Coolies 2010

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My second 'tour of duty' & this time I was team leader - hope last year's apprenticeship pays off! Maybe I should have paid a little more attention to detail. I knew there was not too much to worry about as Peppe had put in place all the details, leaving me very little chance to muck things up. Watty & Kate were the other two teachers, the new apprentices, but underlings only in age (my age being pretty much the aggregate of theirs!), being most willing & quite able to take control of the bunch whenever needed. The ‘bunch’, by the way, were 11 students - Michael B, Tom G, Giacomo G, Tim H, Alex M, Leo M, Mitchell S, Daniel S (Stav), Eugene T, Matthew T & Jean-Rene V (Junior).
Last year, 2009, we had had two groups - one north at Keesera (west of Vijayawada) and one south at Keelimudiman (north-east of Tuticorin). I was with the Keesera bunch. This year there is only one group & saw a 'return' to Keelimudiman.

We left Melbourne Fri 19/Nov/10 at 1100 in the relative comfort of Singapore Airline flight 238. We had a multi-leg journey ahead of us – 7.5 hour flight to Singapore, 2.5 hour wait, 4.0 hour flight to Chennai, overnight stay, 1.5 hour Kingfisher prop engine jet flight south to Tuticorin, then a 1.0 hour bus ride to Keelimudiman. All went pretty well, the hairiest parts being the late night walk from Chennai airport toward Mount Manor, our booked accommodation, with many locals offering advice that I was reluctant to accept & then the Kingfisher jet flight amid very heavy rain at Chennai airport.

Despite St. Joseph's, Keelimudiman being more remote & isolated, the type of work & the work structure for us was much the same as I had experienced last year. This year's group of 14 was as many as the school could cope with. We took over 5 rooms (4 x 3 bed & 1 x 2 bed) of the brother's residence. These rooms all faced onto a grassed quadrangle that featured a statue of St John Baptiste de la Salle in the middle of the space. We displaced four brothers to the boy's hostel or similar. The rooms had been augmented with hostel stretchers & meant we all over hanged our beds. The regular cook got an assistant to keep the volume of food at the required levels.

We were all made to feel welcome from the outset - the school was abuzz at the presence of the Aussie Volunteers. The Brothers were not at all 'put out' at being 'put out' of their rooms & the students were all very excited.
Br Alfred (soon dubbed ‘Bralfred’ by some of our lads) was the head honcho, a man of my own age I would say, & ably assisted by a younger bunch of Brothers - Nester, Anbu, Saheer & the various other lay teachers. The school caters to the lowest, least educated caste & offers good quality, affordable, disciplined education. The enrolment numbers are increasing year by year as are the pass rates of the students. Facilities have been on the improve with last year's Coolies contributing to much of the second floor of the new senior school building. Coolies 2010 were building another 2 classrooms & providing funds to allow the Chemistry, Physics & Biology laboratories to be completed by being fully fitted out.
We Coolies were here this year to provide building funds & 4 weeks labour, to assist the local workers to get the construction work done more efficiently. Also we were to get to know the local students by interacting with them on the sports field after school/work, at evening break at the hostel & or at one of the nine tuition centres dotted around the vicinity.

Labour We would work in 3 shifts of 1.5 hours per day – 9.00 till 10.30, 11.00 till 12.30 & 2.00 till 3.30. Watty was the main man on the worksite directing the activities which we tried to rotate around quite a bit to stave off boredom & to equally work most crew members. The work was labour intensive - very few machines, just some hand tools & wok shaped pans for carrying the various materials. Sifting sand was a continuous task with pan loads of sand being rubbed through a wire mesh attached to a wooden rectangular frame. Much of the work was simply moving materials to where they were needed or moving debris from where it wasn't wanted. Most of the construction work was on the 1st floor which meant moving bricks, sand, gravel, concrete, water, cement powder, crushed bricks, timber & metal scaffolding, up/down 1 or 2 levels. The work was really hard, maybe especially so because we were just so soft. The weekends were looked forward to as a well-earned break from the work & as an opportunity to get out & see other parts of India. The local work crew we assisted were an efficient, friendly lot &, despite language difficulties, we related & functioned well together.

