Coolies 2009

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A few years back my school began what they called the Coolies. An opportunity for graduating year 12 students to undertake a character enriching experience; a bit of a contrast to many of their classmates who will indulge in the less edifying “Schoolies”. Coolies, of course, are unskilled Indian labourers, and this is what these young men are to become, at least for a little while. They travel to Southern India and participate in some sort of construction project. They pay their own fares and raise at least $1000 for the program. This year 17 boys took up the challenge and set out to two different sites for a four week work project and were to then regroup for a further two weeks of touring before returning home. The six week period runs from immediately after Year 12 Examinations until early January.
I went along this year as one of the four staff from my school, along with Peppe, Angela, Melo & Kieren.

This whole project was the brain child of Br Denis, but he is now about to move on to his new posting in Sudan. The organizational procedures and details have had to be formalized as part of the handover to the new project leader, Peppe.

So, at 2230 Fri 20/Nov/09 we were gathering with the masses at Melbourne Airport for our Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur. Despite there being 22 of us, there was no group check-in facility! We were all eventually on board but spread throughout the plane, a consequence of on-line booking & late/competitive check-in.
It was a rough ride, a lot of turbulence & a lot of announcements to warn of turbulence. Air Asia had managed to squeeze 9 seats across the body of this jet (3, 3, 3) in what really should have been maybe 7 - the seats & aisles were very narrow. It was quite difficult to walk down an aisle without knocking into the seats or seated passengers. I had an aisle seat & copped some savage bruising before the flight was over. We all had an LCD screen in our face but any entertainment it offered came at an extra charge; the vast majority of us chose not to take up this option. Some form of amusement was derived from the ability to message between passengers. All in all, our 8 hour flight was not so great.

We arrived Kuala Lumpur on time, locally 0635 Sat 21/Nov/09, to begin our 8 hour wait until our next flight. We claimed our baggage, loaded several trolleys & queued at the Tiger counter which would open 2 hours before the flight. We then made sure that some of our party was ‘en guarde’ so the rest of us could wander around the airport & immediate vicinity. Breakfast opportunities presented, but the soft eggs on toast, though looking appealing on the menu photograph, was tough for me to stomach as it was poached till the eggs had only just lost their clarity, they were still quite sloppy.

Our Tiger flight from KL to Singapore was on schedule & only took a couple of hours. It allowed us to set ourselves, at the budget terminal & wait another 5 hours for our next flight to Chennai.

Flights were found on-line & were chosen as they were significantly cheaper than the more direct routes. So the thinking was, ‘Well, yes, it will be tedious getting there, but the cost benefit justified it’. I imagine we may review this thinking for the next set of De La Coolies.

Arrived Chennai very late Sat 21/Nov/09 &, after some extra paperwork (re Swine ‘Flu), we were leaving the airport at Sun 0030 22/Nov/09. Br Thamby, from the Keesara community, was there to meet us & had two buses for our ride to our overnight accommodation. Probably 0130 by the time we bedded down; & with a 0700 wake up call! The overnight stay was a grotty dump, but, I guess, it did the job.

Later that morning, Sun 22/Nov/09, our large group split; Angela & I leading 9 Coolies north to Keesara & Peppe, Melo & Kieran taking the other 9 south. The northern group was Carlos, Santiago, Sean, Owen, Barry, Dean, Alex, & two SA ring-ins, Chris & Marcus. The southern mob was Patrick, Haimish, Andrew, etc.
Two cars left the hotel for Chennai Central Railway Station, but, in the traffic, got separated & ended up at different parts of station, each waiting for the other to arrive. Soon sorted, though. We were heading to Vijayawada (VJ) on the Combantim Express. We were all booked into sleeper car #8, but, thanks to on-line bookings, were spread about quite a bit. It took a bit of work to locate seats, evict occupants & keep tabs on the luggage in the overcrowded train, but Br Thamby lead the charge & got it all sorted. So we left Chennai Central Station, on time, at 0845 Sun 22/Nov/09, without having breakfasted.
Indian trains are quite an entertainment and you really do need to have a sense of humour, or at least adopt a more relaxed attitude, or you’ll soon spin out. The trains have that ‘lived-in’ look about them, that is to say, a little time-weary & a little grotty. They do have some ceiling mounted fans to help you cope with the heat & the smell but appear more like a convict transport with the bars across the windows. This sleeper carriage had open compartments: 6 seats within & 2 on the aisle. Most bench seats are allocated to 3 passengers with the same 3 being able to sleep in the 3 levels of bed the same space converts to. Trouble is, of course, there’s usually more than 3 sitting there & then maybe 1 of the 3 will decide he wants to lie down (no consensus is sort) so the other 2 have to do likewise or sit elsewhere. Passengers will stow their baggage anywhere they can, & under your seat will do. The owners of such luggage don’t seem to be present until you try to remove their gear.

