked Christi up at SWATE and had lunch part of which was cow intestine, nice, which, believe it or not, I stayed well away from.

Tomorrow, Samy has to a meeting in a town about 2 hours from here. It, like Mudrai, is a temple town. I am going to tag along and then, like last time, take the car and do some more temple hoping.

On the 9th there is going to be a big protest against illegal sand mining in the area. Although AREDS have managed to campaign, successfully, for the protection of their own river illegal sand lifting is still going on in the area. The conditions were set down to the local dude in charge when there was that big hunger strike outside a government office in Karur a few days ago. The plan is to have a massive roadblock and when the police turn up, which they will, to say that this was an accidental meeting of a few thousand people and that they are blocking the road cause there aint anywhere else to go. Unfortunately, yet again, I am unable to go because apparently having a white person there may raise some eyebrows and because there are likely to be some arrests. Extra money has had to been found to deal with bailing all these people out at the cost of around R.s 200 per person.

Tuesday 8th: Today Samy and myself headed of to Thanjavur (Tanjore) at about 7:30. Having stopped for some breakfast at a roadside café in a small town we arrived at about 10:30 where the meeting was to be held. We dropped him off and then Velu and myself set out in search of temples etc.

The first place we stopped off at was a place known as the Thanjavur palace (museum). It had, among other things, some shrines, temples, museums and a whole complex of passages and tunnels and stuff. At one point I thought I was in the Drome, it was most bizarre. We had a look in a few museums and generally wondered around. We saw the skeleton of a 90foot whale and climbed up one of the towers which was quite difficult seeing as the steps we narrow and the roof of the tunnels that climbed the thing were very low, good luck all you fat German tourists. We had a look round an art gallery that contained a large amount of bronzes of Buddha, Ganeesh etc and we wondered around the small garden. It was wicked although I felt very touristy with my camera over my arm.

We then headed off to the Brihadishwara Temples and fort, which are well known for being pretty damn cool. We got there, left our shoes in the car and headed under the massive arched into the wide-open compound, which contained several very large impressive and intricately decorated temples. The floor was hot and I don’t mean a little warm, you could have made an English breakfast on that had you had a little oil. It was painfully hot. There were woven coconut mat walkways soaked in water for people to walk on because it was so hot.

There in one of the arches stood a very very large very old elephant. Decorated in coloured paste and powder. I handed it ten bucks and it did the blessing thingy and then rested its trunk on my back while Velu took a few snaps. We headed further in and down to the far end of the compound. My camera had just run out of film, I wound it on and opened the back to see that the film hadn’t wound. The batteries were going dead and there wasn’t enough power to wind it on. Having bashed the batteries around, replaced them and wound it on slowly, opened the back 6 or 7 times I gave up, presumed that the film was buggered and we wandered around camera less, I was a bit pissed off. The place was INCREDIBLE. Large temples, towers surrounded by a covered, raised walkway in which there were these large black stone things that looked like orange juicers (you know the ones with the serrated top that you rub the orange on to extract the juice which is collected in the lower container?)

Anyway, it was very very impressive. There was obviously some religious event going on some time soon as several people were decorating this giant black stone cow which stood on a altar in the middle of the compound, and others were making carnival type floats with lights, papier-mâché statues and tissue decorations.

We headed back to the car and off to a new hotel to have lunch. It was very swanky. We had two big portions of rice (doubles by English Indian restaurant standards) a large pea and cauliflower Korma and 10 chutney dishes (the ones you get with pappadam’s) full of small amounts of different curries and veg dishes. We also had water and pappadam’s. The bill came, we were both very full, I looked at it, R.s 80, that’s just over a quid, in plush, 4 star hotel restaurant, not bad huh.

We headed back to the car and went to meet Samy outside the hotel at 2. He came out and said he would be another hour so Velu and myself headed back to the temple with a reloaded camera to take some pics. I felt like a bit of a prat going back in. A couple of all girl school buses had just shown up, “ah a white person, time to practice my English? How are you?” We went round talking some pics and stupidly decided to take a short cut across the compound without the aid of a soaked mat. Half way across I am in pain, a lot of pain but there aint anything you can do when your stuck in the middle, its either struggle on or turn back. When we got back to the car I had to pour water on my feet, I swear I heard them hiss and a small amount of steam rise up. We headed back and picked up Samy at about 3:15 and then headed home.