Tuition Centre Visits St Josephs had set up 9 tuition centres in villages around the school to provide a regular time, space & teacher to the non-boarding students to get their homework/home study completed. The first couple of Tuition Centres we visited had all of us crammed into the 2 vehicles & another 2 (the staff) riding pillion on motor bikes. We soon decided that this was just too unwieldy & unsafe, & really too many of us to be visiting any one Centre anyhow. So we formed two teams - 7 each - to alternate duties. Team A would play the after school sports & Team B would do the evening Tuition Centre visit. The next day it was swapped around. These Centres were often halls or large rooms which were usually pretty cramped with the student numbers involved. Interacting with the students was a matter of moving amongst them & doing your best to ask questions about their school work, or just about any other topic really, shake hands, etc. If you pulled a camera out it could cause all sorts of bedlam – we learnt to leave the cameras pocketed for the first little while at least. Several times the tuition group performed a prepared concert of dances or songs for our amusement & now and again we tried to reciprocate with what were really pretty lame versions of ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie’ or ‘I’m a little teapot’, ‘Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes’ etc. But the students did love our visits even though we could find them quite demanding at times!

Meals & meal times were kept to the daily schedule – breakfast 8.00am, lunch 12.30pm & dinner 8.00pm. Breakfast often offered fried egg, porridge, bread. Lunch & dinner offered the same or similar courses, mostly wet preparations, perhaps a mild curry of fish or meat or veggie, sometimes pieces of fried fish, boiled veggies, boiled rice (of course). Rarely was there any formal dessert, but often some fruit was available – banana, mandarins, grapes. Filtered water was available virtually all the time. Many of us had brought along those sport drink powders that we’d rehydrate & scoff off volumes of this stuff after each work session.

Nightly briefing We teachers tried to have a group briefing most nights after dinner. The designated briefing leader would typically give a run-down of the events since the last briefing & offer some sort of reflection, some thoughts or comments arising from these experiences. Then any other Coolie could share their thoughts. It was also a chance to a question or answer, congratulate or criticise, give or receive information. We had each leader provide a quote, or adage, etc, that seemed relevant to our enterprise here at Keelimudiman.

Housekeeping Each Coolie was expected to look after themselves, keep their space relatively tidy, was one’s own clothes, clean up any mess created by oneself. Meal crockery & cutlery were rinsed through & left to drain dry by each individual although it was common to see one person doing 2 or 3 lots to ease the kitchen clutter. Kate designated each room a wash day so they could have sole use of the one washing machine. Typically though, the work clothes worn were just bucket rinsed to remove the dust, sand & sweat, to be worn again later in the week when dry. Your designated wash day was just a more serious effort. Most work clothes were never the same, stains not removed by the methods we employed.

Sickness All we Coolies were taking, or supposed to be taking, Travellan with each meal to provide an extra protection against the likelihood of gastro/diarrhoea, but inevitably some of us had bouts of these sicknesses. Another infection that got many of us, me included & probably me first, was the dreaded ‘red eye’ – where the whites of your eyes became the reds of your eyes, looking very spooky, even evil. Fortunately we were able to source some antibiotic drops to fight off this persistent annoyance. A lot of us developed the habit of using, & sharing, that antibacterial hand gel after shaking hands with the kids, before meals, after the loo, etc. The rest of the health issues were to do with scratches, scrapes, blisters & were usually tended to by Kate who looked after the sizeable First Aid Kit we had brought along.