There is a constant stream of traffic up & down the corridor, many being vendors each selling their own particular product - “Chai, Chai, Chai”, cold drinks, hot snacks, cold snacks, magazines, even jewellery. Then there are the beggars (from the meek to the downright pushy), those looking to squeeze in somewhere, those just having a leg stretch & those going to, or from, the loo. If you leave your seat it odds-on you’ll have to ask someone to give it back when you return! Lunch was an optional extra of either a vegetable or chicken curry that came in 3 aluminium containers that could stack like those Russian dolls. The crowded train takes on an even weirder appearance as a small compartment table is raised, or more seat space is sought for use as a lunch table & then finger feed themselves. Most will wipe their table mess off, to the floor maybe, & then it’s a simple matter of flinging all those containers out the window.
Arrived VJ, on time, at 1535 Sun 22/Nov/09 after nearly 7 hours on board, fought our way off the train to be greeted by Br Thomas, Br Victor & their entourage to take us by the school bus west to Keesara. Keesara itself is little more than a shanty town grown around the road toll booths. It is 43km from VJ & in between the townships of Nandigama & Konchikacherla.

Our accommodation for the next month is in the brother’s house. It’s quite comfortable, being a two-storey building with an accessible flat top roof with clothes lines. It has probably a dozen rooms, most serving as bedrooms. Angela & I each got a room to ourselves, and the boys shared 3, 4 & 2. The house has a kitchen, with a cook to provide the meals, a water filtration unit for us non-locals, a clothes washing machine, computer, fridge & freezer. (We would fill, fridge or freeze drink bottles with the filtered water for later use on the hot work site.) There was a nice porch overlooking a cotton field, spacious enough to seat us all for a chat or have a meal, or perhaps to just chillax.

Next day, Mon 23/Nov/09, we were introduced to the student body as part of their rather formal Monday morning assembly & were each given a floral necklace that must have taken some time to put together. We then toured the school visiting classrooms from the primaries right up to the degree students. Some of the lower grades had very large class sizes - 50, not uncommon. The corridor along the front of each level of the building has a fringe that has been used as ‘student reminders’ - things like mathematical formulae, world maps, labeled diagrams of an eye & an ear, and very many wise adages from various sources, to inspire the students.

Lasalle BJT College has a student population of around 620. It operates classes from Kindergarten through to Degree (B.Sc., B.Com.). It provides boarding for ~215 boys & ~100 girls. Tuition fees start at 2500Rs ($70)/yr and boarding costs are 11500Rs ($330)/yr. To assist in getting the non-boarding population to & from school, BJT runs 2 large buses, each of which has two pickup/drop-off routes.

It’s certainly interesting to see how the typical boarding College student’s day is laid out:

0500 Arise
0530 - 0700 Study
0700 - 0800 Personal stuff
0800 - 0830 Breakfast
0845 - 0850 Prayer
0850 - 0900 Instructions
0900 - 1300 Morning Classes
1300 - 1345 Lunch
1400 - 1700 Afternoon Classes
1700 - 1800 Free Time
1830 - 2000 Study
2000 - 2015 Prayer
2015 - 2100 Dinner
2100 - 2230 Study
2230 Retire

Subjects studied are:
Hindi
Telugu (local language)
English
Mathematics
Physics
Chemistry
Biology
Social Studies
Catechism
Ethics

Please note that’s 4½ hrs, out of class study & 6½ hrs class time!
The study sessions were conducted in either the large study hall or corridor space. The students would sit, by themselves, on the ground and read through their subject level material. They would rote-learn the questions so as to reproduce them at examinations. You could hear the hum, like cicadas, of low voices reading through their material if you visited or happened to be walking past. Rote learning was certainly the major study/teaching method, with little or no collaborative type learning - a consequence of the big numbers involved as well, I would think.