Throughout the whole day I kept on realizing that there seemed to be an abundance of young, very attractive young women around. This was made even more clear on our drive through town, they were bloody everywhere. Apparently there are a lot of women’s colleges and colleges in general in this town and area. It was unbelievable; everywhere you looked your eyes were met by large or small groups of beautiful young women. I tell you what; I am defiantly going back to that place. I have never seen so many cute females in one day. Fantastic.

Today, being Wednesday, I went up to the SWATE and then to the site. I worked until 13:20 filling in the foundations with sand so that the concrete floor can be laid. I got back and had lunch. We were getting in reports that the demonstration was getting a little iffy. Samy had returned, none of the 5000 people were moving and the police were there in force. The collect orate, who was meant to show up, never did, and people were being threatened with arrest, the response, “arrest us all.” Christi has just returned and says it was a success even though no conclusion was reached in the matter. A meeting is being held to decide what to do next, there is talk of a bigger demo where the police would not be informed.

India info:

People:

As well as Samy and Christi there are several other people who live and work in the house/office. Apart from all the office staff (most of whom I can’t remember the names of) there is
Ambiga: chef, organizer and general parental figure of the house. If you need something done this is the lady to talk to, or try and talk to, as she speaks no English.
Ghita: is the housekeeper. She cleans and washes, she’s really lovely, speaks some English but gets confused sometimes and calls everyone, male and female, “she” which is a little confusing at times. She is married to Lawrence and has a kid called little man. Lives in a house across the road.
Augustine: This dude lives across the road. Think he is related to Samy (distant cousin) and is also related in some way to Ghita (very distant.) Really wicked dude, always around. English is limited but he generally doesn’t talk much anyway. He is the bloke in the pictures of me at the bottom of the well. Gives me lifts everywhere. He is in charge of all the farms and harvesting etc covered by AREDS.
Lawrence: is the local carpenter and is always around to help catch snakes etc.
Raj, Velu & Raja: the three drivers who ferry everyone from place to place. All wicked guys none of who speak very good English.
Sagayam: Samy’s brother who lives in Chennai and is in charge of AREDS Chennai office. Is here from time to time, doing talks, attending meetings etc etc. Really nice guy.
Sam: The dude in charge of AREDS finances. Lives in Chennai (I think) and is also here from time to time on business. Also, a really nice guy.
Dr Hema: lives in Tritchy and come up to AREDS every Thursday to work at the dispensary (medical center) in the village. Really lovely lady frequently reminds me not to be so stupid going outside unprotected form the sun.

jaime

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 7:18 AM

Friday, April 04, 2003 :::

Greetings,

Well, not a lot going on at the moment. Have been working every day. I have an infection on my tragus (the small lump of cartilage at the front of your ear) and may have to go on antibiotics to prevent an abscess growing. It’s painful, itchy and very annoying.

Have been working the last couple of days. The foundations are nearly done and the pool is being laced with sand for the concrete to rest on. Yesterday it rained, it really rained, it pissed it down as we say in merry old England. Cats, dogs and bloody snakes. It made me feel very at home. There was thunder like I have never heard before and lightning ranging from the classic “forked” to flickers that really lit up the whole sky. It was very impressive. Was slightly worried at what state the site would be especially after last time, but when I went up this morning it was ok, they seemed to have missed the worst of it.

I am thinking of having a large sign hammered into the ground up at the site reading.

"Species: “Caucasian Homo sapien male” more commonly referred to as “the white man.”
This specimen was not born in captivity but was captured in the dense cities of Great Britain. This slightly scraggily male is about 20 years of age. He weighs about 11 stone and, at his full height, reaches a moderate 6 feet ½ inch (I think). This is not what would be considered as its “natural environment” but has been brought over to India to provide you with an incite into this remarkable species. PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE ANIMALS.”“

It’s beginning to get ridiculous. Today three men came to the site and placed themselves on the other side of the pool where, for an hour and a half, they stared at me whilst I was working. It’s very off-putting and made me really angry. Personally I think they should start charging people to came and sit in an active building site and gawk at me. I’d make a bloody fortune. I have gotten over people looking at me but come on guys, an hour and a half. Have these people never seen a white man. What’s the big deal? I’m not that stunning, am I?