Kanyakumari Weekend – Sat 27/Nov/10 & Sun 28/Nov/10 Br Alfred organised the hiring of a bus to take us to the southernmost part of India – Kanyakumari. His contacts helped arrange our Saturday night accommodation at Lakshmi Guest House. Lucky for us, Br Nester also came along to obviate language problems & to ensure things ran smoothly. We left pre-breakfast Saturday and were down there around lunchtime. Drawing closer to our destination, we passed by hundreds, if not thousands, of wind farm turbines. Kanyakumari is probably a good place to venture on our first weekend ‘out’ – it’s not too big, a fishing village really, yet special, being lands’ end where 3 seas mix together (Arabian, India & the Bay of Bengal). Not too western, yet some ‘treats’ that have been missed. Some sightseeing to do – Kumari Amman Temple, Gandhi Memorial, Vivekananda Memorial – led by Nester. Most the rest of the time was ‘free’ to check out the market type stalls along the approaches to the point. Gathered for combined meals or to head off to somewhere together. Quite a wet Saturday but Sunday was far better allowing us to make full use of our visit to the water/amusement park Baywatch. Mitchell’s 18th was celebrated, on the Sunday, with a combined lunch and an opportunity to share a beer together.

Kovalam Beach Weekend – Sat 04/Dec/10 & Sun 05/Dec/10 Again, Br Alfred, organised the transports. A 6am bus to Kovilpatti Railway station, a 5-hour train to Trivandrum, a 20 min hike to the local bus rank &, finally, a half hour bus to Kovalam beach. Kovalam offers two attractive beach frontages, fishing boats & nets sitting at one end of the beach & a red & white hooped lighthouse at the other. It has a paved footpath to stroll along & appreciate the various restaurants, hotels, clothes, souvenirs, jewellery, etc, internet cafes, strolling vendors. You could even take up the banana lounge option & sit & relax a while. All this available & pitched at the western tourist, many of which look to be European &/or British. A great feel to the place, all the shopping & dining you could want (& have probably missed). We had reached the beach at 12.30pm & overnight accommodations organised by 2pm! All had to source their own accom as long as they were at least doubles & were on the beach frontage. We leaders each took single rooms, lashed out a little comparatively speaking, to indulge in the missed privacy & comfort. Weather was a bit lousy on the Saturday but a much more ‘beachy’ Sunday. The return trip was just the reverse o before – leaving Kovalam 2pm-ish & arriving back at Keelimudiman at 10pm.

Tuticorin/Cricket Weekend – Sat 11/Dec/10 & Sun 12/Dec/10 This was our last weekend before departing Keelimudiman for the ‘tour’ end of our time. We were anxious to do a Bollywood movie and have a look, & shop, around Tuticorin. We caught the local bus to & fro & Nester came along to ensure we stayed out of trouble. We paid top rupee at the cinema (70Rs each) for access to the AC booth - a glass-fronted booth at the rear of the otherwise hot auditorium – for the local language film. A great love movie nonetheless. Much of the rest of the day was ‘free time’ for all of us, with most spending time at malls where western-style foods were on offer.
On our late return to St Josephs I made mention of my intention to wake the group early for the 7.00am mass, this being our last Sunday at Keelimudiman. Wow –what a response! Admittedly we were all pretty tired, & there had been no forewarning, but this was an imposition on many of the students & they let it be known. However, full attendance was achieved.
The big day had arrived, the India v Australia 15-15 Cricket match, was today. The local students had the lines marked on the field early in the day with play not long after lunch. National Anthems were played, players line-ups, war-crys, Watty & Kate were installed at tables with a PA to provide commentary on the match & compile statistics on the play. India won the toss & elected to bat first – in 15 overs they scored 201 runs, no wickets fell but 3 retirements. Australia up next but not daunted by the hefty total to chase – they scored 51 runs with 4 ducks, only Stav stayed the distance – so much for the Aussie pre-match hype!

VCE Results Naturally, VCE results were a huge topic on & off the worksite. With the results coming through, mostly by sms, in the early hours of Mon 13/Dec/10 many of the boys stayed up late talking, dreading, speculating, hoping. Stav was one who chose to have his full night’s sleep & access the info at a respectable time in the daylight hours of the morning.