The construction work we were allocated to was the new junior school which was already well advanced, construction had begun back in Mar/09, and was to cost 116 lakh (11,600,000Rs = $330,000). It was an L-shaped block with maybe 6 rooms, on each level, along each arm. The second storey was already well underway but lacking a lot of walls, windows & its ceiling.
On arrival here there wasn’t a lot of activity with only 3 or 4 workers around. But, toward the end of our first week, installment payments to the builders had been made and many more workers were on site. We spent most of our energies on moving sand & bricks upstairs & in tidying the various upstairs rooms of the mess left by construction so far. This was sorting through piles of widespread brick debris to separate full bricks, part bricks & rubble into separate, more confined spaces. We would nearly always set up a chain to move sand, bricks or gravel, which felt good to me as we functioned as more of a team. We merely had to rotate positions in the chain to provide relief from those repetition induced aches. We would work 3 sessions of 1½hr each week day - 900 to 1030, 1100 to 1230, 1330 to 1500 - the two early sessions on a Saturday and the day off on Sunday.
Work was always pretty tough, quite physically exerting, & draining in the heat. But we could certainly feel quite proud of our efforts even though they provided a bit of a contrast to the local workers. 50kg bags of cement would be hoisted onto a local’s shoulder & he’d shuffle off to where it’s needed, probably passing us as we lug about 10kg from one to the other to achieve much the same goal. We often moved bricks in metal dishes, 4 at a time, while a local might carry 10! All the same, I think we were pretty efficient the way we worked. There was cause, now & again, for one or other of our team to miss a work shift, either the local cuisine was not agreeing or perhaps someone had overdone it & strained themselves.
The local boss guy had us doing most of this tedious type work to keep supplies up to his bricklayers & masons. We must have sped the whole project up quite significantly. Often, though, we were bewildered by the work site practices that seemed to us to lack a more logical or long term line of thinking. There was next to no machinery, just brute strength to get things done. We used to dream of having a few wheelbarrows!

At about 1900 Tue 24/Nov/09 the Singaporean contingent arrived. This was a group of 13 from Catholic Junior College; 2 staff (Aaron & Eve), 5 boys & 6 girls who were here for 8 days to do their first teaching. Apparently this is an annual thing and been going for 5 or 6 years now. The students were a little younger then we mob, and quite reticent to socialize with us at first. We envied their T-shirts that made them look a team & decided that we needed a Coolies T-shirt. They mostly slept elsewhere at the school but dined with us at the Brother’s house.

At lunchtime Wed 25/Nov/09 we were asked by Br John if we could provide a cultural item for the BJT Family Day for Fri 27/Nov/09 - 2 days away! We naturally said “We would be delighted!” and immediately began to panic. An evening meeting brainstorm came up with the idea of singing the song “I am Australian” as we were a group with quite a diverse set of ethnic backgrounds. Chris was a reasonable guitar player, Owen maybe on drums. At lunchtime Thu 26/Nov/09 we were told there was a practice run for the Family Day that afternoon - what the?. We had to forgo our after lunch work session & get serious with our Cultural Item.
The scale of this Family Day was quite astounding; school buildings & grounds were cleaned, with student assistance, for a couple of days previous, lights & sound system hired, local dignitaries invited, extra stages set up, chairs positioned, decorations galore, wow! We were considered VIPs and introduced to the crowd as we arrived to sit amongst the audience.
We were a little peeved to find that the Singaporean group had advance knowledge of the need to present a Cultural Item & they sang a song & danced up a storm. We got through our piece ok I suppose, it was hard to know how good or bad we sounded & the Brothers were far to generous to be totally honest about our efforts.

On Sat 28/Nov/09, after our two morning work sessions & lunch, we piled on board the 25 seater bus along with the visiting Singaporeans, & set forth on a small tour of the region. Our first stop was the ruins of Kondapalli Fort, 16km west of VJ, & built around the 14 century by the founder of the Reddy kingdom. It served as the leisure palace for the king. The fort is situated on a hillock, atop some massive rocks, providing great views of the city & the local power station. It was used as a business centre & a military training base for the British. Only 5Rs entry, we paid the extra necessary for camera use for two of our party, we were assigned a local man with a whistle & a stick to lead us around the site. This guide would say his bit & Br Thamby would translate. His whistle got a good workout, as we were to follow a particular route. Most of us were quite cooperative so our guide had no need to use his large staff (I hope it was actually to use if some monkeys took exception to our presence).

Sun 29/Nov/09. No work today, Hooray! Our tour of the region continued heading off not long after breakfast to VJ with our first stop at Mother Theresa’s Orphanage. Forty odd kms to VJ so had a chance to take in the scenery & note how many of the fields were growing tobacco, a reasonable alternative it seems, if it’s too dry to grow rice, as is the case here at the moment. Got a good taste of Indian traffic with the snail pace traffic close to & in town; got rammed by man drawn trolley amid the frenzy of close quarter traffic!
Finally arrived, the sign out front read “Missionaries of Charity. Home for Abandoned Children”. We were greeted by a sister who showed us around the small premises and introduced us to several of the children. This was a bit confronting. We stepped into a room with 14 cots to meet a 12 month old child with a grossly oversized head, and a second infant, very small, but with thalidomide-type limbs. I hadn’t even recognized the first child as a person; she was sleeping & looked to me like some toy, perhaps ET. It was difficult to know what to do or say, or how to behave around these children. I was able to loosen up upon seeing Br Tom interact with them, tickling some, holding others, & reminding me that they are just people after all. The next room was like a corridor with some mattresses on the floor with several children lying; the next room was mostly lined with chairs and occupied by resident girls.
This orphanage has operated here in VJ since 1979, is staffed by 8 personnel, and operates purely on donations. They currently have 53 children, the vast majority girls, and all but one is intellectually handicapped. It was so heartening to step outside & find our Coolies in the process of pooling monies so as to make a donation to the orphanage.