This afternoon I went from the site to the training center to have lunch as it’s the all staff meeting and there was no one in the house. This weekend Christi (who left yesterday) and Samy (who left about an hour ago) have gone to Chennai on some business. I am going to work tomorrow and then heading off to the bank as I have received the bill for my plane ticket to Colombo, Sri Lanka. It costs R.s. 11140 (about 150 notes.) I leave on May 12th and return on May 21st. Should be good.

Anyway, hope you’re all well and I am off to watch a movie, probably Armageddon.

Jaime

P.s. Photo’s of project coming soon. Get them tomorrow so fingers crossed.

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 7:51 AM

Wednesday, April 02, 2003 :::

Greetings. Hope you¡¯re all fine and groovy.

A few people have mailed me to ask about general life here cause I have been talking mainly about specific things so here goes.

India info:

Language:

Tamil Nadu's official Language is, ironically enough, Tamil of which I know a bit. There are, however, other ways in which communication is possible and here are a few that have been tried by many Indian people in attempting to explain or ask me something.

Swatting fly's
This method is one of the most common and is basically is when people flap their arms around, like they¡¯re attempting to take off, and expect you to understand what they are trying to say. It can be quite successful but it can also be incredibly amusing and annoying.

Volume control
The general thought pattern for this particular method goes a little something like this. ¡°Mmm, He doesn¡¯t seem to understand me speaking to him in Tamil. I know, if I shout at him in Tamil maybe he¡¯ll understand.¡± I think not.

Invisible writing
This is the most amusing method of all. ¡°Mmm, he doesn¡¯t appear to understand me talking in Tamil. I know, if I write it in Tamil, on my hand, with my finger he¡¯ll understand what I¡¯m trying to say.¡± Of course, how silly of me, I forgot that I can read an invisible language that I can¡¯t even speak.

The ¡°I¡¯ll talk, he¡¯ll understand¡± method
This is the worst and is when someone just talks at you and expects you to understand. What¡¯s more, people generally get annoyed with me after a while because I can¡¯t understand what they¡¯re jabbering on about.

Daily stuff:

Get up at about 8ish, have cold shower get dressed and head down for breakfast at about 9-9:15, which consists of either idlies (steamed rice and lentil cakes), dosa (pancakes made with clarified butter (Ghee) or bread and eggs. With all this you have an assortment of stuff including samba (veg and lentil curry), coconut and peanut chutney and sometimes even meat curry. Coffee, thank god, is always available and is always very milky and very very sweet (as all Indian coffee seems to be.)

Between 9:30 and 10:30 I get a lift to the site on the back of someone¡¯s motorbike. When going through the village I am greeted with shouts of ¡°Jaime¡± and ¡°white person¡± from the kids most other people still stare and wave.

When I get to the site I work until about 1 (sometimes earlier depending when someone picks me up.) The work consists of lifting mud out of the pool, digging, mixing cement and granite stones for the foundations and generally doing stuff with the other workers all of who are really nice. Breaks are essential as its been about 37 ¢ª c recently and working in direct sunlight with no breeze doing manual labour in very demanding work, You get dehydrated and burned very quickly.

13:00: - Having been picked up and driven back to the village (about 10 min drive away if the railway crossing is up) we have lunch, that is whoever is around plus any number of guests of visiting business people i.e. Sam (the dude in charge of accounts or Sagayam (Samy¡¯s brother in charge of the AREDS Chennai office). Lunch consists of many things. Rice is always the staple and with it come a selection of curries be they meat or veg and usually samba. With this you have a couple of side things like okra, spinach, cabbage etc etc. There is always curd (yogurt) and sometimes things like pappadam¡¯s. I usually have curd, banana and sugar at some point during the day. There are also a whole host of fruit and Indian sweets available regularly.