Students We were working & living amongst large numbers of boy & girl boarders – the boys occupying hostels on-site & the girls occupying hostels a short distance outside the school perimeter. So any time we ventured out of our residential compound we were amongst numbers of students near their hostel buildings or their sports/recreation ground. You would get to greet or maybe even shake hands with very many students in a day & get to know several ‘repeat’ students a little better. I would be up & sitting outside the staff quarters at about 7.00am most work mornings and got to know several regular students who would come in with the task of sweeping & tidying up the walkways under one of the Brother’s supervision. We would often be visited by one particular girl, 12 year old Giomathi, who had befriended the 2009 Coolies as well. She had pretty good English skills & her visits were always a bit of fun. One of our groups would play sports on the oval for an hour or so till 6.00pm & the other group would visit the boys hostel so we got to know many of these kids. Boarding students would have their meals in or outside the hostel area which was our worksite when we worked on the hostel flooring resurfacing. They all seemed to love their school, were pretty optimistic about their futures & were most willing to engage in work gangs or concerts. We Coolies spent the best part of a week removing construction debris from behind the new classroom block, which meant loosening & digging out material & lobbing it into a tractor tray (that the school had the use of for that week) & the Brothers organised extra tractor loads to be removed by student groups before we started our daily routine - & the kids loved being involved!

School routine Our main work site was at one end of the school building that was in use at the time. We were often passing active classrooms or students were passing by us on stairs or verandas. At breaks they would be flocking around to see us in action or to see the progress of the works. Monday mornings there was always quite a serious school assembly where students would line up in classes in their particular zone. There would be the National Anthem, the school song, hear prayer readings & an address from the Principal. We soon learned to down tools & just wait quietly for the assembly to conclude. Now & again there seemed to be other, non-Monday morning assemblies that happened for some reason or another. We were welcomed at one such Monday assembly & given leis that must have taken ages to make & were quite heavy with the load of flowers & leaves they contained. Brother said some very welcoming words & impressed upon the students what a great bunch we were. I was obliged to respond & stumbled through the process.
One big school event was the Children’s Day Concert, Mon 06/Dec/10 form about 4.00pm, where many ‘acts’ involving singing, dancing, etc were delivered to the school body. We Coolies we asked to present an item & rather hurriedly put together our rendition of “I Am Australian”. Again it felt a little lame, because, compared to the items they put on, ours was brief, & lacked polish. The school incorporated another ‘Welcoming’ ceremony for we Coolies & I ended up having to say a few unprepared words. One particular item was a huge hit – several male staff, including the Brothers, did a well-rehearsed dance routine where they were dressed in dark suits & strutted some great moves (I thought a la ‘The Full Monty’, but clothing stayed on). That Nester is quite a groover!
Another big event was the Hostel Christmas Programme, Fri 17/Dec/10 from dusk, on a well decorated set, with lots of song & dance acts, some drama, even a comedic presentation. Again, we were asked to present something so did a pretty good job with “YMCA” – led by Kate, Stav & Mitchell (Watty & I managed to sit this one out). Santa was there & there were presents for everyone – a plate, toothbrush, soap container, cloth pegs, dishwashing scourer, pen, jug, etc – all gratefully received by the student recipients. (The girl boarders were there in attendance but only as onlookers & were not part of the present receiving thing.) ‘Daddy Cool’ was Santa’s theme music & it got quite an airing throughout the night.
What ended up being quite an extravaganza was the The Farewell to Coolies, Sat 18/Dec/10 programme from about 10.00am. We Coolies were all sat on stage, school building assembly deck, some more cultural dancing, then Santa arrived to the sounds of ‘Daddy Cool’ & we were each called out, one by one, as some kind words were said about us, & received a stole & a gift. A staff member made a speech about our visit. Then Br Alfred said his farewell in an over-the-top praise & thankyou routine that stressed our personal sacrifices, etc. I was asked to respond & tried to play down the embarrassingly high praise.