The next stop on our tour was Care & Share (C&S), some 25 mins out of VJ on a 15 acre site behind the airport. We walked from the bus across clean, orderly grounds to the main reception area where lunch was ready for us. Just had to help ourselves to the bain maries or several offerings and be offered a Pepsi or water. What a contrast this place offered to our last stop.
C&S built this facility in 1999 & in that ten years has built several accommodation blocks, a nursery block for the infants that was almost sterile, an infirmary, units for handicapped children & even it’s own Junior School. It even has agricultural, aquaculture and livestock areas.
C&S is an international NGO financed almost entirely by Italian money through its sponsorship programme. The children that come here are homeless, destitute, low caste, runaways &/or street kids. Unloved, unwanted & orphaned. Coming here will cost them nothing and will have a good chance of turning around there situation. Many C&S kids end up coming to BJT for their degree years.
Obviously a great place, working wonders, but it seemed almost opulent, especially after coming directly from Mother Teresa’s Orphanage. Hey maybe these two mobs should get together!

Sat 05/Dec/09 we worked our two morning shifts, had lunch, and then rode the school bus, doing a drop-off run, to a resort type place that ran a bit of an amusement park. Br Thamby came along to ensure we didn’t go astray. The Park cost 40Rs ($1) entry but we were mainly set on using the pool (a further 60Rs = $1.50). We had the pool to ourselves for the most part but after an hour or so before most felt the need to check out what else the park offered. Some Bumper cars were available & turned on as we arrived, similarly, the Amusement Centre fired up as we went in. A little weird to see such things idle, but, obviously, locals don’t spend money on such things. The big attraction for the locals seemed to be the Waterslide which they used pretty much fully clothed! The park was chock-a-block with local girls, hardly any blokes.
At the end of day we had to wait for our school bus to collect us & take us on to dinner, the local Bar & Diner place was closed ‘for renovations’. A lot of that seems to happen here.

We had a lazy Sun 06/Dec/09 morning, attending 0830 mass at the Catholic church a few doors down. A 110min telegu presentation - girls on the left, boys on the right - featuring a long winded, but emphatically delivered homily. Back for an early lunch and then a drive to Br Thamby’s shrine the other side of VJ. I don’t think the boys were too impressed with this particular visit but joined in appropriately.
We were taken back into the city hoping to get a chance to do some shopping, a supermarket in particular, but our drop spot was not the best for the stuff we were after & it was a Sunday afternoon. On to dinner. We walked across the 1km long bridge to find a western décor restaurant with nice surrounds in an outside setting on the rivers edge. The foods offered were much the same as elsewhere, again we needed torches to read menus.

On Mon 07/Dec/09 we got to our work site as usual but no locals today! We moved some bricks & had a go at leveling the classroom floors, but without direction we were struggling to know how to best spend our time. We ended up running a 30min shorter session in the arvo as a consequence.

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Photos

Singapore Airport en route to India
A war zone? No, just the weary waiting for their next flight.

Meeting the students
Br Tom introduces me to some of the students.

Local Coolie
The worksite was serviced by several such coolies.

Chalk Decoration
A daily routine seemed to be to adorn the entrance with these nifty designs.

Angela
Checking out our worksite for the first time.

Study Notes
Many of the under veranda surfaces have study notes for the students.

Move those bricks!
Marcus & Santiago work the start of our 'conveyer belt' moving these bricks upstairs.

Study Hall.
A couple of evening study sessions operate in his fashion, for the boarders - individual & quiet.

Hanuman
This massive monuments dominates the Keesara area.

Cotton-pickin' neighbours
The brother's residence overlooked a picturesque cotton field.

Owen
Not so confident he got the best advice from the local optician.

Alex
Quick, catch me as I fall!

Marcus
Lugging bags of sand or gravel was part of our regular routine.

Proof!
Larry did his fair share on the worksite.

The De La mural
Owen & Dean spent a little time adorning one of the school walls with this impressive figure.

Chris
The smiling photo intruder - just try & take a shot without him leaping into view.

Waiting for our train.
Quite a mob with quite a mass of gear.