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Published: December 31st 2006
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Hello Everyone,
Its been a while! Thought i would give you all a little bit of respite from my long, yet throughouly interesting, blogs!
But that does mean i've got a lot of catching up to do.....uh oh!
I'm going to narrate mostly with photos, because i'm sure that is the only part most of you look at. In fact i know its the only part most of you look at because you have told me (Emily Jones!), apart from my dedicated family of course!
Since i last wrote i've been in Mamallpuram volunteering with Earth Aid India, which has been great. It was a massive culture shock to start with, you really do get to see REAL Indian life. I was so shocked to see how some of these people in the remote villages live. No eletricity, money, sanitation, running water and sometimes no food. They rely on sporadic 'daily wage' work, where they get completly exploited. Because the villages we work with are right at the bottom of the brutal cast system and are mostly uneducated, they get treated like dirt! its sad to see but they don't grumble, they just keep plodding on, they have to to
survive.
Despite all of this, i have never met such lovely and warm people. The children are always happy and playing with what ever they can find. you never see them crying or fighting. I must admit, i'd love to give them all a good scrub in the bath and some clean clothes, they are so dirty. But what can you do when you live in a mud hut, and only have a dirty lake to wash in. I think i'd rather stay minging.
Slowly, but surely, positive changes are happening. Through Earth Aids community development project, they are educating the villagers and really empowering them. Before they didn't have a clue about the world outside of their villages, but now they are starting to, yet still keeping their traditional ways and values.
From the medical side of things, i've seen much of the same, skin infections, cough, colds, malnutrition, fevers, developmental problems and worms! I've done what i can, but without the presence of a Dr, i can only give certain medications and treatments. I've found this quite frustrating as we have to refer them on to local Drs, which can, but not always, be a
waste of time. When they see the villagers are from the lowest Dalit cast, they don't bother telling them diagnosis, treatment or give them any advise. They return and show me a big bag of pills, with no names on. So they, nor i, know what they are being treated for or with what. One boy with severe dysentry went to a Dr and was given what i think were anti-biotics and loads of other stuff. He wasn't informed they may take a while to work, so went to another Dr the next day. This Dr then duplicated most of these pills, because he didn't ask if the boy was taking anything already and he didn't know to tell him. So there he was double dosing on everything. V dangerous. By the time i followed him up he had finished them all, so it was too late to tell him to stop. Thankfully he was ok!
Another example of this is when Fabien and i went to see a family whose child has been having fits, and needed a operation to remove some of the fluid accumulating around her brain. The family are uneduated, and have no clue about
Marks stone work....pretty impressive
especially when i have artistic ability of a 3 yr old! what it all means. Just the thought of going to the city, for tests, freaks them out. So Fabien and i spent ages trying to explain to them about it. All her neighbours have been telling her that people die at these hospitals, don't take her there blah blah blah, completly scaring her. We were doing really well, and she decided she would go to the hospital with her daughter........untill a lizard croaked! Suddenly the mother and grandma stopped. "Did you hear that" they said. "The lizard can hear what we are talking about and doesn't like it, we must stop at once". So from this moment on, all the positive encouragement we had given was undone, just because of this bloody lizard! But hey this is India!
Anyway, on to happier thoughts. Hope you all had good Christmas'. Mine was different, but turned out to be fun in the end. I went away with my friend and collegue Fabien, and her Aunt that was over visiting from Holland, Marlane. It was all very random, but i was invited along and thought why not! We only had 3 days so didn't go far. We headed to Pondycherry first. I'd
been there with Mike before and wasn't a big fan. But after being so long in the same town i was itching for a change of sceanery, so Pondy was much more appreciated this time. It used to be a French colony, its strange to hear Indian people speaking with a Tamil/ French accent. Pondy was a great haven, you can buy good wine, cheese, bread here and you can even eat the holy cow! MMM!
Then on to Tiruvanamali, a holy Hindu town with a famous ashram, temple, and cave. Its a strange place, i didn't like it at first, but it grew on me. We had problems finding somewhere to stay, had a manky room to start with and the only way to get through it was to drink the wine we had bought in Pondy (that was suppossed to be for Christmas day). It tasted good and suddenly the dirtyness of the room didn't matter anymore. Fabien was sick here so Marlane and i went to explore ourselves and can across the Sri Ramanasran Ashram. It was really famous in the 70's when all the hippies were coming over from the west to 'find themselves'. I'm not
sure that any of them ever went home.......because it was full of loads of westerners in their 50's with smiley yet vacant looks on their faces.
Christmas Day started with me opening my one sorry present, that was sat under my even sorrier looking Christmas tree. We tried to make it as festive as possible, with us alternating between Carols in English and Dutch. It was fun, but not the same as being at home, opening presents around the tree, with an open fire burning and lots of yummy food and drink! We headed back to Mamallapuram later on, and returned to our friends that had set up a great 'spread' of food and wine. Then the celebrations really began and i had a great night.
So now i only have one week left here in Mamallpuram, then i am heading off on the road again. I've got a week to travel before i meet up with my friends from here in north India. We are going to the Kumbha Mela, a huge hindu festival that only takes place every 6 yrs. Apperently its attended by millions, quite a scary thought! Then i'm off to the Andaman Islands,
Another cutie......
...this is boy, dressed as girl, which they do for supersticious reasons! Very confusing for the child! to top up my tan and to try and make by white bits brown! Having to cover shoulders and legs all the time taking its toll on the good tan i developed in Goa!
Hope you all have a fantasitc New Year, take care and have a beverage for me (a nice cool glass of dry white wine please)!
Lots of Love
Katie xxx
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Nat Evans
non-member comment
Hi Katie, Keep up the good work! Sounds like its an amazing experience - maybe one day I'll go. And I think your Christmas tree actually looks pretty good. Hope you find a wild party tonight and looking foward to some more stories. Happy New Year from all us Evans' xxx