Coolies on Tour The touring end of the Coolies Project had us doing a loop around southern India. Train travel in AC sleepers, most of the time, was not that bad (even that 14-hour journey) with only a few fights required to claim our booked seats, & just the odd mouse, rat or cockroach to share quarters with. We would often march out of the station, packed up, to our hotel, with local auto rickshaw folk hassling most of us.

On Day 30 of our venture, Sat 18/Dec/10, we were bussed from Keelimudiman to Tuticorin to catch our 4.35pm train to Bangolore where we arrived just 14 hours later. With the Lonely Planet map in hand, I led the troop to our accommodation, Chinna’s Residency. Fortunately, they had a 24 hour Check-In so we were in our rooms by 8.00am. (I didn’t quite realise that 24 hour Check-In means Check-Out is 24 hours later. Took a little bit of arguing & pleading to checkout at 10.00ish next day without any extra charges, but I had to race around knocking on doors & telling our troops to ‘Pack-up immediately, we’re checking out’.) We visited the MG Rd area, the popular cosmopolitan shopping/dining strip. We got to learn about the auto rickshaws, their drivers & their tricks – detours to emporia, non-use of charge meters, over-quoting, dropping off prematurely, etc, etc. Visited Bangalore Palace & took the audio tour around this impressive place.
Bangalore, also known as Bengaluru is the capital of Karnataka & nicknamed the Garden City. Located on the Deccan Plateau in the SE Karnataka, Bangalore is India's third most populous city. Though historical references to the city predate AD 900, a modern written history of continuous settlement exists only from 1537. During the British Raj, it became a centre of colonial rule in South India. The establishment of the Bangalore Cantonment brought in large numbers of migrants from other parts of the country. The hub of India’s booming IT industry, it has experienced a mad surge in urban development, which shows in its crazy traffic, rising pollution levels & civic congestion. Bangalore is home to many of the most well-recognized colleges and research institutions in India. Numerous public sector heavy industries, software companies, aerospace, telecommunications, and defence organisations are located in the city. The Bangalore Metro, with its various worksite hoarding all around the city, was under construction during our visit.

Left Bangalore 9.00pm Mon 20/Dec/10 by train & arrived Hospet 7.00ish next morning. From here we needed to catch a local bus to take us to Hampi. I remembered this place & led the long march down the main street to the bus depot, all the way being hassled by auto drivers wanting to drive us to Hampi. Bus was there waiting for us, only 20 mins & we were in Hampi Bazaar. Here, I welcomed our group to Hampi & told them to acquire their own 2-nights accom (in at least pairs) & the sort of area they should do this. They were to meet us in 2hrs at the Mango Tree. Hampi at own accommodation. Hampi is a village in northern Karnataka. It is located within the ruins of Vijayanagara, the former capital of the Vijayanagara Empire. Predating the city of Vijayanagara, it continues to be an important religious centre, housing the Virupaksha Temple, as well as several other monuments belonging to the old city. As the village is at the original centre of Vijayanagara, it is sometimes confused with the ruined city itself. The ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site, listed as the Group of Monuments at Hampi. Unreal & bewitching, the forlorn ruins of Hampi lie scattered over a landscape that leaves you spellbound the moment you cast eyes on it. Heaps of giant boulders perch precariously over kilometres of undulated terrain, their rusty hues offset by jade-green palm groves, banana plantations & paddy fields. We spent some good time scampering over the boulders & ruins & just enjoying this very un-Indian like place – quite relaxed & relaxing.