After lunch its shower time to cleanse myself of cement, sand, mud and sweat. In the afternoons, if there is nothing specific to do like go somewhere with Samy, there are several other things that can be done. A trip into Karur to do some shopping is usually an option as the cars go to and fro several times a day. One can go up to SWATE or hang around outside and play or talk to many kids who come legging it up when they see you. You can go up to one of the farms and have a dip in the water irrigation tank or merely sit around and read the papers. Doing laundry is also a must, as cloths seem to get very dirty very quickly over here. Sleep is also an option. This may sound a bit stupid but the heat can really knacker you out. A lot of people go for a rest in the afternoon, a bit like the Spanish siesta. At 3 every afternoon, coffee and tea is made for everyone in the office.

In the evenings we eat at 8. Rice is available but Chapatti¡¯s are also (more often than not) on the menu. There will be a meat curry (chicken, mutton, rabbit etc.) Indian people eat all their meat on the bone and there are very rarely any meat that aint on the bone. They throw everything in. At Mono¡¯s house they had the head and the feet of the chicken in with the curry. They suck out the marrow from the bones and don¡¯t seem to like breast meat like we do but prefer all the brown meat. With lunch and dinner there is also ALWAYS a dish like soup, very watery with leaves and stuff floating around in it. This aint for eating as such but the liquid is taken with rice and apparently provides good digestion. I aint tried that yet and don¡¯t think I ever will, I don¡¯t like the look of it.

There are always things to do in the evenings as well. Going outside and playing and poi¡¯ing with the kids is the most preferable activity but at the moment I can¡¯t do that cause they all have exams which, I am informed, finish at the end of the week when the two-month summer holidays begin. There is also the TV and VCD (not DVD) player. VCD¡¯s are like DVD¡¯s but you need three of them to get one movie so at certain points you need to press ¡°change¡± on the remote to change the disk around in the multi-storage VCD player. So far I have seen ¡°Irma La Douce (a FANTASTICLY funny film which I recommend to everyone,) ¡°Cast-away,¡± ¡°Scent of Woman,¡± ¡°Sound of Music,¡± ¡°Bodyguard¡± and several others. One an also use the computer, read, and then head to bed anytime between 22:00 & 01:00. There is Always a power cut at 18:00 & 22:00 when they change the power to the third phase to account for night usage. There are generally power cuts quite frequently but there is a diesel generator in the back yard, which is turned on to counter this. The problem with power cuts at night aint the lights (which, to be honest I hardly notice now and just carry on talking when they cut out) but the ceiling fans cause without them you begin to cook.

The house

The AREDS (Samy and Christi¡¯s) house in Renganathapuram is a mix of admin offices, conference rooms, living quarters and quest rooms. Entrance is either through a front door, which very few people use, or the garage type bit next to it. When you enter you come to a library, infront of you, and the main reception office and Samy¡¯s office to your right. To the left is a corridor, which leads through to a corrugated green plastic covered yard with chairs and a table. This is the entrance to the living section of the house. If you turn right you come out into the back garden, which is full of coconut palms and fruit tree¡¯s, if you go straight ahead you hit Mono¡¯s office and if you turn left you go through to a dining room, a kitchen (on the right), three bedrooms one of which is Samy and Christi¡¯s, a bathroom, a flight of stairs and a large open area which leads off the front door.

If you head up the stairs you come to a guest room and a bathroom. Left leads to a terrace at the front of the house (and a large guest room) and right leads through a conference room (with a bathroom coming off it) to an open walkway suspended above the covered yard. Here there are four bedrooms sleeping 2+ people one of which is mine, number 3. This walkway also leads down to the back garden. If you turn left out of the conference room you come back to the main admin building. On this level (above the office and library) are yet more offices, another large conference room and then another three floors above containing everything from computer rooms to battery rooms, (which keep electricity in the building when the power cuts). At the very top is a large roof terrace with great views of the surrounding countryside.

jaime

::: posted by j(e t')aime at 4:12 AM

Building a building

A visual travelogue