AidCamps trip in Tamil Nadu

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Aidcamps trip to Tamil Nadu.
I'm doing another charity build in Tamil Nadu in southern India. For two weeks we're helping to finish off the building of a distribution and information centre in a farming area, and do some sightseeing in the final week. aidcamps is the organisation that works with charities in developing countries on building projects that benefit struggling communities.
There are 17 of us volunteers; aged 39 to 82; eight of us were together on the Nepal trip in 2013.
We are working with SCAD (Social Change and Development) which is a charity set up in 1985 by a priest who, when reprimanded by his bishop for spending more time in helping his parishioners than preparing his sermons, decided to leave the ministry and set up SCAD. The charity now has a wealth of hospitals, schools, training colleges and poly technics. AidCamps International could be said to have been born here as the founder worked here as a volunteer for six months and was then inspired to go back to the UK and get a load of other volunteers to help. The first AidCamp came here in 2003.
This project is only for two weeks rather than three as AidCamps is trying something new; shorter working time with a week for sightseeing at the end.
Steve, the Aidcamps head of operations has asked for feedback and one thing Toni and I will suggest is to have another night at the first port of call, Kovolam. This is such a delightful fishing village with a lovely beach, restaurants and cafes, and shops selling clothes, ornaments and jewellery, that it would be nice to have another day here as jet lag prevented us from enjoying all that the village had to offer.
We did see a group of fisherman hauling two ends of a net in to the beach. They sang as they hauled, matching the rhythm of the pull, and coiled the yellow rope into 2-foot high piles. They all wore shirts, and sarongs tied round the waist and doubled up to look like a saggy nappy. At the restaurant where we had breakfast a fisherman brought a king fish, 4 foot long with a big square head, in a wheelbarrow to show the proprietor, who inspected it and nodded him inside. “You can eat this tonight." he said. I wish we could, but we set off at 9.15 am for Cheranmahadevi. The drive took over four hours and travelled through the Ghats which is a hilly area in a flat plain. The hills aren't often in a range, or rolling, just rocky outcrops plonked down on a vast flat plain, which is home to the largest windfarm in Asia. The turbines are shorter than those in Europe, but are perfectly adequate as the terrain channels a high wind through the area.
We're staying on the SCAD campus in Chersnmahafevi in volunteer accommodation which with ensuite bathrooms is very swish. The campus also houses a special school, a technical college, a teacher training college,a plant nursery and biodigester unit. Biochar is used as a fertilizer for crops.
Monday morning we drive in two air-conditioned minibuses the five miles to another SCAD Technology campus in the corner of which is the distribution centre that we raised funds for. It is a two room building where farmers can buy seeds, have their soil tested, buy fertiliser, be shown how to use good bacteria and microbes for raising plants and animals more successfully, as it is cheaper and more environmentally friendly.
We will sand down and paint the window grilles and shutters, whitewash the walls and ceilings, and plant out some of the nursery.
The mornings are spent working and the afternoons visiting other SCAD projects. SCAD raises funds from the fee paying students, and passes money to women's groups in the more than 600 villages it supports. This means the charity is supporting 600,000 inhabitants of these villages and employs 3000 staff. These women's groups decide what to spend the money on - poor students who can't afford fees or other projects, many of which we will visit during our time here.

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