Very early departure from Hampi on Thu 23/Dec/10 in a convoy of autos so we would make the 6.30am train out of Hospet. Arrived Madgoan, Goa at 2.00pm & sourced some taxis to take us the 45min to Panjim for our 3.5 night stay at Casa Paradiso. Two days were spent on Candolim beach, a 30min local bus ride away, where westerners are well catered for with beach lounges & umbrellas for hire by the dozens & heaps of beach shack restaurants to look after the big numbers of visitors. A huge half sunken taken lies in the water at one end, parasailers floating by & horizons of large vessels making their way in/out of the nearby port, and you can just sit back & have ‘the boy’ bring you drinks & snacks. Christmas Day we all went to visit Old Goa & its historic churches & we celebrated Christmas Night at the Quaterdeck Restaurant on the Mandovi River amid masses of Christmas lights. Kate had got us all a Christmas elf hats to wear while we indulged in the smorgasborg, drinks, tarot reading, dancing, etc, we even did a Kris Kringle present exchange amongst ourselves. We were all missing home so much!
Panaji is the capital of the Indian state of Goa & a change from most state capitals in that it is clean, friendly & relaxing. It lies on the banks of the Mandovi estuary & is Goa’s 3rd largest city with a population of 65,000 in the city and approximately 100,000 in the metropolitan area. Its Portuguese-era colonial architecture & cuisine, set among terraced hills, provide a most restful place to visit & a great launching pad to the various not too distant beaches. It also features bleached clean churches and a riverside promenade, with red-roofed houses built in Latin style, the Baroque church on the main square overlooking the main streets of the city.

We left Panjim at 1.55am 27/Dec/10 heading to Mangalore for a day visit only – arrive 7.30am & leave 7.30pm. The previous Coolie experience of Mangalore was unimpressive so, this year, was just a stop on our way to Mysore. It is the chief port city of Karnataka & is located about 350 kilometres west of Bangalore. It lies between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghat mountain range & derives its name from the local Hindu Goddess Mangaladevi. It developed as a port on the Arabian Sea – remaining, to this day, a major port of India. Lying on the backwaters of the Netravati and Gurupura rivers, Mangalore is often used as a staging point for sea traffic along the Malabar Coast. The city has a tropical climate and lies in the path of the Arabian Sea branch of the South-West monsoons. Mangalore's port handles 75%!o(MISSING)f India's coffee exports and the bulk of the nation's cashew exports. Mangalore is not a touristy type town but has a few modern shopping malls & internet access to satisfy western cravings. Most of the day was spent at or near Barath Mall where we indulged in Pizza Hut, Coffee Day, & took in the movie “The Tourist” in a modern western style cinema – pity it was such a crappy movie!

Arrived Mysore at 4.15am Tue 28/Dec/10 after a 8.5hr train trip from Mangalore. We packed-up & hiked the couple of Ks to our accom, Comfort Inn, where our rooms booked for the previous night should have been ready, but not so. We had to leave our gear & traipse around for a couple more hours. Were there to see the market area ‘waking up’. Had a kip, lunch & then went to the busy Mysore Palace (with audio tour) to check out its grandeur. Got re-acquainted with Parklane Hotel as a great place to dine & drink. Next day we took a local bus up to the top of Chamundi Hill to see the pilgrims, bazaars & views, & to take the long walk down the hill. In the arvo we visited the Government Silk Factory & the Sandal Oil factory.
Mysore is the second largest city of Karnataka & about 146 km SW of Bangalore. The name Mysore is an anglicised version of Mahishūru, which means the abode of Mahisha (a demon from Hindu mythology). The city is spread across an area of 128.42 km2 and is situated at the base of the Chamundi Hills. Mysore has a fascinating regal heritage, a magnificent palace, bustling markets, magnificent monuments, & is renowned for its silk, sandalwood & incense production.

Left Mysore at 11.00am on Thu 30/Dec/10 & arrived back at Bangalore at 1.30pm. Now better acquainted with this city, it was an easy walk back to our previous stay, Chinna’s Residency. A walk around our local area got us even more familiar with this older market/bus depot area. New Year’s Eve celebrations were pretty subdued from our part: we all dined together close to our accom but most were in bed before midnight! (Perhaps a little scared off by talk of shenanigans it the main streets.) Next day we visited MG Rd area, Tippu Palace & Lalbagh Botannical Gardens. Next day, New Year’s Day, visited the HAL Aerospace Museum, a surprisingly good exhibition of aircraft, memorabilia & photos from its impressive history.

Heading home Left India via Bangalore Airport on the 11.10pm Singapore Airlines flight. Arrived Singapore at 6.05am - Day 45 of the project. Suburban train service extends right to Changi Airport, so we hopped a train to Little India to find our accom, Hotel Dickson. Again, too early to Check In, we were able to leave our gear & go walking, heading towards the famous Orchard Road to see the many swish shops. Singapore is a modern city with most of its sights being non-historical, more architectural & urban marvels. Much of our touring here was led by a fellow student, a non-Coolie, but now resident of Singapore, Nick N. Despite Nick himself confessing, at one point, that he wasn’t as familiar with his city as he would have had us believe, he did a sterling job taking us around the major city sights.
Singapore is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, 137km north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the Singapore Strait to its south. The country is highly urbanised. The British obtained sovereignty over the island in 1824 and Singapore became one of the British Straits Settlements in 1826. Occupied by the Japanese in WWII, Singapore declared independence in 1963. Since then it has had a massive increase in wealth, and is one of the Four Asian Tigers. Singapore is the world's fourth leading financial centre, and its port is one of the five busiest ports in the world. The economy depends heavily on exports and refining imported goods, especially in manufacturing. Singapore is a parliamentary republic with a Westminster system. The People's Action Party has won every election since self-government in 1959, and governs on the basis of a strong state and prioritising collective welfare over individual rights such as freedom of assembly. Some 5 million people live in Singapore, of whom 2.91 million were born locally. Most are of Chinese, Malay or Indian descent. There are four official languages: English, Chinese, Malay, and Tamil.

The Coolies Project headed home to Melbourne on the 11.45pm flight from Changi Airport, arriving 10.10am. Watty was the last remaining staff member to see the group back to Melbourne. Kate had left us early on Mon 03/Jan/11 as she was kicking on to Thailand & I waved the group ‘Goodbye’ at Changi Airport after their Check-In to head home. All in all I was very happy with the way things had gone, no major problems. My colleagues, Kate & Watty, were great folk to work with & relate to, ever ready to share the workload or to offer sage advice. I was pleased that I did indeed remember much of the ‘detail’ of my previous tour & was able to get us around as necessary. Coolies 2010 officially concluded on Wed 05/Jan/11 with Watty farewelling the troops after their Customs clearance at Melbourne Airport.

Well Done Team!

Warning: Despite the fact I kept a journal during the Coolies 2010 Project much of this blog was not put together until late April 2011. That's a fair while with which to forget or mis-remember things!

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Photos

Coolies 2010
The volunteer group are welcomed at Keelimudiman

Leader Michael
Michael sets a great example to the student group

On site
Larry & one of his local work buddies

Alex & Tim
Alex & Tim work up a sweat shifting sand

Local Work Crew
A bunch of the local workers take time out for a photo

Staff Quarters
Not the most luxurious of spaces. We all missed our own space & privacy despite all getting along really well

Leader Kate
Kate shows how it's done

Entire Work Group
Could get pretty crowded in that work area sometimes!

St John Baptist De La Salle
Centreplace in our living quaters.

Wash day
Tom tries to keep up with the laundry

'Red Eye'
The dreaded 'red eye' got hold of a few of us while based at Keelimudiman

Making little rocks out of bigger rocks
Matt smashes full bricks to make the 'debris' used for the concrete mix

Giomathi
A good friend & regular visitor to both Coolies 2009 & Coolies 2010

Daniel & new work mate
A couple of really good workers here

Junior behind bars?
Nah, it's just the train ride to Trivandrum

Kovalam Beach
A quick weekend visit to Kovalam Beach interrupted the work schedule

Furniture for Science Labs
Coolies 2010 Funds paid for this load of furniture to fit out the 3 science laboratories.

Kate & Lazz Parasail
Candolim Beach, Goa offered this opportunity & what a buzz it was.

Singapore
Tour guide Nick, with Larry, Junior, Leo & Tim.

The Long Bar, Raffles Hotel
Just about all of us tried the 'original' Singapore Sling